Plex keeps trying to make video thumbnails for one specific file

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.24.3.5033 (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)
Player Version#: N/A

I occasionally notice the Plex activity monitor telling me that it is making video thumbnails for one specific video file. I’ve seen this going on for a couple of weeks, ever since I enabled thumbs for that library. No other file pops up like this, so I assume the file is giving PMS indigestion.

The only related logs I see are some copies of this:

DEBUG - BaseIndexFrameFileManager: building index (320x240) for parts for MetadataItem 2294 (Near Dark)

I could rerip the file but I would like to understand why it is failing. Is it possible to do the thumbnail job on the command line to see any errors that might be generated?

There’s also this thumbnail preferences setting, but it makes generation slower in general so it isn’t the best option. (I guess I could turn it on and then off again.)

Any other ideas for how to get it unstuck?

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XML (media part only) for the file in question please ?

It’s probably fine which means remuxing the file will probably sort out whatever PMS is not liking.

1 Like
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A number of us have used that, temporarily, when specific files cause indigestion.

Share the XML info with @ChuckPA!

If you’d like to share the actual file w/ me I can try to diagnose it a bit too. The ffmpeg commands from that other thread can reveal some problems.

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Do you mean this portion of the XML @ChuckPa ? (Edit: assuming so, pasting.)
image

<Media id="5680" duration="5652813" bitrate="11152" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="dca-ma" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="ma" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="5680" key="/library/parts/5680/1417091643/file.mkv" duration="5652813" file="/mnt/media/movies/Near.Dark.1987.mkv" size="7888525401" audioProfile="ma" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="6" requiredBandwidths="18379,17749,15984,13792,12509,12082,11461,11461" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="12736" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="2" bitrate="8955" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="41" profile="high" refFrames="3" requiredBandwidths="15563,14933,13164,11113,9873,9449,9320,9320" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (H.264)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="12737" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="dca" index="3" channels="6" bitrate="1548" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" bitDepth="16" profile="ma" requiredBandwidths="1993,1850,1647,1647,1647,1647,1647,1647" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="12738" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="4" channels="6" bitrate="640" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="640,640,640,640,640,640,640,640" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="Unknown (AC3 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="Unknown (AC3 5.1)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="12734" streamType="3" default="1" codec="vobsub" index="0" bitrate="5" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" headerCompression="1" requiredBandwidths="9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9" displayTitle="English (VOBSUB)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (VOBSUB)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="12735" streamType="3" codec="vobsub" index="1" bitrate="4" language="Dutch" languageTag="nl" languageCode="nld" headerCompression="1" requiredBandwidths="7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7" displayTitle="Dutch (VOBSUB)" extendedDisplayTitle="Dutch (VOBSUB)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>

@Volts I can get you the file but let me look in that other thread first. A diagnosis is only for my own curiosity unless it might benefit a fix at Plex too–but if this is an ffmpeg issue then I guess the fix goes upstream.

It might just be a crummy file, too.

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Who knows, you might have a new and uniquely problematic file! :slight_smile:

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