Various failures when trying to download anything into iOS Plex app - very little success

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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Server Version#: 1.40.1.8227
Player Version#: iOS 8.33
iOS version: 16.7.2

I am trying to download anything into Plex app in my iPhone but having all sorts of various issues.
1080p file, around 13Gb. I configured iOS Plex app to download original video and original audio.
When download is happening somewhere between 50% and 60% Plex server crashes.
It leaves nothing in the log file but I can see plexmediaserver process restarted and it creates a new file.
I tried this about 5 times and it is consistently doing this.

I changed iOS download settings to High Audio and High 1080p Video.
The first attempt failed almost at the end. Didn’t crash the server, nothing in the log, just a message in the app “Data transfer failed”.
The second attempt was successful. Horaaay! 40 minutes of mucking around to get 1 file into my wife’s phone.

Now I take my iPhone. Same settings, same file.
The fist attempt failed with the same “Data transfer failed”.
Nothing relevant in the log.
The second attempt - success!!!

Trying to add 4K file now. As far as I understand it is being transcoded into 1080p and the server CPU goes crazy. 30 minutes of pushing CPU to 80% and… “Data transfer failed”.
“Hardware transcoding” they said… Hmmm.
Anyway, logs - single entry:

ERROR - [TranscodeOutputStream] Session appears to have died from under us

I will keep trying but so far this is the biggest disappointment with Plex.

The main reason to get Plex Pass was to use iOS download feature with hardware transcoding so my wife can watch something while commuting. I have Kodi for local playback and it is great.

So far Plex experience feels like a waste of money and time.
Is there a way to make this feature more stable?

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I’m afraid that the download feature is widely reported to be very poor, this is also my experience. Personally I find the app crashes all the time, not so much server.

If your files are in HEVC/X265, I believe hardware doesn’t support decode at this point, so this might explain your CPU experience.

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The same file shows HW transcoding in dashboard when I am playing it back.
Also it is x264.
Thanks for the help.

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I also (think) that I stand corrected on hardware support for HEVC/x265, my experience is that the transcode is very very very slow (for downloads) so I disabled it. Could just be even hardware HEVC/x265 is slow.

Either way, it isn’t your issue, as you’ve confirmed x264.

As people move to more 4k content, I suspect we’ll see more posts like yours.

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