[Support Needed] Plex crashing unexpectedly and short recording (logs/db attached)

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.13.6.5339
Player Version#: n/a

Over the weekend I had Plex crash twice. I have no idea what is causing these crashes and would like some guidance on how to read the logs to find these sorts of problems and what I can do to fix the issues.

Also, I had a DVR recording (Saturday’s episode of LivePD) that only recorded one hour of the three hour program. Why did this happen?

I’ve included my logs, db and the xmltv file I use to help diagnose the problem(s)

Thanks



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Is this the correct place to get support? Is there an email I should be using instead?

3

Posting again in the hopes that someone from Plex will help or tell me how to get help.

4

Here’s yet another failed recording:

Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.660 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Starting operation for 'America's Got Talent - E17 - s13e17 Live Quarter Finals 3'.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.661 [4768] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 013d68fb-aad2-49f8-bf61-007a6e67a675 - Recording
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.662 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: HDHomerun starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/1043C20D (Silicondust HDHomeRun CONNECT, supported) tuner 0.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.664 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Resolved subscription to library item 'America's Got Talent' (5061)
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.665 [4768] DEBUG - There were 1 top-level paths for America's Got Talent.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.666 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Saving recording to "D:\Media\PlexTVRecordings\.grab\8a1e7df6112dac8231aa95b34d23a172209b1c94"
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.667 [4768] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET http://192.168.0.44:80/lineup.json
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.683 [4768] DEBUG - HTTP 200 response from GET http://192.168.0.44:80/lineup.json
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.683 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Going to record for 7260 seconds, final URL is http://192.168.0.44:5004/auto/v15.2
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.685 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Setting timer to stop grab of 'America's Got Talent - E17 - s13e17 Live Quarter Finals 3' in 7260 seconds.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.685 [4768] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 0 (Success) starting the record, shutting things down.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.685 [4768] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 1535500800
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.685 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Stopping transcode session.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.685 [4768] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.685 [4768] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.686 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Freed a tuner (now 2 available)
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.686 [4768] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 0 (Success) starting the record, shutting things down.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.686 [4768] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 1535500800
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.686 [4768] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Operation for America's Got Talent - E17 - s13e17 Live Quarter Finals 3 completed with status error (Success)
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.686 [4768] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 013d68fb-aad2-49f8-bf61-007a6e67a675.
Aug 28, 2018 19:00:00.686 [4768] ERROR - DVR:Grabber: Starting media grab failed.

Why does this keep happening? Also, the recording shows a ‘!’ symbol but gives no detail on the error. Why not provide this information rather than having the user wonder or spend time searching the logs? This is a paid feature. There should be some sort of support.

EDIT Yet another failure. The little ‘!’ symbol says ‘Recording was aborted’

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And now another one. This time it says ‘There was a transcoder error’. Other recordings are happening without problem.

Again, where do I get support? I’m going to keep posting to this thread until this stabilizes or someone, ANYONE, can figure out what’s going on. I didn’t envision all this mess when I decided to get Plex Pass.

6

Hi

I have looked at the logs for the.crashes.

I need you to get the logs soon after the crash - best immediately after the restart following the crash

The logs show last crash being Aug 26, 2018 21:03
but the oldest server logs i have go back to Aug 26, 2018 21:35
I need to see the logs for the period leading up to the crash

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Again - would need logs that cover the time of the recording problem. You say it was a saturday recordoing. The logs go back to Sunday 9:35 pm

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Please attach full logs zip and not just a snippet to get a better understanding about the environment earlier actions

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Thank you for responding. I did not include any other logs as I did not know if anyone would even look at them so I didn’t capture them. I will certainly post again when this happens.

How much time do I have between the time a crash/missed recording occurs and when it is purged? Is it within that day?

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depends on the activity - with the default number of log files - your logs covered about 10 hours.(5 + current)

There is an advanced hidden setting that you can add to the registry LogNumFiles to set a higher number of log files
See https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/

11

Could you tell me if you watch Live TV using Android devices ? There are some similarities to an issue that is being investigated

Please let me know which devices / plex apps you use for live tv / recording

12

Hi again. So here’s some logs from a show (DuckTales S1E28) that played at 400pm today. The program length should be 30 minutes with commercials but the final recording is two minutes exactly. Can you please take a look at this ASAP so that maybe this recording issue can be resolved? Thank you.

EDIT Also noting that ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’ at 530am-600am gave transcoder error and is only two minutes long. Also, same show but at 930am-1000am show length is three seconds and another at 645am-700am is 3 minutes long.

Can you tell me what to look for in the logs as well to your observations so I can know what to look for if you can’t resolve this for me. I appreciate the help but I am very frustrated with the way Plex is behaving. Thank you.

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I did not notice this response. Yes, I absolutely do use Android devices for watching live tv and recorded media.

I have a Nexus Player (Android TV), Xiaomi Mibox3 (Android TV), Amazon Fire Stick (Android), and Pixel phone (Android).

My Plex server is a Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q66600 @2.40GHz, Win7 Pro 64bit with 8GB RAM. I’m using Silicon Dust HDHomerun Connect and Silicon Dust HDHomerun Quatro.

How does the Android usage affect the Windows Plex server’s ability to record a program?

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At the moment it looks like an error returned by the tuner part way through recording

example for channel v1715

Aug 29, 2018 16:00:00.655 [4492] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Going to record for 1800 seconds, final URL is http://192.168.0.44:5004/auto/v1715

Aug 29, 2018 16:00:00.658 [4492] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Allocated a tuner (1 left)

Aug 29, 2018 16:00:08.252 [8500] DEBUG - Transcoder segment range: 0 - 1

and got as far as segment 49 and then error

Aug 29, 2018 16:02:10.373 [4844] DEBUG - Transcoder segment range: 0 - 49
Aug 29, 2018 16:02:41.655 [4276] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://192.168.0.44:5004/auto/v1715: Unknown error

You could use wireshark on the server to see what responses/packets get received at the time of the logged Unknown error

Is the DVR used outside Plex at all?

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The last set of logs do not show the same issue as was in the snippet of log you posted before. There is an android issue being investigated where it is suspected that the android is not stopping the streams properly.

Check you are up to date with firmware on the devices

So you probably have two different issues

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On occasion I do stream live TV remotely. I did not think this would be a problem

17

I was just thinking of the possibility that Plex is trying to stream from the DVR at the same time as another application making a connection.

Should make sure the DVR is dedicated for use by Plex Media Server to avoid any potential clash and unexplained failures

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Yes it could be two separate issues. I have not had a crash since this weekend. The immediate problem is with the recordings not completing. What can I do about this? Why does it work sometimes but not at others? Do I need to reboot my Android devices after watching live TV? I have little confidence in my recordings actually happening to v completion and the family is not too happy.

Thanks again for working with me. What do I do next?

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i have already giving you a suggestion for trying to see what the Unknown Error is

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So I need to set Wireshark up to capture communications on the server and then provide that data to you once that error shows up?

Also, I see a ton of this:

Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.542 [9132] DEBUG - HTTP 200 response from GET http://192.168.0.183:49152/upnpdevicedesc.xml
Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.543 [9132] ERROR - XML: Entity: line 1: 
Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.543 [9132] ERROR - XML: parser 
Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.543 [9132] ERROR - XML: error : 
Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.543 [9132] ERROR - XML: Unsupported encoding gbk 
Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.543 [9132] ERROR - XML: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="gbk"?> 
Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.543 [9132] ERROR - XML:                                   ^ 
Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.543 [9132] ERROR - Error parsing content.
Aug 29, 2018 19:13:45.544 [9132] ERROR - Error parsing XML.

That’s my doorbell camera. Is there any way to get Plex to ignore it?