Weekly Build Help Thread

I've been using Plex for quite some years and before the first price increase I bought the Plex Lifetime subscription. I was never one to agree that you should pay to be able to stream over the internet but oh well... Personally I enjoyed the other features and Plex just worked so I just ignored that.

Today a new user was added to the Plex server and they created their account this month. For some reason they couldn't download media, which was weird since every other user could.

So apparently, even if the owner has Plex Pass, the user to be able to download without a Plex Pass needs to have their account created before 2022/08/01...

source: https://support.plex.tv/articles/downloads-sync-faq/

I feel like this is the dumbest thing* ever...

Edit:
Im not saying Plex should be free. I've paid for the software.
Im not asking for "premium" features (like "Skip Intro") to be free for everyone.

My point is about core features. In my perspective streaming and download are fundamental features of a media server, not extras.
And if the Owner having Plex Pass is enough to let ALL users stream remotely, and only SOME users download it, thats the part that doesn't make sense to me. I, personally, believe that it should be enough to allow all users access to the download feature.

If it was only the Owner that needed to pay for those core features, I'd have no problem with it. But Needing every individual user to have to pay to access that I think is unnecessary.

I’ve got local auth and DLNA setup, yet no access to my own server via any client apps. Yay.

Let me open by saying multiple outages like this in a short span while also jacking up prices is absolutely pathetic. I get things happen, but cmon Plex. Get it figured out. With that being said… they have allowed us to watch locally without authentication for a long time… Set it up properly people! I’ve tested mine on multiple devices and each one works locally. Also didn’t have any issues 4 days ago when it was down. And if this is a regional thing and I’m not impacted in the Midwest US then I apologize.

Here’s the link to setting up local access without authentication.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200890058-authentication-for-local-network-access/

I set mine up years ago and haven’t needed to do anything since. I never have an outage. Internet goes down? No issue. Plex HQ servers go down? No issues. Hell, even when my power goes out I can still watch on my phone and tablets with my UPS.

Strange question that Google is not helping me answer: I stumbled into rewinding a live TV stream from my antenna and apparently I have the last 50 minutes of this channel currently “buffered”. I am watching something that was playing that many minutes ago. I do not have a hard drive connected to my HD Homerun. I am not a plex pass subscriber.

Just a little confused. Is there onboard storage on the HD tuner?

I went back to the channel guide and picked a new channel, went back to the previous and I don’t have the hour buffered any more.

Is it because my Plex is hosted on unraid? Is the video stream just getting cached by the plex application?

At least in Melbourne right now I'm just getting hit with cloud flare errors, connection timed out, SSL handshake failed and so on.

Android and TV clients seem unaffected for me, just can't get on the web app.

Well, anyway. the concept came back… it’s called Watch Queue. Don’t wanna post the link on here but since this is the sub that I discovered watch aid on 8 years ago, I’d figure I’d post about it to bring it full circle.

All of a sudden, Plex on my shield pro is setting the quality to automatic. Settings has playback set to maximum, manually setting each episode to original works for the episode but defaults back to automatic.

Did something change?

This doesn't look like what the issues earlier were. This did just start today all the sudden. Any chance this is related to the bigger outage?

Is Plex designed as / or can it be configured as a clearing house or a collection of videos locations (links) from "other" platforms such as HBO, Amazon, Starz, Lifetime, etc. ?

I have lots of videos that we have purchased and added to watchlists digitally on many different sites and looking for a way to know what and where they are all located for viewing?

Please be kind in your responses.

I have a PleX server that has been operating normally for months.

I paused a video the other day and when I came back this white border (like the one that would be around a video you are selecting) stayed in the upper left corner and I can't get rid of it.

I have updated the server. Rebooted the TV. Rebooted the PC. Updated everything. I have even unplugged the TV (A Vizio 70") and left it to ensure that it reset. I even reseet and defaulted the TV.

The white square stays. It is only there when loading PleX. You can see it blink for a fraction of a second when the black screen before the logo appears.

It isn't there when on the menus. It is also not there when you play a video that isn't in the widescreen ratio. If it is in 4:3 or anything elese that has black bars on the side, there is no white border. If there are black bars at the top and bottom, the white square appears and won't go away.

Here is an image of the black screen where the white border appears.

Here is an image of the white border on a widescreen movie.

Here is a more fullscreen (black bars on the side) where the white border doesn't appear

I can't find anything anywhere where someone else is having a similar problem. I hope someone can point me in a helpful direction.

Thanks in advance.

What’s the volume of your plexamp library? Curious to see how many people are loading up album after album like I am due to the ridiculous ads from Spotify. Currently at 2600+ songs, I’m not sure how many GB/TB exactly. Planning to backup my server on BRDL disks and store them offsite at possibly a friend’s house. I’ve also been thinking about audiobooks but I haven’t looked into the possibility of that through plexamp, so any recommendations are welcome!

My current setup (LG WebOS) isn't doing for me anymore.

I do have a couple of the og Xiaomi Mi Box S's, but they are very long in the tooth... So need to get something new.

I'm looking at either the new version (Xiaomi TV Box S), or the latest Apple TV.

Any reason I should spend 3x the price for the Apple?

My collection on Plex almost entirely is made up of rips from my personal blu-ray/4K collection of movies. Out of all of them, only one has a problem where when I try to play it (through the Plex app on AppleTV 4K), it just crashes/closes the app entirely. No indication of an error, it doesn't play a little bit of the movie and then crash; I just click play and boom the app is closed.

I can confirm that I can play the file on my Windows PC with either VLC or MPC-HC just fine. No issues there.

Any particular reason that this would happen? Or a way to fix?

I'll add my tech specs and settings below. And yes, I already know that this can be resolved with Infu$e. But before we dive into all that, I just need to know if this is even possible or not because I've read countless posts with so many contradicting answers.

On the Plex App, I can direct play my MKV files with no problems (more of a direct stream, but you get it). When I enable subtitles of any kind (SRT, PGS, or VOB), it starts transcoding and therefore stuttering. Can I achieve direct playback with subtitles by tweaking my settings or not?

Playback Details:

• Client: Plex App - AppleTV 4K 3rd Gen - tvOS 26.5
• Video: MKV container, h.264 codec
• Audio: AAC
• Subtitles: SRT

Settings:

• Auto Adjust Quality: On
• Home Streaming: Maximum
• Allow Direct Play: On
• Use Old Video Player: On
• Use Old Audio Engine: Off
• Burn Subtitles: On Image Formats

I’ve read the Plex app for tvOS hasn’t been updated in forever and am aware of other apps like Bunny Ears that can stream your library.

I’m currently on Google TV but plan to switch to Apple TV this fall when the hardware updates.

I've been troubleshooting all day getting remote streaming set up for my Plex library and finally was able to get it to work with Tailscale. I have T-Mobile internet so the innate remote streaming won't work. I downloaded Tailscale and connected to my PC then did the same with my Iphone 16 and enabled Tailscale as my VPN. I then used my Tailscale IP for my computer in the address bar to connect my Plex account/sign in to that IP address. It worked on my phone for the first time via data.

Fast forward 30 minutes and now it's not working again. When I go into Plex on my phone, it says my server is Offline. On my PC, if I access Plex via the Tailscale IP address, my library is there just fine and if I connect to Wifi on my phone, I have access again.

I have Proton VPN but I have Tailscale set as the VPN on my phone and I've set Plex as an exclusion for Proton just in case.

I just can't figure out why it was working but now it's not. I didn't do anything in that 30 minutes to change it.

Thanks for any advice or input.

I'm having trouble connecting my LG TV to my home server.

Every other device in my network works fine, laptop, TV etc.

When I use the Plex app it starts but says notConnected in logging on screen with little explanation of what the issue is.

If I connect using the browser it loads but the connect via Google button is greyed out.

I tried changing the DNS on the TV but that hasn't helped.

Getting "An internet connection is required to scan library files" message when attempting to scan files via the web interface on my Windows 10 machine and my laptop. I can access all files on my devices and stream music and video. Settings have remained exactly the same for ages. Restarting the Plex server did not resolve this Any ideas?

So I have far too many computers, and unfortunately my main "Recording Studio" Mac Pro is stuck on OSX 10.13

Right now, my server is running, and I can access it from every single computer in my house except for this machine.

I had a brief reality check when I thought "Do I have other music on this machine - which has about 20TB of local storage of TONS of music", haha, but I'm just so used to opening app.plex.tv and just firing up an album.

I know this is a LONG SHOT - and most likely won't work, but if anyone knows of a workaround, (or just somehow, magically, an older version of the desktop client would work) that would be incredibly helpful!

Thank you.

Yall, I need help as this is getting very aggravating. I've got the scan and match stuff down, but the shows that it doesnt recognize I can not get to show up. For instance, if I add a folder containing TV Show media files (same extension and all that as other files) and it doesnt recognize them, the files just dont show up in Plex. Period. I mean, even if I switch from "TV shows" to "Folders" and open the folder manually it's empty. And this is for multiple shows I've tried to upload. Am I doing something wrong?

Example: I love Gundam, I have a folder full of different series. One folder contains the 2 ovas for Seed Astray. When I add that folder, not only does it not add it as a "show" the files do not appear ANYWHERE in my plex. It will only work if I upload them as "other" but I want to have them in the TV shows tab.

TIA!

Title says it all.

I purchased an Nvidia Shield as it is almost universally hailed as the best hardware to run Plex off of. But my experience with the Plex app has been a buggy headache from day 1. I try to never make posts like this as I generally believe these types of things can be solved by just searching around, but I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app countless times and tried every configuration imaginable and yet nothing fixes it. It's been over a year now and I'm close to giving up.

My problems are as follows (ranked by frequency / annoyance):

1. Loading into the app about 50% of the time will just hang with the home screen showing the loading spinner for ~60 seconds before popping up that my server cannot be reached. Server is up and running completely fine confirmed on Plex mobile and desktop clients running off the same network. To fix I have to double click the home screen to close the app BUT this only fixes it maybe half the time, the other half I have to go into the app settings and manually force close it.
2. Subtitles just randomly completely break. If I try to play any media using any subtitle format, it will try to load briefly and then pop up a vague "An error occurred while attempting to play this video." error message. Turning off subtitles it will play fine, but again I can play with subtitles just fine from EVERY OTHER Plex client that I have access to. It is only this one that EVER gives me issues. I have fixed this in the past by doing some combo of uninstalling the app + restarting my Plex server, honestly not sure what fixed it an anymore I'm sick of trying because it just pops up again inevitably.
3. Sections will just randomly not load on the home page. For example my continue watching will show up, but recently added movies won't. There is no rhyme or reason to this and it is fairly rare, but I still have never found a fix.
4. App will run very slowly out of nowhere, for example selecting a movie from the home screen and it takes 10+ seconds to get the movie page to actually appear. I understand that Plex is not running 100% locally and there can be slowdown on their end, but again I only ever notice this issue on the Shield TV client.

If anyone has had any similar issues or can suggest any fixes it would be greatly appreciated. I am at the point now where I am close to converting 100% to using Jellyfin.

EDIT: To clarify, I am only running the Nvidia Shield as a client, I have a dedicated server for hosting plex.