Plex playback crashes every minute (OR LESS!)

[ucrbuffalo]

I don't know what's going on... I'm so lost right now.

So last night, I decided to watch my show on Plex. After about a minute, I get a screen that says something to the effect of "Video transcoder has failed. Exit code is 1." I can't find any information on the exit codes.

So I start messing with stuff. In the process, I get exit codes 1, 0, and -9.

So i went to my FreeNAS WebGUI and tried updating the PMS plugin. No luck. Updated the OS. Worse luck. Rolled back to old OS. No luck.

The problem still persists. I don't know what to do anymore!!!

I downloaded the logs and don't see anything that stands out. But then again, its all pretty much Greek to me.

 

[ucrbuffalo]

So... I tried to add the logs here, but I'm not really sure what I should be looking for, so I did way too much. The site here didn't like a log that long... I'll try uploading a file. This will be just ONE of the crashes I experienced. From the time I opened the file, to the time of the crash.

 

[joeschmuck]

Has this worked before?
What version of FreeNAS are you using and did you recently update any software?
Did you try a different video?
Are you using WiFi to transmit the video? If yes, try it on a cable connection.
Have you tried it using a different playing device?
What device are you trying to play it on? (Roku, PC, TV, Apple TV, etc...)
Did you make any changes to your network? This means any touching of the network since the last time it worked.

 

[ucrbuffalo]

My setup has always worked fine. This is a new problem. Had this set up for about 2 months so far.
I'm using FreeNAS-9.10-STABLE-201606270534 (dd17351)
It seems to be any .AVI video? Not quite sure. My movies and TV shows are mostly MP4 or MKV, with some classics being the exception.
The problem started my my main desktop, which is hardwired to the network with the NAS. Problem persists on wireless devices.
If I play the video on my phone with the Plex app, it doesn't crash, but it gets very out of sync and the audio plays at a faster rate than the video.
Mainly trying to play on PC using the Web App, but still having problems on the phone and tablet using the Plex App, as well as the Samsung Smart TV.
Nothing in the network has changed.

 

[joeschmuck]

It's difficult to troubleshoot something like this because of so many variables.

Did you update Plex by chance? Maybe change a setting to make the video transcode more?

Looking at FreeNAS, what is your CPU utilization like and also, how full are your hard drives? If you exceed I think it's 90% capacity, even for a moment, the system will change the way it uses files and slow down. If you have filled up your drives then I recommend you move some of that data off and reboot FreeNAS.

Stick with a hardwired connection during your troubleshooting just because it eliminates one aspect of failure, being the slow WiFi connections, even if they are fine.

Plex also have a built in DLNA server, ensure that is running and try to stream to a DLNA compliant device that will accept the media format (you may need to look at an older video, not MP4, it will depend on the playing device.)

 

[ucrbuffalo]

As I mentioned before, I have updated Plex, but the problem started before I updated and persists after.
I'm using about half of my storage, so I doubt that's the issue. And CPU usage stays extremely low even during two consecutive streams.
I don't think I have any DLNA devices, and if I do, they're definitely not hard wired.

 

[joeschmuck]

If you have a Windows machine, it have Windows Media Player and will discover DLNA servers. By default the Plex server has DLNA turned on. Go into WMP and see if you can play a video. If you don't have Windows, I'm sure the OS you are running has something similar.

As I mentioned before, I have updated Plex,

Nope, that isn't what you said.

So i went to my FreeNAS WebGUI and tried updating the PMS plugin. No luck.

So, if the above suggestion doesn't allow you to play a video, the next thing to do would be to ensure that you have a backup of your configuration file (you should always have this anyway) and then reinstall FreeNAS 9.10.1-U1 and then install Plex again. If that fails, delete the Plex plugin and perform a manual installation of Plex in a jail, there are instructions on how to do it in the forum, just follow them.

If that fails then maybe you need to troubleshoot your hardware. Actually, run Memtest86 for 48+ hours and see how it goes, and a CPU stress test for about 30 minutes. You could have something wrong with your machine that only shows up when you stress it.

 

[ucrbuffalo]

I see where the confusion came from, my apologies.

I'm going to keep searching for answers for the rest of the week before I try reinstalling. I'm concerned about NreNAS 9.10.1-U1 because I can't even boot into it at this point. It won't mount my drives and acts like there's nothing there. Stuck in some infinite loop. In the meantime, perhaps it would be helpful to upload the XML of the file (which was requested on another site's forum)?

Code:

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionUUID="358f3beb-dab0-4284-b4e8-4d47b5984611" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/"mediaTagVersion="1473720546">
"); vertical-align: bottom; height: 10px;"><Video ratingKey="13565" key="/library/metadata/13565" parentRatingKey="13547" grandparentRatingKey="13111" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://76703/2/18?lang=en" librarySectionID="3" type="episode" title="A Way Off Day Off" titleSort="Way Off Day Off"grandparentKey="/library/metadata/13111" parentKey="/library/metadata/13547" grandparentTitle="Pokémon" contentRating="TV-Y" summary="In an attempt to cheer up, the group head to a small island hoping to find some new things to do. On the island, Togepi and Pikachu spot some fruit growing on the trees. Ash and Misty rush over to pick some, but find they are horribly sour. Tracey shows them to pick darker fruit that are ripe, and they taste sweet. Deciding to stay awhile, and have a little vacation, they call out all their Pokémon. Most of the Pokémon are scared of Tracey's Scyther, except Togepi who gleefully walks over to Scyther. Scyther is nice to Togepi so the others are no longer scared. Charizard is laying aside not interested in socializing with the other Pokémon, ash comes over to try to get Charizard to join the fun, but ends up with a flame in the face. The flame continues towards Scyther who blocks it, and begins staring down Charizard who stares right back, and Ash stands between them getting them to stop. Meanwhile, Jessie and James just happened to land on the island and decided to have their own vacation, but they spot some of the group's Pokémon and realizing they are there, decide to quit their vacation and try to steal them. Back with the group, Snorlax is hungry, but Jigglypuff pops out of a pile of fruit and they all fall asleep. Snorlax is still sleeping when the others wake up. Tracey prepares some fruit sandwiches for the group, but no one gets any before the just awoken Snorlax downs the whole plateful of sandwiches all in one bite. Later on, they are sleeping. Pikachu wakes to notice Ash is gone. Pikachu soon finds Ash gazing at the stars. They talk about how it's been on the Orange Islands, thinking about past experiences. Jessie and James secretly stand across the lake, having Victreebel spray a long distance sleep powder to make sure they stay asleep. They try to steal the Pokémon using a suction cup and a rope, but Snorlax is too heavy ruining their plan. They are defeated by Scyther and Charizard, who glare at each other after winning. The group head onward to the next island, while Team Rocket have landed on a little island with a large group of Farfetch'd who decide to have fun beating up Team Rocket with their sticks. " index="18" parentIndex="2" rating="7.0" viewOffset="289982" lastViewedAt="1475434732" year="1999" thumb="/library/metadata/13565/thumb/1474918235" art="/library/metadata/13111/art/1474918256"parentThumb="/library/metadata/13547/thumb/1474918256" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/13111/thumb/1474918256" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/13111/art/1474918256" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/13111/theme/1474918256" duration="1379545"originallyAvailableAt="1999-05-27" addedAt="1468507102" updatedAt="1474918235" chapterSource="">
"); vertical-align: bottom; height: 10px;"><Media videoResolution="480" id="25201" duration="1379545" bitrate="717" width="640" height="480" aspectRatio="1.33" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" container="avi" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="main"videoProfile="constrained baseline">
"); vertical-align: bottom; height: 10px;"><Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="25818" key="/library/parts/25818/1468538787/file.avi" duration="1379545" file="/media/TV Shows/Pokemon/Season 2/Pokémon S02E18 A Way Off Day Off.avi" size="123725274" audioProfile="main" container="avi"deepAnalysisVersion="1" requiredBandwidths="708,708,708,708,708,708,708,708" videoProfile="constrained baseline">
<Stream id="56312" streamType="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="567" bitDepth="8" cabac="0" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codecID="H264" duration="1379545" frameRate="23.976" frameRateMode="vfr" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="480" level="21"pixelFormat="yuv420p" profile="constrained baseline" refFrames="2" requiredBandwidths="581,581,581,581,581,581,581,581" scanType="progressive" width="640"/>
<Stream id="56313" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="128" audioChannelLayout="stereo" bitrateMode="vbr" codecID="FF" duration="1379520" profile="main" requiredBandwidths="128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128"samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="1"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"></Extras>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>

Also I should mention that some of the videos that we had already seen, like the episode prior to this one, worked fine a few days ago before this problem started. Now, they have the same crash and error.

 

[depasseg]

I ran into a similar issue a month or so ago, and I finally gave up, created a new plex instance and migrated my viewing history. I found that the problem followed me, if I migrated the actual plex data, which is why I resorted to only exporting and importing the viewing data (had to use some CLI database commands).

 

[joeschmuck]

I'm concerned about NreNAS 9.10.1-U1 because I can't even boot into it at this point

Are you saying that you cannot boot up FreeNAS 9.10.1-U1? When you did the installation, did you choose UEFI? Don't! Choose Legacy during the installation. This is the only problem I know of which is causing issues booting up FreeNAS.

 

[ucrbuffalo]

I did as it told me. I selected 9.10.2-U1 in the boot tab, selected "Activate" and restarted. It wouldn't load. So I hooked up a monitor (usually headless) and rebooted again. Like I mentioned, it was stuck in some sort of infinite loop trying to load.

EDIT: Went and looked at the update tab again and it looked like U2 is available? Anyone having issues with it?

 

[joeschmuck]

I did as it told me. I selected 9.10.2-U1 in the boot tab, selected "Activate" and restarted. It wouldn't load.

You are not listening to me. During the FreeNAS software installation while using the ISO image, you have to select UEFI or Legacy in the very beginning. Did you select UEFI? If you don't recall then you should reinstall it. Selecting Activate has to do with selecting the already installed image and that doesn't help you at all.

 

[HeloJunkie]

After you get your freenas back up and running, one thing you might try (if you have a spare machine laying around) is to do a clean plex install on a separate system, share your media from your freenas box to it and see if the problems go away. At least at that point you will know if the problem is related to file sharing/drives/zfs/etc (if the problem persists), or if it is specific to the plex jail (if the problem goes away).

We had a similar situation running plex in a jail and in the end I just threw away the idea and built a dedicated plex server ties to my freenas box with a 10G intel card.

 

[ucrbuffalo]

You are not listening to me. During the FreeNAS software installation while using the ISO image, you have to select UEFI or Legacy in the very beginning. Did you select UEFI? If you don't recall then you should reinstall it. Selecting Activate has to do with selecting the already installed image and that doesn't help you at all.

I apologize if I'm frustrating you, I just didn't understand you meant the initial installation. I don't think I selected UEFI. Is there any way to check for sure?

After you get your freenas back up and running, one thing you might try (if you have a spare machine laying around) is to do a clean plex install on a separate system, share your media from your freenas box to it and see if the problems go away. At least at that point you will know if the problem is related to file sharing/drives/zfs/etc (if the problem persists), or if it is specific to the plex jail (if the problem goes away).

We had a similar situation running plex in a jail and in the end I just threw away the idea and built a dedicated plex server ties to my freenas box with a 10G intel card.

Unfortunately, I don't have a machine I can use as a dedicated Plex Server. I put the pieces of this machine together to be my dedicated Media Server, including Plex.

 

[HeloJunkie]

Unfortunately, I don't have a machine I can use as a dedicated Plex Server. I put the pieces of this machine together to be my dedicated Media Server, including Plex.

For testing purposes you could run the Plex server on pretty much anything...your laptop, your desktop, your kids desktop...it is just for a short time just to see if the problem is with your Freenas server and your plex jail.

 

[ucrbuffalo]

For testing purposes you could run the Plex server on pretty much anything...your laptop, your desktop, your kids desktop...it is just for a short time just to see if the problem is with your Freenas server and your plex jail.

Installed PMS on my Desktop and directed it to the NAS to see my TV shows. It seems to be working fine. So with that being said...
I don't have a machine I could keep on 24/7 other than my NAS. So is my best bet still to delete the plug-in and jail and re-install them? I had stuff setup pretty specifically and don't really want to do all of it again. But if I have no other choice, then I'll have to.

 

[joeschmuck]

I apologize if I'm frustrating you, I just didn't understand you meant the initial installation. I don't think I selected UEFI. Is there any way to check for sure?

You're not frustrating me, I just had a bad day at work. Anyway, no I don't know how you can tell but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a way. For me, I'd backup the configuration file, reinstall FreeNAS from the ISO file, ensure you choose Legacy, and then try Plex again.

 

[HeloJunkie]

Installed PMS on my Desktop and directed it to the NAS to see my TV shows. It seems to be working fine. So with that being said...
I don't have a machine I could keep on 24/7 other than my NAS. So is my best bet still to delete the plug-in and jail and re-install them? I had stuff setup pretty specifically and don't really want to do all of it again. But if I have no other choice, then I'll have to.

It sounds like you could have a couple of different problems with your install, something with FreeNAS and something with Plex. They may be related.

As of now, you know you run Plex on a different machine with a share off your freenas server, so the Plex issue you are having is directly related to something within the current configuration or with the jail itself.

I second what @joeschmuck said - I would backup the config files for FreeNAS and Plex and reinstall them both. You should not lose any data or configuration settings if you back everything up and it is better to get it all working smoothly now then have to deal with problems down the road.

 

[ucrbuffalo]

A couple last things I'm a little worried about on a reinstall - Will it recognize and reassemble the ZFS pool? Installing from the ISO (please correct me if I'm wrong), I can just put that ISO on the flash drive, after I reformat it, and boot to it to install, right?

As far as backing up the metadata on Plex, could you guys direct me to a thread that shows how to do that? I'll be looking on my end too, I'm just responding before starting. I probably won't get a chance to reconfigure everything until Saturday or Sunday since my week got slammed on me today.

 

[HeloJunkie]

A couple last things I'm a little worried about on a reinstall - Will it recognize and reassemble the ZFS pool? Installing from the ISO (please correct me if I'm wrong), I can just put that ISO on the flash drive, after I reformat it, and boot to it to install, right?

As far as backing up the metadata on Plex, could you guys direct me to a thread that shows how to do that? I'll be looking on my end too, I'm just responding before starting. I probably won't get a chance to reconfigure everything until Saturday or Sunday since my week got slammed on me today.

Before you redo your server, backup your configuration file (In the GUI select GENERAL > SAVE CONFIG). Reinstall FreeNAS and import your zpool(s) and then import your config (In the GUI select GENERAL > UPLOAD CONFIG).

Look in the DOCS to read more about importing your pools.

HERE is the link that explains how to backup your PLEX data.