I gave a family member access to my library of content. They have an nvidia shield and direct play work fine on the same nvidia shield that I have. They are able to access my library and play the content but its transcodes everything down to Standard Definition. I don't know if I am missing a setting or something that would cause the transcode to happen for all my content

We are not on the same network so I don't know if that is the issue. I am a complete noob at plex so any help would be appreciated.

TL;DR - Any suggestions on my Plex migration process/setup below?

I've been running Plex for years as a service on a Fedora VM on an ESXi server with no GPU ability. I'm rebuilding my home lab & apps - new landscape is a Proxmox multi-node cluster, containerizing everything, and GPU passthrough is working. After a lot of research I settled on running Plex as it's own dedicated LXC container/ip address/dns entry. Looking at the official support article and lots of tutorials and posts, I tried following the process below:

• Backed up the old system at the server level
• Spun up a new Plex LXC from the Proxmox community scripts site (Ubuntu, current Plex running, and detected my GPU)
• Both Plex instances verified at the same version level
• Created the same NFS mounts in the container to my video storage the old system runs on (same paths) & verfied access
• Turned off "empty trash" on both systems
• Signed out of old system
• Systemctl'ed the old and new instances down
• Copied /var/lib/plex/Library/Application Support & all subdirectories from the old to the new system
• chown -R plex:plex ./Application Support
• systemctl start'ed plex on the new system

I initially got a welcome screen on the new system, but after clicking once to proceed the page tried reloading multiple times, then eventually failed. Tried restarting the service and even the container, but no change. To make matters worse, when I gave up on migrating and shut that container down and restarted the old system/service, the service would show as running but only serve a static XML page. I was eventually able to access it via localhost and re-sign back in.

Potential issues, maybe (?):

• 2 Plex instances on the same subnet?
• I didn't change my router's port forwarding (32400-32410) to the new system immediately?

And as a last resort, if I just spin up a new Plex instance without moving the DB over and just rescanning/rebuilding the libraries as, do I lose anything other than log data since plex's watch sync is active? I've not customized any of the media files/posters, etc.

TIA!

I'm a new-ish Plex user and I wanted to create a library for my Tokusatsu shows, and I'm starting with Super Sentai. I quickly discovered that I have to organize them as "Super Sentai" Seasons 1-48 rather than by each series name. Okay, I can live with that.

What I want to do is be able to incorporate the movies for each series in the correct continuity/chronology. For example: In season 37, Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, the 30-minute "movie" Gaburincho of Music, takes place between episodes 20 and 21. And The Great Dinosaur War should be viewed between episodes 36 and 37.

Is there any way to incorporate those into Plex so that they are placed in the correct spot in the series? I don't mind editing the entry in Plex manually to get the desired result.

I'm even having trouble getting Plex to see those two movies. When I scan the folder that has the TV episodes and the short movies in it, just the episodes show up. I'm guessing that it's because the Plex Library was classified as TV Shows when I created it.

Any pointers or suggestions?

[I did a search and couldn't find this problem addressed.]

I'm playing with the Python PlexAPI, primarily so I can run a script that plays specific content on one of my two Plex clients (each is an Apple TV 4K).

I've enabled "Advertise as Player" on both of these devices, but it seems they only show up in the clients list temporarily. If I turn off the Apple TV, if it goes to sleep, or if I close the Plex app and reopen it, then that client drops from the list.

This isn't just a case of Plex not being open on the device; the client list does not populate correctly even if the Plex app is open and has focus.

It seems the only thing that gets each device to appear correctly is to toggle the "Advertise as Player" setting.

Any ideas?

I am a lifetime plex user and have a few family member as sharing my server. I want to add additional access, I go into manage users, choose add, and add a new email. The person does not get an invite from Plex.

What can I do? Thank you in advance

After wasting a LOT of frustrating hours over the weekend, I think I finally found the solution to the “Failed to Play Downloaded File, External Storage Not Found” issue that plagues the Fire Tablets.

The micro sd card gets reformatted as FAT32 once it’s put in the tablet, as Amazon states that exFAT is not compatible with their tablets. It also asks if you want to keep it as removable storage, or add to internal storage. I’ve seen comments talking about the second “internal storage” label on the sd card could be confusing Plex, so I changed mine to “removable” but I still had issues. Then, after looking at the differences between the playable files and unplayable ones, it finally hit me like a load of bricks.

The largest allowable file size in FAT32 is 4GB. After some testing, I found that files right at that 4GB size play fine, while any files larger than that gave the error. Furthermore, files that were originally much larger, but became smaller after I changed my Download parameters and redownloaded the files worked fine if the new file was under that 4GB mark.

Currently, PLEX doesn’t have any settings that prevent downloaded files from being larger than 4GB. 4Mbps (Default 720p High Setting) equates about 3.6GB per 2 hours.

TL;DR : 1. Keep downloads smaller than 4GB. 2. Set your microSD as “removable storage”.

Hello! I'm new to PLEX and don't know much about it, but with the issue I've had recently I've done a bunch of Google digging and rummaging through settings and haven't found a solution. A friend of mine shared their library with me, and the maximum quality that I can stream those files on my PC and Mac is 720p. However, on my phone, I can stream the same files at 1080p. I asked my friend about this, and they said that they haven't found a way to allow PLEX to stream higher than 720p. I don't want to push them to dig around in their settings, especially since one of my devices can somehow stream in HD. Is there a known solution for PC and Mac? Or is this something that has to be addressed on my friend's end?

https://preview.redd.it/ifffqrqoszge1.png?width=1075&format=png&auto=webp&s=340fe0fd9078748f23c66e227bd0b08be01a28d7

I recently imported a number of foreign films and the posters have given me trouble. Some of them import posters for me to choose from, but others do not. Any solutions?

I remember a while back (roughly a year ago?) there was outrage that plex was banning people for their server sharing habits. I suspected this was targeted at people profiting from selling access to their server.

I am upgrading to fiber internet which means I could easily share my (totally legitimate) server with friends and family, probably about 10 households total. Should I be worried?

I run a Plex Server on my NAS in Docker. I am 90% sure it was working with Direct Play to my Nvidia Shield. However, it's started now only doing HW transcoding.

I did have Adguard enabled and I wondered if it was a networking issue. I turned it all off, relaunched Docker and its still happening.

I can remote connect to the server so I'm not sure.

Here is my compose file:

https://gist.github.com/darrenhaken/0f4a59003133a2e71a09eb388b1bfc4b

Can anyone help? it's driving me crazy

I've been running Plex for about a year now off my nVidia Shield TV Pro, and it's been working great on that device. However, whenever I try to stream something to a different TV that has a chromecast or chromecast built in, I struggle to get things working. Only the occasional h.264 file seems to work, and even those seem to be hit or miss.

For example, I can play a 720p h.264 file, but not a SD MPEG4 file, nor a 1080p h.265 file. I do notice on the h.264 720p file it seems to be direct playing, while for some reason the SD file is trying to transcode. When I'm playing the SD file my dashboard says "SD ->SD (H264)—Transcode (hw)". When I try to play a 1080p HVEC file it says "1080p (hw) -> 1080P (H264)—Transcode (hw)"

Is this a problem with the Chromecasts or the Plex server? Or the app? When I install the Plex app on a Smart TV that seems to work fine, so too does running it from the browser. Behaviour occurs both on my home network and away. I've paid the one time fee for the app, but no not have the premium Plex subscription.

Edit to add: Here are the Quality settings on the Plex app on my phone - Automatic adjust quality - off Remote streaming quality - Maximum Play smaller videos at original quality - on Home Streaming - recommended

I had another user streaming a show that was transcoding (purely because of subtitles, it direct played when they were off) with a bandwidth usage of a whopping 60 Mbps. Is this purely because of subtitles, and why is it so high?

On another note, is there a way I can configure my transcoder to ease this, or is it better to either encourage my user to use a better client (it's an older Chromecast) or to optimize the media?

Note: the original source codec of Regular Show here is HEVC x265

https://preview.redd.it/f9g53ba2ezge1.png?width=682&format=png&auto=webp&s=8470fb791929436b14247674e7af09df4bdd1d84

As mentioned in the title I'm done with unraid after the latest issue I'm having. I'm just too dumb to deal with it. However I have no idea what off the shelf NAS features to look for.

Ideally I would like to run docker containers and be able to transcode 4K video, I'm the only one in my house so it doesn't need to deal with multiple transcodes or anything like that.

Would the F4-24 Pro from Terramaster be overkill? What about Synology?

Cheers.

edit: I appreciate the offers of helping me out with my unraid issues, but please for the love of god I am not asking for unraid support.

I've seen the other posts about the web access failing today and being worked on, and to access using https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#! seems to work. It does. But I'm having issues, and so are the rest of my viewers, accessing Plex on any device that isn't a web browser today....with the sole exception of one, oddly enough.

Plex is running on unRAID, behind Tailscale, and never had any issues until the reported downtime this morning with the sole exception that my remote can sometimes go in and out, even though it appears to work fine and Tautuli seems to just be overly sensitive or I have some double NAT issue that I haven't had time to look at.

Restarted the docker image, and the whole array. Accessing remotely on a browser seems to work for me (at least from work) as well as accessing on the same Tailscale network. The only other person able to access via any sort of app is a Roku device. Android TVs aren't able to, and mobile apps (both the OG and the preview with the new UI) won't work.

After a lot of research I’m looking to pick up a used optiplex off eBay. Which processor would be better?

I’m looking to get more 4k media and have a few friends and family that I share to.

From what I’ve read I may as well throw an arc a380 in too, or not needed?

I just want to watch Seinfeld in random order. After going to shuffle, ok great I get a random episode out of all 9 seasons. But then after watching that episode, it just puts me back at that season with all those episodes in proper order. Is it not possible to continue watching in a completely randomized order?

I already have a ugoos am6b+ with coreelec for the living room tv mainly for bluray remuxes with FEL DoVi and I'm thinking of getting a second one for non DoVi content for another room.

Is there perhaps a better, cheaper choice for non DoVi or should I just go for this one?
I currently have an old Nokia streamer there which can't handle h.264 high 10 content (mainly anime) while the ugoos plays it perfectly

I've been setting up a Plex server on my Mac mini for a couple of weeks, learning as I go. I have figured out how to get the IMDB identifier for the movies I have, but I don't see a way to differentiate between versions. In this particular case, I'm referring to The Abyss. I have the theatrical version, and the "Special Edition" that has about 1/2 hour of extra material. However, there is only one IMDB number. The IMDB data overrides whatever I've named the file. This is only one example - I have who knows how many releases of Blade Runner from over the years, and I'd like to have them all available and properly identified on my server. Is there a secret for this?

I've had no issues with directplay for years, but suddenly everything being streamed to my S95C is being transcoded.

On PC side = Video quality set to maximum under both Internet Streaming and Home Streaming.

In the Plex4Samsung app = Both local and remote quality set to Original, Allow Direct Play, Direct Stream and Force Direct Play all checked, Disable Bitrate Limiting unchecked.

When any file is playing, attempting to manually select quality shows it playing Original however, the dashboard on PC shows it is being transcoded (both audio and video).

Can someone please point in the right direction? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Now, my previous post was me considering on getting the Intel based Mac Minis from 2018 or the M1 Mac Mini, but after long consideration, I’m ultimately leaning towards the new M4 Mac Mini.

My current setup is my MacBook Air M1, with 2 of my HDDs plugged into a hub expansion. It’s 24GB ram (but honestly, I doubt I’ve used even 5% of it before) and thought the Mac Minis M4 base model (16GB/256GB) would suffice since I don’t use the SSD given.

Now, I’ll be honest, I don’t plan on using any docker etc, I just want to experiment with the ‘arrs. The Radarr, Sonarr etc for automated/remote download. For those who are wondering why I’m using Mac Mini as a dedicated server instead of a Windows/Linux based system, it’s nothing personal really— I just want a very straightforward transfer of account. Although Plex says it’s possible to transfer servers between 2 different operating systems, I do not have the experience to even consider that.

So long story short, is 16Gb/256GB ssd sufficient if I plan to do the dedicated Plex server + arrs, considering I’m still using my external HDD as the main storage? Or should I just get the 16Gb/512GB? Would getting the former option, impact future performance?

Things to consider;

1. I have close to 15 people on my server. (Maybe 3-4 ppl watch it at the same time?)
2. I don’t watch remux 4Ks, though I would consider trying them in the future. (Only 1-3 ppl would watch 4k/AAC)
3. Most of them watch 1080p/AAC files. There are some DTS 5.1 movies but very selective.

Looking forward to your comments & discussions!

I keep receiving this message on my both my home server (ye-olde laptop) and any other devices when I try to connect using a browser.

App playback works perfectly fine (mobile).

I'm currrently only using it as a home server, I'm not trying to access outside of my network.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

https://preview.redd.it/5hcd8sblkyge1.png?width=645&format=png&auto=webp&s=1f24836c907ad1675ead2bbd75099a9e61149a80

I have been using plex for the last 5 weeks. Works great on my pc, tv app. But for some reason I cannot get it to work on my android mobile app. Nor the ios mobile app. I can however watch using the browser and going to 192.168.x.x/web. But the mobile app doesn't work. I am on the same network as I can indeed watch through browser.

Edit: what I mean is, app works. Sorry for wording it wrong. I just cannot connect to my library. I can watch the free stuff on plex but not my own. I tried playing with network, enabling relay, not forcing any security settings. Still nada.

I had it turned on many years ago, but after a while turned it off to save storage space.

I'm in the process of upgrading, might turn it back on when I get everything situated.

Hi,

Why is Plex on ios reducing the quality of the audio stream despite saying its direct play?

https://preview.redd.it/pqk1a19tdyge1.png?width=1017&format=png&auto=webp&s=d28c44f47193cba73a86c24800859b95fa550b43

They are all local stream.

In the ios Plex App the music quality is set to "original".

IOS 16.xx

No Bandwidth limitations are in place on the server.

Any idea?

PS: I dont have a screenshot right now, but using the PlexAMP App on IOS removes the "Direct Play" remark and the information of the quality.

“No Tailscale on clients needed”, only on Plex server.

Requirements: Tailscale installed, Plex server installed and setup (both on same device)

1. Install Tailscale and login/add device to your account
2. Check its shows your device in Tailscale account admin page
3. In terminal type: sudo Tailscale funnel -- bg http:127.0.0.1:32400
4. In Tailscale copy the domain url of the Plex machine. Eg plex.bread.ts.net and put into note pad

Plex server/account settings:

1. Go to server settings ( spanner top right corner)
2. Go to remote access tab and disable
3. Go to network tab and scroll down to bottom
4. Under Custom server access URLs, type your domain url in here. Make sure to put https:// in front of your domain. Eg. https://plex.bread.ts.net
5. Press save
6. That’s it, should be working and Plex working as normal

I'm considering getting a Beelink EQ14 and a Synology DS923+. I was considering a QNAP TR-004 DAS, but concluded all the space available will be nice to have available to another devices in the house.

For the same money, I can build a decent PC in an ITX tower with a small i3 MB and CPU with on-board graphics, 32 GB RAM, a 500 GB SSD.

HDDs are going to be the same regardless. For OS, I'm leaning toward Win 11, since it's known to me. And I will get a PSU for backup.

Use case is it's mainly a Plex Server, running qbt and *arr's with one 12 TB disk for my library and one disk for redundancy, so probably RAID. I want a small form factor, low noise, power consumption. Something I can tuck away and leave on.

I'll probably use it for other things like storing family pictures.

I'm just wondering at this point whether it's better to just get the easy to use brand name solution or to build it myself.

What difference would it make in terms of software, setting up RAID, network access, PSU, rebooting etc?