# Plex is transcoding random titles without an active steam?

**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127
**Category:** General Discussions
**Tags:** server-linux
**Created:** [January 30, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127 "2025-01-30T20:35:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Morphy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/morphy/32/11124_2.png) [@Morphy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Morphy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/1 "2025-01-30T20:35:45Z")

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Hi everyone.

Was wondering why PMS all of a sudden is starting to transcode titles from my media without im streaming anything? It take ages and use a lot of resources.

The only way I can get it to stop, it to delete the media file from my server.

I see something like

Plextranscoder -codec :0 h264 -codec:1 dca - ss 1785 -noaccurate\_seek - analyzeduration 20000000 - probesize 20000000 -I /my-mount-folder/to-mediafile.mkv and the string keeps on going with a lot of things . I can’t kill the process. If I kill and restart the server, it starts up again. Really annoying ☹

@ChuckPa any ideas what causing this?

Thanks

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### Author: ![FordGuy61](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@FordGuy61](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FordGuy61)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/2 "2025-01-30T20:43:37Z")

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[Plex Docs](https://support.plex.tv/articles/)  
 → [Library](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289526-library/)  
 → [Scheduled Tasks](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201553286-scheduled-tasks/)

Background processes - generating thumbnails, voice analysis, credit detections, etc.

You can schedule if/when they run in Settings → Library.

The “Scheduled Tasks” window is configured in Settings → Scheduled Tasks.

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### Author: ![Morphy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/morphy/32/11124_2.png) [@Morphy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Morphy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/3 "2025-01-30T20:44:54Z")

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@FordGuy61

No numb nails, voice, credit , it’s a movie.

Any other ideas?

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### Author: ![FordGuy61](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@FordGuy61](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FordGuy61)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/4 "2025-01-30T20:54:41Z")

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Plex analyzes all media files to determine bandwidth, etc.

Normal stuff, especially for newly added media.

If you’re inside the maintenance window you’ll see the processes referred to as “Butler Tasks” in the log files.

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### Author: ![Morphy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/morphy/32/11124_2.png) [@Morphy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Morphy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2025, 9:21pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/5 "2025-01-30T21:21:31Z")

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Thanks @FordGuy61 but its not a new titel. Its old.

Butler is running late night , it just random start to transcode media …

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### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/6 "2025-01-31T14:07:06Z")

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Activate [debug logging](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/#toc-1), then inspect the [server log](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/) file after such an occurence.  
Everything else is just speculation.

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### Author: ![Morphy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/morphy/32/11124_2.png) [@Morphy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Morphy)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2025, 2:18pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/7 "2025-01-31T14:18:56Z")

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Thanks @OttoKerner

Can you maybe tell me what to look for?

I can just search on the title of the media?

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### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/8 "2025-01-31T14:21:23Z")

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Your best bet is the time stamps at the start of the lines.  
As well as any lines where the transcoder is invoked, plus a few lines before where it might be mentioned who or what triggered the action in the first place.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Morphy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/morphy/32/11124_2.png) [@Morphy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Morphy)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/9 "2025-01-31T14:36:48Z")

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Ok thanks .

Will see how it goes tonight.

Thanks 🙂

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### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-is-transcoding-random-titles-without-an-active-steam/904127/10 "2025-05-01T14:37:13Z")

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