Server Version#: 1.22.0.4163
Player Version#: Latest tvOS version as of 3/25/2021 (auto updates enabled for app and OS as well), Apple TV 4k, playing uncompressed .wav files.
I’ve been trying to play music on the Apple TV app for a few weeks now (just started using my music library recently), and it has been consistently hanging the app when I swipe right on either the physical remote or the remote app on my phone. The symptoms are usually that it will bring up the album art and start the next track, but the amplitude display at the bottom doesn’t advance even though the music is playing. Sometimes none of the graphics load and it only displays the blurry background. After that, no remote inputs affect the media playing, and the only way to get it to respond is to exit to the tvOS “desktop” and force-close the the app.
I have the same issue as you with the new Apple TV 2021. I also tested with another ATV (4th generation) have the same problem when streaming music wav files. This is the app problem, not the wave file or network bandwidth. I tested with Amazon Firestick has zero issues.
Yesss - so annoying. The problem is with WAV files. MP3 play just fine.
When I start listening to an album of WAV files (graphics and everything load just fine), after some random number of songs are played (it can be two or up to five), the system does exactly as the OP described. The play progress bar freezes, the music continues to play, and when finished, the entire player freezes up. The only solution is to force quit the app and restart the app.
Playing an MP3 encoded album works just fine - plays all the way through.
I noticed this a while back and just thought it was a stupid quirk. The problem has persisted through at least a couple of Apple tvOS 14 updates. And the remote is irrelevant - this happened with the original swipey remote and the new Siri remote (ring) - I have used both with Plex and music.
The problem is really hard to reproduce. I just tried four different WAV albums. It took about 40 skips forward for the app to lock up. It seems like it will eventually lock up. Two nights ago (I think there was a Plex tvOS app update since then), the app would lock up after playing 2-5 songs. Just now it locked up on the 5th song.
Current tvOS 14.6
Plex App version 7.19.1 (329)
Apple TV 4K
Server version 1.23.3.4707
I’m having the same issue when playing Playlists on the Apple TV app on TV OS 15: I’ll play a few songs then playback will stop. I then go in to the app to skip to the next song, but the app is frozen.
This is after both the app and the OS updating, so there’s obviously some bug going on here causing problems with playback on this platform.
I’ve checked the behavior of this on most ATV Plex updates since the original post. No joy… Sadly, I’m glad to see that a) it’s not hardware or network related, and b) isolated to the .wav files (so far). It’s a really annoying problem, but my workaround is to use Plexamp to AirPlay into the ATV or Bluetooth into the receiver, both of which come with their own drawbacks. I wish the Plexamp folks would step in and release a dedicated tvOS app. Or at least do quality checks on the base Plex app.
Same problem. I have my server on a Synology 418play. Updated DSM6. Playing uncompressed .aiff files to an AppleTV 4k on the Plex app. Most of the time only 2 songs play, and on the second song the play bar has frozen so I know whats coming. By the end of the song the app has frozen and the only resolution is to force close it.
Videos (dvd ripped .mkv) play without issue. Music from my server streamed elsewhere is fine. To phones, to iPads, desktop players all work.
Yeah - Plex you should fix this. Countless Plex server updates, a full blown Apple TV update (OS 14 to 15), countless Plex app Apple TVOS updates, and it still does the exact same thing. Behavior hasn’t changed at all. I haven’t paid that much attention to file types - other than WAV is absolutely a culprit. I think even FLAC is a problem also.
If somebody at Plex actually reads this - I use Plex on my Apple TV to listen to music. My television is connected to a very high end sound system. So this isn’t like I’m listening through television speakers and it’s some fringe use case. The AppleTV app should work for all audio files. In fact I never watch moves on my Plex server through my Apple TV.
(my hardware specs are listed above) Software is everything absolutely the latest versions.
The whole concept of work arounds to airplay plexamp to the television is ridiculous.
If nothing else - tell us how to report a bug. This is a bug in the system.
