Lots of buffering - Plex via rclone mount

Help and Support
1

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

When I try and watch stuff on Plex, it hangs for 20-30s and then it eventually starts playing.
When my friend tries to watch things remotely, it doesn't work at all. It buffers eternally, or it hangs on a loading screen where you can see in the background some media.

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

rclone v1.58.1

  • os/version: slackware 15.0 (64 bit)
  • os/kernel: 5.15.46-Unraid (x86_64)
  • os/type: linux
  • os/arch: amd64
  • go/version: go1.17.9
  • go/linking: static
  • go/tags: none

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Google Drive

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

Paste command here

The rclone config contents with secrets removed.

[gdrive]
type = drive
client_id = 
client_secret = 
scope = drive
token = {"access_token":"","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"1//0gkBxR4Ra8ucXCgYIARAAGBASNwF-L9IrmQ3qp8gASOcql1XNIpkdUr1QZsqAS5_kwbNRqki0UbOIZDomuxZEPN0XcGyLbL_quHQ","expiry":"2022-06-20T18:13:41.657084979+10:00"}
team_drive = 
root_folder_id = 1JKFTy11iPcNQzFxatLpSBZeSt-tFa2cr

#!/bin/bash
rclone mount
--allow-other
--drive-acknowledge-abuse
--dir-cache-time=1000h
--drive-chunk-size=256M
--cache-dir=/mnt/user/tmp-cache/rclone
--rc
--rc-addr=localhost:5574
--rc-no-auth
-vv
--poll-interval 1m
--vfs-cache-mode full
--vfs-cache-max-age 1000h
--transfers 5
--gid=100
--uid=99
--umask=000
gdrive:"TV Shows" /mnt/user/media/media/"TV Shows" &

2

Without a log file, I can't offer any assistance.

3

Not only that, but you didn't give us any details. What kind of files are not working (size/type)? Internet speed? Server local/remote? Playback device? Direct play/transcode?

4

https://pastebin.com/PyRiEu0h

Here's the log. Sorry. Near the bottom you can see what happens when I try to play a file.

It usually happens with larger shows, I can almost always play a 20m episode, usually not with a 40m episode, it'll just buffer for a little bit before playing for a couple of seconds, rinse/repeat. This is locally. Remotely nothing happens, it doesn't even try to play, it'll just hang or buffer endlessly.

Internet speed is 250/100. Happens with 1000/50 or 400/250 as well though. I'm in Australia so internet speed is limited. This, however, did not happen last week so I don't think internet issues are at play. My ISP says that nothing looks bad from their end, of course.

Transcode it tries a bit harder but ultimately works, direct play it struggles.

Happens on any and every playback device. You name it. iPad, iPhone, Windows PC, Mac, SHIELD, Apple TV, Xbox Series X, PS5.

Lemme know if you need more, please.

EDIT: I run my system on Unraid.
i5 10400, 32GB ram, 1660, B460-Plus board.

5

When you are playing from the log, almost everything is already downloaded and it's playing from cache. Is your server and player in the same location?

Are you direct playing or transcoding?

etexter@seraphim Downloads % grep present rclone\ log.txt
2022/06/21 16:20:38 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:0 Size:65536} in [] - present false
2022/06/21 16:20:40 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:65536 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:126976}] - present false
2022/06/21 16:20:40 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:7898345472 Size:9208} in [{Pos:0 Size:126976}] - present false
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:196608 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:258048} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present false
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:327680 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:520192} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:458752 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:520192} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present false
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:589824 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:1044480} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:720896 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:1044480} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:851968 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:1044480} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:983040 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:1044480} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present false
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:1114112 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:1044480} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present false
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:1245184 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:2093056} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:1376256 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:2093056} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:1507328 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:2093056} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:1638400 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:2093056} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:1769472 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:2093056} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true
2022/06/21 16:20:42 DEBUG : vfs cache: looking for range={Pos:1900544 Size:131072} in [{Pos:0 Size:2093056} {Pos:7898345472 Size:9208}] - present true

That means almost everything is reading from local disk/cache so that takes out quite a lot.

Either:

  • server is struggling to transcode
  • local network issues if you are direct playing as that's all just local playback from rclone

Does not seem like anything rclone related as server/local network from the log snippet you shared.

6

There’s no way that’s correct. I had cleared out the cache yesterday and haven’t played that file since, it couldn’t have been cached.
Mind you that file never actually started playing, it never played even 1s.

It was direct playing.

7

The logs are the logs.

All those present true lines mean the files have already been downloaded and are present in the cache. Either you didn't clear it or something else grabbed it before. All in all, that's good and that rules out rclone since the files are present in the cache and it moves the problem statement to something local.

8

What problems could there be locally?

It wasn’t an issue last week, and I haven’t made any changes since then. I’m at my wits end with this issue.

9

Is the plex server / plex client in the same location?

If yes, local network, wifi, is it hard wired, direct playing, what's the client being played?

Generally, if you are playing from cache, it rules out quite a lot.

10

The server is in my house. I bought a new router today and I’m able to watch things on my Shield and it works mostly and then everyone now and then it stops to buffer endlessly but if I stop and start the playback it works again for some reason??

My friend who doesn’t live with me, who always transcodes, basically stuff just doesn’t load at all. It just hangs.

My server is hardwired, as it most of the stuff in my house.

11

hi,

maybe take plex out of the equation.
what if you use vlc/kodi to play a video direct from the unraid using a network share.

maybe take rclone out of the equation.
create a plex library consisting of files stored locally on the unraid?

12

Hi!
VLC playback was flawless, started up pretty quickly too.

I have a library of movies. They seem to be hit and miss. Some (most) start instantly, some (rarely) buffer.

13

I've been having my own share of buffering issues for a while now. Usually, I'd blame everything on my ISP's horrible peering, but lately I've been reading more and more about other Plex users having similar problems after the last few server updates.

My setup hasn't changed in more than five years now: Remote Plex server with average ping of low to mid 80 ms, gig speed up/down, media mounted via Rclone, SHIELD for local playback, 500 up/down speed at home. Up until a couple of months ago, I had zero issues streaming even the largest remuxes. Very rarely, my ISP's peering would be extremely bad for a day here and there, and I wouldn't be able to watch even the smallest file.

These days, I am not able to watch any 4K remux without constant buffering, and even smaller files buffer occasionally. Of course, if I bypass the remote Plex server and stream directly from a local Rclone mount, these issues all go away. So, for me, the culprit(s) could be Plex server and/or client, SHIELD, ISP's connection to my server. Hard for me to troubleshoot, since I am unable to run a local Plex server at the moment.

14

That's the general challenge with a question.

I can say from the logs it's not rclone, but that's as far as I can see.

I have a local plex server, shield pro and a few ATVs. Zero issues with anything at all.

There's such a myriad of potential gotchas though without seeing every detail along the way, it's really tough to even suggest anything as there are so many possible permutations of problems.

15

Agreed. The one thing I am sure of in my case is that the Rclone mount is not the issue :slight_smile:

16

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