What type of server do you have? That looks like an anime, so I’m guessing you’ve enabled subtitles so it has to burn those in, along with converting hevc, this might not end well.
I will try to sync mine without subtitles, but because Plex Player has the ability to play subtitles, downloading them instead of converting would solve the problem.
I can’t believe this bug is on.
Any updates? Does anyone work on that?
Looks like it is abandoned.
3 Likes
For Android Devices, i added a custom profile to override the default one.
You put it on a folder called “Profiles” if its not there, create it. It will override the default.
But it will do it for all the of the android devices, that means if an android device is old enough and dont support your media files. it wont convert them at all.
I tested it with a Samsung S10, Xiaomi Mi 8, Samsung A7. It works.
With media files MKV - h264 - aac audio - srt embedded subs
But should work with more.
Not an expert on those things. i get it working with trial and error.
So if any questions i might not be possible to answer.
Only posting this as a workaround until this get fixed.
Custom profiles survive after update and docker updates.
The folder structure is as follows
root@Prometheus:/mnt/user/appdata/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server# ls
Cache/ Crash\ Reports/ Logs/ Metadata/ Plug-ins/ Profiles/
Codecs/ Diagnostics/ Media/ Plug-in\ Support/ Preferences.xml plexmediaserver.pid
In the Profiles folder create a file called “Android.xml”
root@Prometheus:/mnt/user/appdata/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Profiles# ls
Android.xml
Inside xml copy and paste the following
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Client name="Custom_Android">
<!-- Author: Plex Inc. -->
<TranscodeTargets>
<VideoProfile protocol="http" container="mkv" codec="h264" audioCodec="aac,mp3" />
<MusicProfile container="mp3" codec="mp3" id="StereoMusicTranscodeProfile" />
<PhotoProfile container="jpeg" />
<SubtitleProfile container="srt" codec="srt" />
</TranscodeTargets>
<DirectPlayProfiles>
<VideoProfile container="mkv" codec="mpeg1video,mpeg2video,mpeg4,h264,vp8,vp9,Hevc,h265" audioCodec="eac3,ac3,dca,aac,mp2,mp3,pcm" subtitleFormat="srt" />
<MusicProfile container="mp3" codec="mp2,mp3" />
<PhotoProfile container="jpeg,gif,webp,png" />
<SubtitleProfile container="srt" codec="srt" />
</DirectPlayProfiles>
<CodecProfiles>
<VideoCodec name="*">
<Limitations>
<UpperBound name="video.width" value="1920" isRequired="true" />
<UpperBound name="video.height" value="1080" isRequired="true" />
</Limitations>
</VideoCodec>
</CodecProfiles>
</Client>
3 Likes
Thank you for sharing this, but (and speaking for myself) we shouldn’t have to hack our Plex servers so that we can perform a simple file transfer — AKA “Original Quality” — instead of transcoding. It’s 2020 for crying out loud, not 2008.
P.S. - Do you have a link to the original thread for this workaround? I remember seeing it before.
Original thread: Allow sync without transcoding
Yea, i totally agree with you. I spent a couple days figuring out how to make this work. And to be honest. I don’t know why it works. But it does 
It’s more trial and error. At the end of the 1st day i said enough and send to ask for a refund on my yearly plex pass until they fix it.
The next day i said. NO i will FIX it! And the moment i found the solution and make some tests and worked. I got an email that they just refunded. Not even a slightest clue about IF they gonna fix it or not. Just sorry take your money, bye.
I Ended up getting plex pass again, because of some friends that are far far away and i stream them some content…
1 Like
Yes, We just want to download file directly in to our devices!
2 Likes
The worst part it’s even if i accept the transcoding delay… most of time when i try to sync a whole season (or ‘On Deck’ folder), one episode will fail and that’s mean all the next episodes will stay in ‘Awaiting’… The sync mode is totally broke and it’s one of the most valuable feature of the Plex Pass xD
Maybe it’s about time Plex DID start just playing files in their original state.
This nonsense about converting 1080i to 1080p video etc etc.
If I manually downloaded a file to my phone and opened up Kodi it would just play it, because, erm, well I suppose because Kodi actually does what it says on the tin - AND it doesn’t want me to pay for it! Yet Plex wants to convert and transcode this that and the other when my device is more than capable thankyouverymuch.
Instead I am paying for some half implemented buggy software that doesn’t fix the basics or include features that users have been wanting for years (example - “allowing” my other half to delete recordings or other programmes they have watched). No, why not come up with useless features nobody wants or lock me out of my own server when your own botched servers go down.
Useless in the extreme - frustrating stuff all round.
This is very frustrating. Sync in original quality is the only reason why I subscribed to Plex Pass, and it’s broken.
I guess I’ll just switch to your open source competitor, which happens to provide a “download” button that does exactly that - downloading without any conversion.
The first mention of this bug was literally 3 years ago, then some dev reached here and said “this is being converted because target device does not support original codecs”, he then was told that users can stream and play it without transcoding (i can confirm that my phone is able to play directly copied flacs and mkvs) but there was no answer. I don’t understand why there is no bugtracker for plex as it would help to control and audit bugs for devs and save time and mental health for users to not wonder around hundreds of dead forum posts.
Another thing is the conversion time: why would it take 40 mins to convert flac to be able to sync? My server is able to convert almost any flacs that I have in seconds using command line tools. I was monitoring the server at the time of conversion, no other things was running, htop showed average of 4% cpu usage, so obviously it was not the hardware issue.
I have a plex pass for 3 weeks now and the further I go, the more I’m dissapointed. A lot of bugs (couple of them are pretty critical for me), no good way to address them to devs, 'cause there’s no bugtracker, and, as a result - lack of feedback for user ( am I just stupid or is it a bug? If it is a bug, what status does it have? Will it ever be fixed? I don’t know, because there’s no support for my paid product).
I’m really trying to stay calm and give it another try, because during first week I had that wow effect. But without any feedback it is a dead end, I’m not even sure if I ever get dev reply to this message.
P.S. pardon my English, it’s my third language.
This is ridiculous, how is it possible this has not been adressed yet after more than 3 years? Paying 120€ for a lifetime subscription and not even afer an hour, I realise that the feature I wanted is busted. Saying the same as the rest, it works flawlessly in direct play but needs conversion when downloaded… And the conversion is not even fast, I get speeds like 0.2x with a 4 core cpu at 100 %. Seriously thinking of asking for a refund.
1 Like
Hallelujah! Oh man, I can’t believe that worked! After years of struggling, I can finally force files to sync without needless transcoding! The party line from Plex has always been, “Plex knows best” and “Plex is made to transcode everything and if you’re not willing to do that you’re an idiot and shouldn’t be using Plex”. Not a direct quote but close enough. 
I’m on a low-power Synology DiskStation which should never even attempt to transcode. If it helps anybody, the path for this profile XML is:
/Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Profiles
I added mp4 to the VideoProfile containers since that’s how I roll.
Next up: is it possible to use custom device profiles to make the photo viewer stop dynamically resizing all images before sending to the device?
1 Like
FWIW, I’ve slimmed down the custom profile:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Client name="Custom_NoTranscoding">
<DirectPlayProfiles>
<VideoProfile container="mkv,mp4" codec="mpeg1video,mpeg2video,mpeg4,h264,vp8,vp9,Hevc,h265" audioCodec="eac3,ac3,dca,aac,mp2,mp3,pcm" subtitleFormat="srt" />
<MusicProfile container="mp3" codec="mp2,mp3" />
<PhotoProfile container="jpeg,jpg,gif,webp,png" />
<SubtitleProfile container="srt" codec="srt" />
</DirectPlayProfiles>
</Client>
Don’t forget to restart the Plex server process after editing/creating this file.
This basically forces DirectPlay and shuts off transcoding for all the listed media types. It also seems to fix the dreaded 10-seconds-per-image photo resizing problem! Plex can now serve .jpg photos circa 1999 to my Pixel 3!
Plex might not be happy with this solution - they are very proud of their detection and transcoding, even though it is so often wrong - but for those of us with low-power servers, we have been begging for this for years. I carefully encode and curate all my media, and if it can’t play directly I’ve done something wrong. I don’t want Plex to try and transcode for me, and I don’t blame them if my device can’t handle something.
Most of the reasons given by Plex for not allowing transcoding to be disabled from the UI revolve around obscure or very high-end media types on very low-end devices. That seems…nuts. If you’re dabbling in obscure high-end codecs you know what you’re doing and shouldn’t expect things to run on your 5-year-old knock-off device running Android 4.0. Most of us are dealing with mp4/mkv (h.264+acc), mp3, and jpg. Most of our clients are modern phone and web browsers. So glad to finally have a way to force DirectPlay in all these cases!
1 Like
I can confirm that @nlaslett 's solution is working fine but I have some update regarding the target profile file.
If you are using Synology DiskStation the path of your profiles will be:
/volume1/@appstore/Plex Media Server/Resources/Profiles/
There you will find a lot of profiles for different systems. In my case, it is “Android.xml”. I modified that file and added the config according to @nlaslett 's comment.
For guys who are using another system or platform for your Plex Server, you can try to find “Android.xml” file through the whole system, so it will help you to find the needed folder and profile accordingly.
1 Like
@yevfast Interesting! I’m a Windows guy and don’t really know my way around Linux/DiskStation OS, so I’m not sure how to access that path. Are you connecting via SSH? I’m just logging into the web console and using the “File Station” app, and I don’t see /volume1. But it looks like you found the default collection of all Plex device profiles. Cool!
But it seems like this is the wrong place to add custom profiles, as they are overwritten with updates. Official guidance is to use /Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Profiles
Source: Synology: How to access /volume1/@appstore/Plex Media Server/
Just to be clear for everybody, the profile I posted above affects ALL clients; there’s nothing Android-specific about it. Specifying devices is done in the <Identification> and <DeviceDescription> sections of the profile, which I have omitted because I don’t want my DiskStation to try to transcode…ever.
Source: Writing profiles for DLNA devices
This profile affects both syncing (per the original question) as well as any on-the-fly transcoding (for clients and devices where Plex has removed the “Force DirectPlay” option). It also affects still images, making photo libraries usable on low-end servers.
Apologies if anything above is incorrect; I’m still testing and trying to figure out the fine points.
2 Likes
And this is the next Plex “bug”, that is active for years and is still not solved. In my case it’s a movie with DTS audio that fully converts while syncing trough my Android device. Why does Plex not split audio and video tracks in separate files if this is a problem. By that it could batch convert all audio tracks in the background. Or the much better way: Add DTS support to the player so it’s irrelevant what the OS supports or not. If the device has enough power, then there is no reason to insist on “only the server converts” attitude.
If the Plex player won’t support DTS you can always flip the checkbox to make it use an external player. It should work, but you don’t see view history in Plex. But try the custom profile shim first. Might be a needless forced-transcode situation.
I want to use the sync feature to view the movie later and if this is not possible I do not need Plex at all because I could download it through my androids default file explorer and use VLC to view it. But thats not the reason why I bought the Plex Pass.
