Plex issue -- indefinite buffering

[79wjd]

I'm running Plex version 1.7.4.4017 (I know, it's old) on my FreeNAS server and I have a problem where if I pause a show for a long enough period of time, then if I try to play it it will play for a minute or two and then begin to buffer indefinitely. If I leave the video and click back into it and choose "play from time xx:xx", then it will also just buffer indefinitely. The only way to get the video to play is to start it from the beginning. Also, if I let it auto-play, after two or three episodes I run into the same buffering problem and have to quit and play the next episode from the beginning. And if I try to skip ahead in a video, then it will also buffer indefinitely. I never used to have this issue, but I do now and I'm not sure what's causing it. I plan on updating when I get a chance, but I'm not able to access the server easily at the moment and so I'm not willing to update it until I can have access.

 

Server specs: 
FreeNAS 9.3
1230v2
32gb ram

 

P.s. when I say buffer indefinitely, I don't mean it will play for a second and then pause to buffer and then play again. It will just sit paused and buffer forever but never actually be able to play.

[paddy-stone]

I had a similar problem with mine a while ago... am trying to remember what I did to fix the problem, or whether it was an update that fixed it.

AFAICR I think it might have been to do with the jail storage not set correctly (I had imported my setup onto the new server I built), or it may have been a plex plugin update that fixed it. Sorry I can't remember now, I ahve played about with a LOT of the settings and config on my new server. I definitely had that problem though, it even did it with music tracks, one minute it would play fine, then the next it wouldn't play the next song even, and sometimes buffered indefinitely... if I remember I'll get back to you.

[79wjd]

3 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

I had a similar problem with mine a while ago... am trying to remember what I did to fix the problem, or whether it was an update that fixed it.

AFAICR I think it might have been to do with the jail storage not set correctly (I had imported my setup onto the new server I built), or it may have been a plex plugin update that fixed it. Sorry I can't remember now, I ahve played about with a LOT of the settings and config on my new server. I definitely had that problem though, it even did it with music tracks, one minute it would play fine, then the next it wouldn't play the next song even, and sometimes buffered indefinitely... if I remember I'll get back to you.

Alright. It's just strange because literally nothing changed. 

[dalekphalm]

I had different issues with my FreeNAS plex installation - if I paused and resumed, stopped and resumed, or fast forwarded a video, the audio and video would lose sync. Audio would play at normal speed but video would basically run at 10x and the entire episode or movie would finish in minutes.

 

I never could resolve the issue. If I stopped and played from the beginning, without pausing, stopping, or FF/RW, it would work normally.

 

I ended up adding a Windows Server 2016 VM and am happily running Plex from Windows now.

[79wjd]

On 9/30/2017 at 11:23 AM, paddy-stone said:

I had a similar problem with mine a while ago... am trying to remember what I did to fix the problem, or whether it was an update that fixed it.

AFAICR I think it might have been to do with the jail storage not set correctly (I had imported my setup onto the new server I built), or it may have been a plex plugin update that fixed it. Sorry I can't remember now, I ahve played about with a LOT of the settings and config on my new server. I definitely had that problem though, it even did it with music tracks, one minute it would play fine, then the next it wouldn't play the next song even, and sometimes buffered indefinitely... if I remember I'll get back to you.

 

On 10/3/2017 at 9:08 AM, dalekphalm said:

I had different issues with my FreeNAS plex installation - if I paused and resumed, stopped and resumed, or fast forwarded a video, the audio and video would lose sync. Audio would play at normal speed but video would basically run at 10x and the entire episode or movie would finish in minutes.

 

I never could resolve the issue. If I stopped and played from the beginning, without pausing, stopping, or FF/RW, it would work normally.

 

I ended up adding a Windows Server 2016 VM and am happily running Plex from Windows now.

I had a chance to update Plex (to 1.9.2) and everything seems to be working fine now -- I haven't done any extensive/long-term testing, but so far so good. 

 

 

EDIT: It looks like I jumped the gun, I didn't seem to have the issue continuing playback or fast forwarding a bit, but rewinding seems to still cause a problem.

[paddy-stone]

12 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

 

I had a chance to update Plex (to 1.9.2) and everything seems to be working fine now -- I haven't done any extensive/long-term testing, but so far so good. 

 

 

EDIT: It looks like I jumped the gun, I didn't seem to have the issue continuing playback or fast forwarding a bit, but rewinding seems to still cause a problem.

Ahh damn, sorry to hear that it didn't work. I have a suggestion though, what about creating a new jail for plex and seeing if that works this time.

[dalekphalm]

20 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Ahh damn, sorry to hear that it didn't work. I have a suggestion though, what about creating a new jail for plex and seeing if that works this time.

Might well work for him - but goddamn what a shitty solution if that's the only fix.

[79wjd]

41 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Ahh damn, sorry to hear that it didn't work. I have a suggestion though, what about creating a new jail for plex and seeing if that works this time.

 

20 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Might well work for him - but goddamn what a shitty solution if that's the only fix.

That's more work than I care to do at this point.  So I'll just have to live with it the way it is now -- which (if my limited testing is accurate) is already much better.

[paddy-stone]

4 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

 

That's more work than I care to do at this point.  So I'll just have to live with it the way it is now -- which (if my limited testing is accurate) is already much better.

Yeah, I guess it's a bit of work for the plex server to scan and everything all the "new" content... but you don't have to destroy the other jail "plex server" you already have, so can still use that while the other one is being scanned etc I would think. There's ways of transferring the data even to the other jail I;m sure, I'm just not versed in how to do that so can't tell you how myself. The actual install of plex server into a jail doesn't take that long, have done it myself a few times when testing things out, and you're not changing the media or where it resides etc, just the plex server itself scanning will take the time unless you transfer/copy to the new jail.

Sorry if that was not a good suggestion, maybe I don't understand as I am running my plex server on an 8 thread i7, so it's pretty fast in comparison?  anyway, hope you get it sorted.

[79wjd]

1 hour ago, paddy-stone said:

Yeah, I guess it's a bit of work for the plex server to scan and everything all the "new" content... but you don't have to destroy the other jail "plex server" you already have, so can still use that while the other one is being scanned etc I would think. There's ways of transferring the data even to the other jail I;m sure, I'm just not versed in how to do that so can't tell you how myself. The actual install of plex server into a jail doesn't take that long, have done it myself a few times when testing things out, and you're not changing the media or where it resides etc, just the plex server itself scanning will take the time unless you transfer/copy to the new jail.

Sorry if that was not a good suggestion, maybe I don't understand as I am running my plex server on an 8 thread i7, so it's pretty fast in comparison?  anyway, hope you get it sorted.

My server is running a 1230v2, so, it's not really an issue of it taking a long time, but rather that I'm not going to be around where the server is located long enough to setup and then deal with any potential problems that may arise and while I can VPN in, I'd prefer to not mess with it like that. That was the reason why I pushed off updating the plugin for a few weeks in the first place, I only decided to upgrade last night since I was physically around for a bit. 

[paddy-stone]

14 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

My server is running a 1230v2, so, it's not really an issue of it taking a long time, but rather that I'm not going to be around where the server is located long enough to setup and then deal with any potential problems that may arise and while I can VPN in, I'd prefer to not mess with it like that. That was the reason why I pushed off updating the plugin for a few weeks in the first place, I only decided to upgrade last night since I was physically around for a bit. 

Ahh I see, yeah I guess I can see the reasoning for that. I would just do it anyway though TBH, just make a backup of your config before changing anything. Then create the new plex jail/plugin install, create a new plex account or just create a new server instead of taking control of the other one, point the plex storage at your storage, or if you just want a down and dirty way of testing if you still get problems, make a new directory and put a few films etc in there just for testing.

I had a thought by the way as to what the problem might have been for when mine was doing this... IIRC, I changed in the settings anything that might have hindered the playback, such as logging, empty trash automatically after each scan, video preview and chapter thumbnails set to NEVER, DLNA server disabled (I don't use that shit). I am almost positive that it was one of those things that was causing the buffering etc.

 

Anyway, hope that helped, if not then sorry, I am trying to remember what I did to get the buffering problem sorted. I did actually create a new jail/plugin at least once I remember too, right from scratch too... but I'm pretty sure I still had the buffering problem after doing that, and that it was either changing the settings as above, or something like the storage location being a problem.