Emby app crashing

[Ninko 78]

Hi, 

I don't know if you've changed anything recently that could be causing this, but recently the Emby app will crash (back to Roku homepage) randomly. 

Sometimes it does it when starting a program, other times it will do it when finishing one program and going to the next. 

Any thoughts? 

Thanks

[ebr 16169]

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a problem. Thanks!

 

[Ninko 78]

When it happens again, I'll send a log. 

Thanks

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

FWIW: I use Emby for much of every day. Mostly I watch content from Emby at night and I use movies to numb my brain for sleep. It works for me.

I have never had Emby exit unexpectedly during playback. Of course the Roku app does exit after a time if it is inactive but that is a Roku enforced action and Emby has no real control over it. If any app is active and idle for a period of time (somewhere between 1 and 4 hours) Roku will cause it to exit. I do NOT like that behavior and I even argued against it when it was first introduced as I was part of the Roku beta process. MY arguments and nearly everyone that was not part of the Roku ecosystem went unheard by Roku. That also was when I found that Roku does not, although they did in the past, listen to their testers so I left the program. (It is amazing how hard they made it to get out of the beta) Now I almost never have an Emby crash (server or Roku) that is not triggered by usually a bad file.

I do think Emby, when encountering a bad file, should not crash but it does from time to time. Not all bad files cause crashes but some do and even some (a very few) crash Emby but play in other apps. 

I think the described problem is file related and not really the fault of Emby. 

I love my Rokus (mainly the interface) but they do behave a little flaky at times. 

[Ninko 78]

It's not happened again (so far), but just to add some more info, every time is has happened it's been playing a playlist. I know there has been quite a few changes regarding playlists, so whether that has something to do with it, I can't say?

@Gilgamesh_48Until recently, I would have agreed with you, had no problems at all like this.

[Luke 42077]

OK please let us know if it comes up again. Thanks.

[Ninko 78]

It happened again, it seems to mainly happen when going to the next video. 

I sent the Roku app log at 23:29 BST, I was skipping through the program "Father Ted", using the username "Clint".

Emby server log attached

embyserver (1).txt

[ebr 16169]

7 minutes ago, Ninko said:

I sent the Roku app log at 23:29 BST

Unfortunately, the way the Roku logging works, it isn't persistent across sessions so, if it is actually crashing, we can't see that (as you have to re-start the app to send the log).

What were you skipping to?  If you try to play that on its own, does it work?

[Ninko 78]

I was skipping from one father ted episode to another father ted episode, and yes that episode plays fine on it's own (watched many times).

[Ninko 78]

13 hours ago, ebr said:

Unfortunately, the way the Roku logging works, it isn't persistent across sessions so, if it is actually crashing, we can't see that (as you have to re-start the app to send the log).

Right ok, how do you go about finding out why the app is crashing then?

[ebr 16169]

56 minutes ago, Ninko said:

Right ok, how do you go about finding out why the app is crashing then?

We would need to be able to reproduce it somehow.  Can you come up with a specific set of steps that make it happen all the time?

[Ninko 78]

I'll try, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to follow a fixed set of instructions.

I'm assuming the Emby server log I attached when it happened doesn't show anything?

[ebr 16169]

Whatever is happening is happening on the app side.

[Ninko 78]

Thought it might have been.

[Ninko 78]

Another random hiccup.

Started watching a program and only a few seconds in it started buffering (it never does that on the local network).

I went to the dashboard and found it to be transcoding for reason, recovering from a payback error. There's no reason for it to transcode this program. I proved that by stopping and staying again, now it's direct playing, as it should. 

I'm not saying this has anything to do with the crashing, but I'm not saying it doesn't either, I'm just trying to show that for some reason the Emby app has become very flakey recently when it use to be solid as a rock (and no, I haven't changed anything at my end).

I've attached the transcoding file, in case it gives you any hints, not holding my breath though

ffmpeg-directstream-5c6e618f-f6d1-4346-a1a6-548d9fd4b7d5_1.txt

And it just happened again, getting rather fed up with this now. 

embyserver.txt

ffmpeg-directstream-e1454b09-90fd-4516-838d-bd0682d7b88c_1.txt

Edited June 2, 2024 by Ninko

[ebr 16169]

2 hours ago, Ninko said:

There's no reason for it to transcode this program

It isn't transcoding - it is direct streaming and the reason was indicated as you noted:

2 hours ago, Ninko said:

recovering from a payback error.

If you can make that happen again,  please  follow the instructions to send a log from the app.

Thanks.

 

 

[Ninko 78]

I would have done but stupid me, being efficient, switched it off when it happened. 

I will leave the option on now for awhile as I don't know when it will happen. 

Has there been any changes to the app that MIGHT be causing this? Is it possible to revert back a version or two?

[ebr 16169]

1 minute ago, Ninko said:

Has there been any changes to the app that MIGHT be causing this?

Since we don't really know what is going on yet, hard to say.

1 minute ago, Ninko said:

Is it possible to revert back a version or two?

No.  The Roku does not have that capability.

[Ninko 78]

This is just an idea, when you have the debug option on, is it possible to add the ability to automatically send a log to you on exit (on crash, if it could tell the difference)? Something like that?

Apparently in Roku os 13 there's a new feature that might help this situation?...

"App exit query — The roAppManager component includes a new GetLastExitInfo() function that returns an exit code indicating why an app was terminated. This helps developers monitor and debug memory issues with their apps. The last exit information is provided for only the 10 most recent exits across all channels, and exit information does not persist across device reboots."

https://blog.roku.com/developer/roku-os-13-0

Edited June 3, 2024 by Ninko

[ebr 16169]

13 hours ago, Ninko said:

is it possible to add the ability to automatically send a log to you on exit (on crash,

When the app crashes, the app is gone so we can't do anything.

 

13 hours ago, Ninko said:

The roAppManager component includes a new GetLastExitInfo() function that returns an exit code indicating why an app was terminated.

We'll check it out but an "exit code" doesn't sound like enough information.  

[Ninko 78]

Just a quick update...

Recently got a new upgraded Roku streaming stick and have had the Emby app crash when going to the next program in a playlist. 

So clearly this problem lies with Emby or a software change Roku has made and Emby isn't playing nice with it. 

Is there really no one else experiencing this?

[speechles 2055]

@NinkoI have some good news regarding crashes. With Roku OS13 we have the ability to detect when the app launches if it crashed the last time it ran.

You will be able to automatically send us the stack trace from when the app crashed on your Roku. We will have a dialog that spawns when the application starts that alerts you that we noticed your device has previously crashed. We will then ask you if you would like to send us logs. It does this all automatically without the user having to set the app into debug mode or do anything special at all. You literally just launch the app after a crash. It will allow us to then fix your issue if you choose to send us logs from the dialog. We cannot fix crashes we do not know about. So hopefully most of the users choose to send these crash logs to us.

The next update to the Roku app should include this automatic crash logging ability. This will also allow every user experiencing crashes to send us anonymous stack traces to pinpoint exactly where these crashes occur in the app and how. It will make it much easier for users to participate in finding issues that cause the app to crash. We will know the exact place in the app these crashes occured and what the state of the objects were at that time. That will make it several orders of magnitude faster to have users report these issues and get them fixed quickly and easily. Better days are ahead. You won't have to make a forum post when the Roku app crashes after this. Please stay tuned.

Edited June 22, 2024 by speechles

[Ninko 78]

That sounds great to me @speechles!

I would love to be able to give more info on these crashes but as it stands, it's very hard to do so. 

I look forward to the upcoming update! 

Thanks

[speechles 2055]

 

You will see this as the app launches if you experienced a prior crash in the app. The text is subject to change. But we want to make it so users want to send us logs so we can fix their crash. After you choose an option the app will launch normally and continue loading. But it will wait until users make a choice here. It does not automate fully the sending of logs. We want users to choose to help us. Users are not required to help by sending logs. It is just nice to see since we cannot personally find all the crashes.

Edited June 22, 2024 by speechles

[Ninko 78]

Looks good to me @speechles!