Video playback randomly stops in Chrome via plex-web

Server Version#: 1.23.5.4801
Player Version#: 4.59.2
When playing any video using plex-web in Chrome the video will randomly stop. It freezes with no errors, warnings or other information. This happens in both a local connection to the server (via internal IP) as well as when using the plex-web through external connection. This only happens for me in chrome. To get it to work I have to close the browser window, open a new one and reload plex. I scoured the logs for any error showing and got nothing.

2 Likes

I have also started getting this from a couple of months ago.
In Chrome, open Plex, plays music for a around 30 - 40 mins then either hangs or stops and starts like it’s poor bandwidth and then hangs.
I then get a white screen when clicking on refresh.
I have to close plex, reopen in another tab, all ok for another 30-40 mins.

+1. Happening to me quite a lot right now, as I recently started playing music back via this computer. OSX 10.13.6 with Chrome 91.0.4472.164. Sometimes media playback is stable for less than 10 minutes. Sometimes it lasts hours. It does not specifically appear to be media-specific, but hard to nail down for sure. No issues playing back the same media via iOS apps or TV. Have not tried alternate browsers as that would rather defeat the purpose for me.

Player version 4.59.2
Version in settings: Version 1.24.0.4930

Same problem. Ever since the most recent update, playback freezes on direct playback on my server computer, and also happening on both our firestick TV’s.

Every time there’s a plex update I’m always hesitant to do it because there is ALWAYS some random problem that comes with it. I only updated because after the second to last update, playback completely stopped working on our firestick TV’s. After updating to my current version, this fixed playback on my firestick TV’s, but like I said, now playback freezes on all our devices: Server computer, 2 firestick TV’s, all our phones, and 2 roku TV’s that run off ethernet (not WiFi).

Additional note: Just thought I would add a detail on the freezing that’s happening. Playback starts out perfectly fine every time consistently, but after playing for about 20 minutes or so, the video just freezes/stops. So I click the little x to stop the video, then play/resume and it starts playing again just fine. But/Also, after the first time it freezes, the freezing continues and it more frequent/less than 20 minutes between freezes.

I’m using the Microsoft Edge the latest chromium version.
Same thing happens in Google Chrome as well + all other devices including firestick, roku, android, 1 windows 11 computer, + 2 windows 10 computers. All windows computers + 2 roku TV’s are connected via ethernet (not WiFi).

I’m extremely frustrated…

No replies on this from Plex since July???

I get same freezing on chrome. Even tried different video formats.

+1 same issue Plex randomly stops playing with no errors

+1 for me. every 20 minutes plex web (chrome) freezes. sometimes recovers, sometimes not.

Lots of warnings in the JS console about headers causing unnecessary preflight requests and server id’s being undefined.

Web v4.66.1
Server v1.24.3.5033

I have had the issue for a couple of weeks at least

+1
I have the exact same issue. I have tried different browsers and they all do it.
If I use my phone or Android TV it works 100%
Web v4.66.1
Server v1.24.3.5033

This also happens on Windows and Linux via web browser

Same issue here. really annoying. Have noticed it tends to happen more if I have paused a video for some time then come back to it. Its like it plays whatever was buffered then just stops with a spinning circle…

2 Likes

Ok, not seeing any answers here. I’ll add what I’ve observed, maybe it will help the discussion. Plex server version 4.67.1 in my house, local network. I get the freeze-up about 40 minutes in, every time, no exceptions. It varies between 35 min. and 45 min. but it doesn’t seem to matter what I’m watching.
Most times, it locks up my browser tab completely so I have to close Chrome and start another session up. I’ve tried Firefox with same results other than Firefox seems to not lock hard like Chrome–Plex still freezes no matter what browser.
I also have access to another Plex server a few states away from me. It does exactly the same thing but their server version is much older than mine, I think it was last updated 6 or 7 months ago, but can’t see the version from my end.
So, interestingly, when I use my Samsung smart TV I don’t experience the problem. Maybe its an HTML problem? I hate using the TV app as I can’t explore the plex offerings as well and its just awkward to navigate.
I find it disturbing that nobody has seen this behaviour enough to find a fix on the forum…

I’ve had the same issues lately. And yes, It seems to happen whenever I’ve paused the video for a bit and then start playing again. It will start and then freeze a few minutes later. As you said, it appears to go up through what was buffered and then just stops.

Same issue here. seems to happen more frequently if I pause a video for some time.

I started getting this over the past few days too, only with Firefox instead of Chrome. It doesn’t seem to happen to any client except Plex Web, so I can watch stuff using the Plex app instead. I can’t spot anything interesting in the logs – it’s like it just start buffering and never gets anything. Stopping playback and resuming it fixes it temporarily for a little time.

I’m seeing this very frequently recently when using Chrome. I’ve always had random freezing in Chrome when skipping forward or back while watching a video. Now, it’s freezing every couple of minutes while simply watching a video.

I have also had the same issue on 3 different laptops using the Web Player running server version 1.25.0 and above. Playing TV a series, different episodes will stop and the status will show “buffering”, it is not transcoding, it is able to direct play both video and audio, but the server network traffic drops and CPU drops.
Skipping back a few mins will play up to the point it stopped, skipping forwards a few mins will play for maybe 5 - 7 mins and then stop again.

I have rolled back from the latest container and tested on each version back to server 1.24.5.5173 / web player 4.63.0, after rolling back it is able to play the same episodes without issue again.

I’m currently running 2 plex containers one version 1.24.5.5173 the other on the latest version with a separate copy the of the database, so I can check if / when its fixed.

Can attach logs if needed

I’ve been having the same issues with the latest version of plex (actually the one before that too and the patch notes didn’t seem to mention anything about this issue either).

It’ll happen randomly. Even with files I’ve played 100 times before.

The error message is always so very helpful to figuring out the issue. It’s always something like “An error has occurred (thanks I couldn’t tell). If the problem persists please visit our forums”

I read somewhere on the reddit that going to %localappdata%\Plex Media Server\Cache and clearing it out, then restarting Plex Media Server will usually let you play those files that keep throwing errors. It works, but only seems to be a stopgap measure as the problem WILL return sooner or later.

Sadly this has got me avoiding Plex whenever possible. Since everything I play is found locally on my own machines anyways, the upside is I have access to features that plex wants me to get a plex pass for.

It’s not just Chrome either. Safari 15.1 on Big Sur 11.6.2 does the exact same thing. As sykogee said earlier this wasn’t a problem with previous versions of Plex server.

Yes it seems at the moment rolling back to PMS version 1.24.5.5173 is best work around I have found at the moment.

Hopefully the Plex Devs will see this and find a fix

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Thanks sykogee,

It seems it’s working as a temp solution. I hope there will be a solution in the new releases.

Viktor