Roku Player Struggling to show libaries and playing content

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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Server Version#: 1.41.3.9232
Player Version#: 7.26.14.9611

Hi

I’m having issues with a 3940EU Roku Express 4k, connected via WiFi to an i5 based Plex server running Linux. The Plex Linux box is connected via wired ethernet to the same switch the AP the Roku uses is connected to. The AP is near the Roku and the Roku connects on 5GHz with an excellent signal. If I use a laptop, connected via wifi, in the same location a the Roku Plex works fine. The Plex server supports hardware encoding and rarely, if ever, gets a load average above 0.4. The Linux box has 24GB of RAM and has lots of free disk space on its NVME boot drive. The AP has less than 10% utilisation, and I live in a rural area to wifi interference is not a concern. I do not have any other devices with wifi related issues.

I’m running Plex server 1.41.3.9232 on Debian with no GUI, just Plex, sshd etc. The Plex server runs no other services, I just use for Plex. Journalctl, dmesg etc are not showing any issues with the plex server. If I run a ping from the plex server to the Roku I do not drop a single packet. The plex server has wired and wifi interfaces, with wired set as preferred in Plex.

The Roku player is running Roku software version 14.0 (the latest available) and Plex app 7.26.14.9611. YouTube, Prime etc all work well on the Roku. Starting the Plex app on the Roku takes quite along time. When Plex has started it finds the Plex server quickly but then it starts to go wrong. If I select a library I receive a spinning circle for ages and when I do see a library no images are displayed for the library, just the show’s name in text. If I try and chose a show, any show, it takes ages to show any of the episodes, if at all. If I manage to load a show I often just see a message saying “content unavailable”. If the show does start to play I get a few seconds of content, then I get a spinning circle and a percentage symbol that sits at 13% or 33% for tens of seconds before the show resumes. If I put an old Pi running iperf next to the Roku and run iperf from the Plex server to the Pi I get 290 Mbits/sec. The Roku is not running hot and has been rebooted many times to try and fix the issue.

For testing, when a 720p file does play the Plex server reports it is using direct play with AAC stereo audio.

I’ve turned on local debugging on the Roku and I’ve posted some of the content below, when trying to play a small file.

DEBUG (GeneralTask) [WebServer::Server::Reply] Completed GET ‘/logs’ @192.168.2.111:45902 9124 bytes
12/1/2024 09:21:19.648 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] DEBUG (GeneralTask) [WebServer::Server::Connection] Connection recycle
12/1/2024 09:21:26.037 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] WARN (GeneralTask) [122683523] 30230ms Request Timeout! -28:Timeout GET http://192.168.2.182:32400/library/sections/5/all?type=2&sort=titleSort&X-Plex-Container-Start=155&X-Plex-Container-Size=3 (HubContextTransform) (json)
12/1/2024 09:21:26.040 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] INFO (GeneralTask) Transformed (HubContextTransform) GET http://192.168.2.182:32400/library/sections/5/all?type=2&sort=titleSort&X-Plex-Container-Start=155&X-Plex-Container-Size=3 - 0ms
12/1/2024 09:21:26.044 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] WARN (GeneralTask) [122683524] 30014ms Request Timeout! -28:Timeout GET https://metadata.provider.plex.tv/library/metadata/5d9c081a4eefaa001f5d5d82/userState?X-Plex-Language=en-GB (UserStateTransform) (json)
12/1/2024 09:21:26.046 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] INFO (GeneralTask) Transformed (UserStateTransform) GET https://metadata.provider.plex.tv/library/metadata/5d9c081a4eefaa001f5d5d82/userState?X-Plex-Language=en-GB - 0ms
12/1/2024 09:21:26.049 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] WARN (GeneralTask) [122683525] 30012ms Request Timeout! -28:Timeout GET http://192.168.2.182:32400/library/metadata/8746?excludeElements=Similar&includeOnDeck=1&includeExtras=1&includeReviews=1 (ShowDetailsTransform) (json)
12/1/2024 09:21:26.051 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] INFO (GeneralTask) Transformed (ShowDetailsTransform) GET http://192.168.2.182:32400/library/metadata/8746?excludeElements=Similar&includeOnDeck=1&includeExtras=1&includeReviews=1 - 0ms
12/1/2024 09:21:26.059 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] INFO (ShowDetailsScreen) Navigating to screen ItemOptionsScreen, options: {roAssociativeArray}
actionsContent: roSGNode
heading: Content Unavailable
message: Sorry, we couldn’t load the requested content
style: mini
12/1/2024 09:21:26.228 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] INFO (Navigation) Navigated to screen ItemOptionsScreen, activateKind new
12/1/2024 09:21:26.287 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] WARN (GeneralTask) [122683526] 30243ms Request Timeout! -28:Timeout GET http://192.168.2.182:32400/library/metadata/8746/grandchildren (PreplayEpisodesTransform) (json)
12/1/2024 09:21:26.304 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] INFO (GeneralTask) Transformed (PreplayEpisodesTransform) GET http://192.168.2.182:32400/library/metadata/8746/grandchildren - 0ms
12/1/2024 09:21:37.300 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] INFO (GeneralTask) [IdleManager::PlayerPause] playerPauseScreenIsActive=false, playerPauseScreenIsAllowed=false, PlayerPauseTimeout=600, idleTime=41
12/1/2024 09:21:45.289 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] DEBUG (GeneralTask) [Metrics] Metrics::Flush: Already have permissions; processing events.
12/1/2024 09:21:45.293 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] DEBUG (GeneralTask) [Metrics] ProcessEvents: rawEventCount=1 allowedEventCount=1
12/1/2024 09:21:45.294 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] DEBUG (GeneralTask) [Metrics] ProcessEvents: Sending 1 metrics events in batches of 10
12/1/2024 09:21:45.295 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] DEBUG (GeneralTask) [Metrics] ProcessEvents: Sending batch of 1 metrics events
12/1/2024 09:21:45.305 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] INFO (GeneralTask) [122683527] Request POST https://analytics.plex.tv/collect/event (json) (application/json)
12/1/2024 09:21:45.373 [5070558:BertTwildge:907f9f28-4e48-5fe0-9f39-81561487fb6f] WARN (GeneralTask) [122683527] 70ms Request Failed! -7:Failed to connect to analytics.plex.tv port 443 after 1 ms: Couldn’t connect to server POST https://analytics.plex.tv/collect/event (json)

If you have any ideas how I can make Plex work again on my Roku I’d appreciate it!

Thanks

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So network is probably fine and server is fine if I’m reading that correctly as “when using a laptop to connect to Plex server, the playback on the laptop is fine”. Server computing power is rarely an issue unless you’re transcoding video. It still points to a network connectivity issue to me - the long load times, the time outs, the buffering for playback - and that can be odd to sort out sometimes. Maybe something device specific with that stick since the laptop is okay with it.

I’m not sure I’m reading those logs exactly right but it looks like there are several request timeouts to local addresses. Are there any network setups like VLANS or Guest WIFI settings or DNS adblocking\filtering or things like that at all that might be applied to the Roku stick that aren’t applied to the laptop? I block a lot of Roku stuff to prevent the ads and tracking and it doesn’t interfere with my Plex playback but when I tried to play with VLANS a bit it got finnicky.

Do you use Unbound for DNS? You might need to allow plex.direct so that you aren’t triggering the Plex relay which can slow things down a lot. I doubt that’s happening but thought I’d mention it. I have to do that for my Firewalla and NextDNS setups (here’s Firewalla’s instructions for adding it to Unbound; scroll to the bottom).

You might try including server logs as well - might help with tracking it down.

You might try a different HDMI port as well as a full power cycle if you haven’t already (unplug from power, not just restart it).

Also Roku 14.1 just came out so might try that and see if it helps; I’d be surprised but it’s supposed to be a bug fix release so couldn’t hurt.

Sorry that’s about all I’ve got for ya’ - just saw several unanswered Roku posts and wanted to try and help out a bit.

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