"Transcoder crashed or failed to start" since updating to 1.7.5.4035

I recently updated PMS to version 1.7.5.4035 and since then, every time I try to play a video on my Android device or Chromecast, I receive an error message saying “Plex transcoder crashed or failed to start”.

I’ve attached a copy of my log files.

Does anybody know if there is some way of getting around this? I mean, Plex is pretty unusable at the moment.

Update 1: videos fail to play on PS4 too, but without a specific error message about the transcoder.
Update 2: as seen below, the only resolution that has been found is to roll back to a previous version (1.5.7.4016 in my case). It’s not exactly an elegant solution, but hopefully an update will sort this out.

Same issue here. Error appears on all playback methods.

Same issue here. I had to roll back. Not getting any suggestions from support team either.

@Gordonx42 said:
Same issue here. I had to roll back. Not getting any suggestions from support team either.

I really need to do that. I haven’t used Plex since the date I posted this, and all I can do is hope that the new update fixes the problem (whenever that comes around). How did you manage to rollback? Unfortunately, I haven’t kept any previous versions and I can’t seem to find any legitimate website that distributes them.

I found the old releases here: http://www.filehorse.com/download-plex-media-server/31110/

@Gordonx42 said:
I found the old releases here: Plex Media Server 1.5.7.4016 Download

That’s solved it. Thank you so much!

This is horrible its still not fixed in the recent version update Version 1.7.6.4058

@childebrandt42 said:
This is horrible its still not fixed in the recent version update Version 1.7.6.4058

Yep, it’s a complete pain.

My plan going forward is to stick with my current version (1.5.7.4016), keep that install file safe and whenever an update is rolled out, see whether or not the problem persists. If it does, then I’ll roll back to the version that has been working. Obviously, it’s less than ideal, but I have found absolutely nothing on how to solve this.

Agree with wilson1098. Roll back is only way to resolve.
I have rolled back to the following and everything now seems to work perfectly.

  • Plex Media Server v1.5.7.4016 (uninstall latest version and install old version. All settings are kept).
  • Plex client for nVidia Shield v5.6.1.505 (Base factory install of Plex on current version of nVidia Shield OS)

Why isnt plex fixing this issue? Can we have a statement from plex staff? and like the preview post, why wasent this issue resolved in the last update for plex pass users?

CHAPTERS ARE WORKING AGAIN!!!
Great side effect of rolling back to previous version of Plex Client and Server (see my previous post).
In fact, everything works. No downside of rolling back at all.

Having the same issue while trying to watch through my ps4 (same issue through a browser on my pc as well). Have rolled back to 1.5.7.4016 and it still crashes every time I hit play on a file. Transcoder quality on Auto. Getting ready to give up on Plex and just buy a laptop to plug directly into my tv…

@horsencarrig said:
Having the same issue while trying to watch through my ps4 (same issue through a browser on my pc as well). Have rolled back to 1.5.7.4016 and it still crashes every time I hit play on a file. Transcoder quality on Auto. Getting ready to give up on Plex and just buy a laptop to plug directly into my tv…

I feel as though you might regret buying a new laptop just because of this… plus that method would be a pain practically. My best advice is to try different previous versions and hope one of them works. I think that you should start with 1.4.x and then work back from there, i.e. then try 1.3.x, 1.2.x etc.

Edit: you could also try converting the files you need into a suitable codec for the PS4 to play without transcoding. Of course, this isn’t great if you have hundreds of files to convert.

I have the same issue with PMS 1.7.x and 1.8.0. Downgrading to PMS 1.6.1 solves the issue for me.

I’m running PMS on Ubuntu Precise amd64, both iOS and Android clients fail.

@storem said:
I have the same issue with PMS 1.7.x and 1.8.0. Downgrading to PMS 1.6.1 solves the issue for me.

I’m running PMS on Ubuntu Precise amd64, both iOS and Android clients fail.

Would love to get logs and sample file on 1.8.0

I’m digging further into the issue, and this might actually be related to one specific video container format: webm. There’s an ongoing thread here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/278498/plex-media-server-1-7-5-4035-transcoding-broken

@storem said:
I’m digging further into the issue, and this might actually be related to one specific video container format: webm. There’s an ongoing thread here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/278498/plex-media-server-1-7-5-4035-transcoding-broken

That thread seems to be more about getting old versions rather than having the issue investigated.

1.8.0.4109 had ffmpeg fix for transcoder failure - so really it is only relevant to get evidence from 1.8.0.4109 and to ignore anything reported on 1.7.5

@sa2000 said:

@storem said:
I have the same issue with PMS 1.7.x and 1.8.0. Downgrading to PMS 1.6.1 solves the issue for me.

I’m running PMS on Ubuntu Precise amd64, both iOS and Android clients fail.

Would love to get logs and sample file on 1.8.0

I ran into this on Version 1.7.6.4058. I’m not going to test every single file, but I hit the “transcoder crashed or failed to start” on this file. This is the first time I have come across it, but I knw it has been a known issue lately so I came to post about it right away… I have attached the log zip, dumped after the third time I attempted to start playing.

I had a look first at v1.7.1 as this is the first version which shows the regression for me. The only difference I can see is a missing (empty) e96c1d3-1208-linux-ubuntu-x86_64 directory under Codecs which existed in v1.6.1.

It seems PMS downloads the content for this directory from http://plex.tv/api/codecs/vp8_decoder

The resulting content using v1.6.1 is:

  • libaac_encode.so
  • liblibx264_encoder.so
  • libmpeg4_encoder.so.tmp-6499-x19b-xa05-1616
  • libvp8_decoder.so.

This directory seems crucial to enable transcoding the webm under v1.6.1. Copying it to the v1.7.1 Codecs directory does not help. After a transcoder failure on v1.7.1 (and v1.8.0) this particular directory is removed by PMS.

Please find the PMS v1.8.0 log attached. A sample media file can be downloaded here during the next 7 days.

@storem I am getting the error and I do not use webm files. That has nothing to do with it. Also, this is the “Windows” section.