Plexamp headless - playback stuck bouncing at 00:01 forever

Plex Labs
1

Server Version: 1.42.2.10156 Player Version: Plexamp 4.12.4 (headless Linux ARM64)

Running Plexamp headless on a few Raspberry Pi 5s (Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm and Debian Bookworm). Intermittently hit this issue where playback gets stuck looping at the very start of a track - goes to 00:01, jumps back to 00:00, 00:01, 00:00, forever. Never errors out, just keeps trying.

The weird thing is toggling the audio device in settings immediately fixes it. Doesn’t matter what I switch to - just the act of changing it unsticks whatever’s wrong.

Happening across different DAC hardware (RPi DAC Pro and HiFiBerry DAC), so doesn’t seem hardware-specific. Fresh installs, running as a systemd service. Doesn’t happen every time, which makes it hard to reproduce.

Anyone else hit this? The fact that the device toggle fixes it makes me think something in the audio init path isn’t getting properly set up on certain launches.

2

Not sure this will fix it, but try the password reset procedure in the FAQ here, and let us know.

3

Tried the password reset procedure and no change, still happens intermittently.

The interesting thing is the first Q&A in that doc describes exactly my symptom (flips back without playing) and my workaround (re-select audio device). So this seems like a known audio init issue rather than account-related. I hope there an actual fix in the works rather than “toggle the device” every time this happens.

1 Like
4

might help to post logs from headless after the issue occurs

and does it matter whether you’re controlling from browser vs from plexamp mobile or desktop app ?

5

Control method doesn’t seem to matter. I control via mobile app, mac or web. Same issue happens regardless.

Got logs. Nothing during the stuck/bouncing state – No entries – But when I toggle the audio device (which fixes it), this appears:

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1000:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

thanks!

6

i think that’s what shows when the audio device isn’t available (disappears, another app is using it, etc)

there should be more in plexamp logs at ~/.cache/Plexamp/log … the ALSA error is from system logs

7

Found the logs!

In ~/.cache/Plexamp/log/Plexamp.1.log I can see it stuck at 89ms for about 94 seconds while reporting “state playing”:

Dec 14, 2025 18:50:05.638 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 89 token true.
Dec 14, 2025 18:50:21.244 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 89 token true.
Dec 14, 2025 18:50:36.849 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 89 token true.
Dec 14, 2025 18:50:52.455 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 89 token true.
Dec 14, 2025 18:51:08.060 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 89 token true.
Dec 14, 2025 18:51:23.666 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 89 token true.
Dec 14, 2025 18:51:39.271 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 89 token true.

Then I toggled the audio device:

Dec 14, 2025 18:51:49.392 [Javascript] INFO - HttpServer: [100.105.182.123] GET /settings/values name=audioDeviceUuid
Dec 14, 2025 18:51:51.176 [Javascript] INFO - HttpServer: [100.105.182.123] PUT /settings name=audioDeviceUuid&value=hw:2,0
Dec 14, 2025 18:51:51.177 [0x2088f060] DEBUG - BASS: Setting audio interface:  -> hw:2,0.
Dec 14, 2025 18:51:51.177 [0x2088f060] DEBUG - BASS: Resetting device (soft: 0, force: 1, initialized: 1).

Right after that it started working:

Dec 14, 2025 18:52:10.909 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 20299 token true.
Dec 14, 2025 18:52:26.499 [Javascript] INFO - PlayQueue: Sending timeline in state playing time 35899 token true.

Hope this helps!

8

interesting … don’t think i’ve seen or heard of this issue before … perhaps full logs might show some additional detail or context

are these recent / new installs, or are they previously good installs that are now misbehaving ?

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Mix of both actually. The bedroom Pi was a fresh install of 4.12.4 last week - worked great at first, then started doing this a day or two later. The dark living room Pi has been running longer and does the same thing intermittently.

plexamp-dec14.log (3.8 MB)