PROBLEM FOUND & SOLVED
TLDR: There was a corrupt show/season-metadata poster item; still unsure if it’s from Plex metadata or just within my instance of PMS.
Recap:
What I noticed, was when refreshing any metadata, whether it be adding a show, or refreshing a match, or manually refreshing a series; Plex would show the insecure connection / not connected error page:
This would follow by a ‘dropped’ connection to plex. Even though the Plex page would retun, it wasn’t ‘connected/active’. I would have to refresh the page for the connection to restart. ** This also created connection issues for concurrent streams, and connections to Arr Apps.
As mentioned in the original post, I am using Unraid (7.3.1) with the LinuxServer Plex Media Sever docker app. I started noticing these segfault log entries in the Unraid System Logs NOTE: I don’t know if these are an ‘error’ or just Unraid noticing an issue and logging it; however it helped me to determine the time of the crash etc. I figured it was worth showing.
Finding the solution:
I was looking at the logs, while the issue would cause a crash in PMS, the server would restart itself; thus creating a stop/start in the log files.
When looking at the Logs folder, the newest ‘Plex Media Server.log’ would be POST-crash PMS restarting logs. Therefore, I would also look at ‘Plex Media Server.1.log’ ; at the very bottom would be the most recent PRE-crash log data.
Common Scan Item:
After recreating a crash, and looking at the logs I would see the same item being mentioned:
Jun 16, 2026 01:29:26.823 [22780692044600] DEBUG - [Req#195] Calculated media file path for path [metadata://posters/tv.plex.agents.series_253ca1dbc53495f5f0f6525084710d20076e2303]: [“/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Metadata/TV Shows/4/16e0da2e7e75b5ae2195861c6d3e5db45dc2a23.bundle/Contents/_combined/posters/tv.plex.agents.series_253ca1dbc53495f5f0f6525084710d20076e2303”]
Problematic Item:
From the Unraid Logs, I saw that libfreeimage.so was part of the segfault; thus I started to assume that the issue may be an artwork issue.
I located the item mentioned above and copied it to a test location. I then renamed it to test.jpg (as my assumption was that it was a corrupt artwork of sorts). The resulting file appeared to be normal, and viewable. Results from checking the original file as identifiable:
The image showed that the TV Show in question happened to be Third Watch, Season Two poster
Testing Solution:
To attempt to remediate the issue, I removed the entire show folder from the TV Shows library directory. Then re-scanned the library. The issue was gone. I was able to refresh any show/item as many times as I wanted. Even some shows that weren’t matched and updated with metadata updated immediately.
Further Solution Testing:
With the show outside of PMS, I made sure that empty trash was turned on, re-scanned all libraries, re-started PMS for good measure. I performed Optimize Database (I had done this prior during earlier troubleshooting numerous times, but did it now, just for good measure), I performed clean bundles. Basically any task that I could do, to refresh PMS.
Once complete, I moved the entire show back into the library folder. The issue returned, same as prior. I could not update metadata for any show/season/item, without the crash occurring.
I removed the full show back outside of PMS, refreshed. And once it was removed, I added back only Season One. PMS updated immediately and added the show. I noticed that it was matching to metadata in a foreign language, but the show was correct.
I re-matched the show to ensure it was picking up the correct information. No Issue
I added back Season Two, Issue returned … So i removed it again. No Issue
I added back Seasons 3-6. No Issue
Obviously at this point, it appears the issue is something with Season Two
Since my original findings had me believing that the issue was with the metadata and/or the artwork for Season Two. I found the correct artwork for Season Two, named it according to Plex naming standards. Then I added the Season Two folder AND the Season Two artwork AT THE SAME TIME. No Issue
Final Conclusion:
It appears that either my artwork for Season Two of Third Watch, as found by Plex, is causing the issue. When I removed my custom artwork, the issue returns immediately.
This is how the Season Two poster selection shows after removing my custom artwork, with the issue present.
To re-eliminate the issue, I have to remove Season Two, then add it back with custom artwork at the same time.
Future Testing:
I will have to use my second instance on Unraid/LIO-Plex and test to see if this is a global issue for Plex, or if there is something wrong in my database.
