SOLUTION: Conversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an error

[sa2000]

@fahadsgalaxy

All movies/TV shows are playing on direct play but playing any extras/trailers breaks it all down.

I am using Shield TV as Plex Server and Client to view, and it keeps giving me error of transcoding.

I opened up Plex settings “Now Playing” on my Mac, and it shows that any extras file I play, its trying to transcode it, why is that?
I have set my server settings to play all files in original quality and not convert it. It was working just fine uptill today.
I have another server running on windows, and its working great no issue.

I am attaching my Log, please have a look.

It is showing some invalid data coming in for the requests sent out to get the trailers played back

Aug 13, 2018 11:26:20.556 [15589] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/537718/video.mp4?bitrate=2500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input

Aug 13, 2018 11:26:52.088 [15588] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/537718/video.mp4?bitrate=2500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input

Aug 13, 2018 13:20:12.687 [16227] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/537718/video.mp4?bitrate=2500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input

Aug 13, 2018 13:20:42.378 [20614] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/537718/video.mp4?bitrate=2500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input

Aug 13, 2018 13:26:20.144 [21028] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/537718/video.mp4?bitrate=2500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input

Aug 13, 2018 13:27:21.465 [21465] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/599616/video.mp4?bitrate=2500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input

Aug 13, 2018 13:27:56.272 [21497] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/587139/video.mp4?bitrate=2500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input

Aug 13, 2018 13:30:43.026 [21888] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://127.0.0.1:32400/services/iva/assets/636685/video.mp4?bitrate=2500&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Invalid data found when processing input

Do you have any firewall restrictions ? blocks in place ? any proxy ?

Yoou could get a wireshark capture and send me by provate message zip of the pcap file and logs to see if there are any clues

[sa2000]

@jaretsanche_gmail_com

Seriously? This is ridiculous. I have been experiencing these transcoder issues frequently, and I know for a fact that it is not due to my files or internet connection, and due to a faulty server update. If this weren’t so, then reverting to an old version wouldn’t fix anything, but it did. As of 8/14/18, the latest update still has this problem. If you don’t want people reverting to old versions, fix the issue.

I have explained in several posts above that the transcoder may fail due to lots of different reasons. There is not an issue that is common. The only exception being the windows update bug that affected hundreds of users since July 10th.

Please provide logs for your problem and i will have a look

See
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/

[sa2000]

@Steve_PlexOMatic

Suddenly started getting this issue as well. Version 1.13.5.5291.

My server is on a Windows 7 machine, so the Win 10 update that people have been using isn’t applicable to me. My main use case is to use a different computer, a Windows 10 machine, to access my Plex server and then cast to Chromecast.

Until this is fixed, it is rendering Plex almost useless to me.

@t_wysocki

Same here, Steve. I tried everything from casting my phone to running web client on the same machine as the server and all had stuttering response then transcoder exiting. The OP stated he’s running Windows 7 but this thread has been hijacked to find a solution for Windows 10 users. Those “solutions” are worthless to us hangers on. We really need a separate “trouble ticket” created for each OS and its solutions. Whereas I agree that all efforts should be made by all users to collaborate toward a real solution, I must admit that I caved in for now and did as the OP recommended with the v1.12.3 server. Runs perfectly.

Without logs issues cannot be investigated

If the same underlying error is occurring on windows 7 as was seen for the windows 10 update bug, then may be there was a similar update to windows 7 - but need logs to know why the transcoder is failing.

See
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/

[sa2000]

@rrdrummer

If no one minds, I’m gonna throw my verbose logs in the ring.

Logs found here:

This looks similar to the problem introduced by Windows 10 Update (July 10th Update) - and subsequently fixed by the 16th July update

Aug 14, 2018 21:40:41.048 [9552] ERROR - [Transcoder] [dash @ 024ba9c0] Unable to open http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/7q7floeh43mned7vlh1rx1le/8adc9790-5b64-4cc5-8e5b-2b208fef95e4/manifest for writing
Aug 14, 2018 21:40:41.063 [13732] ERROR - [Transcoder] av_interleaved_write_frame(): Unknown error

See [Windows 10 Update KB4338819 issue] Conversion Failed. The transcoder exited due to an error and the solution linked to the first post

You will need to check for updates and may need a number of restarts to pick the later windows updates

Details on that forum thread

[sa2000]

@rwoffice

ust a thought, but maybe you could have the devs add an additional message along with “The transcoder exited due to an error” that actual says why. Having potentially dozens of different bugs all displaying the same error message seems like a support nightmare. Not only does it require an expert to wade through logs every time to find the real cause, it makes it very difficult for the user themselves to just search and find the solution on their own, which inevitably just feedbacks and makes more work for you.

The issue here is because it is a crash of the transcoder process rather than a tidy exit with a reported error. Unfortunately we need to see what the transcoder logged before it crashed to see if there are clues to the problem

@rwoffice

As an aside, there’s a lot of Plex logs that would benefit from this. Certainly a more layman and user readable version of the Media Decision Engine transcode reasoning could be incredibly helpful and save a lot of time by avoiding a lot of the “why can’t I Direct Play” and “why is my movie transcoding” questions.

There are improvements coming along for the logging

[fahadsgalaxy]

Hi，

Thank you, nice to hear from you.

A few fresh installs, trailers and extras were playing. I have no possible clue how that happened, I was monitoring every change, but nothing explains how it resolved.

Yes ! you are right, I am using Socks 5 proxy with an app ShadowSocks

I need to use it because my ISP blocks various sites here including Plex Metadata downloads painfully slow. Due to that I have been using socks 5 proxy

I have 2 other Plex servers on my Window and MacBook and they seem to cope up well with the proxy and never I got a single problem from them

The device I was having issues with is my NVIDIA Shield TV. The server on it is creating various issues for me. And I have done about a dozen clean installs and each install would unveil a new problem.

Some issues are below

1. The Plex setup on Nvidia Shield Tv is not able to perform well with Proxy/VPN, when I am using Wifi under Proxy, the server shows as “Running”, when I switch to Ethernet, it shows as “Stopped”, regardless of restarts of shield tv, or manually clicking “start”, the server wont start, until I turn the Proxy OFF. But dispite it shows off, its still running at times and discoverable on other devices.
   Something to mention, the Proxy has LAN Bypassed.

2. Plex Server on Shield tv runs painfully slow. I experienced this in some installs, it was really very slow. Loading up “On Deck” and other items including Movies and TV Shows sometimes took, 5-10 or upto 15 seconds. Sometimes didnt even load up and needed to force close.
   But when did some reinstalls it would make it comparatively faster only to show some new problems.

3. Dolby Atmos never seemed to work for me. DTS MA and DTS X seem to work right off the bat. As soon as I play DTS file, the player downloads some update and starts playing directly.
   But for Atmos, it doesn’t download anything and just resorts to transcoding and ultimately fails (maybe because its a 4K remux movie)
   Same Atmos file plays instantly on Kodi and Plex Add-on for Kodi as well.
   My Plex is set to Passthrough to Auto

Now, im not sure how to offer you the Wireshark results from Shield TV, incase if you still need them. If you do, I`m willing to provide you any thing you need to solve the issues.

FYI
Shield TV Firmware : 7.0.2
PMS : 1.13.5.5291 (smb)
Plex Player : 7.3.2.6276

[sa2000]

Please raise issues as separate topics with appropriate forum topic tltles and tags

Would like for this thread to remain specifically for The Transcoder exited due to an error

[frnic]

sa2000, thank you. The problem has been resolved and was a permissions problem where the codex was attempting to execute.

[ReiEve]

not a paying customer, but one that referred a lot of customer as I used to love how it used to work…I been trying for weeks now to solve this issue and it remains the same…bye plex T-T

[sa2000]

@ReiEve

not a paying customer, but one that referred a lot of customer as I used to love how it used to work…I been trying for weeks now to solve this issue and it remains the same…bye plex T-T

There isn’t a magic wand to fix issues without looking at diagnostics and logs to see what the issue is

The most prevalent cause of the trancoder failure came in 10th July 2018 when Microsoft released a faulty Windows 10 update. They fixed the issue on 16th July but the bad update is still one of a series of updates that are available and users hit the problem if they apply it and do not restart and do further checks for windows updates after that

It may well be your problem - details on this topic

[Windows 10 Update KB4338819 issue] Conversion Failed. The transcoder exited due to an error

Hello everybody, I got the Plex Media Server on my laptop and all of sudden I got this error “conversion failed transcoder exited” What can I do to fix it? Thanks!

[dlucas10]

Hello @sa2000,

I just got this error too… I watched a movie earlier and it was fine, and then it started on another movie. Running PMS on Ubuntu/16.04.5 and ATV Client.

Logs:
Plex Media Server Logs_2018-08-16_22-43-38.zip (4.0 MB)

[Kradnam2]

I been having the same issue, with movies I know worked prior to several updates ago, anyways, this is getting really annoying, i have since moved to watching things on my PC with a media player instead until this gets fixed.
It doesn’t seem to matter if its an older video file or newer, either way the videos are refusing to play.

[Nostromo21]

Spot on guys! This update is a disaster for the transcoder. I’ve removed it manually from the command line & the problem has completely gone away! You can use this in a batch file or from the CMD window:

wusa /uninstall /kb:4338819 /norestart /quiet

Then restart the PC. May pay to check it every update/restart with ‘wmic qfe list’ command & if the crapware is back just uninstall again, rinse, repeat.

Yes Microshaft, we shouldn’t have to be doing this because if your lack of care factor, GRRRrrrrr!@#$%^&*()

[cbabb]

@Nostromo21

This update is a disaster for the transcoder. I’ve removed it manually from the command line & the problem has completely gone away!

Couple things I want to inform you of. First, the method that you showed to remove the update was already posted with a disclaimer. That is a security update which patched memory access holes in Windows. Second, you no longer need to remove that update as there were two later updates, in particular the one on the 16th of July, that solved it. And lastly, you should (I implore you to) reinstall that update and the following three that are after it.

See these posts in the Windows 10 specific thread:

[Windows 10 Update KB4338819 issue] Conversion Failed. The transcoder exited due to an error

Solved my problem. I have used the following PMS versions on Windows 10: 1.12.3.4973-215c28d86 1.13.2.5154-fd05be322 1.13.4.5251-2e6e8f841 They all present the same error. Since this is very widespread after a recent Windows patch, it’s partly to blame. The issue starts with updating your Windows 10 to OS Build 17134.165. This is patch KB4338819 released on June 10th, and targeted systems on June 11th. If you are unlucky and unable to use Plex with any of the versions (some users down/upgrad…

and

[Windows 10 Update KB4338819 issue] Conversion Failed. The transcoder exited due to an error

If you could specify which update that was, it would be greatly appreciated. There are three that have been listed. Update KB4338819 - Build 17134.165 (July 10th) This update caused the problem. This is a security update. Update KB4345421 - Build 17134.167 (July 16th) This solved the problem. This is a quality/bug fix update. Update KB4340917 - Build 17134.191 (July 24th) This is the latest update at the time. This is a quality/bug fix update.

If you continue to have problems with Plex after installing, please make sure you system is completely updated. The most current stable version of Windows is 1803, build 17134.228.

[Arron_DAD]

I am also having the same problem. Please fix ASAP PLEX.

[pcmurthy]

I have also begun experiencing a “Conversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an error” problem in the last few weeks on the BBC iPlayer channel. The iPlayer had been working fine for months. I tried to remove/reinstall the channel, but that didn’t help. My PMS is the latest version (1.13.5.5291) on Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS. Logs attached.
Plex Media Server Logs_2018-08-20_12-37-50.zip (3.6 MB)

[gitchownd]

Been having this issue with PMP. weird cuz it’ll work fine for hours, then when the first error happens and I try to resume playback, it happens like every minute indefinitely. No idea what makes it stop again but eventually it does. I have all the latest windows updates too.

[godvader]

I am having the same problem trying to watch a .mkv file with TrueHD 7.1 audio. Server is on Windows 10 with both windows 10 and the server running the latest update. Been trying most of the fixes and still couldn’t find a solution. Moved transcoder file to another directory but the issue keeps persisting.

[sa2000]

@dlucas10

I just got this error too… I watched a movie earlier and it was fine, and then it started on another movie. Running PMS on Ubuntu/16.04.5 and ATV Client.

Well the error is generic and could be due to many different reasons

In your case, it appears to be relating to the EasyAudioEncoder

The encoder process was started at

Aug 16, 2018 21:52:10.019 [0x7f48bb3fe700] DEBUG - Job running: '/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Codecs/EasyAudioEncoder-141-linux-ubuntu-x86_64/EasyAudioEncoder/EasyAudioEncoder'

Aug 16, 2018 21:52:10.020 [0x7f48bb3fe700] DEBUG - Jobs: Starting child process with pid 2994

After that a Transcoder process was started and it failed to get data from the EasyAudioEncoder process and ended with transcoder failure

Aug 16, 2018 22:28:08.375 [0x7f48c4bff700] ERROR - [Transcoder] [truehd_eae @ 0x2a32040] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read '/tmp/pms-b247625c-d726-4b79-a581-cb921f940bb9/EasyAudioEncoder/Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)/85600B8F-9A06-4E86-93EB-6D3508875994_2995-0-5345.wav'

Aug 16, 2018 22:29:26.000 [0x7f48a6ffe700] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_eae @ 0x30f0f40] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read '/tmp/pms-b247625c-d726-4b79-a581-cb921f940bb9/EasyAudioEncoder/Convert to Dolby Digital Plus (Max Quality - 1024 kbps)/85600B8F-9A06-4E86-93EB-6D3508875994_2995-1-4083.ec3'

Aug 16, 2018 22:30:20.206 [0x7f48c9bff700] DEBUG - Jobs: '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder' exit code for process 2995 is 1 (failure)
121496 Aug 16, 2018 22:30:20.383 [0x7f48b13f8700] DEBUG - Signalling job ID 2995 with 9

The EasyAudioEncoder binary is here
'/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Codecs/EasyAudioEncoder-141-linux-ubuntu-x86_64/EasyAudioEncoder/EasyAudioEncoder
and you must make sure that if this a mounted volume that you do have exec set and you do not have noexec

The other aspects to check are for this path
'/tmp/pms-b247625c-d726-4b79-a581-cb921f940bb9/EasyAudioEncoder/

The path must be local and not a network drive as it needs to support iNotify notifications of changes

[sa2000]

@Kradnam2

I been having the same issue, with movies I know worked prior to several updates ago, anyways, this is getting really annoying, i have since moved to watching things on my PC with a media player instead until this gets fixed.
It doesn’t seem to matter if its an older video file or newer, either way the videos are refusing to play.

As mentioned many times the Transcoder error message is a generic error message and unless one looks at logs you cannot say your problem is the same as someone else’s

Do you have logs of the failure?
Point me to a post where you have uploaded logs

If not, See
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/