I have my Plex Server running and everything connects. I can stream movies to my Roku, Firestick, and my Visio smart Tv. However, I have an Insignia FireTV edition tv in my son’s bedroom. For whatever reason it will not stream any content. It connects to the server just fine and I can see the movies from my library. When I go to play then however I get an error message after about 15 seconds saying “Playback has stopped because the connection to the Plex Media Server has been lost. Please ensure the server is available and retry.”
Any suggestions on what to try to get this device where it can stream?
I want to keep this thread alive, as this is still a problem. I purchased a Insignia NS-39DF510NA19 39-inch 1080p Full HD Smart LED TV- Fire TV Edition and it has this same exact problem. My tv downstairs hooked to a Fire Cube streams all content fine, my chromecast fine, and a Fire TV STICK plugged into my tv works fine with all plex content. If I use the plex app ON the Insignia Fire TV itself, I get that “Playback has stopped because the connection to the Plex Media Server has been lost. Please ensure the server is available and retry.”
Very frustrating as my server is very powerful, my network is solid, and all other streaming devices have no problem with my plex server. Expect hundreds or thousands more people to be affected after this years Prime Day wraps up.
The only solution I have found at this point is to uninstall and side load an older version of the APK on the TV. I found an APK version released in Jan/Feb 2018 that will stream. It’s not ideal but it is working for now.
I’m running into the same issues. I have multiple playback devices in the home. Xbox, Shield TV, Roku, Fire TV stick 4k. All of them work without issue except my 24" insignia Fire TV’s that will load and connect to the server but will have the error “Playback has stopped because the connection to the Plex Media Server has been lost. Please ensure the server is available and retry.”
Both of my TV’s are hardwired with Ethernet. I’ve also tried it with wireless. I’ve tried adjusting video quality settings. I also tried casting Plex from my phone to the TV. I’ve tried clearing the cache as well as uninstalling the app completely and reinstalling it. Nothing resolves it.
Emby works without issue on both Insignia 24" Fire TV’s
I’m getting this same error on my fire TV stick. I have reinstalled the app and power cycled everything. All content plays fine on my other devices. However I have found that some content does play, usually lower quality stuff.
Currently having the same issue here, Uninstalled, reinstalled, Hardwired to the router, getting posters for all content but the lost connection to plex server keeps coming up on all my movie content. All other devices play fine - Android Phone, Xbox. Tried different settings secure/non-secure, streaming quality etc. Any news on a fix?
At this time there is no fix. The only work around was to install an earlier version of Plex. I did some searching on the internet and found a version from Jan 2018 and side loaded it to the tv. It works just fine but at this point it’s almost 2 years outdated.
This issue was fixed in v7.23 and confirmed by Amazon for their devices.
If it’s happening for you still, could you grabs the logs (info here; https://support.plex.tv/articles/201573117-android-android-tv-fire-tv-logs/) and let me know the error message you are seeing. If it only happens for certain content, then a sample of that content would be ideal as well. Also let us know the model of your device (found in the Fire TV settings).
You could also try adjusting the H264 level inside of the Plex Settings and see if a lower level works correctly for all your content, it could be that we are misidentifying your devices H264 level.
Due to a bug, Plex for Android doesn’t work with HEVC Main 10 files and refuses to transcode them, resulting in the error. The only solution is to downgrade to 6.12, since the Plex team doesn’t seem inclined to fix the issue.
Hi, I have version 7.25.2.14287
Fire TV 4K
When I try to play ANY file (whether it’s 4K, h265, 720p, 1080p anything !) it start briefly (with no sound) and then it pause, and I can’t unpause…
Is this the same issue as you guys ? Has this never been fixed ?..
So I’ve juts found another setting that has resolved my playback quality issues I was seeing.
So on settings on the fire tv app, I have ‘enable new video player’ set to off and the second one I found was also in the advance settings area ‘ H264 maximum level’ this was at 1.0 (recommended) I set this to disabled now and everything app reads to be back to normal play and full 1080 quality. I’ll watch a few things and report back but on testing it all seems fine …
Your solution pointed me in the right direction. I only had to change one setting, I ‘disabled’ the h.264 maximum level (recommended 1.0) and I suddenly could stream 1080p content again. BTW the settings are within the PLEX app on the Firestick. Access by opening the PLEX app and going to your server settings, scroll to the bottom where it is labeled ‘ADVANCED’ then to ‘H264 maximum level’ This worked for me!
Firestick software version Fire OS 5.2.7.2
Samsung TV UN40F6300
I wish I saw this a week ago - but figured this out last night as well. I think this setting is misconfigured as a standard because I factory reset my FTV 4k stick, reloaded the app, and needed to change this to fix the terrible transcoding quality.
