I wonder if some knowledge person could look at these logs, and see if they see anything that stands out. I am having a somewhat better, but by no means ideal situation with errors such as ‘There was an error navigating to the specified Item’ and lots of occurrences of the orange spinning wheel when I try to access a library.
Is it possible to delete all my data (I have the media files obviously) and ‘start again’ with a clean slate, as it were? And would it be better to run PMS from a discreet laptop, rather than from my Synology NAS? Many thanks.
In the logs, I see where PMS is remultiplexing (repackaging) video to send to a Panasonic. These are without issue
I will caution, the ARM CPU in the DS218play is easily overloaded (Dual Core).
I have the 4 core version in the DS418j (for development). It less easily overloaded.
These CPUs can handle, at most, 1x 20 Mbps H.264 video transcode w/ audio at a time.
Do be careful.
As for other things –
The screenshot shows 720p DirectPlay.
DirectPlay == PMS is sending the file to the player AS-IS
If there is poor performance (dropping / pausing / etc) then it is the local network (WiFI ?).
You might try optimizing the Database to reduce some lag in PMS.
I to have been experiencing a very poor unusable PMS. I’m so frustrated with this. Plex was functioning wonderfully via web server or apps on ATV, Mac portables and the like. Now it has turned to crap. As a background, I’m running PMS on a relatively new MacMini whose only purpose is to serve my media collection to my local 4k tv. My network is typically a minimum of 150 Mbps and faster, so I don’t think it’s a network issue. My media is on an external drive with 6 TBs on SSD drives. I have spent days trying to figure out what is wrong with Plex. I strongly believe that it is the Plex server software. All my movie files are MP4 files @H.264 with ACC audio. At the worst I was able to play directly through the server web app to my TV, but with no remote control access. Now I suspect the server app is to blame, because I can play any thing in my collection via ATV app or quicktime without delay or hesitation. Now when I use Plex anything I get the dreaded and despised not enough CPU for conversion at this time. All software has be reloaded to the current versions on all devises. It is my understanding that MP4 files need no conversion and are ready for play unless a subtitles are being burned in. Even this has not been a problem in the past without delay. If there is anybody that can direct me to a solution it would be very much appreciated. I’ve been a devoted Plex pass member for years. Is there no way to produce an app that is not so complicated? If I were a software engineer I’d make my own. I just need an app that works consistently like this used to. HELP
>>My network is typically a minimum of 150 Mbps and faster, so I don’t think it’s a network issue.
…and I am using a 400Mbps connection, so like you the network shouldn’t be an issue at all. What’s frustrating is that sometimes (about once in 10 attempts) something will play properly.
Regarding using your database repair utility; I just have a couple of questions at this point. I downloaded 1.11.09.tar.gz and have expanded it.
Do I locate the whole expanded folder onto my Mac (i.e. into ~/Downloads), from where I administer my Synology NAS, or onto the NAS itself (i.e. /volume1/PlexMediaServer) ?
I am a little nervous about using Terminal, as I realise I could do some serious damage if not careful! I do however have some experience using it, I am somewhat familiar with it. Do you have any tips? I intend to follow your instructions on https://github.com/ChuckPa/DBRepair to the letter.
The file DBRepair.sh must be located on the Synology NAS (where PMS is located). It is OK to place it in /volume1/PlexMediaServer. You can locate it elsewhere if desired (ex: your home directory). DBRepair knows where the Plex database files are located, so its exact location does not matter.
After you have it on the NAS, you must make it executable: sudo chmod a+x DBRepair.sh
To run it: sudo ./DBRepair.sh
Use the STOP, AUTO, START, EXIT options, in that order.
AUTO performs several of the individual operations. If it finds structural problems with the database it will attempt to repair it.
If AUTO finds problems and cannot repair them, then copy the output and post it to this thread.
Here is an example of the AUTO option from my DS918+ (I’ve already stopped PMS):
DBRepair AUTO Example Output
Select
1 - 'stop' - Stop PMS.
2 - 'automatic' - Check, Repair/Optimize, and Reindex Database in one step.
3 - 'check' - Perform integrity check of database.
4 - 'vacuum' - Remove empty space from database without optimizing.
5 - 'repair' - Repair/Optimize databases.
6 - 'reindex' - Rebuild database indexes.
7 - 'start' - Start PMS
8 - 'import' - Import watch history from another database independent of Plex. (risky).
9 - 'replace' - Replace current databases with newest usable backup copy (interactive).
10 - 'show' - Show logfile.
11 - 'status' - Report status of PMS (run-state and databases).
12 - 'undo' - Undo last successful command.
21 - 'prune' - Remove old image files (jpeg,jpg,png) from PhotoTranscoder cache & all temp files left by PMS.
42 - 'ignore' - Ignore duplicate/constraint errors.
88 - 'update' - Check for updates.
98 - 'quit' - Quit immediately. Keep all temporary files.
99 - 'exit' - Exit with cleanup options.
Enter command # -or- command name (4 char min) : auto
Automatic Check,Repair,Index started.
Checking the PMS databases
Check complete. PMS main database is OK.
Check complete. PMS blobs database is OK.
Exporting current databases using timestamp: 2025-09-01_14.59.53
Exporting Main DB
Exporting Blobs DB
Successfully exported the main and blobs databases.
Start importing into new databases.
Importing Main DB.
Importing Blobs DB.
Successfully imported databases.
Verifying databases integrity after importing.
Verification complete. PMS main database is OK.
Verification complete. PMS blobs database is OK.
Saving current databases with '-BACKUP-2025-09-01_14.59.53'
Making repaired databases active
Repair complete. Please check your library settings and contents for completeness.
Recommend: Scan Files and Refresh all metadata for each library section.
Backing up of databases
Backup current databases with '-BACKUP-2025-09-01_15.06.30' timestamp.
Reindexing main database
Reindexing main database successful.
Reindexing blobs database
Reindexing blobs database successful.
Reindex complete.
Automatic Check, Repair/optimize, & Index successful.
Well, I put the file (DBRepair.sh) onto the NAS, at Library>Application Support>Plex Media Server and ran the Terminal commend, but this is the output so I guess its’s in the wrong place?
p.s. do you think I should be using zsh, as indicated?
“ Last login: Wed Sep 3 11:32:36 on ttys000
The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`.
That location does not exist for Plex Media Server running on a Synology NAS. On Synology NAS running DSM 7, the Plex Data Folder is the /PlexMediaServer shared folder.
Do this:
Enable the SSH service for the NAS in Synology Control Panel → Terminal & SNMP
Open a terminal window on the Mac.
Enter ssh username@IP. username = your Synology NAS username; IP = Synology’s IP address (192.168.178.35 per your log files).
I have re-located DBRepair.sh to File Station>PlexMediaServer and ran the command ssh username@192.168.178.35 but it didn’t like it, and reported “ssh: connect to host 192.168.178.35 port 22: Connection refused”
Thank you for that. My DSM settings correspond with yours.
One step forward: In Terminal, I seem to be connected now (I used ssh MyNASUserName@192.168.178.35) with no “Are you sure…”, but now Terminal ins’t accepting my NAS password. I have checked and re-checked but it won’t budge - it’s definitely correct. Do you know if there’s a workaround?
just make sure you press the correct keys
You want get any inputs on screen entering password with SSH (or any *nix) prompts. (might be confused with like its accepting your input)
