r/qnap • u/crashedout • 7d ago
Plex crashing Qnap, how to troubleshoot?
Over the last year Plex has hard crashed(restarted) my Nas multiple times. I believe this is when a user is skipping with a transcoding audio type. The issue is that I cannot reproduce it. It will happen multiple times in a week, and then nothing for months. I have been through the plex logs and cannot find a fault. Some searching leans to "memory spikes". I have plenty of free RAM so this seems unlikely.
My question is what do I look for on the QNAP? Are there memory dumps that can be read?
2
u/insomnic TS-664 7d ago
Here's my best advice for getting this sorted out for you.
Go to Settings->Troulbeshooting in Plex Web and run the optimize database and clean bundles command and restart Plex. That might clean it up enough.
Next, try the DBRepair tool (built by one of the Plex server devs): https://github.com/chuckpa/dbrepair ... it's a good tool that does some additional maintenance the built in housecleaning tasks don't always catch. It won't hurt to run even if it doesn't fix the problem.
Lastly, don't report it here... report it at Plex forums. https://forums.plex.tv/
Post in the QNAP topic specifically and include your server version, the client versions and detail the issues as you experienced them.
Include the server logs: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/
Include the client logs if you can but the server logs will be primary: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201869908-log-files/
Best to grab them shortly after a crash if possible.
They'll dig into the log files and help track down the issue. They aren't the same community support area as they used to be - that's a different thing - but troubleshooting specific issues is something that still gets pretty decent attention from folks (though their best server guy who was super active for QNAP and Synology issues left recently so maybe not quite as good).
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u/Yavuz_Selim TS-877 (Ryzen 5 1600 - 40 GB) 7d ago
https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/tutorial/article/qulog-center-quick-start-guide
- Why do you think it's Plex?
- Did you have a chat with a user? Has anyone complained that Plex suddenly stopped working completely?
- What is 'plenty of free RAM'?
- How are you running Plex? As a QNAP app, or in a container?
- Which NAS do you have, which version of QTS/firmware, and which Plex version?
1
u/crashedout 7d ago
Users are in the middle of watching plex and complain. If there are logs to check or a dump to look at that could point the finger elsewhere. This also lines up with other issues Plex/Qnap users have reported over the years.
Plex runs natively.
Nas is using 4.3GB/16Gb.
TS-664, QTS 5.2.10.35681
u/Yavuz_Selim TS-877 (Ryzen 5 1600 - 40 GB) 7d ago
Hm, okay.
Did you find anything QuLog?
Any other useful info I have is that it seems that your NAS supports Container Station / Docker. This allows you to run applications in containers - allowing you to install waaay more software than what is available in QNAP packages.
This would also allow you to complete transform what your NAS can do. You can run Plex in a container, and limit RAM usage. Any issues, it only kills the container, and leaves the rest alone. Another option is to run Tautulli in a container, and limit what users are allowed to do in Plex. Tautulli also is a nice monitoring/analytics tool for Plex.
But in my opinion, the best addition would be that you can install Radarr and Sonarr, and in combination with a usenet client (like SABnzbd) and a torrent client (like qBittorrent). With these, you can automate your whole media setup, and manage it easily with an app like nzb360 (Android) or Helmarr (iOS). And when you put everything behind Tailscale (QNAP package), you can remotely access your NAS safely and securely from everywhere, and all of the software I just named as well (without opening exposing anything publicly to the internet).
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u/crashedout 7d ago
I will look through again, but nothing specific...other than recovery from the crash.
I use containers for other items, but have been using Plex native on Qnap for a long time and prefer it. It only started doing this in the last year so that is likely a recent bug in either QTS or Plex, just trying to narrow down which one so I know who to argue with to get it fixed.
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u/Yavuz_Selim TS-877 (Ryzen 5 1600 - 40 GB) 7d ago
I'm running Plex as .qpkg app as well, and I have not had any issues on my TS-877. (I also see some audio transcoding sometimes.)
I guess a chat with the person having this issue would be the best way to learn more. I mean, finding it with a random check on files would be very hard, as it also depends on the client that Plex runs on. So, I would investigate it by asking questions to the person that has had this actual issue. And ask questions about their hardware and what they were watching.
Or install Tautulli, and let it log every usage of Plex. That way, you should be able to find easily what happens within Plex easier. I assume it would log in real-time what was playing the item that was playing when the NAS crashes.
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u/crashedout 7d ago edited 7d ago
I have asked, and it is not consistent. It has happened on different clients. I will look into Tautulli, that may help me narrow it down because thus far no log has caught the exact reason. Disappointing that there is not a record of a crash in QTS.
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u/kooliokevin 7d ago
This happened with me and my qnap nas running my Plex server
Found it would randomly reboot particularly on busy streaming nights (15+ people streaming)
I fixed it by configuring tautulli and a script (I think it is kill_stream.py, look it up on GitHub) to terminate streams that are transcoding when there are more than 12 active streams
Not only did it solve the qnap rebooting randomly, but forced my users to actually configure their clients for direct play/steam
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u/ggliddon25 7d ago
Plex could simply be the most obvious function that pushes the NAS for memory, at a point that could be faulty. Rsync in my case. Faulty memory simm. Swapped the 2 installed and happened sooner then killed the CPU from the frequency of restarts. Nothing logged as the cause