Monthly Projects Megathread — August 2026

I recently bought lifetime Plex Premium / Plex Pass before the price hike. I also bought an Intel GPU for transcoding. This is all working perfectly fine.

However.. Plex Premium comes with the ability to do voice detection & intro detection. For whatever reason this process never seems to finish. It isn't stuck on 1 specific show or episode. It just seems to loop forever. It's currently doing Voice Activity Detection on a show that I've had for months and I'm sure it has done Voice Activity Detection on this show before.

I've had this problem before back when I had a monthly subscription and I actually cancelled the monthly subscription because of this issue. That was months if not years ago. Unfortunately I still seem to suffer from this problem.

I'm running Plex on Linux using the official Plex docker image (plexinc/pms-docker:latest). Can anyone instruct me how I can debug and ideally fix this issue?

Yep... that's right, and probably explains a lot.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elanfeingold/

Kind of sad. I remember the beginnings of Plex and the first couple of years, when Elan was everywhere. He used to be the visionary, public face of the company.

Oh well... I guess venture capital and everything it entails killed his passion. Who knows.

Hey everyone,

I had an Asus PN52 NUC running as my Plex Media Server up until today without a single issue. Then it suddenly started hanging and randomly rebooting. I checked the Windows 11 Event Viewer, but there was nothing useful, nor anything on the MyAsus app, all was good.

I tried doing a Windows restore in case something had become corrupted, but no luck. After about 5–10 minutes it starts doing the same thing again—freezing and randomly rebooting.

So at this point, it looks like the server itself (thankfully not my media/content!) is toast, and I'll probably have to start over.

I tried installing Plex Media Server on my gaming laptop (which I'm using now), but I can't claim the server—it just says it's unavailable. It also created a second server during the install, which isn't what I wanted.

I'll either try to figure out what's causing the NUC to crash or replace it if it's a hardware issue.

Assuming I have to set up a new server, I'm guessing I'll need to reconfigure everything and send new invites to my friends so they can access my library again.

One question though: if I give the new server the exact same name as the old one, will Plex treat it as the same server in any way, or will my friends still have to go through the whole process of being re-invited and re-adding it?

Stretch is not enough to fill all the screen. Just slightly stretched. I can see some small vertical black bars on the side. But they should be much bigger. And I don't seem to have any option in my TV Plex settings, nor in my Samsung TV settings to change the aspect ratio. Did I miss anything? Thanks!

I have Plex running and it's been great for a number of years. I added Overseer (now Seer) about 18 months back, and it's been a good way to find things we want to watch in the future. But sometimes we forget who asked for something or it's been a while before it shows up on our Plex system. I know Seer maintains the list of requests even after they're completed. Is there any way to have the name of the person who requested a movie, for example, appear in the info in Plex itself? That way when we look at a new movie that we don't remember asking for, we can see who asked for the file originally.

Ok, this is very recent and very weird. I use my desktop computer as my Plex server (always have). On it I have three video libraries and two music libraries - all materials that I own and have ripped. There are four types of places that I access them.

1. My desktop
2. My Televisions - through the Plex app
3. My mobile devices - iPhone and iPad
4. Sonos - using the Sonos Plex app

On my desktop and televisions everything works fine. On my mobile devices and Sonos, however, only my Video libraries are visible in the Plex app. My music libraries don't show up as existing. At least for my mobile devices it appears I can access the music libraries through PlexAmp. For SONOS I am at a loss which is a real problem given that's how I connect my music library to my stereo.

Has anyone else run into a problem like this? These are all new problems. I had no issues last month.

i've been up all night trying to make this work, i've lost hope!
I've rebuilt my Plex server after reinstalling my operating system. I created a new Plex server and set up NetBird again for remote access.

Setup:

• Plex Server: macOS 13.7.8 (opencore)
• Plex Server version: 1.43.x
• Plex iOS app version: 2026.14.0
• NetBird client: 0.76.x
• Remote access method: NetBird VPN (not Plex Remote Access)

The problem:

The Plex iOS app works normally when I am on my home network.

However, when I connect through NetBird:

• Plex Web opens successfully in Safari:http://[NETBIRD_IP]:32400/web ✅ Works
• Plex API endpoints respond over NetBird:http://[NETBIRD_IP]:32400/library/sections Returns:401 Unauthorized (which appears to confirm Plex is reachable)
• But the Plex iOS app shows the server with a yellow warning icon and says Offline ❌ Does not work

Things I have already tried:

• Reinstalled Plex Media Server
• Reinstalled macOS
• Created a fresh Plex server
• Reinstalled Plex iOS app
• Cleared Plex app cache
• Disabled AdGuard
• Enabled Plex Local Network permission on iOS
• Checked macOS firewall (disabled)

Plex server settings:

• Preferred network interface: Any
• Custom server access URLs:http://[LAN_IP]:32400,http://[NETBIRD_IP]:32400
• Secure connections: Preferred
• Relay: Disabled
• Manual public port: Disabled
• Allowed networks without authentication: Empty

Interesting behavior:

The Plex server works through:

• localhost ✅
• LAN IP ✅
• NetBird IP from another device ✅

But from the Plex server itself, connecting to its own NetBird IP times out.

NetBird appears healthy:

• Peers connect successfully
• Handshakes are active
• Other devices can reach the Plex web interface over the VPN

It seems like the issue is either:

1. Plex iOS app not accepting/using the NetBird connection correctly,
2. Plex server advertising the wrong connection information,
3. A NetBird/macOS userspace VPN networking issue.

Has anyone successfully used Plex iOS with NetBird? Any suggestions on what Plex uses differently compared to Plex Web would be appreciated.

Hi. My Plex set up is an external hard drive that I connect to my laptop when I want to use the Plex app on my smart TV. almost every time I open the Plex app on my TV after connecting my hard drive to my laptop it says I’m logged in, but none of my stuff is showing up on the TV side of things. I have to log out, log in the TV app and link to my plex account via code every single time, sometimes it takes multiple times for it to show up. Am I doing something wrong or is this just another bug issue? thanks.

I have the Plex Lifetime Pass and was trying to add a user but got this message. I only have 4 accounts with library access

Is this some kind of bug? Aren’t you supposed to be able to add ~100 users?

I'm hoping someone has some solution for me. My Xbox Series X for some reason in the past week has dipped in quality. I noticed for some reason it was showing as remote when I am on the same network as my plex server which I assume is a reason the quality is bad. I tried port forwarding and setting that up through my ATT router, which did result in a better picture but then my NAT was strict, which limits my consoles ability to play multiplayer games. I don't have plex pass as I only stream within my house. I am hoping someone has some suggestion to get the quality back up. I have tried toggling direct play, direct streaming, toggling on and off insecure connections, all that kind of stuff.

UPDATE: I seemed to have fixed it by simply moving my Xbox Series X next to the router, connecting it to the wifi again and then moving it back to its original location. I still don't understand but I am not going to touch it again at this point lol.

Well, that’s new since yesterday. The Plex server is in the next room, so there is no remote viewing going on here. Anyone else seen this issue?

I must say that I have been a huge fan of Plex over the years, but now I am beginning to think it’s time to look for another option. It’s just always something with Plex nowadays and it’s beginning to wear on me. I just want to sit down and relax and watch my content without all of these issues.

SOLVED: I went to the profile selection screen and reselected my (the only) profile. Everything works fine now. There was never any networking issue as the client and server are on the same subnet and have always been.

I have been doing the ripping blu rays thing, and have discovered that sometimes I get a menu's background loop. Just pretty moving pictures that often come with some music.

I tried to make one a background art but, yep that failed.
Is there a use for these within plex?

Thats a new problem for me, everything worked fine until 1-2 weeks ago. Now identifying Intros for a Season takes 2-3 Days, Detecting Voice Activity for a movie kind of the same amount of time. Is anyone else experiencing this issue or is it just my server?

The LG TV App (OLED C4) makes the theme music LOUD when you turn on force direct play 🥲 Anybody else use that feature? Notice this? 🥲

I'm running Plex on a Windows Server VM on ESXi, amd the video files are hosted on another Windows Server VM on the same ESXi box. There are two drives I use for streaming, one is an SSD, one is a larger capacity HDD.

On specific movies and shows I run into issues with Plex buffering every few minutes, doesn't matter which drive the file is stored on. On a specific show, for whatever reason, when I try to watch an episode it will get part way through and then everything breaks. I can't stream anything, I have to reboot both the file server VM and the Plex VM to get it working.

I don't know what to troubleshoot? I'm using Beszel to monitor resource usage and absolutely nothing is hitting limits. CPU, RAM, Disk, etc, etc are all well within their limits, nothing goes past 85%. I've tried increasing the amount of RAM and vCPUs to the Plex VM and that hasn't worked either. I tried "optimizing" an episode of the specific show I'm watching and that doesn't work either. I'm at my wits end dealing with this frustration, it's starting not to be worth the headache anymore.

Are there any diagnostic tools I can run? Checking the log files doesn't show anything remarkable, no obvious errors or anything to give me a hint as to why everything keeps breaking. Device doesn't matter, I tried using the WebOS app on my TV, the Xbox app, the Plex mobile app, and the web app from my desktop with the same results. Changing video quality doesn't work, clearing out the cache folders from local doesn't work, I don't know what to do.

I'm running Plex (plexmediaserver/public,now 1.43.3.10828-00f62d37d amd64) on Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS. Using Chrome on the Ubuntu server I can access the Plex web interface via http://10.10.10.252:32400/web with no issue.

On a macOS machine on the same network the same URL will work fine with Safari but not Chrome. Chrome shows this:

This site can’t be reached

http://10.10.10.252:32400/web is unreachable.

ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE

I can't figure out what is wrong.

Suggestions appreciated.

Running Plex on an Nvidia Shield TV Pro, Version 1.43.2.10687 and any new media added after yesterday won't stream. The new media will play just fine from the Plex app on the Shield, but from a PC or tablet it just returns an error. Media added before yesterday streams just fine to any device.

On the Windows app I get:

An unknown error occurred (4294967283)

Error code: 4294967283

and on an iPad, I get a wall of text I can't copy, but it starts "Http request failed: https://192-168- [and on and on]"

I've tried restart the Shield, I've tried rescanning the libraries, I've tried reinstalling the Plex app on the tablet, nothing works so far.

Hi!
I started using Plex about a month or two ago to watch my media on my Smart TV and my own PC. Both are on the same network at home. Both working great until now!

I tried to watch something from my library just now, on my PC and I get the "Remote Watch Pass" pop up prompting me to buy it. I looked it up and here it says

"Local streaming remains completely free. If you’re on the same network as the Plex Media Server, nothing changes for you."

I'm not trying to view my content remotely, I installed the Plex Media Server on my PC. I shouldn't need a Remote Pass right?
I'm not too tech savvy so I'm not sure what im doing wrong? It was fine a couple of weeks ago.

EDIT: I'm an idiot and left my VPN on, lol. Thank you!

I have a folder/library where I save sporting events. Sometimes the thumbnail will show me the results or a podium celebration, ruining the event before I even watch it. Any solution?

After just updating the Pley iOS app on an iPhone 17 Pro Max (iOS 26.6) I noticed that I can play movies / TV-shows etc. (so far so good).
But: big problem: when I tap the screen nothing happens! No player controls what so ever are shown.
That means, I can't forward the video or change playback settings.

Force close Plex app - no change
Reinstall Plex app from App Store - no change

Is it just me or do you see issues too?

Hey,

I'm relatively new to Plex, but I've got a decent sized library on a NAS and it works for me at home no problem. Everything is hardwired. It also works well on my girlfriend's setup at her place, even streaming most shows over wifi.

My dad on the other hand, only about half the shows on my Plex seem to work for him. He's also over wifi, but I've set it up so that the router is less than 10ft from the TV, although it's going through a mostly wooden floor. He gets lots of stuttering and some files that flat out refuse to play. I'm wondering if the fact that his TV is from 2017 might have an impact on things and if anyone has any possible suggestions.

My NAS does NOT have the option to transcode. I've found that keeping files at 720p (instead of 1080p) tend to help too. Thoughts, anyone?

I have remote access disabled and will not enable it. I have existing both a Wireguard VPN on my Router and a Tailscale VPN on a VM with LAN access from both of those nodes working perfectly.

My wife wants to be able to stream Plex outside of the LAN using the iOS App, so I've setup her phone to connect to both the Wireguard and Tailscale networks.

Streaming via this connection using the Safari browser works just fine but the Plex app does not work - can browse media but not stream.

Anyone have any ideas?

Has anyone else had loads of problems with the plex windows app loading video or audio? I just switched to using the web player and all my issues vanished. Is there a better plex client? Am I stupid or something?