Crashes 3-4 times per day at times. Other times it can stay up for 2-4 days without crashing. I can’t connect to the local server: 127.0.0.1 (initiated by clicking the Plex icon and selecting preferences). Eventually it times out and I get the error “Server Unavailable”
I’ve tried multiple versions of production and beta. Currently on newest release: Version 1.28.1.6041. Prior to this I was on the most recent production release. This has been happening for several months now on multiple versions.
Some steps I’ve taken:
I’ve downgraded to previous Plex versions, I tried a couple but to be honest, I don’t recall which versions. I believe they were from March of 2022.
I’ve set the scheduled tasks to run for three hours between 2am-5am. I’ve logged in after the scheduled tasks have run to see if it locks up after those tasks and so far I haven’t been able to capture the issue after those tasks so I suspect it’s not those causing the issue.
I’ve tried searching the forums and I’ve attempted a few things such as:
disabling “Analyze audio tracks for sonic features” — even though I don’t use the music library.
I was using Tutulli but I disconnected it from Plex and uninstalled it (it was in a docker package).
I’ve even disconnected Sonarr / Radarr from the connect option —which notifies Plex of library changes.
I’ve completely erased Plex app including the /Library files (I used cleanmymac to ensure it was completely gone). I rebuilt the libraries and it appeared to work for a few days but the error returned and is now multiple times daily.
I have to completely restart the computer as closing the app hangs and doesn’t work. Even if I goto Activity Monitor and close all the Plex processes (which looks like this: ), I can’t re-open the app. I get this error: ““The application ‘Plex Media Server’ is not open anymore”
Environment:
I’m on a Mac mini M1 macOS Monterey 12.5, 16GB memory
I have multiple users that this server is shared with. There could be unto 5 streams at once during peak times.
I haven’t pinpointed what’s causing the error. I suspect it might be something in the library. I suspect this because prior to this specific error, there was an issue I found with certain 4k files that produced this error: “Something went wrong playing your media. Please try again. Could not direct play because: App cannot direct play this item. No direct play video profile exists for protocol http, with container mkv, and video codec hevc. Could not transcode because: File is unplayable. Color space is not supported.” I never resolved that and ended up deleting the files and re-downlaoding different versions.
I’ve attached the debug log. I’m desperate for help! I’ve run a plex server for my family for years and I’ve never encountered an issue like this and I feel lost. Thank you so much!
Ensure the server debug logging is enabled in advanced server settings.
Disable Crash Reporting to ensure dumps do not get purged. Settings / Server / Show Advanced / untick “Send crash reports to Plex” and save changes
It may be necessary to increase the number of log files from the default. See Adavnced Server Setting “LogNumFiles” in this support article. Suggest setting it to 10. Advanced, Hidden Server Settings | Plex Support
Restart the server to get fresh log files created - and wait for time when the issue arises
When the problem occurs (and please wait for sufficient time before capturing diagnostics or restarting eg 10 minutes of requests to the server not getting through) , get the output from a specific browser request on the server. In a browser, go to this url
where you put the server token string instead of the xxxxxxx. Copy the displayed output to a text file and save
Next is to force a process dump for the Plex Media Server app process. Open Mac OS “Activity Monitor” and locate the “Plex Media Server” process and note down the “PID” number
Open terminal session on the Mac and force a crash for the process by entering this command: kill -6 <pid>
e.g. kill -6 1962 if the PID for Plex Media Server was 1962
Wait few seconds and then using Finder, locate the Plex Media Server “Crash Reports” folder
use the Finder’s Go menu, select Go To Folder… then enter the following in the dialog box that pops up:
~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Crash Reports/
Then within that folder, open the folder for the version of Plex Media Server that is running and within that open the “PLEX MEDIA SERVER” folder. A crash report dmp file should be here generated after the kill -6 pid
Copy this file out and zip it
Restart the server and capture the zipped server logs
send me by private message with the zipped dmp files and the saved /connections output text files and the zipped server logs
@grantdyer I am waiting for a minidump to go with debug server logs for this issue - could you get that for me next time it happens, See revised instructions above for the diagnostics
You have been nothing short of amazing during this … dark time in plex history haha! Since the recent software updates, it’s only happened once. I had the software completely shut down once as well but I see the latest release fixed that.
If you wouldn’t mind keeping this open for a couple weeks that would be fantastic. I’ve got everything ready to go should it happen again.
