PLEX movie issue - CPU death spiral

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 1.30.2.6563
Player Version#: various latest (Apple TV, iOS, browser)

I’ve got this awful issue with some movies in my library and it’s driving me crazy. Some movies, when freshly added or ones whom have been there years) just won’t play. When you go to play them the server sits there and eventually gives a client side error that says cannot create play queue. Now the movie file is valid, I can play it in anything else, but plex just chokes.

Server side when this happens I can see the plex server CPU spike for about five minutes, the web UI won’t load, and plex dash just shows this CPU spike that takes about 5 minutes to clear. The console shows “slow query” errors and if you try to play the movie a few times the whole server will stop responding for 15 minutes or so. Eventually the spike will stop, cpu use will go back to basically 0 percent, and PLEX will start working again.

Sometimes, not always, if you analyze and “fix match” the movie it’ll start playing and working normally. Series, home videos, and music do not have this issue it’s just movies. It can be a movie that’s been in my library for 5 years, that I’ve played before, that I know works, and I’ll go to play it today and it’ll basically crash my server.

Attached log files. I just tried adding the new Black Panther movie, it went in, metadata looks perfect, can’t play. System coming to a total crash just trying to play the 1 movie.

Console errors:

image
image907×551 143 KB

Plex Media Server Logs_2023-01-30_15-41-40.zip (1.7 MB)

2

You don’t have debug level logging enabled on your server so there isn’t enough info to see what’s going on. Please enable that then grab new logs after the next item you add that causes this problem.

1 Like
3

Opps! Ok I enabled debug and reproduced the issue.

Plex Media Server Logs_2023-01-31_07-07-43.zip (2.0 MB)

4

Ok, you have an issue we are looking into where your GPU isn’t working with PMS but also not failing, so it just keeps running.

As a work-around for now, turn off the option to use HW transcoding.

1 Like
5

Good to know! I’ve been battling with this one for a while now and wasn’t sure if I had database corruption or something like that.

Is this the x265 NVIDIA hardware playing issue I’ve seen about the forums? Asking so I know what patch notes to keep an eye out for in the future.

My biggest issue with disabling HW transcoding is all my family with Roku devices. For whatever reason they transcode A LOT.

6

We haven’t identified the actual cause yet so the wording for the fix is still TBD. Keep an eye out for notes related to HW transcoding. There are actually a few issues, so the next note maybe not necessarily be for this issue. I’ll try to post here when the fix is ready.

1 Like
7

Thank you very much!

8

I had a chance to test this, I turned off all hardware based transcoding and actually still have this same issue. Certain movies just won’t play right sometimes when added, they cause the CPU to spike up to 50% from 0% and the movie just won’t play. The example movie I used is a 720p mp4 movie there’s no transcoding involved, it should direct play.

Would it be helpful if I turned off transcoding, enabled debug logs, and grabbed a new set of logs while reproducing this issue? It drives me crazy, basic movies that play anywhere else bring my whole server down. However there’s never an issue with shows or home videos, just movies.

9

Just came here to say that I’ve had very similar issues to you. I’m running my Plex on Linux through a docker image. Even simple things such as 720 transcodes when only the container and audio need to be transcoded break streaming. OnPlex web and Nvidia Shield I eventually get error messages and Plex ceases to attempt playing the file. Some files broken on web and Nvidia shield work on my phone which is also Android. I do not use hardware acceleration as I have an Intel chip with quick sync in my dedicated NAS device.

In the past week have you figured out anything to help your issue?

10

I have not, sometimes if I refresh the metadata, analyze, and “fix match” it’ll eventually play normally. Sometimes I have to remove and re-add the movie to make it play (direct play) normally.

11

The issue I found was with transcoding, so if you turn it off, it would just fail. If you can get a failure with direct play, then it’s likely something with the file. But sure, reproduce either way and get me a new log.

1 Like
12

This may not help you (based on the logs I have seen) but after looking at my logs I saw that there was an issue with one of my audio codecs throwing the error " EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read" complaining about a /tmp folder.

I deleted all the contents in my (plex configration)/codec folder after shutting down plex, restarted, and now everything is working for me. Looks like Plex downloaded new codec files that are working.

Once again I’m not sure this applies to you but we had similar presentations so maybe it means its a similar problem and that can help you get where you need.

13

I’ve disabled transcoding, enabled debug logging. This test was with a H264 mp4 file which should easily direct play.

Plex Media Server Logs_2023-02-10_12-27-19.zip (1.7 MB)

14

What did you watch? The only thing I see is “The Skeleton Twins”, but you enabled debug logging after it was already playing so it didn’t catch the start of playback where the decision is made. Logging is not retroactive. Please playback the video again and get me a new log.

15

I attempted to watch a movie called “Carry On Cleo” after I enabled debug logging. I got an error on my iPad stating it could not create the play queue, I had the CPU spike, and then let the logs run until the spike settled down on its own.

I could try to make a screen recording of the process if that would help.

16

I often get this issue when movies are first added as well. I’ll sometime re-name them (and/or remux them with ffmpeg) and then re-scan and then they seem fine. I’m not using any HW encode or decode either. Can’t seem to see anything in the logs… just lots of CPU being used.

Likewise it is always “movies” never had an issue with any tv episodes.

(edit to attach logs)
Server Version#: 1.31.1.6716 (MacOS 10.14.5)
Player Version#: various latest (Roku Ultra, iOS, browser)
plex_logs.zip (69.4 KB)

17

@jseeley I don’t see any playback request in your logs. Or any new movies being added.

18

I just reproduced the issue with no one watching. Both debug and verbose logging enabled as well. I enabled the detailed logs, tried to play an impacted movie, got the could not create play queue error, and then let it sit until I saw the CPU spike drop from 20% to 0%.

Plex Media Server Logs_2023-02-16_15-36-40.zip (1.5 MB)

19

I didn’t add any movies in that log, just a clean launch of the server and then tried to playback via a chrome browser. I also didn’t see anything in the logs either, but the CPU just starts to spin, between 100-1500% cpu(using multiple cores) and playback never starts. FWIW I re-muxed the file from .mkv to .mp4 and then it worked normally. but I have seen the issue with mp4s as well, so its not limited to .mkv and since there was no transcoding changes, it doesn’t seem like a codec issue. The no logs for playback is certainly odd… but that what I see whenever this happens… simply nothing in the logs.

20

Don’t turn that on. It gets too noisy that way. Turn it off, restart PMS, get me a new log after the next time this happens. Let me know what movie you try to play. I’m not seeing any playback attempts in this log.