Remote video play in browser works, android app and TVs fail

Plex Media Server Remote Access
, ,
1

Server Version#: 1.19.5.3035
Player Version#: (any android device or smart TV fails)

I have a netgate router running pfsense w/ letsencrypt configured an handling all encryption for my external connections. Been up and running like this for years. The same pfsense includes HaProxy package to reverse proxy to all of my downstream unraid containers. ex: plex.mydomain.com

I have been using cloudfare proxy with plex successfully for about a year:

https://selfhosters.net/docker/plex/cloudflare/

I just noticed today that remote play of video via any kind of android device is not working from my server but they work fine from my friends with the same version. I can play audio and browse files remotely using the android app or remote shield or roku but when I attempt to play video I get:

“An error occurred when attempting to play this video”.

All worked fine as of a week ago.

I don’t want to vomit an entire log here so I am hoping this sounds familiar to one of the posters and you can point me in the right direction to troubleshoot or investigate. Why would web browsers be able to play remotely without any issues but the plex apps on android and set top boxes fail? Any clues?

ul 12, 2020 21:56:34.619 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Scaled up video bitrate to 5836Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.619 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Scaled maximum bitrate for resolution reduction to 820Kbps.
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mkv
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: analyzing media item 166
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Descendants 2 (2017): Direct Play is disabled
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Descendants 2 (2017): media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Descendants 2 (2017): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Descendants 2 (2017): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/eac3
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Descendants 2 - video.profile limitation applies: high != baseline [list]
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Descendants 2 - audio.channels limitation applies: 6 > 2
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Descendants 2 - video.profile limitation applies: high != baseline [list]
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.621 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Descendants 2 (2017): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.622 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Descendants 2 - video.profile limitation applies: high != baseline [list]
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.622 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.622 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Scaled up video bitrate to 5836Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.622 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Scaled maximum bitrate for resolution reduction to 820Kbps.
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.624 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Descendants 2 - audio.channels limitation applies: 6 > 2
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.624 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.625 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — MDE: Descendants 2 (2017): selected media 0 / 166
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.625 [0x14e4c0ad4700] Debug — Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=118 codes=(General=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK. Direct Play=3000,App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled. Transcode=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK.) media=(id=166 part=(id=166 decision=transcode container=mkv protocol=hls streams=(Video=(id=12231 decision=transcode bitrate=553 encoder=libx264 width=480 height=270) Audio=(id=12232 decision=transcode bitrate=125 encoder=aac channels=2 rate=48000))))
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:34.626 [0x14e4c0cd5700] Debug — Completed: [192.168.1.1:49188] 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/decision?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=0&directPlay=0&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&hasMDE=1&location=cellular&maxVideoBitrate=720&mediaBufferSize=74944&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F118&peakBitrate=720&protocol=*&session=1bafe193e9e4bbe6-com-plexapp-android&subtitleSize=100&videoBitrate=720&videoQuality=60&videoResolution=3840x2160 (21 live) GZIP 33ms 2885 bytes (pipelined: 1)
Jul 12, 2020 21:56:45.410 [0x14e4c0ed6700] Debug — Using X-Forwarded-For: 174.243.113.26 as remote address

1 Like
2

pfsense updated to 2.4.5p1
Did the update apply on yours as well?

Proper debugging cannot be performed from snippets. A full ZIP is required which captures the playback attempt is required.

The above snippet looks entirely normal.

3

Hi,

Thanks a lot for posting this. I’m facing the same issue and it’s also just started about a week ago!!!

What server are you running?

My server is running on a Mac Mini and I thought it might be the reson for the problems that it might have decided to not respond to Android?! =D

Anyway just to state my situation as follows:

  • Plex server running on Mac Mini updated to the latest version - been running like that for years - was fully accessible remotely until a week ago and I didn’t change anything

  • Server fully accessible and running from any clinet on local network

  • However remotely accessing clients running any Android app version are not getting the stream. I haven’t found any error logs on the server - it seems to handshake and begin streeming however nothing happens on Android client side. It just spins and waits forever - not even an error message.

  • This problem is the same with Android Tvs as well as phones. I tried from my Android phone accessing remotely through the browser and it works fine (!?) but the Plex app on the same device doesn’t work!?

  • There doesn’t seem to be a problem with other devices. Apple TV works, Iphone client works, Samsung TV that have their own (not Android) app also work

Is there any way to debug this? I would be grateful if someone can tell me how to do this?

Thanks!

4

Pfsense Version:
2.4.5-RELEASE-p1 (amd64)
built on Tue Jun 02 17:51:17 EDT 2020
FreeBSD 11.3-STABLE
The system is on the latest version.
Version information updated at Mon Jul 13 8:13:23 CDT 2020

My server is Linux based: linuxserverio container Server Version#: 1.19.5.3035

Can I PM you the logs direct?

5

I am attempting to PM you my logs but it says I am not allowed to PM that user.

I also found this in the log file:
Note (192.168.1.224) is a unifi gateway. it may be unrelated.

Jul 13, 2020 08:31:12.179 [0x14f5853e9700] Debug — MyPlex: updating with 34 access tokens
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:12.183 [0x14f4ed3e9700] Debug — HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/media/providers?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:12.704 [0x14f4ed3e9700] Debug — HTTP 200 response from GET https://plex.tv/media/providers?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:12.705 [0x14f4ed3e9700] Debug — HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/media/providers?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.204 [0x14f5865f2700] Debug — NetworkServiceBrowser: Parsing SSDP schema for http://192.168.1.224:49153/upnpdevicedesc.xml
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.205 [0x14f5865f2700] Debug — HTTP requesting GET http://192.168.1.224:49153/upnpdevicedesc.xml
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Debug — HTTP 200 response from GET http://192.168.1.224:49153/upnpdevicedesc.xml
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — XML: Entity: line 1:
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — XML: parser
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — XML: error :
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — XML: Unsupported encoding gbk
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — XML: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="gbk"?>
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — XML: ^
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — Error parsing content.
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — Error parsing XML: Error parsing file.
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.208 [0x14f5865f2700] Error — SSDP: Error parsing device schema for http://192.168.1.224:49153/upnpdevicedesc.xml
Jul 13, 2020 08:31:13.419 [0x14f4ed3e9700] Debug — HTTP 200 response from GET https://plex.tv/media/providers?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

6

Have you tried the old player in the Android clients?

7

I don’t believe that is an option any more in the latest version.

8

What version are you using?
The Android ExoPlayer is buggy…

9

google play store keeps all of the android devices up to date. So it is the current one as of today 8.3.0.18912 (14279def).

I don’t see an option to use the old player. The only options the client devices have is to select an external player and that shouldn’t be necessary.

If you know where the option is to select the old player in the latest client app can you send a path or screenshot? I don’t think that workaround is valid anymore.

10

Me too using the latest Android apps updated automatically through play store on Samsung S8 and Sony Android TV of 2019. I’m now trying to install Android app on an old Android TV that should be an older generation app so I’ll let you know if it works there.

11

On a Fire Stick 4k

Version 8.3.0.18867

Plex settings
Advanced . . . . . . . Enable new player (ExoPlayer) if on . . . . . . . . . . off for the old player

Version 8.3.0.18912
same as above…

12

Screenshot_20200713-092755
Screenshot_20200713-092755500Ă—1000 31.7 KB

Again, I don’t believe the newest version of the Android client supports that option anymore.

I think we need to drill down to find what issue the player is having. It plays fine on the local network and it plays fine both remote and local 8n the browser. Had to be some clue there.

13

Agree.

Can you please tell me how do you get the full zip archive of the server log?

14

Open plex in a browser, login, goto the settings (wrench icon),
Manage->Troubleshooting->Download Logs

15

Great, thanks! :+1:

16

InkedIMG_6584_LI
InkedIMG_6584_LI816Ă—612 130 KB

17

This option is not available to all of the latest versions of the anrdoid app. So if you have a single TV that still has the option, great, but what is the actual issue? How do we solve it for the latest versions of the app which will be what the majority of the clients using these servers will have.

18

Please see the attached. Looking forward to hearing what you see. I’d like to dig further but not sure where to start.Plex Media Server.log (6.4 MB)

19

So this does seem to be related to Linux based servers and Android clients? Can you let us know if rolling the server back would help?

Was there a server update about a week ago?

20

That is interesting. I run it as a linuxserverio docker and you can specify the version. I manage a friends plex and his is a lower version ( 1.19.4.2935). I just rolled back to 1.19.4.2935 and I see the same issue. I am going to do some restarts to double check.