PMS transcoding h264 broken on DS920+

InvicTech · February 18, 2025, 9:00am

Yeah, same problem here, just updated my Plex container on Unraid to the latest version and now I cannot transcode anymore…

How has this issue still not been addressed?

InvicTech · February 18, 2025, 9:09am

For anyone else trying to make it work. I manually downloaded all the linux_x86_64 codecs and then put them in the folder “Codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e-linux-x86_64”. Seems to have done the trick…

aaw8 · February 18, 2025, 9:11am

Im still facing the issue as well, which only started when i updated to 1.41.4.9463. Using DS920 and docker.

EDIT: this was after renaming the codec folder to .old and restarting plex etc

Error log:

Feb 18, 2025 20:10:17.088 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#268/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:17.372 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#268/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:17.658 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#268/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:17.942 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#268/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:18.885 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#290/Transcode/bef302ff3c1e257c-com-plexapp-android] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:18.885 [140130140236600] Error — [Req#290/Transcode/bef302ff3c1e257c-com-plexapp-android] Error configuring transcoder: Decoder install failed: hevc
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:27.834 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#2a3/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:28.120 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#2a3/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:28.406 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#2a3/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:28.695 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#2a3/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:28.981 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#2a3/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:29.267 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#2a3/Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:30.203 [140130138127160] Error — [Req#2cf/Transcode/bef302ff3c1e257c-com-plexapp-android] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘hevc_decoder’
Feb 18, 2025 20:10:30.203 [140130140236600] Error — [Req#2cf/Transcode/bef302ff3c1e257c-com-plexapp-android] Error configuring transcoder: Decoder install failed: hevc

teeohdoor13 · February 18, 2025, 9:29am

This is working for me so far

wesley_fletcher · February 18, 2025, 9:40am

This worked for me too! Thanks InvicTech. Tested a handful of transcodes using different codecs and they all seem to work now

Montana552 · February 18, 2025, 10:05am

Just upgraded and am now running into this issue, followed all the steps from plex, tried both deleting and renaming and the same issue persists. Now getting SHA error. Running on ubuntu.

Epic001 · February 18, 2025, 10:26am

Same problem here.

E87131 · February 18, 2025, 11:03am

Confirmation for this working on Ubuntu or, in my case, running Plex as an LXC container on Proxmox.

Tried to write down what I did as a workaround:

Go to your proxmox webinterface
Click on your node > Shell
pct enter <id of your plex container> Enter the LXC container
cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e-linux-x86_64/ Navigate to the path of the codecs. Not sure if the last folder name is different for you, if so, navigate to Codecs and use ls then cd <name of the folder> to navigate to the last folder
Download all of the codecs with the URLs provided by InvicTech (can be done as one command with && like this:
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libaac_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libaac_encoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libac3_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libac3_encoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libdca_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libh264_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libhevc_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/liblibx264_encoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libmp2_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libmp3_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libmpeg2video_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libmpeg4_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libmsmpeg4v3_decoder.so && wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libvp9_decoder.so
chown -R plex:plex . Sets owner and group to plex
chmod -R 644 . Sets permissions to User:read+write, Group:read, read
exit Exit the LXC container
pct reboot <id of your plex container> Reboot the container

bindiboi · February 18, 2025, 12:57pm

Still broken on Plex HTPC (Flatpak latest, 1.70.1.303-5bbf114f). Using the same “problematic”(?) hashed directory ~/.var/app/tv.plex.PlexHTPC/data/plex/Plex Media Server/Codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e-ubuntu-x86_64/, missing libhevc_decoder.so and libh264_decoder.so. Removing said directory and restarting does not help.

energylegs · February 18, 2025, 1:01pm

On Windows 10 with the latest PMS update. I can confirm this is still broken. I’ve tried the codec folder fix and rolled it back to a previous update. Neither resolved the issue.

Pucur · February 18, 2025, 1:52pm

For fellow raspberry pi users:

wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libaac_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libaac_encoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libac3_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libac3_encoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libdca_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libh264_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libhevc_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/liblibx264_encoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libmp2_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libmp3_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libmpeg2video_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libmpeg4_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libmsmpeg4v3_decoder.so
wget https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-aarch64-standard/libvp9_decoder.so

This is fixed my playback issues!

BadTripProduction · February 18, 2025, 2:20pm

I just updated to the latest version and now getting
ERROR - Codecs: Download failed: Failed to verify SHA1sum of codec!
Feb 18, 2025 15:04:47.906 [1964] WARN - Codecs: Failed to download aac decoder; bailing out

I have tried a few times with deleting codec folder with a backup.
and let it create new one, though it seems like it never download EAE and i need to manually copy them over from my backup.

Anyway this is annoying.

Any fix on the horizon?
Works from Android phone though, but not pms locally in the webbroswer nor on my PS.

Plex Media Server.log (235.6 KB)

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-02-18_15-12-15.zip (563.0 KB)

BadTripProduction · February 18, 2025, 3:19pm

Okay i fixed it, i deleted only the hashed folder with all the dll files, and replaced it with the hashed file in this zip. Can be found in the link: Playback Error after recent Plex Media Server update

Luinnar · February 18, 2025, 4:29pm

Hi @ChuckPa @Atomatth

I’m afraid I’ve just updated Plex and am running into this same issue. I’ve stopped PMS, renamed the codec folder, and restarted, but still getting the error when trying to play a film.

The key bits from the log appear to be related to SHA1sum error:

Feb 18, 2025 16:23:23.827 [140364421733176] INFO - [Req#3bc/Transcode] CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'h264'
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:23.827 [140364421733176] DEBUG - [Req#3bc/Transcode/HCl#87] HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/h264_decoder?build=linux-x86_64-standard&deviceId=ad021c5f-4f6e-4595-be93-7dc9250a17a6&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2E16%2E0%2E1226-7eb2c8f6f&version=e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:23.930 [140364419599160] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#87] HTTP/1.1 (0.1s) 200 response from GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/h264_decoder?build=linux-x86_64-standard&deviceId=ad021c5f-4f6e-4595-be93-7dc9250a17a6&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2E16%2E0%2E1226-7eb2c8f6f&version=e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:23.931 [140364370344760] DEBUG - [Req#3bc/Transcode/GetFile/HCl#88] HTTP requesting GET https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libh264_decoder.so
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:24.028 [140364419599160] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#88] HTTP/2.0 (0.1s) 200 response from GET https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libh264_decoder.so
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:24.091 [140364370344760] ERROR - [Req#3bc/Transcode] Codecs: Download failed: Failed to verify SHA1sum of codec!
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:24.091 [140364421733176] ERROR - [Req#3bc/Transcode] Error configuring transcoder: Decoder install failed: h264
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:24.091 [140364421733176] DEBUG - [Req#3bc/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Terminating session 0x7fa92324d2f8:tnj09sqwooayukiwp3zbvhh5 which is using transcoder slot.  Used slots is now 0
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:24.091 [140364421733176] DEBUG - [Req#3bc/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x7fa92324d2f8:tnj09sqwooayukiwp3zbvhh5 with reason Conversion failed. A required codec could not be found or failed to install.
Feb 18, 2025 16:23:24.091 [140364411095864] DEBUG - [Req#3bc/Transcode] Killing job.

Edit: Shasum checks exist for a reason, so I’m not keen to manually download these as a few others have suggested.

Atomatth · February 18, 2025, 5:01pm

If you are still observing issues can you please enable Debug logging and share you entire PMS logs, not just snippets.

If you see a 429 response message in your logs when attempting to download codecs, this means that you’re spamming this call and our backend is temporarily blocking these requests. The only way to get around this is to wait. I do not know the exact time that you’ll need to wait but stopping PMS and waiting some amount of time (10-60 minutes) should be sufficient.

Luinnar · February 18, 2025, 5:11pm

Thanks for the reply.

Tried again and still getting the error, so have attached the log.

Plex Media Server.log (220.1 KB)

wzyss · February 18, 2025, 5:21pm

I experienced this 429 issue right after I updated PMS on my Ubuntu system. However to be fair, I didn’t get the original logs that might have caused this issue before restarting multiple times.

I’ve shut down PMS and will wait ~60 minutes before attempting again. If I still receive this 429 error, I’ll post my logs along with my next response.

nixr1 · February 18, 2025, 5:45pm

Hi folks,

As Luinnar pointed out above @ChuckPa @Atomatth

I am also seeing the same:

> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.339 [140274040511288] DEBUG - [Req#98/Transcode] Starting a transcode session mzd4vulu3dif2lubfg27189n at offset -1.0 (state=3)
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.365 [140274040511288] INFO - [Req#98/Transcode] CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'hevc'
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.366 [140274040511288] DEBUG - [Req#98/Transcode/HCl#3e] HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/hevc_decoder?build=linux-x86_64-standard&deviceId=ad94a96b-22e0-41ac-a201-d8dc98d6b6e5&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2$
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.513 [140274075228984] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#3e] HTTP/1.1 (0.1s) 200 response from GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/hevc_decoder?build=linux-x86_64-standard&deviceId=ad94a96b-22e0-41ac-a201-d8dc98d6b6e5&oldestPreviou$
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.514 [140273958882104] DEBUG - [Req#98/Transcode/GetFile/HCl#3f] HTTP requesting GET https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libhevc_decoder.so
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.585 [140274075228984] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#3f] HTTP/2.0 (0.1s) 200 response from GET https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/e613bce-97f23d579c1001d8e9cc0d2e/linux-x86_64-standard/libhevc_decoder.so
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.630 [140273958882104] ERROR - [Req#98/Transcode] Codecs: Download failed: Failed to verify SHA1sum of codec!
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.630 [140274040511288] ERROR - [Req#98/Transcode] Error configuring transcoder: Decoder install failed: hevc
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.630 [140274040511288] DEBUG - [Req#98/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Terminating session 0x7f941a2eb508:5qj83ytms8co9mgdg3abl09p which is using 712kbps of WAN bandwidth.  Used is now 0kbps
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.630 [140274040511288] DEBUG - [Req#98/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Terminating session 0x7f941a2eb508:5qj83ytms8co9mgdg3abl09p which is using transcoder slot.  Used slots is now 0
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.630 [140274040511288] DEBUG - [Req#98/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x7f941a2eb508:5qj83ytms8co9mgdg3abl09p with reason Conversion failed. A required codec could not be found or failed to install.
> Feb 18, 2025 17:35:42.630 [140274070977336] DEBUG - [Req#98/Transcode] Killing job.

Have followed all posted steps so far.

cheers.

sarrius · February 18, 2025, 7:07pm

Tried all of the above troubleshooting on my Synology DS920+ using Plex Media Server package 1.41.4.9463-72009463. No change.

Still seeing the “Playback Error: Conversion failed. A required codec could not be found or failed to install.” message.

Attaching logs.
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-02-19_05-57-00.zip (5.2 MB)

Only appears to affect HEVC/EAC3 encoded files.

Atomatth · February 18, 2025, 7:19pm

Linking another thread around the same issue: A required codec could not be found or failed to install. There are some manual steps included in the thread above and post above in this very thread.

Looks like we are encountering a similar issue we saw late Friday night. Our build and backend teams are investigating and working on a solution. I’ll try to provide updates when I can. Thank you for your patience and sorry for the frustration.

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A required codec could not be found or failed to install Desktops & Laptops server-windows	93	6281	August 25, 2025
Conversion failed. A required codec could not be found or failed to install. [Resolved] General Discussions	10	518	January 7, 2020
PMS v1.19.2.2673 will not play transcoded on Web browser and receiving playback transcode errors on other platforms Desktops & Laptops server-linux	10	286	July 22, 2020
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PMS transcoding h264 broken on DS920+

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