Plex for PS4 is crashing as of the last 5 days

Plex Players Gaming Consoles
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Server Version#: Version 1.32.7.7621-871adbd44
Player Version#: Version 4.108.0
PS4 Version#: Version 5.71.1

The PS4 app. shows the logo, then tries to render the main page with all the categories and just crashes. I’m not certain when the last update was since PS4 doesn’t show the dates so I can’t be sure it’s down to an update or not. I did find the latest version number here though: Plex for PlayStation 4 - #124 by Moussa.

I shared the logs with Sony via PS4 but not sure how to obtain them to share here.

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I had this problem last month and fixed it by deleting and reinstalling Plex.
That said, I’m now having problems with the new install (Version 3.0 according to my PS4) with my files buffering endlessly, defaulting to the yellow ring of death or getting straight up “This file can’t be played” errors.

Basically, your mileage may vary with this fix.
Good luck.

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I am also getting the yellow ring of death. Library loads fine but as soon as I start to play video it just buffers. This has only happened since the last update on the PS4.

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Same here. Was wondering if it was my network. Hopefully they fix soon.

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so now it’s no longer the ps4 blue screen of death but within plex it’s just the buffering yellow ring of death but not for all files. i thought it might be down to some file types only but no rhyme or reason to it. some .mp4 files will play and some won’t. same goes for .avi and .mkv files. is any plex admin looking at this thread please?

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This may not be a solution for you as you need plex pass but my daughter experienced this today and I resolved it by disabling both direct play and direct stream within the settings of the plex playstation app.

This forces plex to transcode which worked around the issue for us. I’d assume the app on playstation has some bug trying to direct play/stream.

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this worked! thank you! alternatively i was having to use handbrake to convert all the files to .mkv which also did the trick but would not have been sustainable. thanks again!

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I believe I am experiencing the same thing. Thought I was going nuts since I’m working a lot on my server right now, thought there was something I did. It was very buggy, some videos loading ok on direct play, some not. Then today, nothing will play direct, even files I know were playing direct before, and now keeps crashing on my PS4 app, like completely blue screen message, whereas before it would at least timeout and give plex error. Almost seems like it corresponds to the November 8 update to version 3.0. I was able to get videos to transcode, by manually deselecting Direct Play and Direct Stream, then I tried leaving Direct Stream selected, this seemed to work too. Today, the Playstation 4 App keeps crashing when I try to play a video. Even after rebooting both my laptop and restarting the Playstation 4. Before it would at least spin around and then finally error out, saying it took too long to buffer. This topic has been marked solved, but deselecting Direct Play and Stream is not a solution, I should not have to transcode what worked before, the whole point of encoding everything into the formats I have been using is because they would Direct Play. I don’t want to have to transcode everything now, my laptop is too old. Says here the topic has been solved? But has it? Also, I thought updating to latest Plex Server version would help. Completed that just a couple days ago, and now, think that really killed it there. Something is not right here. Anyone have a real fix? Or message to Plex Gurus? Might start my own new thread, but please respond here too. This is my first ever message on the forum, so bear with me, I’m new. Thank you.

Plex Media Server updated to Version 1.32.7.7621 Updated Nov. 17
PS4 app version 3.00 Updated on Nov. 8

Running server on Windows 11 machine, about 5 years old. i7 8th gen. Old but still fast enough to run Win 11.

I encode my videos to use MP4 containers with H.264 codec, 30 FPS or less, encoder version 3.1. AAC audio. Only shooting for basic 480p super high quality encode, which had been working wonderfully. No issue, always direct plays on my home network at various bitrates usually about 4 or 5 mbps or less for video, so very modest rates.

Videos play fine in the browser on this laptop running the server still after above noted issues. Files are kept on my remote NAS, same home network.

Thanks and sorry for starting a new thread, but if no solution posted here look for a solution there too. Thanks again -Steve

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I’m confused, as @Moussa writes his updates there are two different sets of version numbers for PS4. One is the Platform for PS4 version 3.00, this is the application on my PS4 I use to play Plex. The other is “Plex for PlayStation 4” which has a current version of v5.72.3, which is the “Client Version?”

Can someone tell me the difference between these two? What is the difference between the Client Version and Platform Version? And how do they related to each other?

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I ran into the same problem after updating Plex on Playstation. The video is buffering and then ends in a timeout. Or the app is crashing completely. On other devices streaming works without any problems, so it‘s not the server. But as I run the Plex Server on a Synology D120j, where streaming only works in Direct Play, disabling that is not an option. Would be glad if this bug is fixed by an update.

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@SnoopySJC The 3.x version is the store package version, which is very infrequently updated, while the 5.x version is the client that runs in the app, that is updated regularly every fortnight. See How do updates work for PS4 (or PS3) - #2 by kay.one.

@Maurus Can you try installing the latest PS4 system update and seeing if it helps with the crashes?

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@Moussa I have installed the latest PS4 system update. The Playstation has system software 11.02 installed, Plex App has Version 3.00. In the Plex App itself Client Version is listed as 5.75.1 and Platform Version is WebMAF/v3.1.6.0-g98e23f25. I have already tried to reset and reinstall the app. I can navigate the app, but when trying to play a movie I either get a timeout error by the Plex app:

Playback Error:
An unexpected playback problem occurred.

Or occasionally I get a system error from playstation:

An error has occurred with the application: (CE-34878-0): Plex

I have transcoded all media to mp4 with h264 encoding and AAC Stereo audio, which should allow direct play on playstation and has worked perfectly fine until the update of the app from the playstation store and/or system update of the playstation. The Plex Server is running on a SynologyD120j and has version 1.32.8.7639. Streaming works on all other devices (Browser, iOS, Google Chromecast) both in home network and remote.

Requesting a Movie in Plex on PS4 resulted in two log messages from the server:

Level: Warning
[Req#97116] QueryParser: Invalid field ‘guid!<’ found, ignoring.

Level: Error
[Req#97122] Unable to find client profile for device; platform=PlayStation, platformVersion=WebMAF/3.1.6.0-g98e23f25, device=PlayStation 4, model=PlayStation 4

Could you please further investigate this issue? I‘d also be happy to share some server logs.

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@Moussa here are the latest server logs:

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-01-30_22-10-57.zip (1.2 MB)

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