Sync stuck on "Waiting to download"

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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1

This is a recent issue that’s starting to affect only one of my Android devices (S7).

My other devices are syncing normally (nVidea Shield tablet, another S7 and S5s)

I have one show that’s sync’d to my device, unwatched only.

Server shows items ready to sync:

580×415 73.4 KB

Device goes through sync cycle and shows complete:

No downloads start…whether on the same network as the server or external.

I’ve included the device logs from an external sync attempt…lots of “404 Not Found” errors.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

4 Likes
2

+1. I get the exact same issues as above on my android device.

1 Like
3

I am having the same issue with my Windows 10 Surface Pro 4 and my Android 7.1.2 Nexus 6P. My Plex server is running on a Windows 10 PC, media is stored on Western Digital 2TB Green Drives WD20EZRX.

4

Same issue with Windows 7 PC to Android (Galaxy S7). Trying to sync to my wifes phone (Managed User)
I’ve tried various combinations of user - logging in as primary, sending to managed … switching to managed and sending to managed … trying from the phone and trying from the PC. Always sticks on ‘waiting to download’.

5

You’re far from alone. This issue has been present since the sync feature was released multiple years ago. Sync has always been on and off working for me, never consistent or even following any pattern at all. Though inconvenient, you’re probably better off manually moving the files to your phone then using an alternative media player. If you need to re-encode media to play on the device, you can use something like handbrake to get the job done.

1 Like
6

Sync works perfectly on all my other devices, and it has only started misbehaving on this device within the last few weeks. I’m sure if I uninstalled and reinstalled the app on the device everything will tick along normally (as it has in the past). I’m just giving them an opportunity to investigate a potential issue with a recent server or android update. Using sync as it is now is still better than manually maintaining files on a device as they become available…I did that 10 years ago with my iPAQ and PSP, never again. :slight_smile:

7

Same issue here on two Nexus 5Xs. I gave up trying to get to the bottom of the issue and signed up to Spotify instead.

8

Same Error with Music Sync (Android 7.1.1)

03-23 06:30:49.981 e: An exception occurred: [ Code=ErrorApplyingDatabaseAction; extras={action=[type=Add table=metadata_items iden=268462425 values=[updated_at=2015-11-29 22:58:51, library_section_id=268435458, extra_data=ma%3AchapterSource=, hash=19158ce6bff8e394288653d80adb02b2f8763550, guid=com.plexapp.agents.plexmusic://gracenote/track/182007037-FF12DB6216DF464ECB9AF6EEF5298136/182007048-5D3EC5893DDB73AFD0BF021D26663EDA?lang=en, tags_genre=, parent_id=268462403, studio=, tags_director=, tags_country=, user_music_url=, user_banner_url=, title_sort=Dig, id=268462425, added_at=2015-05-01 14:04:01, index=11, content_rating=, tags_star=, changed_at=8876142, tags_collection=, user_art_url=, original_title=, refreshed_at=2015-05-12 02:12:53, metadata_type=10, absolute_index=1, tagline=, title=Dig, user_thumb_url=, tags_writer=, media_item_count=1, summary=, created_at=2012-10-24 17:15:39, resources_changed_at=58776, user_fields=, rating_count=68475, originally_available_at=null, trivia=null, available_at=null, content_rating_age=null, audience_rating=null, quotes=null, duration=null, deleted_at=null, expires_at=null, year=null, rating=null, ] metaValues=[syncItemID=17919434, ]]} ]
03-23 06:30:49.981 e: Stacktrace: [ Code=ErrorApplyingDatabaseAction; extras={action=[type=Add table=metadata_items iden=268462425 values=[updated_at=2015-11-29 22:58:51, library_section_id=268435458, extra_data=ma%3AchapterSource=, hash=19158ce6bff8e394288653d80adb02b2f8763550, guid=com.plexapp.agents.plexmusic://gracenote/track/182007037-FF12DB6216DF464ECB9AF6EEF5298136/182007048-5D3EC5893DDB73AFD0BF021D26663EDA?lang=en, tags_genre=, parent_id=268462403, studio=, tags_director=, tags_country=, user_music_url=, user_banner_url=, title_sort=Dig, id=268462425, added_at=2015-05-01 14:04:01, index=11, content_rating=, tags_star=, changed_at=8876142, tags_collection=, user_art_url=, original_title=, refreshed_at=2015-05-12 02:12:53, metadata_type=10, absolute_index=1, tagline=, title=Dig, user_thumb_url=, tags_writer=, media_item_count=1, summary=, created_at=2012-10-24 17:15:39, resources_changed_at=58776, user_fields=, rating_count=68475, originally_available_at=null, trivia=null, available_at=null, content_rating_age=null, audience_rating=null, quotes=null, duration=null, deleted_at=null, expires_at=null, year=null, rating=null, ] metaValues=[syncItemID=17919434, ]]} ]
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.a.c.a(SourceFile:119)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.v.b(SourceFile:393)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.v.a(SourceFile:27)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.v$1.run(SourceFile:313)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1133)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:607)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:761)

03-23 06:30:49.982 e: An exception occurred: com.plexapp.plex.net.f.a.a.d
03-23 06:30:49.982 e: Stacktrace: com.plexapp.plex.net.f.a.a.d
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.a.a.a.a(SourceFile:229)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.a.a.d(SourceFile:173)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.a.b.d(SourceFile:31)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.a.a.e.a(SourceFile:83)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.v.a(SourceFile:458)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.v.b(SourceFile:427)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.v.a(SourceFile:27)
at com.plexapp.plex.net.f.v$1.run(SourceFile:313)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1133)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:607)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:761)

9

UPDATE:

As expected, I was able to get things moving again on my S7.

Things I tried that didn’t solve the issue:

  1. Delete sync content that was stuck and re-sync
  2. Delete all sync’d content on device and re-sync
  3. Changed Sync storage location and re-sync

What I did to get things moving again:

  1. Delete all sync’d content (to make sure I didn’t leave any file behind before I did the next step)
  2. Uninstalled Plex for Android and re-started device
  3. Removed Device from list of devices on Plex Server *my guess is that this is the step that fixed the 404 paths
  4. Re-installed Plex on device (setting up Device Name, storage location, and other settings the same as before)
  5. Selected same show for syncing from Device

I’ve attached the log from the successful sync session, should someone care to take the time to compare them.

My assumption is that at some time in the last month the DB Device ID the server tracked no longer matched the local Device ID (or something similarly related to the Device information on the server), and so the sync path being generated for the items waiting to be downloaded became invalid, thus the 404 errors. I’m also assuming this happened during one of the recent server updates, as this device has been associated with the server without issue for at least 6 months.

This workaround wouldn’t be a big deal except I had to turf all Plex content on my device in order to fix it, which includes a lot of music files that now have to be re-sync’d.

And now we wait…

1 Like
10

BTW - I just fixed my issue as well but with a different approach.

I gave the “plex” user on my linux server RWX permissions to the location my Music and Movies are stored. I’m not sure why this helped - but as soon as it had those permissions I could start syncing again from my Nexus 5X.

HTH someone.

1 Like
11

So then none of your devices were able to sync until you gave the required permissions to the “plex” user?

Is your server’s application directory in the same path as your content? or have you moved the Plex cache away from the executable?

12

Same problem here. Anybody from Plex team can help here?

13

None of the aforementioned solutions have fixed the issue when trying to sync with a Windows 10 Plex App. After conversion the media gets stuck on the Windows 10 client device as “Awaiting transfer” while on the server it says “Waiting to be downloaded”.

The only time I was able to get it to work was when the client and server devices were on the same network and part of the same homegroup. Otherwise the above scenario always plays out.

Very frustrating as my decision to pay for Plex was primarily driven by this remote sync feature which has never worked properly for me.

14

I just reproduced the issue again with debug log on. Unfortunately I’ve had debug log on for quite some time so I don’t think it would be that helpful to post all of them. Can anyone help me understand which log files would be most helpful to share here for this issue?

15

I’m still struggling with this too. Tablet seems fine but my phone is troublesome. I can fix it by uninstalling plex on the phone and reinstalling, and then sync will work for a day or two and then this same old issue occurs. Really annoying.

16

I’m seeing similar issues as cutcutcut;

  1. Remove device from plex
  2. reinstall plex app
  3. sync a playlist (50-200 songs original quality) (but just one playlist if I try multiple it break the sync with “Updating Information” bug)
  4. add more items to playlist, force device to sync right a way
  5. everything this fine.
  6. add more items to playlist
  7. next morning device is stuck “Waiting to download”
17

Yup, that’s pretty much what I get, except I’m not doing music but tv and movies, but same end result.

1 Like
18

this is not a solution, but a bad workaround;

  1. create a playlist with small number of items (25 songs or one tv show/movie)
  2. sync the the playlist to the device, don’t let the device sleep and wait until it’s done sync’ing
  3. then add more items to the playlist (25 or 1 tv show/movie)
  4. sync the device, don’t let the device sleep and wait until it’s done sync’ing
  5. repeat until you get everything sync’d
19

I spend all day at work on my PC, android phone open on plex sync status page, every 5 minutes I look over, press refresh to get it downloading again. Yes I’m syncing a lot of files (most of my music), but it would be nice to just leave it syncing in the background rather than stopping every few minutes. There’s no pattern to it either.

To even get to this stage, I’ve had to re-install plex a number of times, format the sd card in my phone, delete the phone from plexweb --> settings --> devices.

After reading my device logs, I see some I/O errors appear every now and then when writing to the database. Tried on more than one SD card, and checked the cards for errors. This could be the issue. Strangely it happens more when I’m syncing at home - theory is faster download/sync speed and maybe the sd card can’t keep up?

20

@kdineen you might be on to something, I’m also sync’ing to crappy SD card and recently switched to original source (most of my music is already 192Kbs or less). Since there is no conversion the device is getting the files as fast as the WiFi connection can send them.