Hi,
I’m running Plex Media server on my Mac Mini from 2011 with 2.7 i7 CPU with data stored on an DS2413 and some other sources.
Recently PHT stops frequently during playback, looking like there is not enough capacity to continue. PHT itself does not crash, the movie just first freezes and then stops playing altogether.
I suspect this is caused by the metadata being refreshed in the background.
It looks like there is something wrong with this process:
- Metadata that is updated is already available on the server;
- Same Metadata update is started numerous times, downloaded, loaded and finished;
- I’ve disabled the ‘Refresh metadata periodically’ and ‘Refresh local metadata every three days’ options in scheduled tasks and restarted the server. The updating continues still. This means that I don’t know which process is causing this update.
This usually only happens when there is a file which it can’t get (all) the metadata for whether it be finding the name and/or actually completing the download of. Often, an errant or otherwise misnamed file that’s close enough for the scanner to recognize as actual content but can’t make sense of will cause this to happen. I have one such series. The scanner knows what it is but there is something not unique enough about it to permit a definitive resolution with what’s available online.
The second issue you mention, freezing playback, isn’t related to the metadata issue.
Thank you for responding ChuckPa,
The updating has stopped in the meantime. The playback issues still occur so I agree that it’s unrelated.
I’m still looking through the forum to find an answer for that.
Which makes this issue less urgent for me.
However, some questions remain.
Looking at the logs as displayed in the Status tab I see that:
- the updating is completed and then started again numerous times;
- the data mentioned in the log is already available on the server;
- entries being updated have been added in the last month or so…;
I would understand it if some exceptions would cause this to happen, but for example the tv shows are named according to the same naming convention I use for all the tv shows.
Naming convention TV Shows:
S<#Season>e<#Episode>
e.g. Continuum.S02e03.Second.Thoughts.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264
I believe this format is commonly used.
From a raw point of view I’d say that the plex server is working of a queue of update tasks in which updates of metadata for multiple files occur multiple times (see attached Status log.jpg). That, to me, would explain the repeated cycle of dowloading, loading and finishing of the same metadata.
I’m up to my eyeballs at the moment but per that episode name, it’s not as clean as it could be.
The scanner is good but is an automaton afterall.
Give it a shot as: Continuum.S02E03.Second Thoughts.ext
The scanner looks for Name -punctuation - SeasonEpisode - optional sanitized title
e.g. “Childhood’s End” is named as “Childhoods End”. This is done by FileBot and others because not all filesytems like all types of punctuation.
We will address your other issue next.
Hi ChuckPa,
I’ve looked at the status log of today, since I had playback issues again.
I started playing an episode of a TV Show (Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders - The Lonely Heart) while the metadata was being updated. It took 10 times of resuming it for me to complete the episode (from 6:26PM till 7:07PM), due to playback freezing, followed by PHT returning to the episode information screen.
After this I shutdown and rebooted the MAC.
After reboot the metadata update process did not resume.
Also, playback of the next two episodes still had some hickups, but not nearly as much.
The episodes played thenafter had no more hickups.
See attached screendumps of the Status log.
I’m not saying that the playback issue is caused by the metadata update process, but it does seem to be affected by it.
In regards to revising my file naming convention. I have a relatively large database, of which the metadata is already up to date. The metadata being updated was already entered correctly and needed no correction. I’d rather not go through such a lengthy undertaking since the correct metadata is already there.
Meanwhile, the metadata update process has started again and I don’t know what triggers this.
Thanks for your input sofar
Please post the log files. I need to see what “Plex Media Scanner” and “Plex Media Server” are logging.
I suspect something is writing into your media directory (such as a downloader or similar plug-in). Such things, while harmless, do constantly modify the ‘last modified’ time stamp of the directory itself. This is what triggers Plex to scan the directory again.
As we correct this, I will also see what’s causing the stutter .
To rename en-mass is rather easy. It’s a very automated tool such as filebot. Plex will see the old metadata lose the file then see the new file; look up the name; realize it already has the data; and use what it has. After all is done, only the database need be ‘optimized’ to clean out the old data records.
On another note, Since you are Plex Pass, you can try Plex Media Player which is the replacement for PHT. It’s available in the downloads page under “Plex Pass downloads”
Here are the log files.
I did try the new PMP, soon as I got my Premium Pass, but I’m not sold on the new interface yet.
So I reverted back to PHT.
Since the playback issue started I did try the new PMP again, but the picture lists were slow to fill out and the playback issue occurred here as well. After a few minutes, playback stopped and PMP showed 3 dots in the centre of the screen, indicating I should wait.
That’s why I thought the issue is server or resource related.
Hi ChuckPa,
I’ve found the culprit. It was the plugin of Sub-Zero, which I had installled via the channels section.
Your suggestion of a plugin helped me identify it.
I’ve removed Sub-Zero from my system and both issues appear to have been fixed.
Playback is no longer being interrupted and no more superfluous metadata updates have been started.
Thanks for thinking with me.
Cheers
Addendum: Playback issue is not yet solved.
Although playback performance is improved since removing Sub-zero.
After watching several movies without being interrupted, I thought my playback issue was solved as well (yesterday).
But, although not as frequent as before, the playback interruptions do still occur (today).
Perhaps subject for a seperate discussion. I will search online first.
