Plex unable to locate external subtitle, which lead to media being unable to be played

Plex Media Server
,
1

Server Version#: 1.20.2.3402
Player Version#:1.20.0.1406-f47a81b7

This is a weird issue that appears after I updated to 1.20.2.3402. There are a number of series that I have in the server with external subtitles in the folder, which are in various formats, either .SRT, ASS, or SSA.

Now some of the series with these external sub just suddenly straight up won’t play. Instead, it throws up “Conversion failed. The transcoder failed to start up” error and just stops. Deleting the subtitle would fix this problem.

After digging up in the log file, I found out two issues. One, Plex for some reason is trying to transcode the audio of the file, even tho I am using Plex Player for Windows, and transcode is not needed

[8084] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Episode 1: Audio Direct Streaming is disabled, so video's audio stream will be transcoded

Second, Plex straight up could not find the subtitle file, even tho it’s there and was working previously

Oct 07, 2020 15:25:37.674 [12576] DEBUG - Calculated media file path for path [file://share-pc/Asian%203/Araburu%20Kisetsu%20no%20Otomedomo%20yo%20(2020)/[MagicStar]%20Araburu%20Kisetsu%20no%20Otomedomo%20yo%20EP03%20[WEBDL]%20[1080p].en.ass]: ["share-pc/Asian 3/Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo (2020)/[MagicStar] Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo EP03 [WEBDL] [1080p].en.ass"]
Oct 07, 2020 15:25:37.674 [12576] ERROR - Couldn't find the file to stream: share-pc\Asian 3\Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo (2020)\[MagicStar] Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo EP03 [WEBDL] [1080p].en.ass

As I said previously, this error only occurred after an update to the server, and happens randomly. Other series that have external subtitles would work. Some won’t.

One solution that I figured out was to mux the episode and subtitle into an MKV file, and it would work fine as intended. but honestly there are too much files for me to keep track to re-mux, so I am not really keen on doing this

2

Start by employing proper file names and folder structure for tv shows.

When using external subtitles, you still need to use one subfolder per season. Even if the whole show only has one season!

3

Yeah, nah. Already did that and same thing happens. Even if it’s correctly in “season xx/sxx exx” format, the same error is being thrown

4

After correcting the naming schema, you need to “Refresh Metadata” for Plex to re-check the external files.

5

I did as changing the folder means the file structure has already changed so I refreshed everything.

And as I said, Plex had no issues before this, and some files without any Season folder with external subs still works as usual.

6

Did you disable ‘Local Media Assets’ under

  • Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheTVDB
    or
  • Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheMovieDatabase

?

7

Yes. Refreshed metadata again and re-scanned directory again and as before, the same error

8

Sorry, I was meaning to say that you must not do that, because it switches off external subtitles.

9

Switch it on or off leads to no change as the problem still persists :frowning:

10

Could you copy the contents (not the URL) of the Plex XML info of the first episode into here?

11
13

That XML is not for the same show as from your error above. Can you provide the XML for that episode?

14

Sorry for that. I have remuxed the video + subtitle into a new MKV to make the subs work, so I posted an XML of one that haven’t yet muxed. I’ll unmux them and post the xml again

15

Either that or playback the file from the previous XML and then provide the log showing the error for that file. We need a matching set to investigate the issue.

16

The XML for the error

Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.451 [6512] DEBUG - [Transcode] [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: \\share-pc\Asian 3\Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo (2020)\Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo. S01E01 1080p WEB-DL AAC H.264-NSBC.mkv
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.451 [6512] DEBUG - [Transcode] HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/streams/385469?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.453 [13136] DEBUG - Completed: [172.16.23.38:38987] 200 GET /photo/:/transcode?width=1920&height=1017&minSize=1&opacity=10&background=343a3f&url=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F64041%2Fart%2F1602400565%3FX-Plex-Token%3Dxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx%26X-Plex-Account-ID%3D1 (28 live) TLS GZIP 392ms 48391 bytes (pipelined: 6)
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.463 [3996] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:61276 (Loopback)] GET /library/streams/385469 (28 live) GZIP Signed-in Token (linkinstreet)
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.465 [3996] DEBUG - Calculated media file path for path [file://share-pc/Asian%203/Araburu%20Kisetsu%20no%20Otomedomo%20yo%20(2020)/Araburu%20Kisetsu%20no%20Otomedomo%20yo.%20S01E01%201080p%20WEB-DL%20AAC%20H.264-NSBC.eng.ass]: ["share-pc/Asian 3/Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo (2020)/Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo. S01E01 1080p WEB-DL AAC H.264-NSBC.eng.ass"]
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.465 [3996] ERROR - Couldn't find the file to stream: share-pc\Asian 3\Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo (2020)\Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo. S01E01 1080p WEB-DL AAC H.264-NSBC.eng.ass
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.465 [6512] DEBUG - [Transcode] HTTP 404 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/streams/385469?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.465 [13136] DEBUG - Completed: [127.0.0.1:61276] 404 GET /library/streams/385469 (28 live) GZIP 2ms 331 bytes
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.465 [6512] ERROR - [Transcode] Error configuring transcoder: TPU: Failed to download sub-stream to temporary file
Oct 11, 2020 15:16:17.465 [6512] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x4d3ae78:jnrg0gb4vzh9z3943z38wq71 with reason Conversion failed. The transcoder failed to start up.
17

Thanks. I was able to reproduce the problem.

18

Hi, any updates on this issue? It seems now that it’s also affecting movies with external SRT as well, something that previously was working fine

19

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