Server Version#: 1.41.4.9463
Player Version#: 10.26.0.2578 (6cc7ea1a)
Player Devices: Pixel 8, Chromecast with Google TV
Server Device: Synology DS1520+ NAS, Docker
In the past week or two I’ve run into an odd issue where plex item thumbnails are failing to load, but only for two specific Android clients on two different devices, both using the standard android ‘Plex’ app with the same version (listed above); a Pixel 8 and a Chromecast with Google TV (I think the 4k model, but not sure about that).
Thumbnails display properly on these two devices for other Plex servers I have access to in the Plex Home group I’m a part of. They also display properly in other clients I’ve tried, like the web client and, interestingly, the new ‘Plex Preview’ Android app. There are no other issues with these clients, I see all the items in the server and can watch them on the clients without issue.
The fact that I can see thumbnails in the Android Plex Preview app but not in Plex (classic) app provided a basis for comparison and helped narrow down to a specific request query parameter that’s different between the two which is likely causing problems for both devices, but I’m not sure how to fix it.
The key difference here seems to be a loopback ip:port prefix on the url request param for the GET /photo/:/transcode request, which is causing the thumbnail request to fail when made from the ‘classic’ Plex app vs the ‘preview’ plex app:
- preview (working):
10.0.0.73 GET /photo/:/transcode?...&url=/library/metadata/6874/thumb/1739809169 - classic (failing):
10.0.0.73 GET /photo/:/transcode?...&url=http://127.0.0.1:32401/library/metadata/5491/thumb/1739781243
The server is hosted on 10.0.0.10:32401 so if I visit either of those urls directly and substitute the correct IP/port, I get the expected thumbnail image without any issue.
why is http://127.0.0.1:32401 being prepended to that request param on these clients, and how do I update the configuration to remove it. I’ve tried clearing caches, signing out and back in, bouncing the plex server, deleting and reinstalling the apps, etc… with no luck. I assume there’s a database entry that might be able to be manually updated, but I haven’t found it yet in a database dump while just browsing around with a sqlite viewer.
There was also an app version update on Feb 3rd that’s at least in the ballpark of when the issue cropped up: Plex for Android - #524 by PlexAndroidReleaser so I suppose it’s possible that a bug was introduced that is causing this, but I’m not sure how to rollback in order to verify, if that’s even possible.
Any help is appreciated!
Log snippets with more detail for each of those requests:
// 'Plex Preview' app, working thumbnails
// 10.0.0.73 GET /photo/:/transcode?...&url=/library/metadata/6874/thumb/1739809169
Request: [10.0.0.73:35078 (Allowed Network (WAN))] GET /photo/:/transcode?width=360&height=360&minSize=1&format=jpeg&url=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F6874%2Fthumb%2F1739809169 (24 live) #5104b TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (<my-username>) (Pixel 8)
[Req#5104b/PhotoTranscoder] Request for url [/library/metadata/6874/thumb/1739809169] (is local: 1 upscaled: 0)
[Req#5104b/PhotoTranscoder/Req#5106d] It took 0.000000 ms to retrieve 232 items.
[Req#5104b/PhotoTranscoder/Req#5106d] Calculated media file path for path [metadata://posters/cde1adacc778cf36eb3a3cf49913397e5233f2b9]: ["/app/config/Plex Media Server/Metadata/TV Shows/9/d3edfaeab36562e0217392269b998f9c418c826.bundle/Contents/_combined/posters/cde1adacc778cf36eb3a3cf49913397e5233f2b9"]
[Req#5104b/PhotoTranscoder] Calling back into ourselves for photo to transcode, optimizing the process (status: -1)
[Req#5104b/PhotoTranscoder] Photo cache obtained 288210 bytes from /library/metadata/6874/thumb/1739809169
[Req#5104b/PhotoTranscoder] Created thumbnail of size 360x529, has pixels: 1
Completed: [10.0.0.73:35078] 200 GET /photo/:/transcode?width=360&height=360&minSize=1&format=jpeg&url=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F6874%2Fthumb%2F1739809169 (24 live) #5104b TLS GZIP 121ms 37533 bytes (pipelined: 2)
// 'Plex' (classic) app, non-working thumbnails
// 10.0.0.73 GET /photo/:/transcode?...&url=http://127.0.0.1:32401/library/metadata/5491/thumb/1739781243
Request: [10.0.0.73:42668 (WAN)] GET /photo/:/transcode?width=288&url=http%3A%2F%2F127.0.0.1%3A32401%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F5491%2Fthumb%2F1739781243&height=433 (20 live) #4cc0e TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (<my-username>) (Pixel 8)
[Req#4cc0e/PhotoTranscoder] Request for url [http://127.0.0.1:32401/library/metadata/5491/thumb/1739781243] (is local: 0 upscaled: 0)
[Req#4cc0e/PhotoTranscoder/HCl#b73] HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32401/library/metadata/5491/thumb/1739781243
Request: [127.0.0.1:33864 (WAN)] GET /library/metadata/5491/thumb/1739781243 (22 live) #4cc15 GZIP Signed-in
Completed: [127.0.0.1:33864] 401 GET /library/metadata/5491/thumb/1739781243 (21 live) #4cc15 GZIP 0ms 357 bytes
[HttpClient/HCl#b73] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 401 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32401/library/metadata/5491/thumb/1739781243
Completed: [10.0.0.73:42668] 404 GET /photo/:/transcode?width=288&url=http%3A%2F%2F127.0.0.1%3A32401%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F5491%2Fthumb%2F1739781243&height=433 (20 live) #4cc0e TLS GZIP 2ms 379 bytes (pipelined: 2)
For the Plex team, this does still seem like a bug to me since my original configuration worked in the preview app but not in the classic app. I was very happy to help troubleshoot this further, but frankly it’s discouraging to take the time to gather that much technical detail and specific logs pointing at a very specific technical discrepency only to get zero response for over a month.
(also rolled back to server version 1.41.9.9961, but that by itself didn’t make a difference, thumbnails only returned on Google Home after removing the url above from settings, saving, and force stopping / restarting the Plex app on Google Home). So… solved again? I guess?