Server crash

Plex Media Server
,
1

Server Version#: 1.43.0.10492
Player Version#: Web 4.156.0

OS: Unraid

I’ve been having some problems with losing connection to my Plex server for a while. The effects are:

  • Failing to load items when browsing libraries in the web UI and desktop app, with various error messages - sometimes the page fails to load and there’s XML with an error message, either “” or “Plex is starting”.
  • Stops currently running tasks
  • Interrupts playback momentarily
  • External programs (Kometa, Tautulli) lose connection to the API

It seems like the problem is triggered whenever a library is scanned, either automatically when the library folder updates, or if I start a manual scan. This has been happening with my movies library for a while, and it just recently started for my shows library. I have some other libraries that seem to be working fine. (Movies and Shows libraries are fairly large - 2000 movies/300 shows and the other libraries are small, maybe this is relevant)

And also, currently just browsing the library (loading the Recommended or Library tab) causes the connection to fail. It seems like the movies library is working better than shows, the first time I click on any show, it gives the error “Something went wrong, An unexpected error occurred” then if I go back and click the show again, it works. It seems like browsing the library on the Android mobile app or Nvidia Shield TV doesn’t trigger the same issue.

Looking at the logs, I think the server is crashing. I attached a log from before the crash and after it’s restarted. But I checked the path for the crash report in the logs, and it’s empty.

Plex Media Server.log (590.7 KB)

Plex Media Server.1.log (594.1 KB)

I ran the DBRepair script and it fixed some errors, but it didn’t seem to actually affect anything.

2

Can you re-run Chuck’s repair commands, reboot the server re-create the issue and then post a copy of your server log zip?

3

Ok, here’s the full logs zip.

Plex Media Server Logs_2026-04-19_21-07-44.zip (2.0 MB)

And DBRepair had some errors, I think it’s the same ones as when I ran it for the first time about a week ago.

Checking FTS (Full-Text Search) indexes
  FTS index 'fts4_metadata_titles' - DAMAGED
    Error: Error: stepping, database disk image is malformed (11)
  FTS index 'fts4_metadata_titles_icu' - DAMAGED
    Error: Error: stepping, database disk image is malformed (11)
  FTS index 'fts4_tag_titles' - DAMAGED
    Error: Error: stepping, database disk image is malformed (11)
  FTS index 'fts4_tag_titles_icu' - DAMAGED
    Error: Error: stepping, database disk image is malformed (11)
  FTS index 'fts4_metadata_titles' (blobs) - OK
  FTS index 'fts4_metadata_titles_icu' (blobs) - OK
  FTS index 'fts4_tag_titles' (blobs) - OK
  FTS index 'fts4_tag_titles_icu' (blobs) - OK
FTS integrity check complete. One or more FTS indexes are DAMAGED.
Use 'reindex' command (option 6) or 'automatic' (option 2) to rebuild.

FTS indexes are damaged. Attempting automatic FTS rebuild...
Backing up databases
Backup current databases with '-BACKUP-2026-04-19_21.05.12' timestamp.
Scanning for FTS4 tables in main database...
Found FTS4 tables:
  - fts4_metadata_titles
  - fts4_metadata_titles_icu
  - fts4_tag_titles
  - fts4_tag_titles_icu

Rebuilding FTS4 indexes in main database...
  Rebuilding fts4_metadata_titles...
    fts4_metadata_titles rebuilt successfully.
  Rebuilding fts4_metadata_titles_icu...
    fts4_metadata_titles_icu rebuilt successfully.
  Rebuilding fts4_tag_titles...
    fts4_tag_titles rebuilt successfully.
  Rebuilding fts4_tag_titles_icu...
    fts4_tag_titles_icu rebuilt successfully.

Scanning for FTS4 tables in blobs database...
Found FTS4 tables in blobs database:
  - fts4_metadata_titles
  - fts4_metadata_titles_icu
  - fts4_tag_titles
  - fts4_tag_titles_icu

Rebuilding FTS4 indexes in blobs database...
  Rebuilding fts4_metadata_titles...
    fts4_metadata_titles rebuilt successfully.
  Rebuilding fts4_metadata_titles_icu...
    fts4_metadata_titles_icu rebuilt successfully.
  Rebuilding fts4_tag_titles...
    fts4_tag_titles rebuilt successfully.
  Rebuilding fts4_tag_titles_icu...
    fts4_tag_titles_icu rebuilt successfully.

FTS rebuild complete.
FTS rebuild successful.
Automatic Check, Repair/optimize, Index, & FTS check successful.
4

Please run the repair several times and let me know if it continues to find errors.

If it is able to repair the database, please test it.

If the above works, we know something is repeatedly damaging your database and we need to figure that out.

5

Ok, thanks. The first time I ran repair today, I got the same errors as yesterday (posted above) except FTS index ‘fts4_metadata_titles_icu’ was OK instead of DAMAGED.

Then I started Plex, and stopped it again without triggering the crash. Then after running repair again, there weren’t any errors found.

Then I opened a show in Plex which triggered the crash, and after running repair again, there were still no errors. I repeated this a few times with the same result. And the web UI still has all the same problems even with the errors repaired.

It looks like the logs always end in these two lines when the server crashes. Does that mean it’s happening while the PhotoTranscoder is running?

Apr 20, 2026 16:47:16.188 [22888904694584] DEBUG - [Req#1ad/PhotoTranscoder/JobRunner] Job running: /app/bin/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/CrashUploader “–directory=/app/config/Plex Media Server/Crash Reports/1.43.0.10492-121068a07” --version=1.43.0.10492-121068a07 --platform=Linux --platformVersion=6.12.24-Unraid --serverUuid=4a570c1ff35225a3b5a41db05e3481178253a9b2 ``–userId=d3r3k523@gmail.com`` --sentryUrl=https://o17675.ingest.sentry.io/api/1233455/ --sentryKey=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --vendor=Docker --model=x86_64 “–device=Docker Container (hotio)” --sessionStatus=crashed --sessionStart=1776725095 --sessionDuration=141

Apr 20, 2026 16:47:16.188 [22888904694584] DEBUG - [Req#1ad/PhotoTranscoder/JobRunner] Jobs: Starting child process with pid 16166

6

This is happening whenever I open the Shows library Recommended or Library tabs, but if I use the search bar to open a show item, it doesn’t happen.

7

I solved the problem - there was just one bad poster that was causing the crash. It was a poster for a show in Recently Added which is why it crashed whenever I opened the Recommended tab. I saw this line in the log right before it crashed:

[Req#eb/PhotoTranscoder/Req#ee] Calculated media file path for path [upload://posters/050c10d673262def030d1a9d131f0b65bbeb33d7]: ["/app/config/Plex Media Server/Metadata/TV Shows/7/eb78b8826daf38c5bb5ca035528d6e0f3a858ab.bundle/Uploads/posters/050c10d673262def030d1a9d131f0b65bbeb33d7"]

So I deleted the file in the metadata bundle then restarted Plex but it still crashed, then I deleted the Cache/PhotoTranscoder directory which fixed the problem. And AI recommended running Clean Bundles and Optimize Database after restarting the server.

I also had to do the same with a couple images in my movies library.