@DJKoby - I am trying to see if I can reproduce your issue. Are you still getting the failures with trailers? Is it all trailers ?
@sa2000 said:
@Airmaric said:
Hi @sa2000 - thanks for your continued work on making Plex better for everyone.I am also recently getting the âConversion failed. The transcoder failed to start up.â error. This error first occurred on May 14th and has persisted ever since.
I have been using Plex for years trouble free, it has consistently performed well for me, so to encounter this error is a new thing for our family. I have read through the forums here and tried other usersâ suggestions, I have been reading reddit posts and tried some ideas presented there:
- Uninstalled, reinstalled Plex.
- Deleted libraries
- Renamed files
- Changed Transcoder directory
- Set PlexTranscoder.exe to compatibility mode
- Changed permissions of Transcoder folder
Still no luck, same result - same error: âConversion failed. The transcoder failed to start up.â
I am using the latest version of Plex 1.13.0.5023
I am using a Windows-10 64 bit, and windows is fully up to date.
I have had no hardware changes recently.While it seems that all .mp4 files I have tested will play perfectly well, it seems all .mkv files I have tested will NOT play and will produce this error.
I have attached my log files here for your reference. Thank you for taking a look at this.
Serious issue with how you setup Plex Media Server
May 17, 2018 12:16:39.481 [11776] ERROR - Failed to calculate available disk space for path '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\PlexCoder\Transcode\Sessions"': 1 (Incorrect function)You must not use the special
C:\Program Files (x86)directory area on windows for dataCheck the path you have specified for the
Transcoder Temp Directoryin the Server settings
I am thinking that may be you have specified a relative path rather than absolute
Could you tell me exactly what is in the field - including any spaces etc
@sa2000 said:
Serious issue with how you setup Plex Media Server
May 17, 2018 12:16:39.481 [11776] ERROR - Failed to calculate available disk space for path '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\PlexCoder\Transcode\Sessions"': 1 (Incorrect function)You must not use the special
C:\Program Files (x86)directory area on windows for dataCheck the path you have specified for the
Transcoder Temp Directoryin the Server settings
Thank you @sa2000! That totally fixed it. Interestingly, I donât believe I have ever changed the location of the Transcoder temp directory - but you were absolutely correct. Giving it itâs own folder outside of C:\Program Files(x86) immediately fixed the problem.
Great work - and thanks again!
1 Like
@Airmaric said:
@sa2000 said:
Serious issue with how you setup Plex Media Server
May 17, 2018 12:16:39.481 [11776] ERROR - Failed to calculate available disk space for path '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\PlexCoder\Transcode\Sessions"': 1 (Incorrect function)You must not use the special
C:\Program Files (x86)directory area on windows for dataCheck the path you have specified for the
Transcoder Temp Directoryin the Server settingsThank you @sa2000! That totally fixed it. Interestingly, I donât believe I have ever changed the location of the Transcoder temp directory - but you were absolutely correct. Giving it itâs own folder outside of C:\Program Files(x86) immediately fixed the problem.
Great work - and thanks again!
Great
Was the field set to C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\PlexCoder ?
or if set as a relative path - it may end up there
eg set to PlexCoder
I know for local app data, entering a non-absolute path would end up in the program files area
I have not looked into this for transcoder temp path - if we have same issue with relative paths
@sa2000 said:
Great
Was the field set to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\PlexCoder?
or if set as a relative path - it may end up there
eg set toPlexCoder
Yes, the value for Transcoder temporary directory had been set to C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\PlexCoder - which I believe may have been the default setting? Default or not, that is definitely what it had been set to, and it is something I didnât previously change myself. And no - it was not a relative path, it was spelled out fully as indicated above in bold.
I changed it to âC:\Temp\PlexCoderâ - and it works 100% now, problem solved.
Thanks again!
@DJKoby said:
hi all
i have just got plex setup up and working, wanting to turn my setup into the cinema like experience with movie trailers that are in my library, yer everything works fine until i enable trailers then i get the message âConversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an errorâ. i have checked and all the setting that i have read are update and on the fasts/unlimited setting, i am on the latest server version â1.13.0.5023â seeing that some users are still having problems, i looked at @iamkaarp post and could not work it out im running it on a windows 10 pc that that is its sole job. i have attached my loogs for investigation. for now i can still use my plex as long as i disable trailers.thankyou for your time
DJKoby
@sa2000 said:
@DJKoby - I am trying to see if I can reproduce your issue. Are you still getting the failures with trailers? Is it all trailers ?
Hi
I have not been able to reproduce the error you got when you were playing trailers
I have picked one of the trailers but it transcoded ok for me
May 16, 2018 22:58:28.911 [14120] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/10152/video.mp4?bitrate=1500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input
Are they still failing for you?
If they are still failing, I can send you a link to try in a browser and see what you get back - these links expire after a while so I would need to send it to you when you are around and available
hi there
i am still getting the same issue
âConversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an errorâ
i have tried changing the transcoder to âC: emp\PlexCoderâ as @Airmaric did, (by default it was blank) however when i start a trailer it adds a empty file in the directory then before it shows the failed message it deletes it, i have made custom ones and they play fine before each movie and at random however the movie trailers do not. if you want to send me the link i will be happy to test it out for you. i have included 2 screen shots of what the page looks like for investigation
hi there
i am still getting the same issueâConversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an errorâ
i have tried changing the transcoder to âC:\temp\PlexCoderâ as @Airmaric did, (by default it was blank) however when i start a trailer it adds a empty file in the directory then before it shows the failed message it deletes it, i have made custom ones and they play fine before each movie and at random however the movie trailers do not. if you want to send me the link i will be happy to test it out for you. i have included 2 screen shots of what the page looks like for investigation
I have sent you a url for a trailer that failed before. Please try in a browser
I think it is this trailer The Lone Ranger (UK Trailer 1).
Please include logs zip for any screenshots you provide of an issue - and ensure debug logging is enabled on the server
@sa2000
i revived the link and opened within shot 30 mins and i have replayed to the PM with the screenshot
edit:
i randomly check tonight and now the trailers are working 100% watched 5 trailers one after another and no error message the only change i made since last time i have turned on more logging for you. i have added this for you to see
@DJKoby said:
@sa2000
i revived the link and opened within shot 30 mins and i have replayed to the PM with the screenshotedit:
i randomly check tonight and now the trailers are working 100% watched 5 trailers one after another and no error message the only change i made since last time i have turned on more logging for you. i have added this for you to see
Thanks - i am looking at the new logs. The trailers were failng up to May 22 2018 9:02 pm and the next time trailers play back was May 24 2018 at 02:01 am when they worked ok.
I wonder if there was an incorrect system date/time at some point as the trailers are all timestmped at the host system and expire or get rejected if the time expiry is set wrong
There was a 2 hour jump in time on May 23rd after 04:27:11 am
Could you check the windows system event log to see if the PC corrected its time round then
May 23, 2018 04:22:11.361 [1848] DEBUG - Checking if time for scheduled update
May 23, 2018 04:27:11.363 [7444] DEBUG - Checking if time for scheduled update
May 23, 2018 06:26:52.031 [9932] DEBUG - NetworkServiceBrowser: SERVER departed after not being seen for 7052.103752 seconds: 192.168.0.134 (Mahony Plex)
The Checking if time for scheduled update log entries happen every 5 minutes. There wasnât one at 04:32:11 am - so that looks like the time got adjusted - probably your server was 2 hours behind up to then !
Wrong time would result in trailers being expired at start
I can confirm that this was the reason trailers failed
Wrong system date/time may also impact security certificate validation
And just noticed that we have already documented this dependency on System Time in one of our support articles !
https://support.plex.tv/articles/202819366-why-won-t-trailers-or-extras-play/
@sa2000 it looks like the time service could not respond with one of the time servers correctly early on the 22/5 then on the 23/5 it auto changed the time service and 2 hours later was able to talk correctly with the time server and update the time, also before i change it my time is currently set 2 hours ahead, UTC +10 and my correct time zone is UTC +8 i only use the pc for plex and time dose not affect anything els at this stage do you thing that i could correct it or just leave it as it is
@DJKoby said:
@sa2000 it looks like the time service could not respond with one of the time servers correctly early on the 22/5 then on the 23/5 it auto changed the time service and 2 hours later was able to talk correctly with the time server and update the time, also before i change it my time is currently set 2 hours ahead, UTC +10 and my correct time zone is UTC +8 i only use the pc for plex and time dose not affect anything els at this stage do you thing that i could correct it or just leave it as it is
Some verifications do go wrong if the system time is wrong. Security Certificates for example could get invalidated. I donât know if being 2 hours ahead would affect it or any other functionality - but to be safe best to make sure you have the right time.
@sa2000 Ive been having this âConversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an errorâ issues aswell and i have no idea what to do, i would really appreciate some help
@âthesmeetheart@gmail.comâ said:
@sa2000 Ive been having this âConversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an errorâ issues aswell and i have no idea what to do, i would really appreciate some help
The failures appear to timeouts on requests made by the transcoder through localhost 127.0.0.1 and the server port 32400.
Jun 09, 2018 00:15:16.142 [0x7fcad8fff700] ERROR - [Transcoder] [segment @ 0x1ee9b80] Failed to open segment list 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/gzjwbw3a0o57p86mfep4gjc2/b14fa86e-0b9e-471c-b508-43249951994a/seglist?stream=subtitles'
Jun 09, 2018 00:15:16.143 [0x7fcad7fff700] ERROR - [Transcoder] av_interleaved_write_frame(): Connection timed out
But the logs show a very strange operating environment for the server and requests to localhost are seeing many other servers on port 32400 !
Where is this server hosted and how?
Look at a sample of requests to http://127.0.0.1:32400/servers extracted from the logs
There are 30 servers responding to 127.0.0.1 port 32400 on that machine - how is that possible ?
2018-06-09 00:14:40,971 (7fae277fe700) : DEBUG (peerservice:198) - Found 30 servers
2018-06-09 00:14:40,971 (7fae277fe700) : DEBUG (peerservice:214) - Ignoring 78de7a6db7aff9987ec248401d438be8888d8b5e because host != 172.17.0.95 (172.17.0.11)
2018-06-09 00:14:40,971 (7fae277fe700) : DEBUG (peerservice:214) - Ignoring 4fc1f6c39d79e69142d58b793dffe6ab315a2012 because host != 172.17.0.95 (172.17.0.10)
2018-06-09 00:14:40,971 (7fae277fe700) : DEBUG (peerservice:214) - Ignoring 05b1ced32bb93d9b49b2253e100a9db71cc1eeaa because host != 172.17.0.95 (172.17.0.100)
2018-06-09 00:14:40,971 (7fae277fe700) : DEBUG (peerservice:214) - Ignoring 52b1d6faa8fdf6af1c5df62daa4a42942e0dd223 because host != 172.17.0.95 (172.17.0.12)
2018-06-09 00:14:40,972 (7fae277fe700) : DEBUG (peerservice:214) - Ignoring d6ae0c70f07b3df7ba51c3e60539c553a73787c1 because host != 172.17.0.95 (172.17.0.2)
Appears to be an unsupported hosted environment
I need to see a sane environment before I can offer you any help and support
One server only on the machine. If this is an external hosting - then it is setup wrong
Itâs being hosted on a VPS 
@âthesmeetheart@gmail.comâ said:
Itâs being hosted on a VPS
@âthesmeetheart@gmail.comâ said:
Itâs being hosted on a VPS
Something is not right in the setup if a request to http://127.0.0.1:32400 is being responded to by 30 different servers on the machine
