Remote connections buffering for any media over 30mbps. Local connections run totally fine

Plex Media Server Remote Access
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1

Server Version#: 1.42.1.10060
Player Version#: Windows Client v 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

I have been having this issue since the beginning of July and I haven’t been able to resolve it after weeks of trying.

I am running PMS on Windows 11 on an Intel NUC11PAHi7 and my media is all hosted on a Synology NAS DS1817+.

WAN connection to my LAN is 2gbps downlink and 1gbps uplink. I am running Unifi Dream Machine Pro as my main router and I have a 48 port gigabit network switch connected to my UDM Pro over 10gb SFP+ backhaul connection. My NAS is also connected with SFP+ 2.5gbps connection to the second SFP+ port on the UDM Pro.

I noticed that from the beginning of July all of my remote users are getting constant buffering when they play any media that has a higher bitrate then about 30Mbps. All of my users are always only ever on original quality when playing and I have removed any limits on bandwidth in PMS. I have even made sure that the UDM Pro has a special rule to allow full bandwidth connectivity to both the NAS and the PMS Intel NUC.

When I am playing media locally I am able to play full 4k Remux media files without problems at all. My most bandwidth heavy movie file is at over 100mbps and it plays without issues locally within my LAN to my nvidia shield pro players and my windows Plex desktop client apps.

I have also run iPerf3 tests on my connection remotely direct to the PMS Intel NUC and I am able to get about 300mbps from my office PC connection. I believe the 300mbps limit is due to the wifi limitation in my office network. Which I have independantly tested with speedtests on speedtest.net.

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I have also taken the PMS logs and run it through Gemini Advanced because I don’t know what to look for in the logs themselves. Gemini was able to identify that there was a connection error when media is playing. The info from Gemini Advanced is below:

I’ve analyzed the log snippet you provided. The entries reveal a clear sequence of events for a remote user trying to play the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The key issue is visible in multiple error messages.

## Key Findings from the Log

  1. Direct Play is Approved: Your server correctly analyzes the file and the client’s capabilities. It determines the best course of action is Direct Play, which is exactly what you want. You can see this here:

    DEBUG - [Req#221d4/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=41804 codes=(MDE=1000,Direct play OK.)

    This confirms your settings are correct for allowing original quality playback.

  2. The Connection is Forcibly Closed: This is the “smoking gun.” Immediately after the server starts sending the movie file, the connection breaks. This happens repeatedly within seconds. The error code 10054 is a standard Windows networking error that means the connection was forcibly terminated by the other party.

    DEBUG - Failed to stream media, client probably disconnected after 638976 bytes: 10054 - An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

    You see this specific error message three times in a row, which is what causes the severe buffering. The client plays a few seconds of video, the connection drops, it reconnects, plays a few more seconds, and the cycle repeats.

  3. No Bandwidth Limit Warning: Unlike the previous logs we discussed, this snippet does not contain the WARN - Streaming Resource: Bandwidth limit exceeded message. This indicates the issue here is not a Plex-specific bandwidth setting.

I have also noticed that in my PLEX bandwidth useage over the last year that my usual usage has dropped significantly.

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This tallies with when I started having this issue.

I have been trying everything and I can’t find where the issue is. I have also attached the server logs to this post.

Any help would be extremely helpful and appreciated.

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-08-22_12-14-50.zip (4.0 MB)

1 Like
2

I hope this isn’t against any rules of the forum but I just wanted to bump my own topic for visibility purposes and hopefully get some help from anyone that might have had similar issues.

I am going to try and roll my PMS back to a version before the beginning of July and hopefully that will narrow the issue down to one of the recent updates.

3

Does anyone know if there is any way to get the attention of a Plex Moderator or someone on the Plex Support team?

I have now tried multiple troubleshooting routes and I am still nowhere closer to a solution.

I have recently restored an older database to see if that would fix things but unfortunately the back ups I have don’t go as far back as before I started having the issue.

I have also tried rolling back the PMS version to Public release Version 1.41.8.9834 which was the oldest I could find but that was release on June 11th and I believe the issues I had started before that. Does anyone know where I can get access to 1.41.7.9823?

I have also tried to reinstall the latest PMS onto a different PC on my network and only added one high bitrate movie to a brand new library and the same issue was still happening.

I am completely at my wits ends and I am no closer to fixing the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

4

There are plenty of these thread where people don’t have their networking setup correctly or put nginx/reverse proxies in front of Plex so it gets repetitive to point you to the https://support.plex.tv/articles/206225077-how-to-use-secure-server-connections/

Version hopping/rollbacks aren’t going to fix this.

Test your dns.

On the server in a cmd window, show the output of:

nslookup plex.tv
and
curl http://v4.plex.tv

Figure out how to allow plex to rebind the local ip address to *.plex.direct. Came across this don’t know if it will work.

mkdir -p /usr/lib/unifi/data/sites/default/
chdir /usr/lib/unifi/data/sites/default/
set service dns forwarding options rebind-domain-ok=/plex.direct/

Video isn’t being detected properly, suggest downloading the driver straight from Intel and installing.

5

You were probably just testing but never set any path in Plex to the root, i.e. T:\ , bad things can happen.

6

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I do appreciate it. I will give some of your suggestions a try but I don’t have reverse proxy or nginx setup. I know I shouldn’t but I have always just port forwarded to the PMS on the router.

Let me see if anything you suggest can fix my issue. Thank you again.

7

Hey, I’m in kinda the same situation, I upgraded my hardware and since then, buffering is extremely common (to the point that its unwatchable), my ups/downs are very good and cpu usage is near 5% all the time (due to hardware acceleration via Nvidia), 720p or low bitrate stuff works fine. I for one dont get the logs OP mentioned.

Figure out how to allow plex to rebind the local ip address to *.plex.direct. Came across this don’t know if it will work.

What do you mean here exactly? I’m not using unifi, is this something related to that kind of setup only?

Sorry for bumping in, thanks.

8

@cosminperram

DNS-Rebinding protection is in or should be in all Routers, you need to create an exception for the plex.direct domain so that Plex can properly bind it’s cert to your server.

You didn’t detail what network equipment but in general Plex does not work well with Jumbo Frames.