Plex won't update metadata or cover art

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Hi Guys

Been running my Plex Media Server on a Windows 2012 server for a couple of years now, and it has been working beautifully all this time - however, about a week ago it started to act up.

When I add a new movie to any of my movie libraries it won’t fetch cover art, meta data or anything. It seems like it won’t even connect to The movie database since every time I try it pops up right away saying “no matches”. When I try matching through it finds a match right away but still not downloading any cover art, metadat etc. It just matches and shows a blank cover and no meta.

I have about 10 different movie libraries and it seems they all have this issue. However my “Series” library updated just fine last night. So not all libraries are affected by this bug, but how do I fix the ones that are ?

I have read about the “plex dance” which is not an option for me since I have a lot of custom cover art and metadata in some of my libraries.

I am running Windows Server 2012 on a HP Xeon server and my Plex libraries are located on a network attached Synology NAS.
There are no issues with read/write access.
I have tried clearing the cache.
I have disabled IPv6 in both router and Plex.
I have updated to the newest version of Plex Media Server ( 1.16.6.1592)
I have tried reparing after updating
Etc.

If anyone could help me figure out this problem it would be seriously appriciated since it would take me weeks to start from scratch.

UPDATE : Just found out that some of my media files won’t play any longer and some do. The ones that wont play gives me the error : “MF_MEDIA_ENGINE_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED : HRESULT - 0xC00D3E98”
What does this mean ?

2

I was going to guess it was related to the Synology, as there have been recent security enhancements, but you said PMS was running on the Windows box.

Maybe if we get debug log files from your server, we can make some progress. Please make sure VERBOSE logging is disabled, and zip up the entire folder it gives you and attach it with your reply.

Please explain the method you’ve used to make your Synology files available to Plex,
and include details about your hardware and your network topology, remote access, and
anything beyond a standard install. Let us know the last time Windows got an update, and
whether it’s temporally related.

Thank you sir.

3

Plex Media Server Logs_2019-09-21_20-48-47.zip (2.2 MB)

Hi Nibbles

Thanks for your reply, I have attached my logs file to this post.

My media library is on a SYnology RS2414+ which is “attached” to the windows box via a network drive. I am not running any subnets or anything advanced like that. Most of my install is actually pretty basic. I tried updating windows today to see if that was the issue, before it was about 4-5 or days ago, it might be related to that windows update since it was around there it stopped working but as far as I remember it was only anti virus and som NET framework that got updated. :slight_smile:

Let me know if you need anything else, thanks :slight_smile:

4

We are going to need some professional help after this xD
Your logs are filled with various errors from different aspects of Plex,
like autoupdate, codec update, various SSL problems, and python2.7
issues about resource hashes not being found. I’m not convinced of what
is abnormal vs Plex Relay stuff.

Then I’ll see a simple error message about cover art, but no HTTP Response code to learn why.

2019-09-21 20:13:20,224 (1568) :  ERROR (networking:219) - Error opening URL 'https://webservice.fanart.tv/v3/movies/tt1979376'

I’m struggling to wrap my head around the root causes.

That being said, the following error appears many times over the course of two hours:

in "Plex Media Server.log"
Sep 21, 2019 18:31:20.337 [5004] WARN - Held transaction for too long (..\Statistics\StatisticsManager.cpp:248): 0.109375 seconds

In a previous thread with that error message as the title, the synology guru informed the user that he made a critical error trying to save data in /Volume3

When I scanned your logs I didn’t see that name, but let’s have you take at his response,
keeping in mind that the user he was speaking with had PMS on the Synology, unlike you:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/held-transaction-for-too-long-statistics-statisticsmanager-cpp-29/463407/6?u=nibbles

Let us know what applies to you from the Synology FAQ and how you get on.
If you want his attention, edit your OP and add the tag server-synology

5

I am going out of my mind here trying to figure this out so any help would be welcome :smiley:

Just tried uninstalling the latest Windows security update to see if thias was fu**** things up, with no luck.

Just downloaded and installed newest PMS (1.17xxxx) to see if that would fix it, with no luck.

Tried creating a brand new folder and added that to PMS to see if that would make any difference, it did’nt, still did not find any meta data or cover art.

The weird thing is that my series library updated fine last night, so am I wrong in thinking it might be some sort connection error when trying to connect to IMDB in order to find movie cover art/meta data ?

My NAS only has a Volume 1, and my PMS and NAS have been running fine for about 3 years like this, I have made no changes in anything since this problem occured.

6

That’s good news about Volume1 and how it worked before.
Synology or Plex could have changed something, that’s what we’re hunting.
The other thread is still a work in progress. xD
Hang in there.

7

I think you are right, it must be Plex, Synology or perhaps and update for server 2012 that somehow screwed things up.

I checked with a couple of friends who have also updated to the latest PMS version, they don’t have any issues. One of them are running an almost similar setup to mine, an ordinary win10 box and a Synology DS418 (or thereabout), his is working fine.

Should I make a guess I would say either Plex or Windows 2012 has changed something which is causing this headache.

The weird thing is that when I add a series to my series folder it works fine, it finds the cover art and meta data, so it seems like it is only my movie folder which has this issue. Perhaps it is something to do with the connection to IMDB somehow ?

8

I think you’re close. @trumpy81 might see a synology issue in your logs if any.
If it’s windows I can’t be of much help.

9

I hope he finds something in the logs, been at it all day without luck. It is still broken.

11

Udklip
Udklip935×105 15.7 KB

Hi again :slight_smile:

Sounds right about the problems with downloading, however I have no idea how that suddenly happened since nothing has changed.

I have been through every network setting in my router, the nas, the windows box etc., everything seems fine and correct. I did however find the attached error in the windows logs, could that have something to do with this issue ?

Everything is rebooted, even renamed my windows box, cleared the DNS manually but I am sorry to say the issue still remains.
Just tried adding a new series to my “Series” folder and that also fails in collecting meta data, cover art etc also, so the one that previously succeded must have been because the info was cached?

Would a teamviewer session help ? Or do you have any other idea of what be causing this ? :slight_smile:

12

You’re experiencing certain non-errors that look like errors due to the fact you have Remote Access setup and it’s never functional at the time PMS starts up. So the logs for users like that contain SSL errors that are called (0, No Error) in the logs. It tries to explain that by labeling it as a WARN around the acc stuff that Trumpy pasted.

Sep 21, 2019 18:22:17.658 [4464] WARN - HTTP error requesting GET https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/dd95667-2450/windows-x86-standard/aac_decoder.dll (0, No error) (OpenSSL SSL_connect: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL in connection to downloads.plex.tv:443 )
Sep 21, 2019 18:22:17.735 [4464] ERROR - Codecs: Download failed: Failed to download 'https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/dd95667-2450/windows-x86-standard/aac_decoder.dll': -35
Sep 21, 2019 18:22:17.736 [4464] WARN - Codecs: Failed to download aac decoder; bailing out

Later on, the system gets it’s remote access and plex relay network mapping done:

Sep 21, 2019 18:22:31.534 [4640] DEBUG - MyPlex: We appear to have regained Internet connectivity.

However my amateur analysis doesn’t explain all the problems with SSL I see,
nor the failure to download certain codecs later on like h264.

How about we try this. Disable Remote Access in Plex Settings - Show Advanced.
Disable DLNA. Disable local network discovery (GDM).

Then reboot the PMS computer, and wait 10min for PMS to fully start up.
Download logs, zip, and attach. I’d like to see logs where you’re doing nothing
but letting it start up without remote access and updating anything it likes.

Hang in there :smiley:

13

Plex Media Server Logs_2019-09-24_00-06-30.zip (2.9 MB)

Hi again

First of all, thank you so much for your help, it is much muuuuch appriciated :slight_smile:

I think I got all the disabling done, rebooted the server and the logs are attached. Hope you find something useful, I am okay with computers but know nothing about SSL, codecs and stuff like that :smiley:

Let me know if I can do anything else, will litterally do anything…weeeeeeeell with a few exceptions anyway :smiley:

14

The offer of teamviewer is helpful to the devs if they come bye and ask.

I can’t spot the actual issue. Nothing is obvious to a casual user like me.
The Windows 2012 sounds old. What is the possibility that it’s so old it
doesn’t support modern TLS v3 encryption, therefore fails the TLS handshake?
What if your DNS responded too slowly just at the cruical time, and you got
a libcurl 28 timeout error?

There are a couple of empty lines in your pms.log.
Did you redact some stuff? Did you add this CERT?

certificate 
Sep 24, 2019 00:01:53.073 [2248] DEBUG - CERT: Installed certificate with fingerprint 6e:37:fb:2c:5a:1a:86:e6:45:51:4d:ae:ed:ad:64:10:ff:ac:14:fa.
Sep 24, 2019 00:01:53.073 [2248] DEBUG - CERT: Installed new private key.
Sep 24, 2019 00:01:53.073 [2248] DEBUG - CERT: Subject name is /C=US/ST=California/L=Los Gatos/O=Plex, Inc./CN=*.bedc307616fc4dce803a8dfa6ee58923.plex.direct
Sep 24, 2019 00:01:53.104 [2248] DEBUG - CERT: OCSP requests for stapling will be made to 'http://ocspx.digicert.com/'.

Later the network comes up after Plex Relay finishes and we see the resource hashes 404. I don’t know if this is abnormal.

resourceHashes 
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.165 [4804] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:49328 (Loopback)] GET /:/plugins/com.plexapp.system/resourceHashes (13 live) GZIP Signed-in Token (Smiske)
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.165 [4804] DEBUG - [com.plexapp.system] Sending command over HTTP (GET): /:/plugins/com.plexapp.system/resourceHashes
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.166 [4804] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:49192/:/plugins/com.plexapp.system/resourceHashes
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.183 [4804] DEBUG - HTTP 404 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:49192/:/plugins/com.plexapp.system/resourceHashes
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.183 [4104] DEBUG - Completed: [127.0.0.1:49328] 404 GET /:/plugins/com.plexapp.system/resourceHashes (13 live) GZIP 18ms 261 bytes
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:31.473 [4808] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:49363 (Loopback)] GET /:/plugins/com.plexapp.system/resourceHashes (14 live) GZIP Signed-in Token (Sm

Then it seems to find a lot of servers

connection tester 
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.510 [5456] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Testing the server MedieServer with 2 URLs.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.511 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Testing the server Abekat with 2 URLs.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.583 [5456] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Successfully tested media server MedieServer to be at https://81-161-182-141.c4c4201864a54aab8fe9c3de4fd9821c.plex.direct:32400 in 72 ms.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.605 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Successfully tested media server Abekat to be at https://2-104-67-73.193d5e3b704d4ccb8c59aa748247dadc.plex.direct:23621 in 93 ms.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.684 [5456] DEBUG - Connection Tester: The server MedieServer is a valid media provider.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.708 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: The server Abekat is a valid media provider.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:29.713 [5456] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Testing the server Macho MedieCenter with 0 URLs.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:33.522 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Testing the server Plex with 2 URLs.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:33.601 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Successfully tested media server Plex to be at https://193-106-166-34.b277d791f60540f8b3f45a3ce741d251.plex.direct:32400 in 78 ms.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:33.707 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: The server Plex is a valid media provider.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:38.537 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Testing the server plex with 2 URLs.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:38.626 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: Successfully tested media server plex to be at https://87-58-241-161.3791fd757a3d495ebcef0a9faf6e1e99.plex.direct:25397 in 88 ms.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:38.729 [5460] DEBUG - Connection Tester: The server plex is a valid media provider.
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:39.747 [5456] WARN - Connection Tester: Error testing media server Macho MedieCenter in 10034 ms.

Sep 24, 2019 00:02:18.217 [4104] DEBUG - EventSource: Resolved 172.104.132.7 to 172.104.132.7
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.626 [4104] DEBUG - EventSource: Resolved 81-161-182-141.c4c4201864a54aab8fe9c3de4fd9821c.plex.direct to 81.161.182.141
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:28.643 [4108] DEBUG - EventSource: Resolved 2-104-67-73.193d5e3b704d4ccb8c59aa748247dadc.plex.direct to 2.104.67.73
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:33.794 [4104] DEBUG - EventSource: Resolved 193-106-166-34.b277d791f60540f8b3f45a3ce741d251.plex.direct to 193.106.166.34
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:38.663 [4108] DEBUG - EventSource: Resolved 87-58-241-161.3791fd757a3d495ebcef0a9faf6e1e99.plex.direct to 87.58.241.161

Some more SSL/TLS handshake errors about TMDB service (libcurl error 35)
Maybe it had an error because it found no matches. I don’t know.

TMDB service query 
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:29.348 [4800] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:49352 (Loopback)] GET /library/metadata/32027/tree (14 live) GZIP Signed-in Token (Smiske)
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:29.494 [4804] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:49353 (Loopback)] GET /services/tmdb?uri=%2Fsearch%2Fmovie%3Fquery%3DToy%2BStory%2B4%26year%3D%26language%3Den%26include_adult%3Dtrue (14 live) GZIP Signed-in Token (Smiske)
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:29.550 [4804] ERROR - Error issuing curl_easy_perform(handle): 35
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:29.605 [4804] ERROR - Error issuing curl_easy_perform(handle): 35
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:29.615 [4808] DEBUG - HTTP 200 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/system/agents/search?mediaType=1&id=32027&identifier=com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb&duration=5940483&filename=X%253A%255C-%253DPlex%253D-%255CFilm%2520-%2520Nye%255CToy%2520Story%25204%255CToy%252EStory%252E4%252E2019%252ECustom%252EDKSubs%252E1080p%252EHDRip%252Ex264-UNiTY%252Emkv&lang=en&openSubtitlesHash=76ba16d41e8c7f13&plexHash=84b9f5a38013a05dc06615a77770f444bc18cc97&name=Toy%20Story%204&source=bluray
Sep 24, 2019 00:02:29.616 [4808] WARN - No matches for search.

My suggestions.

  1. Paste in the exact path of your Toy Story 4 so we can check your naming
  2. See if you can set your primary DNS to use google at 8.8.8.8 and the secondary also to Google’s DNS at 8.8.4.4 to see if those avoid the timeouts.
  3. Tell us how your Settings - Network - Secure Connections is set to what?
  4. And your Settings - General - Allow Fallback to Insecure Connections is what?
  5. Put your server on a NUC rather than Win 2012 :crazy_face:

Sorry I can’t spot this easily. :man_shrugging:

15

Hi again

No need to be sorry, I’m appriciate you trying!! :slight_smile: Would hate to have to deal with this issue alone…as I did the couple of days :slight_smile:
I wonder what the odds are of a dev spotting this thread :crazy_face:

The Windows 20212 should be okay, Microsoft still supports it for a few more years as far as I know…

I have not edited or redacted anything in the uploadet logs, nor did I add any CERT.

I do have a lot of servers on my network, so it will find a “few” :wink:

About your suggestions :
My namming is ok, I have named it like the rest of the folder which used to work fine hehe.
My DNS is already sat to Googles, did that a couple of days ago.
My secure connections is set to “Preffered”, and my preffered netwrok interface is also the correct one.
Can’t find any “Allow fallback to insecure connections”, I am running the Danish version of PMS but can’t find anything resembeling that. I am however, pretty sure it is set to the most compatible setting wherever it might be. :smiley:

Been trying to think if anything else have changed on my network within the last couple of weeks, as far as I know nothing has changed. The only thing I can think of is that this issue happened around the time I updated to version 1.16.xxxx.

If I save my plex database and stuff like that what are the odds of being able to reinstall PLex without losing all my custom cover art, custom descriptions, custom sorting titles etc ? It will take me weeks to do this from schrach again.

16

https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/
shows you how to do that without losing any metadata.

As you’re having issues with metatdata retrieval, and you’re verging on reinstall from scratch,
I think it’s worth correctly naming at least a few series that don’t work, and doing The Plex Dance with them. Your names aren’t even close to spec on a bunch of series it’s scanning, but naming is incredibly important: https://support.plex.tv/articles/#cat-your-media
C’mon you named an episode 01.mkv. What do you expect to happen :crazy_face:

Custom artwork gets placed inside the TV series directory it’s for. You wouldn’t lose that if you move the whole TV Series directory out of the way during The Plex Dance. The special tags you made, those would be sacrificed. Try doing it for a less important but problematic show maybe?

Let us know how it goes :+1:

17

Hi again

Sorry it took so long to get back yo you guys, had a busy couple of days. :slight_smile:

Anyway, looks like I am heading for a reinstall of Plex or Windows, seems like there are more issues than I expected. When I try to play a movie either from my normal PC (Win10) in the plex app or directly on the PMS server in the webinterface I get the message that it’s missing a codec so it’s unable to play anything.
I have other users saying when they try to play anything they get a message saying something like “conversion failed a requiered codec could not be downloaded”.

I have deleted all the codecs in Plex hoping it would re-download them. No succes, it does download something but not anything which makes it play.

It seems like Plex is unable to even access the internet in order to download cover art, meta data, codecs etc. This makes it seem like a Windows Server 2012 R2 issue, right ?
I (and others) can however connect to my PMS via the Internet, so there some access.

However it is impossible to think that Microsoft screwed up some settings in my installation because of an update…never happened, never ever. :crazy_face:

Currently I’m looking in to completely reseting my Server 2012 R2 internet settings to see if that could do anything.

Any ideas are still very much appriciated :smiley:

18

Your system is in an undefined state. A fresh install of Windows is warranted.
Take solace that you’ll start from a known footing.

If other versions of PMS in a default install without remote access express the
same codec issue when you delete them, then it points squarely to networking.

19

Hi guys

Just wanted to give you guys an update and again thank you for all your help. :slight_smile:

I gave up on trying to fix Windows, as far as I can tell it was an SSL/Certificate issue which caused everything to fu** up so I reinstalled with Windows 10 and everything works again now.

Managed to move my entire Plex database, even the sorting info under each movie, so the work I had to do after the reinstall was minimal.

Once again thank you for all your time and effort. :slight_smile:

1 Like
20

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