unfortunately even with the latest update the problem mentioned by a lot of people here on the forum is still happening.
In my case it doesn’t seems to be linked to the library update, and regarding the configuration i didn’t changed anything recently, the PMS is running on the QNAP behind a VPN as it has always been with any issue until this update.
i would be happy to downgrade to prove that the problem is the update but unfortunately i didn’t kept a copy of the old installer. If anybody as a copy I’ll try my luck.
If you have any other suggestion feel free to contribute, this issue is driving me crazy
Hi Tibierius, thanks for your feedback.
Why you say going forward? Something has changed recently?
It’s true that now if I deactivate the VPN for the NAS everything seems working again (strange though I tested this before and wasn’t working).
I’m using ExpressVPN router app, so I can forward from the router the port Plex is set to use but I still cannot access it outside the VPN (which again is strange because in the past I was able to do it and now I’m not able anymore). Anyway I guess the reason is that ExpressVPN doesn’t allow port forwarding from their end if I’m not mistaken.
Also by “have the VPN endpoint port forward the Plex Port” you mean port forward at router level or something else? I didn’t get it completely sorry.
Plex creates a dynamic cert pointing to your internet endpoint, normally this is your router. When you introduce the VPN it changes to a new ip at the VPN endpoint which you may or may not be able to port forward (like you do on the router) Plex.
They have a pending back end change to relax the tls negotiation that may help you but the better choices are to use a VPN that can port forward or split dns for Plex to bypass the VPN at the router.
Thanks again Tibierius.
Unfortunately I cannot change the VPN provider neither making the entire NAS running without VPN. Mainly due to the country i live in right now (very few VPN works well here).
I don’t mind running Plex without VPN, but I don’t know if there is a way to exclude only Plex from the VPN (considering that the VPN is at router level). With the split tunneling I can only choose which device is behind the VPN but not which application/service (as far as I know).
Also I noted something, yesterday after i turned off the VPN and then turned it on again the server was accesible from the outside for the whole day (meaning that from the Plex App in iOS connected via LTE i was able to access and stream movies without issue. Then during the night the NAS rebooted and today I’m not able to access it again from the outside, (but transcoding is apparently working fine). So I did they same trick again (VPN off and on) and now is accessible again.
Any explanation why?
Because it seems like once the connection is established at least once, then the issues are gone.
thanks a lot for your reply. Actually i think the issue I’m referring to is this one (i was trying to play “The Circle” movie):
May 06, 2020 10:36:52.806 [0x7f43aee1c700] ERROR - Codecs: Download failed: Failed to download 'https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/99c90e0-3095/linux-x86_64-standard/libmpeg4_decoder.so': 408
May 06, 2020 10:36:52.859 [0x7f43aee1c700] ERROR - Error configuring transcoder: Decoder install failed: mpeg4
May 06, 2020 10:36:53.005 [0x7f4363735700] ERROR - Unknown metadata type: folder
To be honest i don’t know what iHD driver is and why i should need it. The point here for me is that I’m trying to play again a movie which i played back in the past with no issue. I’ve been behind VPN since more than a year now, and i had no issue playing locally all my media (excluding 4K transcoding that cannot be handled properly by my CPU).
Since the update I’m getting these errors related to codec that i don’t understand.
Also if connect with my browser to that link, download and place the codec in right Plex Library folder the playback works perfectly.
So my very basic understanding is that my PMS is not able to connect and download the right codec by itself.
Please let me know if i can provide any additional info.
The verbose logging mode was a mistake i reverted back to the normal now.
You’re right. PMS couldn’t download the requested codec in the time allotted.
What’s more concerning is the throttled response (429) upon first request.
ay 05, 2020 23:02:26.556 [0x7f432f735700] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'mpeg4'
May 05, 2020 23:02:26.556 [0x7f432f735700] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/mpeg4_decoder?build=linux-x86_64-standard&deviceId=2fef5625-70da-4ecb-b861-227bdb8e15a4&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2E5%2E3%2E3580-4b377d295&version=99c90e0-3095
May 05, 2020 23:02:27.295 [0x7f432f735700] DEBUG - HTTP 429 response from GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/mpeg4_decoder?build=linux-x86_64-standard&deviceId=2fef5625-70da-4ecb-b861-227bdb8e15a4&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2E5%2E3%2E3580-4b377d295&version=99c90e0-3095
May 05, 2020 23:02:27.296 [0x7f432f735700] ERROR - Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec 'mpeg4_decoder'
May 05, 2020 23:02:27.296 [0x7f432f735700] DEBUG - Codecs: testing mpeg4 (decoder) with hwdevice vaapi
May 05, 2020 23:02:27.296 [0x7f432f735700] WARN - Failed to find decoder 'mpeg4'
May 05, 2020 23:02:27.296 [0x7f432f735700] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'mpeg4'
May 05, 2020 23:02:27.297 [0x7f432f735700] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/mpeg4_decoder?build=linux-x86_64-standard&deviceId=2fef5625-70da-4ecb-b861-227bdb8e15a4&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2E5%2E3%2E3580-4b377d295&version=99c90e0-3095
May 05, 2020 23:02:28.037 [0x7f432f735700] DEBUG - HTTP 429 response from GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/mpeg4_decoder?build=linux-x86_64-standard&deviceId=2fef5625-70da-4ecb-b861-227bdb8e15a4&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2E5%2E3%2E3580-4b377d295&version=99c90e0-3095
May 05, 2020 23:02:28.038 [0x7f432f735700] ERROR - Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec 'mpeg4_decoder'
May 05, 2020 23:02:28.038 [0x7f432f735700] DEBUG - Codecs: testing mpeg4 (decoder) with hwdevice nvdec
May 05, 2020 23:02:28.038 [0x7f432f735700] WARN - Failed to find decoder 'mpeg4'
I’ve asked both the plex.tv and operations teams for feedback as to why it’s impacting only you. We’ll see what the reply is.
I’m having a very crazy few days here. If I forget to reply back, PLEASE ping me?
Actually yes, I tried also to install the latest update (1.19.2764) but no luck.
I tried again to download the codec manually and put it in the codec folder and the movie played just fine. Same thing if I switch off VPN, everything works.
There’s been no way to explain what’s happened so I’d like to flush all the codecs and make it start fresh.
Do you have PMSLibShare (from Dane22) installed?
If not, please install it from: Github - ukdtom - PMSLibShare
We’re going to take out the codecs and make it reinstall.
For the purpose of obtain the codecs, you might just need to turn off that VPN although there is no logical reason for it to be interfering.
To remove the installed codecs:
Stop PMS
with PMSLibShare installed
Navigate in File Station to the PMSLib share, drill into Library/Plex Media Server/Codecs
Delete all you see in Codecs
Restart PMS
Now start playing back one of each different codec type so it will download.
