Server Version#: 1.43.0.10492
Player Version#: Plex for LG, Client 5.94.1, Platform 10.3.0
Hi all,
I’ve been battling with Plex the last 2 days trying to work out why all of a sudden (within the last week) on my LG 65QNED TV, the same content file will sometimes play and sometimes not. This affects all my content which is always 1080p, can either be x264 to x265 or 5.1 EAC3 or 5.1 AAC so it’s not one specific content type that’s having the issue.
All other clients are totally fine, including Amazon Fire Tablet via Local Play, Pixel 7 via Local Play, a different LG TV via Remote Play, a Roku stick via Remote Play & a Chromecast via Remote Play.
I am running Plex in Docker on a Debian host with image linuxserver/plex on version 1.43.0.10492. My content library is on a DAS physically connected to the host.
I am using the LG Plex app to play the content and this has always worked up until a week ago.
When the content fails, it fails with an error code 4: MEDIA_ELEMENT_ERROR:format error.
When the content plays, it’s direct play with no transcode.
I have tried:
A separate Plex instance on my Docker host, but no different. This, in my eyes, has ruled out anything to do my main Plex config, including the database.
Deleting the Codecs folder in my Plex instance and letting that re-generate automatically.
Turning off allow Direct Play on the client to try and force a transcode
Turning on Force Direct Play on the client
Uninstalling the application on the LG TV and reinstalling
Unplugging the cable from the back of the TV to clear memory (this was left unplugged for around 10 minutes)
Removing the subtitles file from the media source folder (I use Bazarr to grab subtitles automatically)
Changing the temporary transcode folder onto 2 different storage devices (currently, it exists on the Debian hosts NVMe drive, but I moved it to the DAS to see if that was an issue). Additionally, I set the transcode directory to be within the docker volume to ensure that it wasn’t a file permission issue.
Looking in the PMS logs, the only thing that pops out is:
When the content does play, I see this:
Mar 31, 2026 12:50:31.780 [140706754358072] DEBUG - [Req#1f69] [Now] User is XXX (ID: 1)
Mar 31, 2026 12:50:31.780 [140706754358072] DEBUG - [Req#1f69] [Now] Device is webOS (LG 65QNED86A6A.BEKFLJP).
Mar 31, 2026 12:50:31.780 [140706754358072] DEBUG - [Req#1f69] [Now] Profile is Generic
When the content doesn’t play, I see this:
Mar 31, 2026 14:19:28.864 [139779618691896] DEBUG - [Req#cc] [Now] Device is webOS (LG 65QNED86A6A.BEKFLJP).
Mar 31, 2026 14:19:28.865 [139779618691896] ERROR - [Req#cc] Unable to find client profile for device; platform=webOS, platformVersion=10.3.0, device=webOS 10.3.0, model=65QNED86A6A.BEKFLJP
Mar 31, 2026 14:19:28.865 [139779618691896] DEBUG - [Req#cc] [Now] Updated play state for /library/metadata/2.
As you can see from the timestamps, within the space of 90 minutes the content went from working to not working, on the same client.
I’ve seen online that the various profiles XML in the Plex config directory are not really used anymore as the TV is supposed to present to the Plex server what it’s capable of.
Has anyone got any other ideas that I can try?
