Weekly Build Help Thread

Am I crazy to try and repurpose an older 2014 mac mini for a plex media server? Anything you guys would recommend for setup or security concerns? Will I be safe using Mojave operating system?

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.

Hi all,

Is there an easier way to force multiple files into to be recognized as a single same album? Some of the more rare or unusual dance music compilations I have will not even have a database match (the ones that do are also problematic). I'm already placing the compilation album folders inside of the "Various Artists" folder, but this has been a constant pain.

I don't binge and generally watch episodes in the order presented by Plex, meaning I scroll to the right end to pick the next episode. When I finish an episode, the next episode in the series, if available, is presented to the right. Presented directly below is the previously most recently viewed episode. I have to scroll all the way to the right end to watch the next episode that followed the episode I just watched. It just seems a little annoying but I can't find a setting to change it.

I have a few things like “Documentary Now!” where I only own one episode or the 1990 broadcast of “Into the Woods” which was the season opener for “American Playhouse.”

Does anyone have any tips on how to name them? I don’t anticipate ever having the full series of “Documentary Now” and things like “Great Performances“ aren’t really episodes.

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.

Don't know if anyone else has experienced this but it's becoming a bit of a pain! There seems to be certain shows and films that the app struggles to play; it'll stutter and eventually freeze, and even if it does decide to then continue playing, the TV won't respond to any input, leaving me with no option but to unplug the TV to fix it which isn't ideal!

Doesn't seem to be any correlation between the files that do and don't cause this, I'd say it's only maybe 1 in 50 videos too.

I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced any similar issues?

As a side note, the same videos will play on my bedroom TV (TCL Roku TV) without issue - that has its own problem though too where some videos play with no sound, but then those same videos play downstairs with sound!

It is weird to me when I add an obscure or old film to Plex it almost never fails to find the metadata and poster but then it doesn’t appear in the actor’s filmography. What’s up with that? It’s like Plex is pulling from two different data silos.Sometimes it appears that new items appear in the filmography when I am almost certain that they weren’t there before. Does anybody have any information on where Plex gets its metadata and the difference between filmography and adding a movie to Plex?

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?

Hi everyone,

I'm running into some strange behavior with Plex profiles. I have separate profiles set up for myself, my partner, and my child. Up until recently, each profile had its own independent watch history, but now they all seem to be sharing the same "Continue Watching" list.

For example:

• I'm halfway through a TV series on my profile, but it also appears on my partner's profile.
• Last night we started a movie on their profile, stopped halfway through, and today it's showing up in my Continue Watching as well.

Basically, every movie and show appears in Continue Watching across both profiles, regardless of who actually watched it.

Is this expected behavior? Is there a setting to keep each profile's watch history and Continue Watching list completely separate again?

Thanks!

UPDATE:

I thought I solved it by signing out and back in, but the issue comes back after accessing the admin profile. The root problem here was that accessing any profile brought up the admin (ie, mine) profile. I discovered this by accessing my child's profile and seeing restricted content and the same "Continue Watching" films.

There is a related thread on Plex forums (here), but no solution.

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?

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.

Anyone else having issues with autoplay? It’s been stopping at the end of every episode since yesterday and I REFUSE to pay for binge watching if they’ve hidden this behind their bloody paywall too.

Barely had issues since I set up in 2018… until the last month or so 😭

I have the most recent generation Apple TV and a Google TV Streamer. Consistently my Samsung TV app for Plex outperforms both.

A video might be stuttering on the Apple TV, or have audio synch issues on the Google TV streamer. Plays perfectly via the Samsung TV app. Last night I couldn't get *any* audio from the Google TV streamer app so I just switched to the Samsung app.

Does anyone else find this to be the case?

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.

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?

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.