PMS reports error "Error while decoding stream #0:1: No space left on device"

Plex Media Server
,
1

Server Version#: 1.41.7.9823
Player Version#: 4.146.0
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

I know this symptom should have been fixed a couple years ago but I have encountered it.

This is what I know so far.

PMS has logged the following errors:

$ cat Plex Media Server.log
May 26, 2025 01:48:50.304 [128616471718712] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.41.7.9823-59f304c16 - Docker Docker Container x86_64 - build: linux-x86_64 debian - GMT 00:00
May 26, 2025 01:48:50.304 [128616471718712] INFO - Linux version: 6.8.0-60-generic, language: en-US
May 26, 2025 01:48:50.304 [128616471718712] INFO - Processor: 16-core 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1340P
May 26, 2025 01:48:50.304 [128616471718712] INFO - Compiler is - Clang 11.0.1 (https://plex.tv 9b997da8e5b47bdb4a9425b3a3b290be393b4b1f)
May 26, 2025 01:48:50.304 [128616471718712] INFO - /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server
May 26, 2025 01:48:50.303 [128616304622392] ERROR - [Req#931868/Transcode/60250b43-a367-4ef3-a0bb-ba5d990102db/fe8190be-1cd9-46ed-bdcc-097491f3cbd3] Error while decoding stream #0:1: No space left on device
May 26, 2025 01:48:50.303 [128616302512952] ERROR - [Req#931869/Transcode/60250b43-a367-4ef3-a0bb-ba5d990102db/fe8190be-1cd9-46ed-bdcc-097491f3cbd3] Error while decoding stream #0:1: No space left on device

...

May 26, 2025 01:49:01.315 [128616298294072] ERROR - [Req#93b626/Transcode/60250b43-a367-4ef3-a0bb-ba5d990102db/fe8190be-1cd9-46ed-bdcc-097491f3cbd3] Error while decoding stream #0:1: No space left on device
May 26, 2025 01:49:01.315 [128616300403512] ERROR - [Req#93b627/Transcode/60250b43-a367-4ef3-a0bb-ba5d990102db/fe8190be-1cd9-46ed-bdcc-097491f3cbd3] Error while decoding stream #0:1: No space left on device
May 26, 2025 01:49:01.317 [128616302512952] ERROR - [Req#93b628/Transcode/60250b43-a367-4ef3-a0bb-ba5d990102db/fe8190be-1cd9-46ed-bdcc-097491f3cbd3] [truehd_eae @ 0x7ce4801a9580] error reading output: -1313558101 (Unknown error occurred)
May 26, 2025 01:49:01.317 [128616304622392] ERROR - [Req#93b629/Transcode/60250b43-a367-4ef3-a0bb-ba5d990102db/fe8190be-1cd9-46ed-bdcc-097491f3cbd3] Error while decoding stream #0:1: Unknown error occurred
May 26, 2025 01:49:01.321 [128616296184632] ERROR - [Req#93b62a/Transcode/60250b43-a367-4ef3-a0bb-ba5d990102db/fe8190be-1cd9-46ed-bdcc-097491f3cbd3] [truehd_eae @ 0x7ce4801a9580] error reading output: -1313558101 (Unknown error occurred)
May 26, 2025 01:49:01.321 [128616356105016] ERROR - [Req#93b62b/Transcode/60250b43-a367-4ef3-a0bb-ba5d990102db/fe8190be-1cd9-46ed-bdcc-097491f3cbd3] Error while decoding stream #0:1: Unknown error occurred
May 26, 2025 01:49:01.331 [128616419965752] ERROR - Failed to transcode file (69): /mnt/media/TV_Shows/Anime/Doraemon (1973) (1973) {tvdb-75141}/Specials/Doraemon - S00E24.HDTV-1080p - Movie 24- Nobita and the Windmasters [x264.MLP.FBA[JA+Chinese].[Chinese+JA]].mkv
May 26, 2025 01:52:43.799 [128616356105016] INFO - [Req#93bcf3] AutoUpdate: no updates available

The compose.yaml:

$ cat compose.yaml
---
include:
  - ./volumes.yaml

services:
  plex:
    image: "plexinc/pms-docker:beta"

    container_name: plex
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 4G
    hostname: NUC13
    devices:
      - "/dev/dri:/dev/dri"
      - /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb # to silence the error "Critical: libusb_init failed"
    environment:
      - PLEX_UID=2001
      - PLEX_GID=2001
      - TZ="Europe/London"
      - PLEX_CLAIM="[REDACTED]"
      - 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8'
      - ADVERTISE_IP=[REDACTED],http://10.27.0.50:32400
    tmpfs:
      - /transcode:mode=777,uid=2001,gid=2001
    volumes:
      - "./config:/config:rw"
      - "/home/janus/server_certs/ng.home:/certs:ro"
      - type: volume
        source: private
        target: /mnt/private
      - type: volume
        source: backup
        target: /mnt/backup
        volume:
          subpath: backup
      - type: volume
        source: media_Movies
        target: /mnt/media/Movies
      - type: volume
        source: media_Movies_4K
        target: /mnt/media/Movies_4K
      - type: volume
        source: media_Music
        target: /mnt/media/Music
      - type: volume
        source: media_Music_Videos
        target: /mnt/media/Music_Videos
      - type: volume
        source: media_TV_Shows
        target: /mnt/media/TV_Shows
      - type: volume
        source: media_Videos
        target: /mnt/media/Videos
    ports:
      - 32400:32400/tcp
      - 8324:8324/tcp
      - 32469:32469/tcp
      - 32410:32410/udp
      - 32412:32412/udp
      - 32413:32413/udp
      - 32414:32414/udp
    restart: unless-stopped
    labels:
      - "com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.enable=false"

The /transcode directory has ample space and PMS has full access to it:

$ sudo docker exec -it -u 2001:2001 plex bash
$ df -h /transcode/
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs            16G     0   16G   0% /transcode
$ ls -lhd /transcode/
drwxrwxrwx 3 plex plex 60 May 26 13:00 /transcode/

Hardware: Intel NUC13 Core i5 1340P
Memory: 32GB
OS:

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
Release:	24.04
Codename:	noble

Transcoding TrueHD audio does not produce the error but the transcoded video skips 5 seconds after played every 3 seconds while playing on Chrome for Mac Version 136.0.7103.114 (Official Build) (arm64) The same file plays fine on Plex for Google TV with audio transcoding.

2

I read around here that under some circumstances, the transcode directory may need enough space to hold the entire original file. Is the file bigger than the space available?

3

Thanks for the pointer. That might explain it.

As shown above, the tmpfs is currently listed as 16GB available. There are a few media that are bigger than 16GB.

I have played a few videos with forced transcoding but the error No space left on device did not appear.

Let me do more research.