Issue: After upgrading Plex Media Server (PMS) from version 1.17.x to 1.18.x, accessing the server causes high CPU utilization (high CPU %), the serverâs libraries cannot be accessed, and the serverâs settings cannot be accessed.
Steps Taken (generally):
allowed Plex to update to 1.18
after (or during?) update, the computer hit high (nearly 100%) CPU utilization - let update continue for days before rebooting computer
upon restarting computer, opening web browser shows PMS unable to connect to libraries or PMS settings - high CPU %
reverted back to PMS 1.17.x - stopped PMS from desktop tray icon right-click, and after waiting for Plex Media Server background app (in Task Manager) and not seeing drop-off in CPU, manually killed that app in Task Manager, then ran/executed the downloaded PMS 1.17.x installation program
PMS 1.17.x had no issues with CPU cyclesânormal/low CPU utilizationâand was able to access the Plex libraries and server settings
installed PMS 1.18.x multiple times, with similar results to above (with original PMS 1.18.x upgrades)
latest install is PMS 1.18.4.2164
based on suggestions from others (in other Plex forum posts), disabled PMS auto-scan:
a) stopped PMS (tray icon)
b) killed Plex background app (Task Manager)
c) edited registry (RegEdit) [Computer->HKEY_CURRENT_USER->Software->Plex, Inc.->Plex Media Server->âButlerTaskâŠâ keys (set from â1â to â0â]
d) restarted Plex/PMS
***) interestingly, despite setting the butler task registry items to 0, it appears the libraries are still being scanned: there are a few âtroubleâ media items that cause the background scanner to âstop workingâ, and when they do there is a pop-up indicating that Windows background app/process quits - after setting the registry keys to â0â and starting PMS, those pop-ups still occur during the time the server was schedule to run background/auto-scans (a few hours in the middle of the night) - not sure why the scans would be occuring if the butler tasks are set to â0â
based on suggestions from others (in other Plex forum posts), tested for PMS access / high CPU utilization with different Plex access apps:
a) web browser - PMS IP/URL, port 32400 - high CPU, unable to access libraries or PMS settings
b) Plex Media Player (on Macbook) - high CPU, unable to access libraries or PMS settings
c) Plex on Roku - high CPU, unable to access libraries or PMS settings
d) Plex app on iPad (iOS) - expected/low CPU, able to access libraries, unable to play content
e) Plex app on Android mobile device - expected/low CPU, able to access libraries & play content
for all access methods (web browser, Mac program, mobile apps) - able to access other Plex Media Servers tied to the same user account (media servers shared with same account that is owner of PMS exhibiting issues described in this post) - able to access libraries/content of other Plex Media servers
The relevant portion of the Plex server log is attached to this post. The log was trimmed to the period during which the issue described in this post occurred (with 3 descriptive lines added), and was redacted to remove individually-identifiable information, but otherwise is substantively intact.
I appreciate thoughts/help on how to resolve this issue. I would like to avail of the new features introduced in PMS 1.18, but am unable to do so without being able to manage the PMS server.
OK, so this is an amazing post and thanks to OP for posting it because not only do I have the same problem, I tried almost the exact same steps in troubleshooting. I am running PMS on Windows 10 Pro and have been running it for years without problems. I can provide logs as well, if necessary.
I Suspect that perhaps the installation was previously incomplete (due to long scanning times that eventually froze the system?) and that broke the database or something.
After all of the troubleshooting above, I also tried the following:
1-Uninstalled the Plex player app and removed all references to it (in case there was a conflict).
2-Made sure all of the latest windows patches and updates were applied.
3-Turned off ALL firewalls and opened all ports to try to eliminate a networking/communications issue.
4-Tried a repair of the current installation using the installer.
5-Finally broke down and did a complete uninstall from my system and then a full reinstall from scratch (which really sucks because this last resort probably means I lost all of my metadata and database and everything)
I rebooted numerous times in between each of these steps. Nothing seems to work. PMS launches, hits high CPU for a bit and then just crashes. It does not seem to reclaim the server and does not respond on localhost to even let me see settings. It is dead. And the thing is that since a full reinstall didnât fix it, I donât know what else to do so I am here. I cannot use this software any more if it is broken and unfixable.
I would appreciate any advice and suggestions from someone official at Plex. I can provide whatever logs or parts of logs that you need, just tell me which ones would help.
Hi @stankdawg - thank you for confirming the issue. You even went the extra distance of a total reinstall (kudos!), with no resolution. Unfortunately that would be problematic for us, as well, as many of the movie items have been customized with matching, metadata, and collections, and I fear that we would lose all of that by starting from scratch.
It is unfortunate Plex is unusable for us (for the most part) at this time of year - we always love to listen to holiday music and watch holiday movies, most or all of which we can get via the Plex media. Saying this issue ruined the holidays is probably too strong, but definitely it will not be as fun or festive for the family & friends this season without Plex.
Hoping for a fix to this issue soon. Otherwise I might revert back to 1.17 and live without the enticing current and future enhancements. Not idealâespecially considering we have multiple lifetime Plex Pass accountsâbut better than where we are now. I am not able to interpret the server log to determine where the issue resides, and I appreciate anyone else who might be able to shed some light or figure it out.
I tried to roll back to previous versions as well. They did the same thing. Whatever it is borked everything plex related for me.
UPDATED POST: Luckily, I had an old version 1.16.6.1592 in the backups/updates folder and I reinstalled form that and it came right up! But now, I am permanently stuck on that version because any time i upgrade, it will break it again.
Can anyone from PLEX advise on how i can get this thing upgraded properly now?
I spoke too soon. Even the rollback to the previous version is unstable. It sometimes runs for hours, and sometimes only a few seconds. No consistent error that I can find in the logs. Crash reports are being uploaded so I am hoping someone at Plex can take a look?
So much for watching Christmas movies with the family tonight.
Some more notes that may help someone at Plex to troubleshootâŠ
While it is running, I am bale to do pretty much anything without âtriggeringâ a crash. I was able to stream movies for a few minutes, use the search functionality, delete a library, seemed fully functional.
I am able to see all of the cover images and metadata and browse through libraries without issue. Again, none of this triggers the crash.
I was able to change server settings (including turning on verbose logging) and those changes were saved.
PMS crashes whether it is actively streaming or doing anything, or if it is completely idle. It is the server itself that dies and I do not see anything in the logs that is an obvious trigger, but again I ask someone from Plex to help me to see if I am missing something.
UPDATE: I was able to run the upgrade script from inside of PMS and successfully upgrade to Version 1.18.3.2156 using the built in upgrade process. From those upgrade logs, there were NO ERRORS.
I also turned off hardware acceleration under the transcoder section after seeing some other posts about Intel video drivers. Mine was not on the affected version list, but I turned it off anyway. It did save that settings change.
The new version still behaves the same as the last version. Random crashes with seemingly no pattern in the logs.
I thought about the database possibly being corrupt somehow, but it seems to show all metadata and libraries properly, so I would think that if the database was corrupt that would not happen would it?
Is anyone from Plex reading these? Help? I am just about out of ideas.
Hi @stankdawg - thank you for trying various workarounds/fixes. I am in the same boat, with no real solution, and no clue from the PMS server log. And as for the database being corrupt, it seemed to work when I downgraded / installed version 1.17 over 1.18, and also seems to work with 1.18 using the Android Plex app.
It appears another user is having a similar experience (here).
OK, So I donât want to jinx myself, but I think i found out the problem. PMS has been running for 48 hours now, so I think that the problem is the one I mentioned earlierâŠat least for me.
So in that short time that the server was up, and I could change settings, I went in and disabled hardware acceleration. I saw some other users mentioning it, so I tried it. Like I said, 48 hours and so far, so good.
And as I thought about it, i feel pretty confident. There was nothing in the logs, because it was happening when it tried to transcode anything. That didnât make sense at first because it wasnât up long enough to stream anything until I realized that that what it was trying to do is was to SYNC episodes in the background to my tablet. To sync, it tries to convert which tries to use the GPU for hardware acceleration which causes the crash.
So out of curiosity, try to disable hardware acceleration and see if that does anything for you as well. Yours may be completely different, but it makes sense for me and, well, frankly, I am running smoothly now so it is probably correct (at least for me, YMMV of course.
Post here if it works and maybe it will help someone else.
Hi @stankdawg - glad that simple fix works in your case. Unfortunately my issue is not resolved when I disable hardware acceleration.
To be fair, I am not able to get to the PMS server settings, so I had to disable hardware acceleration via RegEdit: I stopped/exited Plex via the taskbar tray icon (right-click --> Exit), then changed the registry entry âHardwareAcceleratedCodecsâ from 1 to 0, then restarted Plex. After doing that, the CPU settles down to near 0%, but as soon as I open a web browser page to the Plex server, which brings up the Plex login page, the CPU climbs up to and remains at more than 50% (even without logging in; same result if I do log in). Closing that web browser page eventually drops the CPU back to near 0%.
There may be other settings or registry entries that I should be considering. In particular, a number of registry keys begin with the word âTranscoderâ. To this end, I have attached the registry items with their respective values (some items have been redacted), in case anyone has a suggestion for other changes I should make, or if others with a working Plex 1.18.x would like to share their registry values, for me to try with my Plex.
I appreciate all help with this issue - it would be great to get Plex functional again. Thanks.
Not sure if this is your situation, but Iâve FINALLY had success in upgrading my Windows PMS to v.1.18.x
It all stemmed from âhiddenâ database problems.
