Windows app does not transcode downloads

[angrywilson]

Server Version1.42.1.10060:
Player Version1.110.0.351-4e48eb83:

I am not sure if this is a feature issue or that something is wrong. On my windows app in the download settings I choose something other than original quality but when I download a movie the system does not transcode the file, it just downloads the original file. I tried this on two different servers and the result was the same.

<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

[nibbles]

Downloads and optimized file errors might have been fixed in the latest beta:

Plex Media Server

Plex Media Server 1.42.2.10122 is now available to Plex Pass users in the Beta update channel. NEW: (Playback) Better caching of codec testing to improve start time of playback sessions (PM-3913) (Preferences) Split transcoder slots into CPU and GPU slots (PM-3891) FIXES: (Ad Detection) Logs were left next to the target media file instead of in the Plex Log folder (PM-3580) (Docker) Various issues related to permissions could occur when explicitly setting UID and GID. (PM-3925) (Downloads)…

[angrywilson]

Thanks for the suggestion. Just tried that but it did not help.

[nibbles]

Darn, well I don’t have a Windows box to test with, either.
Perhaps what you want is to first Optimize a video to a lower quality, e.g. 4K to 1080p, which stores that on your server, then try to download the optimized one if your goal is offline playback?

[MovieFan]

You can’t download optimized versions so that won’t work.

What quality setting did you set and what is the bitrate of the file? Maybe a transcode isn’t needed. I’ve tested and it does transcode for me. If you are sure transcoding should be happening, recreate and provide both the server and client logs.

[angrywilson]

I set the app settings to medium quality for both video and audio.

Thanks

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-09-16_05-59-31.zip (3.8 MB)

Plex.log (238.1 KB)

[MovieFan]

Your client logs don’t show any downloads. Are you sure you git the correct log? Can you download something again and grab new logs. I just need the first minute of the download, you can cancel after that.

[angrywilson]

Plex.log (145.7 KB)

How about this one?

[Tobith]

Same problem here. I have “Video Quality” set to “Medium”, but Plex on Windows is downloading the original video file.

Player version: 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83
Server Version: 1.43.0.10162 (on Mint Linux)

Even if I set the quality to Low and tell Plex to download a 1080p Blu-ray rip, it still downloads the entire original file with no transcoding. This is definitely a bug.

[MovieFan]

Still not seeing any download activity in your log. Can you try again but get me your server log this time? Let’s try looking there.

[nibbles]

@MovieFan I’m able to replicate this bug using Plex for Mac on a Mac Studio M1.

Client: Plex For Mac - v1.110.0.351 on macOS Sequoia 15.7.1
Server: QNAP PMS - v1.42.2.10156 on QTS 4.5.4-2957

* 21:50:00 started PMS
* 21:55:00 started Plex for Mac
* 21:57:00 on Plex for Mac Navigate to Settings -> Downloads
* 21:58:00 on Plex for Mac changed  Downloads -> Video Quality to 480p
* 21:59:00 on Plex for Mac navigated to the movie I want
* 22:00:00 on Plex for Mac clicked the download arrow.
* 22:03:00 on PFM Settings -> Troubleshooting -> Download Logs and Quit.

* 192.168.REDACT.PMS/24 - my QNAP PMS used for this bug report.
* 192.168.REDACT.MAC/24 - my Mac Studio that also has a secondary PMS

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-09-30_22-03-08.zip (75.3 KB)
Plex.log.zip (15.5 KB)

I set my Video Quality to Low 480p, but it downloaded the original 1080p.
(sorry about the CORS errors. still trying to figure that out)
Thanks for reading

[MovieFan]

I’m able to reproduce this issue now. I must have been on an earlier version. I am now running 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83 for Windows, which is the same version as the OP.

[Chris_Main]

I’m also getting the same issue. I’ll set download quality to anything less than original, yet the full file gets downloaded. I see zero load on my gpu for transcoding during the download. However, if I change quality during playback transcoding works correctly

Edit:

After more testing I’m finding that version 1.108.1.307-dd5b87aa on Windows will transcode downloads properly, but on another machine using version 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83 transcoding doesn’t happen. I’ve set download video quality to Low (480p) on both machines and get a 981mb download on one and a 36gb file on the other.

As a workaround I’ve downgraded my other machine to 1.108.1.307 and everything is working temporarily

Server: Unraid 1.42.2.10156

Client 1 (working): 1.108.1.307-dd5b87aa on Windows

Client 2 (not working): 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83 on Windows

[crakerjac21]

I’m seeing something similar on Linux.

Downloads not using "optimized versions"

Yeah… That looks like the same issue. But what IS high, medium and low… It’s like speed limit saying medium speed. There was a comment in that other thread saying that optimized versions cannot be downloaded. On the previous UI, this was NOT the case. I could definitely download the pre-optimized versions.

However, there is a comment above here stating that optimized versions cannot be downloaded.

Before the UI update, YES, I COULD download/sync pre-optimized content. For me, this is the REASON to optimize the video files… so they just need to download/sync and not try to transcode on the fly.