Plex not playing any new files I add

[bparone]

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Logs-7.zip (3.4 MB)

I’m experiencing very strange behavior in the last few days. When I download any new files, MKV or MP4, I get oan error telling me “h4 (Not Supported)” (attached). I’ve downloaded 7 different versions (1080p, and 720p) of a recent TV show 'The Woman In The Wall, and none of them will play. The ones I downloaded last week play fine though and the files look exactly the same. Interestingly, when I get the error for that show, it tells me it can’t play “Knock Knock”, which isn’t the file and isn’t in any of the metadata. I can play the same files on Mac or PC with VLC or Quicktime.

The DB repair utility runs weekly and there have not been any issues flagged. Anyone have any ideas?

[bparone]

Bumping this up.

[bparone]

I think I solved this. I restarted Plex and the NAS, did the plex dance for all the new files that wouldn’t play, and then gave it time to collect all the metadata. I thought I broke it because I couldn’t see my TV or films and it was giving me an error. However, I think it just needed time and now I can see them.

I guess it’s just buggy software at the end of the day.

[ChuckPa]

Sorry for the delay. I’m still in Cardio Rehab until the end of September and my time is limited.

@bparone

I’m experiencing very strange behavior in the last few days. When I download any new files, MKV or MP4, I get oan error telling me “h4 (Not Supported)” (attached). I’ve downloaded 7 different versions (1080p, and 720p) of a recent TV show 'The Woman In The Wall, and none of them will play.

It sounds like you have naming / structure issues if it’s completely mismatching the content.

Please show me a few of these filenames EXACTLY as you have them?

Show me the XML too please.

1. hover over the file → Get Info → View XML

2. Copy from the top down until you see </Media> in your browser clipboard

3. Now come to the reply window and type as follows
   ``` (3 grave characters … over by the ~ key)
   Paste XML here
   ```

4. It looks like this (which is exactly what I need)

Paste XML here

5. Here’s what “9 to 5” looks like

<Video ratingKey="1190" key="/library/metadata/1190" guid="plex://movie/5d9f352c6fc551001ef80e8c" studio="IPC Films" type="movie" title="9 to 5" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" contentRating="PG" summary="Frank Hart is a pig. He takes advantage of the women who work with him in the grossest manner. When his three assistants manage to trap him in his own house, they assume control of his department, and productivity leaps, but just how long can they keep Hart tied up?" rating="6.8" audienceRating="7.4" year="1980" tagline="Getting even is a full-time job." thumb="/library/metadata/1190/thumb/1684047869" art="/library/metadata/1190/art/1684047869" duration="6561804" originallyAvailableAt="1980-12-19" addedAt="1659415054" updatedAt="1684047869" audienceRatingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.upright" chapterSource="media" primaryExtraKey="/library/metadata/1212" ratingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.ripe">
<Media id="3125" duration="6561804" bitrate="31828" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="dca-ma" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="ma" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="0" exists="0" id="3125" key="/library/parts/3125/1659415054/file.mkv" duration="6561804" file="/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/netmount/glockner/movies/Nine to Five (1980)/Nine to Five (1980).mkv" size="26108843410" audioProfile="ma" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="6" requiredBandwidths="36181,35833,35285,34884,34484,34085,33487,33487" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="6486" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="29837" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="41" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="34189,33847,33300,32899,32498,32100,31504,31504" scanType="progressive" title="MPEG-4 AVC Video / 29993 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="MPEG-4 AVC Video / 29993 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1"> </Stream>
<Stream id="6487" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="dca" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="1991" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" bitDepth="24" profile="ma" requiredBandwidths="1993,1993,1993,1993,1993,1993,1993,1993" samplingRate="48000" title="DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1991 kbps / 24-bit" displayTitle="English (DTS-HD MA Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1991 kbps / 24-bit (English)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>

[bparone]

Hey Chuck,

Really sorry to hear about the ticker. I hope the physio is going well. I just finished my physio for a hip replacement last week. The physio is pretty much as important as the surgery. Completely understand your time is limited. I thought the forum was a bit more populated.

I hope I’ve done this correctly and provided what you’re looking for. As a side note, search is intermittently not working. I don’t know if you’ve seen my update, but the new files are playable now. I didn’t change the naming structure for the new files though.

Annika S01E01

<Video ratingKey="27380" key="/library/metadata/27380" parentRatingKey="27379" grandparentRatingKey="27378" guid="plex://episode/610800827fa6ba002d807420" parentGuid="plex://season/610800817fa6ba002d807414" grandparentGuid="plex://show/610800807fa6ba002d80740e" type="episode" title="Episode 1" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/27378" parentKey="/library/metadata/27379" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" grandparentTitle="Annika (2021)" parentTitle="Season 1" contentRating="TV-14" summary="On her first day in the new role, Annika and the team are called in to solve the murder of a man found in the Clyde, a harpoon piercing his head. The investigation leads them to the victim's struggling boat business, where not everything is above board." index="1" parentIndex="1" audienceRating="7.3" viewCount="1" lastViewedAt="1685674970" thumb="/library/metadata/27380/thumb/1685458362" art="/library/metadata/27378/art/1685458361" parentThumb="/library/metadata/27379/thumb/1685458362" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/27378/thumb/1685458361" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/27378/art/1685458361" duration="2854697" originallyAvailableAt="2021-08-17" addedAt="1685458350" updatedAt="1685458362" audienceRatingImage="themoviedb://image.rating">
<Media id="52115" duration="2854697" bitrate="2227" width="1920" height="960" aspectRatio="1.85" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="hevc" videoResolution="1080" container="mp4" videoFrameRate="PAL" optimizedForStreaming="0" audioProfile="lc" has64bitOffsets="0" videoProfile="main 10">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="115966" key="/library/parts/115966/1685410710/file.mp4" duration="2854697" file="/volume1/Plex TV/Annika 2021 Season 1-2/Annika 2021 S01E01.mp4" size="796686334" audioProfile="lc" container="mp4" deepAnalysisVersion="6" has64bitOffsets="0" indexes="sd" optimizedForStreaming="0" requiredBandwidths="6227,5098,3540,3540,3540,3540,3540,3540" videoProfile="main 10">
<Stream id="278046" streamType="1" default="1" codec="hevc" index="0" bitrate="2003" bitDepth="10" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codecID="hev1" codedHeight="960" codedWidth="1920" colorRange="tv" frameRate="25.000" height="960" level="120" profile="main 10" refFrames="1" requiredBandwidths="6003,4874,3320,3320,3320,3320,3320,3320" streamIdentifier="1" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (HEVC Main 10)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (HEVC Main 10)"></Stream>
<Stream id="278047" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="224" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" requiredBandwidths="224,224,224,224,224,224,224,224" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)"></Stream>
<Stream id="278467" key="/library/streams/278467" streamType="3" codec="srt" format="srt" displayTitle="Unknown (SRT External)" extendedDisplayTitle="Unknown (SRT External)"></Stream>
</Part>

Creep 2004

<Video ratingKey="64763" key="/library/metadata/64763" guid="plex://movie/5d7768327e9a3c0020c6c111" studio="UK Film Council" type="movie" title="Creep" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" contentRating="R" summary="Trapped in a London subway station, a woman who's being pursued by a potential attacker heads into the unknown labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city's streets." rating="4.0" audienceRating="3.9" year="2005" tagline="Your journey terminates here" thumb="/library/metadata/64763/thumb/1694099399" art="/library/metadata/64763/art/1694099399" duration="5110816" originallyAvailableAt="2005-01-28" addedAt="1694099395" updatedAt="1694099399" audienceRatingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.spilled" chapterSource="media" ratingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.rotten">
<Media id="116548" duration="5110816" bitrate="2638" width="1920" height="818" aspectRatio="2.35" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mp4" videoFrameRate="24p" optimizedForStreaming="1" audioProfile="lc" has64bitOffsets="0" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="116805" key="/library/parts/116805/1693845544/file.mp4" duration="5110816" file="/volume1/Plex Films/Creep 2004 [1080p BluRay]/Creep 2004 [1080p BluRay].mp4" size="1685010992" audioProfile="lc" container="mp4" has64bitOffsets="0" indexes="sd" optimizedForStreaming="1" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="280184" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="2248" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="832" codedWidth="1920" frameRate="24.000" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="818" level="41" profile="high" refFrames="4" streamIdentifier="1" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (H.264)"></Stream>
<Stream id="280185" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="384" audioChannelLayout="5.1" profile="lc" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="Unknown (AAC 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="Unknown (AAC 5.1)"></Stream>
<Stream id="280206" key="/library/streams/280206" streamType="3" codec="srt" format="srt" displayTitle="Unknown (SRT External)" extendedDisplayTitle="Unknown (SRT External)"></Stream>
</Part>

Alien 3 1992

<Video ratingKey="64794" key="/library/metadata/64794" guid="plex://movie/5d77683161141d001fb14ba5" studio="Brandywine Productions" type="movie" title="Alien³" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" contentRating="R" summary="Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the only survivor when she crash lands on Fiorina 161, a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison. Once again, Ripley must face skepticism and the alien as it hunts down the prisoners and guards. Without weapons or modern technology of any kind, Ripley leads the men into battle against the terrifying creature." rating="4.7" audienceRating="4.7" skipCount="1" year="1992" tagline="The ■■■■■ is back." thumb="/library/metadata/64794/thumb/1694100701" art="/library/metadata/64794/art/1694100701" duration="8692735" originallyAvailableAt="1992-05-22" addedAt="1694100697" updatedAt="1694100701" audienceRatingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.spilled" primaryExtraKey="/library/metadata/64795" ratingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.rotten">
<Media id="116581" duration="8692735" bitrate="2071" width="1920" height="810" aspectRatio="2.35" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mp4" videoFrameRate="24p" optimizedForStreaming="1" audioProfile="lc" has64bitOffsets="0" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="116839" key="/library/parts/116839/1692653376/file.mp4" duration="8692735" file="/volume1/Plex Films/Alien 3 1992 [1080p] {imdb-tt0103644}/Alien 3 1992 [1080p] {imdb-tt0103644}.mp4" size="2249956095" audioProfile="lc" container="mp4" has64bitOffsets="0" indexes="sd" optimizedForStreaming="1" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="280433" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="1971" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="816" codedWidth="1920" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="810" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="5" streamIdentifier="1" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (H.264)"></Stream>
<Stream id="280434" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="96" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)"></Stream>
<Stream id="280441" key="/library/streams/280441" streamType="3" codec="srt" format="srt" displayTitle="Unknown (SRT External)" extendedDisplayTitle="Unknown (SRT External)"></Stream>
</Part>

[bparone]

One correction. Search doesn’t work at all actually. Here is what I get when I try to use it.

[bparone]

Search works fine on MacOS and iOS apps.

[ChuckPa]

@bparone

/volume1/Plex TV/Annika 2021 Season 1-2/Annika 2021 S01E01.mp4"

First – the easy part.

Annika is structured terribly wrong. Alien 3 only works because of all the “fuzzy logic”.

1. Alien 3 (1992) [1080p] is proper naming (same for all movies – name (year) )

2. Annika (2021) / Season 1 / Annika (2021) - S01E01.mp4

I recommend using a renaming tool to help with these.

As for Search failing in Plex/web - Search as problems.
It doesn’t like adjectives (the, and, a, or, etc)
If it gets too many results – it overloads and dies (why the player apps work)

I’d like you to clean out the existing Codecs you have on the Syno and allow them to download again -

1. Stop Plex
2. FileStation - Navigate PlexMediaServer/AppData/Plex Media Server/Codecs
3. Delete everything you see in there EXCEPT the .device_id file (that’s your license key for the server)
4. Start PMS

The first time you start to play things, there’ll be a couple extra second pause while the codecs are downloaded again.

I’m suggesting this to confirm your codecs are intact & current.

[bparone]

Okay. I’ll try and delete the codec’s.

Regarding the naming for films, it looks like it’s just the parenthesis that are missing (correct me if I’m wrong), and why only those files just recently? I never had any other issues with that naming convention.

For the file renaming tool, is there any specific recommendation, such as Filebot?

Regarding the search, I’m using search words that have worked in the last week. In addition, no search keywords work at all now, even words where there is no other file with that name (i.e. Poultrygeist or Verotika (yeah I collect some of the worst-rated films ever made for my viewing pleasure!)), That has been my main way of searching for files to ensure I don’t have them before I download them. Do you still think it could be that the search engine is overloaded? Would seem strange for a search engine not to be able to handle an index with a single unique name. Couple this with the fact I usually can’t even see my libraries through the browser (see previous screen shots) unless I restart the Plex service on the DSM and it seems like there is an issue with Plex connecting to the files. It’s all on a pretty fast network where the slowest component is 1.5gbps.

I am starting to reach my NAS capacity, not sure if that has anything to do with these sudden issues that have popped up.

[ChuckPa]

I would start using FileBot.

It makes certain the names are perfect before Plex sees it the first time.

Knowing my media is mounted on the array as /vol/media ,

Movies is /vol/media/uhd/{n} ({y})/{n} ({y})

• {n} = name
• {y} = year

TV is /vol/media/tv/{n}/Season {s}/{n} - {s00e00} - {t}

• {n} = name
• {s} = season
• {s00e00} = SxxEyy format automatic
• {t} = title

Sonarr grabs all my TV and does the cleanup for me before full automated insertion into the library

I run all my BluRay rips (rip them myself) from MakeMKV → MkvToolnix.
The last thing I do is let FileBot confirm the perfect naming .
I then manually move the movie into place

example of my naming:

Tombstone (1993) [1080p]/
Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (2021) [2160p]/
Total Recall (2012) [1080p]/
Transcendence (2014) [1080p]/
USS Indianapolis Men of Courage (2016) [1080p]/
Victor Frankenstein (2015) [1080p]/
Voices (2014)/
Voyagers (2021) [2160p]/
War on Everyone (2016) [1080p]/
We Are Your Friends (2015) [1080p]/

and

[chuck@glockner tv.2012]$ ls -R ../tv2/Welcome\ to\ Earth/
../tv2/Welcome to Earth/:
Season 01/

../tv2/Welcome to Earth/Season 01:
Welcome to Earth - S01E01 - The Silent Roar.mkv        Welcome to Earth - S01E04 - Power of Scent.mkv
Welcome to Earth - S01E02 - Descent into Darkness.mkv  Welcome to Earth - S01E05 - Speed of Life.mkv
Welcome to Earth - S01E03 - Mind of the Swarm.mkv      Welcome to Earth - S01E06 - Beyond Fear.mkv
[chuck@glockner tv.2013]$ 

[bparone]

@ChuckPa

example

Thanks Chuck. I’ll download those tools and give a try. Are you then coming to the conclusion that search not working, and not being able to view any of my films & TV that isn’t on the landing page on the web app, is expected behavior? It works in the apps so it’s not a deal-breaker for using Plex, but it does seem like there is something deeper wrong since it’s all of a sudden become an issue.

[ChuckPa]

You ask if Search in the web page is broken?

Broken? or just Limited ?

Plex/web has always been awkward for me.
There is only so much you can do in Javascript code in the browser compared to what you can do in an actual program (app)

As we get bigger and bigger libraries – expecting more and more – are we reaching the limit of what the browser can do? Maybe?

[bparone]

Broken completely (see the previously shared screenshot for any and all files (See screenshots. Like this for every library when using the browser). I also can’t view any libraries in the browser, but maybe I’ve hit a threshold at 35TB of content.

[bparone]

I started using Filbert, and whilst it changes the files to the correct naming format in Plex, it gets rid of any of the data in brackets (ie. [1080p]). There doesn’t seem to be any way of retaining that. is that correct? So I’d still have to manually add that or just omit it moving forward.

It also only changes the folder OR the file, so I’m not sure what the advantage is if you still need to manually change the file or folder names and add back in resolution info.

[ChuckPa]

@bparone

I started using Filbert, and whilst it changes the files to the correct naming format in Plex, it gets rid of any of the data in brackets (ie. [1080p]). There doesn’t seem to be any way of retaining that. is that correct? So I’d still have to manually add that or just omit it moving forward.

FileBot does add that info. It’s ALL in the documentation.

Here’s the easy part – {vf}

I urge reading their documentation. Noah is very good at making the docs understandable.

./{n} ({y}) [{vf}]/{n} ({y}) [{vf}]

Gives you this:

The Thirteenth Floor (1999) [1080p]/
The Time Machine (2002) [1080p]/
The Transporter Refueled (2015) [1080p]/
The Vault (2021) [1080p]/
The Virtuoso (2021) [1080p]/
The Whole Truth (2016) [1080p]/
The Wolverine (2013) [1080p]/

and specifically

[chuck@lizum movies.2000]$ ll Tinker\ Tailor\ Soldier\ Spy\ \(2011\)\ \[1080p\]/
total 8338132
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck         66 Jul 19 14:37 ./
drwxr-xr-x 226 chuck chuck      16384 Aug 30 20:37 ../
-rw-r--r--   1 chuck chuck 8538225714 May 27  2018 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) [1080p].mkv
[chuck@lizum movies.2001]$

If you make absolute paths, instead of the relative path addressing I use, it’ll be safe for Synology