PlexAmp playback crashing Plex server

[Insomnic_1]

Server Version#: 1.42.2.10156
Player Version#: PlexAmp v4.12.4 on iOS 18.7.1 (on iPhone 16)

Lately when streaming music to PlexAmp on my iPhone it’ll hangup and crash the Plex server entirely. That’s not happened for years but the last few times I’ve used PlexAmp on my iPhone it’s happened. It errors out with “can’t reach server” and when I check on it the Plex server is inaccessible from any client (Plex on Roku, PlexDash, WebUI via plex.tv or local). I stop and start Plex on my QNAP and it’s back to normal.

I did see this post as well but there was no response: On my Synology NAS, Plex crashes when playing music and skipping a song using PlexAmp

My music library hasn’t changed much in years and I play this same playlist regularly so I’m not sure that a corrupted music file would be the cause.

Here are 3 sets of logs.

Logs I grabbed manually while server was crashed:

Logs.zip (4.0 MB)

Logs from right after restarting the server:

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-10-21_13-56-55.zip (3.3 MB)

Logs from PlexAmp after restarting the sever (I switched to downloaded content after “server error” came up):

Plexamp-Logs-2025-10-21-1.zip (827.0 KB)

The last song that was playing when it crashed was Eels song Novocain for the Soul if it helps looking in the logs. I’m crap at reading Plex logs myself.

[Insomnic_1]

And it just crashed out again. I was playing my downloaded songs only but maybe something in leaving wifi and coming back to it triggered something? My playback never stopped and I only noticed it was down when I went to do something else hours later. Otherwise I hadn’t done anything related to Plex playback since reporting the earlier crash. I’ve upload new logs.

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-10-21_15-24-32.zip (2.6 MB)

It’s very concerning as I haven’t had regular server crashes in years.

[pshanew]

Just curious, are you able to test with another Plexamp installation (perhaps on Windows or macOS) to see if that causes the problem as well? Just to rule out a client-specific issue? I use Plexamp headless daily with no issues.

I do use it from my phone as well (iPhone 13 mini) but haven’t experienced any server crashes.

[Insomnic_1]

I rarely use it on anything but my mobile but that’s a good idea so I’ll make a point of playing it via WebUI when I’m at my computer and see if it trips up at all.

I was really hoping something in the logs would show something but I’m crap at reading the Plex logs.

[bubbascant]

I have experienced the same type of issues you describe, and like you, it has been recently that it has happened (the past few months).

That post you said no one replied to was my post - and it generally describes the same issues you are experiencing. That said, as you’ll see below, it has gotten way worse! I was disappointed that no one had replied to that post I did in late August.

I have a question - Which iOS are you using on your iPhone? I recently got a new iPhone 17 pro max and iPad Air with both using iOS 26. I did update to iOS 26.0.1.

When I traveled in August (prior to new iPhone or iPad), the PlexAmp kept crashing, same as you describe, but I was able to get it back at least by logging in using QuickConnect. Movies on Plex also had issues. Prior to my travel in August, PlexAmp would sometimes drop when on my walks.

I just traveled to Texas from Friday to yesterday and the PlexAmp performance was horrible. Not only did it keep crashing, but the song playing (Tom Petty song) would not play (the icon would just spin) and I could not bring up anything different. Trying to clear the queue didn’t help. Movie playback with Plex app also was problematic but nowhere near the PlexAmp.

I would try logging into my Synology NAS with Quick Connect and Plex was not on the desktop. Looking at installed apps, it would show Plex as being “Manually stopped”. I did NOT stop it. Even the repeated attempts to bring it back would not work after restarting Plex again. I also tried restarting my NAS without successful outcome. I also shut off and restarted my iPhone several times. When I would start Plex on my NAS and go to the PlexAmp app, the Tom Petty song still showed and would not play. I was unable to bring in a new playlists as it would kill Plex on my NAS. It was maddening.

It was only upon returning back to my home yesterday late afternoon and trying several things that I got Plex to stay stable as it usually did. I also tried playing Plex through my Sonos and it also wouldn’t play or let me bring up a playlist or song prior to fixing. It seems to be related to WiFi perhaps? The hotel I was in had decent WiFi as other things I used were quick, meaning it was decent speed.

Things are back to normal now but there sure is a major issue obviously. While it’s not “good”, and least it’s comforting to know someone else is experiencing this madness. What really gets me is if my trip were extended even longer and I didn’t have access to my music until I got home, that would have really sucked! I even had Quick Connect set up allowing me to log into my server while away and even that didn’t help as I said.

I shared my log and it does show the PMS causing the crashing (multiple times). It’s very aggravating as you know. Hopefully this can get resolved.

I’m curious to know if you got the “Manually stopped” on your QNAP in the same way I did on my Synology, and whether you’re on iOS 26.

What version of Plex are you on by the way?

[Insomnic_1]

That’s super frustrating being away and having it crash. One thing I started doing a bit ago when I had an experience being “out of touch” is I’ve set one of my smart playlists to be offline so at least I can always switch to “downloaded” and have some music. It updates downloads occasionally as the smart playlist changes too. It’s the playlist I use the most - “Fresh” - and the one I was using when it crashed. It plays random so that makes it hard to see what was playing and what would be up next, I just remembered which song had played last before the music stopped today.

I almost always play my “liked” songs as my regular playlist and also check any new music I add by playing the full album at least once so I know any song files that played today worked fine previously. I’ve never had a song not work (even some of my super old rips that have moved\copied dozens of times).

No transcoding is happening so even if a track didn’t play well I dunno how it’d take down the server rather than just erroring out on its own. TV and movie files that flake typically just end playback rather than crashing the server.

My QNAP showed Plex in a started state - I don’t think QNAP has anything other than started\stopped and it was showing as running but I didn’t double check the processes directly. QNAP logs for Plex only show me manually stopping\starting Plex to fix it.

I’m using iOS 18.7.1 and Plex server is 1.42.2.10156.

The server crashed on me a week ago as well - outta the blue nothing going on - and I had to restart my QNAP to get it back running. Stopping\Starting it multiple times didn’t bring it back up as all clients just showed “no content” until I rebooted the QNAP entirely.

I did just update QNAP to QTS 5.2.7.3256 yesterday which has been out for almost a month now but this crashing also happened before I installed that update.

Anecdotally I’ve had multiple crashes in the last month after having no regular crashes in years (and that counts playing with beta releases which I don’t do anymore). So it’s a concern even if it’s occasional since it makes me worry about reliability.

[bubbascant]

I have well over 900 playlists in my music library. The music is organized exactly as Plex desires.

This crashing of music always seems to happen with one of the following while using PlexAmp

• Skipping songs while on my walk (and away from WiFi).
• Trying to bring up a new playlist while on a walk which can crash Plex on Synology.
• When I’m on WiFi at a hotel for example, and the music stops, forcing me to log into Synology to restart Plex from the Package center.

I had these experiences before getting a new iPhone with iOS 26, though this past weekend trip to another part of the country is when I really got hammered where I couldn’t get PlexAmp to play the song that was playing when it crashed. Restarting the NAS and restarting Plex several times, along with doing the same restart on my iPhone didn’t help. I couldn’t clear the queue. I couldn’t try and bring in new playlists. NOTHING worked.

It was only upon returning home that I was finally able to get this back. This strongly suggests it’s not an iOS problem and that it’s a problem with the Plex app. Especially given we both experienced basically the same thing with our respective NAS’s. And that it has increased dramatically recently. It’s certainly not a Synology or QNAP problem.

I do appreciate your reply. Hopefully this can get resolved as customers should not be experiencing these kinds of issues.

[nibbles]

@Insomnic_1 posted two sets of logs after two different crashes.
In both cases, PMS recorded in the log something about the PlayQueue, then a CrashUploader, then tried to launch a child process and died. I realize that snips aren’t particularly useful, but these two logs show very similar sets of operations.

Oct 21, 2025 13:32:52.505 [139682564750136] DEBUG - [Req#b3ad] PlayQueue: total generated: 153, before cursor: 99, after cursor: 0
Oct 21, 2025 13:32:52.701 [139682564750136] DEBUG - [Req#b3ad/JobRunner] Job running: /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/CrashUploader "--directory=/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Library/Plex Media Server/Crash Reports/1.42.2.10156-f737b826c" --version=1.42.2.10156-f737b826c --platform=Linux "--platformVersion=QTS 5.2.7.3256" --serverUuid=fe050ca1e2cdcedc7d6d5681483d21ba0777035a --userId=somedavidw@pm.me --sentryUrl=https://o17675.ingest.sentry.io/api/1233455/ --sentryKey=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --vendor=QNAP --model=x86_64 --device=TS-664 --sessionStatus=crashed --sessionStart=1760973721 --sessionDuration=97851
Oct 21, 2025 13:32:52.702 [139682564750136] DEBUG - [Req#b3ad/JobRunner] Jobs: Starting child process with pid 20226

Oct 21, 2025 14:16:34.340 [140392851340088] DEBUG - [Req#3de] PlayQueue: Setting new active item 362677 for play queue 9294.
Oct 21, 2025 14:16:34.341 [140392851340088] DEBUG - [Req#3de] PlayQueue: total generated: 153, before cursor: 80, after cursor: 19
Oct 21, 2025 14:16:34.409 [140392851340088] DEBUG - [Req#3de/JobRunner] Job running: /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/CrashUploader "--directory=/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Library/Plex Media Server/Crash Reports/1.42.2.10156-f737b826c" --version=1.42.2.10156-f737b826c --platform=Linux "--platformVersion=QTS 5.2.7.3256" --serverUuid=fe050ca1e2cdcedc7d6d5681483d21ba0777035a --userId=somedavidw@pm.me --sentryUrl=https://o17675.ingest.sentry.io/api/1233455/ --sentryKey=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --vendor=QNAP --model=x86_64 --device=TS-664 --sessionStatus=crashed --sessionStart=1761072851 --sessionDuration=1343
Oct 21, 2025 14:16:34.409 [140392851340088] DEBUG - [Req#3de/JobRunner] Jobs: Starting child process with pid 25380

Hopefully @Atomatth can gain some insight from your logs
if there’s a common issue.

Or maybe @drzoidberg33 can have a look?

Either way keep the logs coming
Seems useful that it affects QNAP and Synology servers
and using iOS 18.7.1 and iOS26 with PlexAmp 4.12.4.

[Atomatth]

Thanks for reporting @Insomnic_1 and thanks for the ping @nibbles . I’ve gathered the reported problem and logs into an internal issue for tracking. Lets see what we find. Thanks again for reporting .

[Insomnic_1]

Thanks @nibbles for highlighting those items in the logs (I dunno why I’m so crap with Plex logs but I’m fine with others) and thanks to @Atomatth for picking it up.

I’ll post more logs as I test things out with both Mac and iOS PlexAmp to see if it triggers anything over time.

[Insomnic_1]

Had another crash. Got more logs @Atomatth can add to the pile.

I let my music play on PlexAmp MacOS for several hours yesterday and earlier today and all went fine.

I then played music from PlexAmp on my iPhone and it crashed the server during those couple hours - not sure exactly when because my music was still playing when I noticed the crash. Last time it crashed it stopped playback but this time it kept going so I didn’t notice the crash at first. I think it continued playing the first time I noticed PlexAmp had crashed the server as well (before my initial report here and I recognized it as a recurring issue). Most likely the difference was that my playlist may have reached the end - cached\downloaded songs - and that first time and this time I had cache\download to fall back on.

Here are the logs from my PlexAmp while the server was crashed and music was still playing:

Plexamp-Logs-2025-10-23-1.zip (850.3 KB)

PlexAmp itself couldn’t reach the server - “Whoops” error - but music was still playing just fine forward and back, likely the cached music (I have this playlist downloaded and the setting to prefer downloaded is enabled).

Here are manually gathered logs from while it was still crashed (at 5PM-ish CT):

Logs2.zip (3.2 MB)

Here are logs from after I restarted the server (at 5:10PM-ish):

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-10-23_17-08-36.zip (2.5 MB)

I didn’t notice anything in the Crash Reports folder that had anything since Sept but there was a loose file: .RateLimit.json that was last modified at 2:55PM which was during the time I was playing music. I’ve attached that one too just in case. I dunno if that’s helpful but was digging around a bit and noticed it.

RateLimit.json.zip (903 Bytes)

When I restarted the server I had left my music playing in PlexAmp on my phone and when the server came back up (saw it via WebGUI) my PlexAmp did a tiny little audio hiccup and continued on playing and home screen loaded just fine. Here are logs right after restarting the server in case they help (5:06PM was about when the hiccup kicked in). In case a comparison helps.

Plexamp-Logs-2025-10-23-2.zip (873.5 KB)

The playlist I play is “Fresh” so it’s often similar songs playing on random and I have that list set for download as well. Just for more details in case it relates.

QNAP showed Plex App as still running. I had to stop it and then start it to return back to working order.

I’ll continue to keep an eye on it.

Edit: After restarting the server that ratelimit.json file was touched (modified 5:06PM). Contents are the same, just a new “nextReset” number. So probably not related other than the timing of the touch might help with log timing references.

[bubbascant]

Does anyone notice what I reported having to do with WiFi? Playback has normally been decent at home on my WiFi but the problem(s) I had always seem to be when I’m away from my WiFi (or any WiFi - or slower WiFi such as the hotel I was staying) or while out walking or working out for example. Regardless, it does require using QuickConnect and getting logged into the Synology software and restarting Plex. Usually doing so once will solve things (but not always).

And the major horror was during my recent trip. When I connected to my Synology (and on WiFi at the hotel), I had to restart Plex as it had shown “manually stopped” - which clearly wasn’t stopped by me.

As I reported, restarting the Synology and my iPhone and/or iPad usually at least brought Plex back on my Syno, but the PlexAmp showed the same song that was playing when it crashed. I was unable to get to a different playlist, delete the queue or anything. It was DOA basically.
It was only upon returning home that I was able to get it back after a bit. Even Sonos had trouble playing Plex though I eventually got that back as well.

It sure seems to be a WiFi connectivity issue where PlexAmp is confused or has a bug which causes Plex to stop on Synology.

With respect, this is maddening and not what users should have to deal with. Hopefully Plex responds further and the issue will get solved as there is obviously a major bug. This has been going on for months (as reported in my initial forum post aside from this one I am replying to).

[Insomnic_1]

I can say at least one of my crashes - the initial one I reported - I was on my home wifi the whole time. Not remote access. I do have multiple APs but roaming has never been an issue in the past.

The second report above was a mix of wifi\remote. The first time I noticed a crash before reporting it was a mix as well. I mostly use PlexAmp when going for walks so it’s usually a mix.

On my iMac running PlexAmp when it worked for several hours without issue it was wired (though both wifi and wired are active on iMac, wired is priority so shouldn’t be using wifi but sometimes it will - MacOS won’t do some location based features without wifi enabled).

PlexAmp and Sonos is always finicky so that’s hard to use for judgement. So finicky Plex has said they have debated removing support for Sonos entirely. I hope they don’t as PlexAmp playback is one of my main uses of my Sonos system. I’d rather have occasionally fiddly over not available at all (though I mostly use it via AirPlay so as long as that remains it’s probably fine).

@bubbascant I’d say just keep grabbing logs from the app and the server as you experience additional crashes … the more they have to look at the better. That’s what I’m gonna do and hope they keep coming back to it (it’s all we can really do).

Edit: It can also help, I think, to post during normal working hours\days for US timezones. It seems to help to be seen when employees\reps are more active.

[bubbascant]

@Insomnic_1

PlexAmp and Sonos is always finicky so that’s hard to use for judgement. So finicky Plex has said they have debated removing support for Sonos entirely. I hope they don’t as PlexAmp playback is one of my main uses of my Sonos system.

I sure hope they don’t decide to remove support for Sonos. Sonos has been working just fine with Plex on their latest version (though I didn’t update the very latest from the other day yet). My Sonos system has multiple zones (two are via WiFi (Roam/Move), while the other zones are ethernet.

My problem has to do with PlexAmp specifically, NOT Sonos. Plex is causing the Plex install on my Synology to crash (go into “manually stopped” even though I clearly didn’t stop it). I want to please make that very clear as it is a PlexAmp issue tied to my NAS and other NAS as exchanged in this forum. I only use PlexAmp on my iPhone or iPad (usually the iPhone). And mine seems to always happen when away from WiFi (while walking, traveling outside my WiFi, etc as reported).

Since I’ve been back from my trip and getting things back to normal, I have not had any issues. Again, based on history, PlexAmp will no doubt cause Plex to crash on my Synology as reported when I’m away from my WiFi.

[Insomnic_1]

Played PlexAmp for a few hours today and did not have a server crash.

This is the first time in the last 4 times in the last month+ of using PlexAmp on iOS that it didn’t crash within an hour or two. One playback not crashing compared to 3 crashing isn’t a trend to indicate a fix but wanted to mention it as a data point.

There is a difference this time from the last two times. My QNAP was updated from QTS 5.2.7.3256 to QTS 5.2.7.3297 (which was very incremental and mostly a security update after PWN2OWN reports I think). The first time it crashed, which I didn’t report and happened a few weeks before the crash I did first report here, I don’t know if I was on 5.2.7.3256 or not as that update came out around the same time.

Anyways, I wanted to mention it for reference particularly if your QNAP folks might be aware of something there that might be related.

[bubbascant]

I just returned from my walk and about 34-40 minutes into it, Plex stopped after the song that was playing finished. There was no music in the queue. And I was unable to do anything as the app just spun without any resolution.

I used QuickConnect on my Synology NAS and was able to log in. Plex had, indeed, stopped. I didn’t stop it. I went to package center and restarted Plex. Once it finished, I was able to select a new playlist in PlexAmp and music continued playing as it should.

At least I was able to restart Plex using Quick Connect on my NAS. During my trip to another part of the country a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t even do that.

This really needs to get fixed as it is simply a royal pain and just shouldn’t be happening.

I’m sure they’ll get it taken care of but hopefully very soon.

I am attaching my logs.

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-11-01_16-36-32.zip (3.4 MB)

[KevinGuo]

我也出现了这种问题，但是当时我没有保存日志。我最近才开始使用plex和plexamp搭建音乐库，因为个别音乐元数据存在非utf-8字符的问题搞得我很烦恼，我的plexamp歌曲列表完全不显示内容，我尝试了多次重新刮削元数据和删除新建音乐库，刚开始搜索到库内容的时候plexamp可以正常显示歌曲列表，但是当我使用一会儿后我的plex服务就崩溃了，重启服务后又正常了，但是在plexamp歌曲列表查看我所有歌曲的时候plexamp无响应了(大约3000首音乐),然后关闭plexamp重新打后就无法连接到我plex服务了，到现在也没有解决。

下次出现后我会将日志保存下来

我使用的QNAP NAS QTS5.2.7.3297

ios26 plexamp4.12.4

[nibbles]

@KevinGuo

Try to use Plex Media Server 1.42.2.10156 for now.
The newer version has some bugs.
I use Musicbrainz Picard to set the metadata for my songs.
I don’t know if Picard will use only UTF-8 for your songs, but I hope so.

As a last resort, if you think your metadata and filenames are correct,
you can enable Prefer Local Metadata and then Save Changes,
but most people do not do that.

Here is a link to https://picard.musicbrainz.org

Here is how to name files: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200265296-adding-music-media-from-folders/

Here is prefer local metadata https://support.plex.tv/articles/200381093-identifying-music-media-using-embedded-metadata/

and a picture of the checkbox

[KevinGuo]

我当前的服务版本是 Plex Media Server 1.42.2.10156
我删除了所有音乐的元数据，使用Musicbrainz Picard重新设置了元数据，然后删除现有的音乐库重新创建，现在没问题了，非常感谢你的帮助

[bubbascant]

Thanks for your replies.
I do have “Prefer local metadata” checked.
I’m on version 1.41.5.9626 so I’m actually using an older version than the 1.42.2.10156 because of problems with Plex.