Server disconnects - Screen goes black during playback

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Server Version#: 1.41.1.9057
Player Version#: 10.23.0.1627

My plex server on my Nvidia Shield has suddenly started causing errors/crashing and I’m not sure why. I will be watching something and the screen will go black.

If I back out to the menu, my library will appear empty and it will say I need to add content. Or other times it will say it can’t connect and ask to retry connection but it won’t reconnect.

Restarting the Plex app on the Shield seems to solve the issue, but I’ve seen it happen up to 2 or 3 times during a single movie.

Often I will return to my TV or open up the android app on my phone, and find it won’t connect to my Shield, indicating the crash happened whilst I was not watching anything (eg. over night). I must restart the app to fix again.

When the crash happens, I can still stream Plex content from the internet, and other apps on my TV work so I don’t think it’s a general connection issue.

The crash happens to me watching on my nvidia shield, and has also happened to my friend on her chromecast in a different location.

The shield has an external SSD connected via USB for Plex storage, and the media is on my NAS on the same LAN. But I don’t think either of them are the problem since the logs seems to suggest the PMS is disconnecting. Right before the error happens, it disconnects and reconnects a few times and then fails to connect before delivering the black screen.

plexlogs.txt (6.0 KB)
This excerpt from the logs is when the crash happened just BEFORE 20:24.

I have tried reinstalling Plex which didn’t help. I have checked my router for things like intrusion detection and DDoS protection to see if that was preventing a connection, but all is off and no settings changed on my router.

Curiously, I just noticed that my Plex isn’t recording my watch history since October 24th, which is roughly when these problems started happening (though I don’t know for sure so could be a coincidence).

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I have tried reinstalling plex fresh and not using the USB hard drive. The crashes still persist.

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This has been happening for months and no one seems to be interested in fixing it - you need to downgrade to PMS 1.40.4.8679 (or older) to fix this issue:

Download the apk from: Plex Media Server 1.40.4.8679 (smb) (nodpi) APK Download by Plex, Inc. - APKMirror

It’s very important that you don’t uninstall PMS and then attempt to install the above apk manually for two reasons:

  1. You’ll lose all your libraries (which you can of course restore from a backup, but hassle)
  2. When PMS is installed from any source other than the Google Play Store it does not have full access to NAS or external drives, causing multiple issues.

To downgrade PMS on Nvidia Shield, you need to use ADB commands. The easiest way to do this is wireless ADB via a computer on the same network.

Here are the steps in high-level:

  1. Set up ADB on your computer (Google for instructions)
  2. Enable Developer Options on Nvidia Shield (Google for instructions)
  3. Enable Network Debugging under Developer Options, note the IP address, e.g. 198.168.0.2
  4. On your computer, open ADB, connect to Nvidia Shield
    → run adb connect <IP address>:5555
    replace <> with your IP address above, e.g. adb connect 192.168.0.2:5555
    → you may be prompted on Nvidia Shield to grant access.
  5. Copy PMS downloaded from apkmirror (version 1.40.4.8679) to Nvidia Shield
    → run adb push "<path to download>" /data/local/tmp/plex.apk
    replace <> with the full path to the downloaded apk file on your computer, don’t omit double quotation marks, the full path should include the file name and extension at the end, e.g. adb push "c:\downloads\com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb _1.40.4.8679_(smb)-1128392242_minAPI23(arm64-v8a) (nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk" /data/local/tmp/plex.apk
    you may want to rename the downloaded apk before this step to make typing the command easier
    FYI, this step will rename the downloaded apk while copying it to Nvidia Shield
    FYI, the command syntax is adb push <path_to_file_origin> <path_to_filr_destination>
  6. Install as downgrade
    → run adb shell pm install -d /data/local/tmp/plex.apk

You should get an affirmative prompt after steps 5 (line that says 1 file pushed) and 6 (Success).

After this PMS should come back online automatically, you can confirm the downgrade was success by checking the app info on Nvidia Shield or in the Plex settings.

If this doesn’t work for you

  • Restart Nvidia Shield after the downgrade, then leave it to run for 5-10 minutes. Afterwards, open Plex Player, and check settings to see if PMS is showing.
  • If still doesn’t work, you may need to start from a fresh install. Back up your PMS database and preferences.xml first. Then uninstall PMS on Nvidia Shield. Reinstall PMS from Google Play Store. Open Plex Player, go to settings and setup PMS. Accept all default choices, allow it to create blank new libraries. Let it run for 5-10 minutes to make sure everything runs. Don’t touch it, add/remove libraries, scan for media, etc. At this point attempt downgrade. After successful downgrade, make sure PMS is still running. If all good, move PMS data directory to internal (user accessible) or external, stop PMS, then restore your backed up database and preferences.xml. Start PMS from Plex Player settings.
  • If above still doesn’t work, your preferences.xml may be buggy, delete it, restart Nvidia Shield and see if PMS runs. If resolved, you have to change PMS settings through the Plex web app as all settings would have restored back to default.
9 Likes
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Uninstalling PMS and then installing PMS 1.40.4.8679 from the APK completely fixed the issue for me. I just have my Media files plugged into the shield on an external hard drive, so recreating the server wasn’t a big deal for me.

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Ah thank you so much. I wish I hadn’t spent hours trying to debug this. I didn’t find the other thread in all my googling. Ended up wiping Plex, starting again, wiping the entire Shield and starting again again. Changing all manner of network settings.

In the end I got so frustrated and ran out of ideas, so gave up. I just disabled my Shield Plex server and created a new one on my NAS.

It’s a little disappointing that the official support for this issue is so abysmal.

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I’m glad that worked for you.

Installing an older PMS from a download doesn’t work for me (due to permission issues around access external drive - this may be dependent on Shield OS version).

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That’s so frustrating - same happened to me a few weeks ago. I eventually managed to restore an old server backup after doing this, as if nothing happened LOL

Plex team are being really hopeless!

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Thank you very much, it has worked for me and now I have the peace of mind that in the event of a mistake of this type by the plex team I still have the opportunity to put an older version of the server… Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart :smiley:

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I have the same problem. Hope it will be fixed soon.

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@badelie
First thanks for your instruction.
Got the adb Tool here: https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-windows.zip
More instructions here: https://www.xda-developers.com/install-adb-windows-macos-linux/#how-to-set-up-adb-on-your-computer
It worked great for me, too. I’ll be back @1.40.4.8679
But in front of adb I need a ./ e.g.: ./adb shell…
Ok, done.
Now I ask me, where I can find now the folder /data/local/tmp/ to delete the plex.apk?
I can’t found with x-plore in “root” and I can’t found on “internal” hdd.
There is no data folder.
Can you help?

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The ./prefix is only needed in UNIX/Linux (and maybe if you’re running it in Powershell in Windows? I’m not sure. I never use it in Windows).

You don’t need to delete the file in /data/local/tmp. It’s a small file and in a temp directory, android should remove it eventually.

You don’t get access to this folder in android.

If you really want to delete it (not sure why, but okay), run adb shell rm /data/local/tmp/plex.apk.

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Because it is 97,7 MB and yes, I am using Windows PowerShell.
Thanks, maybe it was working, but I got no answer from adb.
Are there commands to list the folders, can’t found with “adb help”?

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@City-Cobra, I cannot answer without seeing the exact command responses. It is possible that the temp file is already deleted by android like I mentioned.

ADB is a powerful tool, and you haven’t used it before - I highly recommend not to poke around with ADB as you may risk deleting other files or causing unintended consequences.

97MB is nothing in a 12GB shield (and I assume your media files are located in an external drive/NAS)

PS. this is not an ADB support thread - so I’ll stop responding further as you have been able to fix the issue by downgrading PMS.

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I’m having trouble getting the apk to install, I get a ‘Failed to parse APK file’. Do you know of the way around this? I’m using windows if that makes any difference. Thanks!

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@Emmitt87, Try to download the apk again from apkmirror - then push it to Shield via adb and attempt the install.

Make sure the file you are downloading has the “.apk” suffix (and not .xapk or .apkm).

Make sure you are pushing the correct file to Shield (confirm you have used the correct local path).

If the above doesn’t work, did you install PMS originally from Google Play Store?

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I’ve tried all you’ve mentioned.

It was originally installed from the Play Store. I’ve just downloaded the server backups so my next plan was to uninstall via Play and re-install from the APK.

I’ve just realised I don’t want to do that as it won’t have access to my NAS. I’m so done with using the server on the shield at this point!

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Yeah I know the feeling… That’s what I had to do. Wipe everything, install from Play Store, then downgrade via adb, then restore databases and settings (you want to make a copy of the preferences.xml for this).

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Can you share the full error response you get? Or a screenshot of the whole set of commands?

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Screenshot of the failed message

image
image1106×559 23.3 KB

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If I keep shield on settings where it shows server is ‘running’ then it seems as though my server doesn’t crash (10 hours so far).

Since Nov 18-19th or so, the server has been closing until I open the Plex app again on my shield. If a client plays something while the server is up, it doesn’t seem to close until all playbacks stop.

PLEX TEAM, please fix NVIDIA SHIELD PLEX BUG!