Status of "100% complete" recording bug

General Discussions Plex Features
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@Aliquam said:
Potentially Optimistic Resolution (for NAS): I originally posted on October 10, 2017- “Here’s my log running v1.9.2.4285. Recording schedule shows five shows from last night (10/10/17) stuck at 100% with nothing appearing in the .grab folder or the respective destination folders after a typical and working recording schedule. There were no error messages. Recordings occur on a 24/7-on home server. I cannot recall which previous version did not have this issue, but recently also noticed that shows were not recorded for the full length of time as set up in the schedule.”

Since then I have upgraded to server Version 1.9.4.4325; however, this time around I installed the software as a fresh install as opposed to installing over the existing version and it has been three full days that I have been able to record shows in their entirety, transcode them and watch all programs I selected through the recording schedule. While I only waited these few days to see if this would break, I thought it might be long enough that this solution was stable enough to share.

The steps I took were to completely uninstall the PMS from my server, restart the server and then I signed-out of my Plex account from the web. I next downloaded the latest version of PMS for servers (doesn’t really matter when you download…just sharing the order of steps I took) ensuring the version I downloaded was compatible with my NAS’ processor; I have an Intel Celeron J1900 installed in a QNAP TS-451 (64 bit Version 1.9.4.4325). Note that by removing the server’s PMS you will lose your recording schedule and all settings/preferences; you are doing a fresh/new install as if you hadn’t installed PMS before and this will require you to recreate your libraries, link your tuner, download the latest program guide, etc. After the PMS was up and running, I ran PMS from my server, which launched my web browser so I could log into my Plex account. Afterwards, I went through the motions of recreating my libraries the same way as I originally had them, relinked my tuner, selected all the shows I wanted to record, etc. I did not create a new Plex account and did not change any settings as I had before. Also note you will need to run your setup locally as I originally tried to re-setup my account from work and was not able to connect to my NAS, because I did not yet have remote access. Lastly, I do not plan to upgrade to the latest version since this was not an enjoyable exercise and hoping that the engineers respond to a dedicated paragraph to them below or until they have a permanent fix for this issue and for my operating environment.

Like I said, it’s now been three days full days and I have not run into the same issues as described in my original post. I hope sharing this might help someone else. Since there is a lot activity on this thread, I removed the notifications by email, but if you have any questions, feel free to either PM me or mention me in your post as those notifications are still on. Expect a delay in my reply.

For the Plex engineers, please (1) validate that this may be a potential resolution; a complete and fresh install, (2) it would be great if you can make an easy way to allow us to backup and restore our database which would include all settings/preferences, recording schedule and anything else worth backing up…even better, a check-box list of options we can chose to backup.

Hoping some of you can get up and running as well and looking forward to hearing from the Plex Team!

Maybe an engineer can comment also, but I would guess this isn’t the source of everyone’s problem.

For me channel CBS is my strongest channel and it records flawlessly every time. FOX and NBC are slightly weaker and they usually record fine, but storms will cause them to fail with the 100% bug every time. Then finally there’s ABC which is usually watchable on Windows Media Center, but with lots of glitching, and Plex can never get through a single recording on that channel regardless of weather.

It seems like I shouldn’t get good recordings if Plex had an upgrade glitch, so I wonder if there could be two issues causing the 100% freeze problem. One issue where the transcoder software or settings got corrupted, and another purely related to it’s garbage filtering not handling bad signals.

202

I would like to chime in here too. I also have this issue. It is so intermittent that I have chosen to run my DVR as a 2 part system. WMC does the recording and then I use MCEBuddy to sort and transcode the shows into my Plex library. I would love to use Plex without relying on another backend system but this is what is working. I would love to blame my cobbled together server for this but too many other people refer to this error as well. The last PMS version I was using that seemed reasonably reliable was 1.9.4.325. the problem with this bug is that when the system fails to dump the video to file at the end, there is no handoff. I get a strange failure to record the next show on that channel until the transcoder finally releases the streams. If it tries to record from the same channel I get “the recording was aborted” error. I have prioritised the winTV dual usb tuner for stability. I almost never record more than two shows at once.

My server is built as follows:
Dell precision 390 case and Mobo
Qx6800 core 2 quad extreme
6 GB of 667mhz DDR 2
Nvidia gt740 for transcoding h264
2 disc drives one CD, one BD/DVD
USB 3 pcie card
Wifi provided by USB 3 802.11 AC1200 device
1 TB raid array for library only
1 hauppauge winTV dual usb tuner
1 hdhr tech us3 dual network tuner
Held together by constant vigilance.

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@Aliquam said:
[…]
Since then I have upgraded to server Version 1.9.4.4325; however, this time around I installed the software as a fresh install as opposed to installing over the existing version and it has been three full days that I have been able to record shows in their entirety, transcode them and watch all programs I selected through the recording schedule. While I only waited these few days to see if this would break, I thought it might be long enough that this solution was stable enough to share.
[…]

A fresh install (removing any single Plex folder) and thus loosing every library and configuration doesn’t work for me.

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There’s definately more to it - I was having the bug, but for the last week and a half it has worked flawlessly. No fresh re-install, only upgrading to the newer versions when they come out. I’m just waiting for it to fail again, I feel like it could happen at any time.

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I already posted that I have the same issue but thought of something and wondered, how many of those affected by this are using Chromecasts to play content? I noticed my Chromecast was acting up right around the time this began and wonder if it could be tied to the issue somehow.

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@impala454 said:
I already posted that I have the same issue but thought of something and wondered, how many of those affected by this are using Chromecasts to play content? I noticed my Chromecast was acting up right around the time this began and wonder if it could be tied to the issue somehow.

I know what you’re talking about regarding issues with Chromecast playback, but I think that’s a separate issue that has more to do with the Chromecast not being able to smoothly transcode the MPEG2 format of the recorded TV shows. Not sure if that’s technically accurate, but that’s my take on it.

207

@tomahawk1277 said:
@kinoCharlino, can we get an update on this fix? I’ll have multiple days of no issues, then a recording gets stuck at 100% and all subsequent recordings are lost. You’re already starting to lose paying Plex Pass customers and we’d REALLY like to get some confidence in the resources Plex is putting towards fixing this basic feature of the paid service. Thanks!

First off, thanks to everyone who has submitted reports here and possible workaround. That’s what the community is for, sharing and caring :slight_smile: @tomahawk1277 you described the exact same thing I have gone through. For over a week I have not been able to reproduce this issue. Count me lucky because it works? HAH no, because what we’ve been working on getting more of in reproducing the issue is a comparison of the raw feed (via Curl) vs. what Plex DVR has recorded. This morning I finally was able to reproduce the issue. :star:

So where do we stand? This is a very important bug to us as well as many users. It has been given a higher priority and “spotlighted” by Support and QA. As such, we also have an internal GHI (issue ticket) tracking this, which includes references to this thread and your reports. Engineering is in-progress on this, but doesn’t have a fix for it ready just yet. I wish I had more to share, but I am working on getting more of an update from engineering.

208

Just some notes, maybe some things to consider. We are experiencing the same pattern in recording failures. After several days of smooth sailing, Monday saw multiple recording failures. Reduced signal due to weather is a likely factor.

I had two recordings that managed to survive Monday evening despite all others falling victim to the weather, one of which had an interesting anomaly. The show played normally for about 28 of it’s 30 minutes. The last 2 minutes were interrupted when a weather alert tone was dispatched along with an informational crawl. The audio goes silent for 3-4 seconds (possibly corresponding to the duration of the alert tone) at which time the video skips forward aprox 30-60 seconds. Both resume playback with audio at normal speed (and starting from a point after the silent gap,) video plays at a reduced framerate and from a point 30-60 seconds ahead of it’s audio. This playback behavior occurs on Plex Media Player and Web Player. When played by VLC, there is a 5 second pause then it resumes playback from a point after the missing frames with audio in sync.

Does this mean that PMS is not packing dummy frames for the missing content while importing, and PM-Player(mpv) is not reading the PTS for both streams or doing periodic sync checks? Seems we need one or the other. I’m not sure how relevant this is to the topic at hand, but so far this seem to be the only injured survivor.

Our settings include PM-Player set to audio sync mode; HDMI; NoHog; 2.0; AC3-Pass; No-clicks. Files are not transcoded at any point and come to rest in .ts containers.

Mac Mini i5/OS10.11
Plex Server Version 1.9.5.4339
HDHomerun HDHR-3-US firm:20150406 x2

209

1.9.6 just released. No mention of fix, but worth a try?

210

@mdsp1989 said:
1.9.6 just released. No mention of fix, but worth a try?

Sorry, a fix for this issue was not included in that release. It’s still being investigated by engineering.

211

Sorry - if I’m clueless - is this the same issue or related to the issue I’ve been having for weeks: Anything I try to record (no matter time or channel) is only seeming to record 30 seconds to maybe 1 min and then it just stops. I end up with a 30 second–>1 min recording in my library complete with art and metadata… The activity log just shows that the recording starts and ends almost at the same time.

EDIT: The activity shows my latest recording starting and then about an hour later, I see that a item was created and matched and so on. Not starting and stoping at the same time as I said.

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@Mike_W_OH said:
Sorry - if I’m clueless - is this the same issue or related to the issue I’ve been having for weeks: Anything I try to record (no matter time or channel) is only seeming to record 30 seconds to maybe 1 min and then it just stops. I end up with a 30 second–>1 min recording in my library complete with art and metadata… The activity log just shows that the recording starts and ends almost at the same time.

EDIT: The activity shows my latest recording starting and then about an hour later, I see that a item was created and matched and so on. Not starting and stoping at the same time as I said.

I believe there are at least 2 parts to this… failed recordings and recordings that hang. They may share a root cause or they may not, but engineering is looking into it.

213

Over a month ago I was having this exact problem with all recordings stuck st 100%.

So I did a complete uninstall/re-install. Since that day I’ve had not one failed recording.

I’ve continued to update to new versions and still no failures.

Others have done the same with similar results. I didn’t want THAT to get lost with all this “getting in the weeds” I’m reading.

214

I am also having this issue with recordings overnight (most often) saying they are at 100%, yet show ‘still recording’ hours later, multiple .grab folders (most empty except for a few) even though my HDHomeRun only has 2 tuners, and only after a restart of PMS do these empty folders and false statuses go away.

After the restart, only 2 shows were added: a 12 hour long episode of the BBT was recovered
Actual duration was greater than 30 minutes. And a small portion, less than 1 hour, of Seal Team. I wound up deleting both since experience is that they are unwatchable.

I checked the status of the tuners in the HDHomeRun prior to restarting PMS and none were active!

I’ve reinstalled several times and its fine for a while, but this issue always comes back.

Seems like PMS just can’t determine when a recording has ended in a fail or success – especially after the show should have ended. I hope a solution is found soon.

Here’s the logs before I restarted PMS.

215

Interesting, your logs show the same thing that my logs showed when I have run into this problem. The timer is set to stop the grab in either 0 or negative seconds. To me this sounds like it’s set to stop recording before it even starts:

12797 65:Oct 26, 2017 00:00:00.372 [0x2b50ba401700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Setting timer to stop grab of ‘SEAL Team - E5 - Collapse’ in -7200 seconds.
12799 65:Oct 26, 2017 00:00:00.372 [0x2b50ba401700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Setting timer to stop grab of ‘Stargate Atlantis - E13 - Hot Zone’ in 0 seconds.

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It seems mine will work flawlessly for 6-8 days, then I get a 100% fail that leads to subsequent failures. Once a reboot occurs it works perfectly again. I’m tryin to use this as a appliance as I don’t use the PC anymore, so I guess for the time being I need to reboot weekly. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason.

217

I’m still on 1.6.1 until this is resolved

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Super happy on 1.6.1.

Regards,
Geoff Faulkner

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@noyzNAbore said:
I had one recording hang last night, Server Version 1.9.5.4339 on Mini/i5/10.11 with two HDHomerun Connect. Found it was still running under the Plex Transcoder, ( ps -U user | grep plex ) It disappeared from the ‘.grab’ directory as soon as server was shut down. The recording showed up on relaunch but was incomplete. (TS was only 760MB in .grab so it failed early or restarted for partial.) I will try killing the process next time to see what happens.

If you need to release a hung recording, the following seems to work.
Find the process ID and send it a TERMinate signal.
kill -s TERM pid
Recording shows up immediately.

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@noyzNAbore said:

@noyzNAbore said:
I had one recording hang last night, Server Version 1.9.5.4339 on Mini/i5/10.11 with two HDHomerun Connect. Found it was still running under the Plex Transcoder, ( ps -U user | grep plex ) It disappeared from the ‘.grab’ directory as soon as server was shut down. The recording showed up on relaunch but was incomplete. (TS was only 760MB in .grab so it failed early or restarted for partial.) I will try killing the process next time to see what happens.

If you need to release a hung recording, the following seems to work.
Find the process ID and send it a TERMinate signal.
kill -s TERM pid
Recording shows up immediately.

How does that work on a QNAP, Linux based server, I wonder.