Now playing still shows on file that's finished playing

[coreymichael 1]

As you can see in the picture, when a file is finished playing on one of the Roku devices, it doesn't remove itself from the dashboard. I have no issues with any of the files being played on all the other devices in the house, it only appears on the same device.

Does anyone know if the file is not properly closing out somewhere either in Emby or the Roku? This file will remain on the dashboard until I reboot the Emby server. It will stay even when rebooting the device, or playing any other content from another app on the problematic Roku. This Roku always holds onto the file in the Emby dashboard. Three of the four Roku devices in the house are all the same model number and all of them are updated. None of the others have this problem. It's one of those three that do this every time. I've noticed it's been happening for a few months. It's not really a huge deal, but it's annoying to see on a constant basis. It happens with all video files regardless of the content or extension.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Like I said, it's not a huge deal. Just more of an annoyance.

Thanks in advance!

[Happy2Play 9780]

There are several of these topics of abandoned playback session stuck on Dashboard and currently the only way to remove them is to Restart Emby.

Devs would like to see the server log for that playback session to see if they can see any issues.  But in the end the server never recieved the stopped command from the client. 

So a question could be asked what did the user do at the end of playing this content?  As Roku is can be the worst of just hitting the Home button and Emby having no idea what has happened.

Edited September 19, 2024 by Happy2Play

[coreymichael 1]

Awesome. Thanks for the info! That makes perfect sense. The user most of the time either just leaves it abandoned & the Roku goes into screensaver mode, or as you mentioned, hits the home button on the remote as soon as the file is over. The weird thing is that it doesn't behave that way on the other two TVs with the same model Rokus. I'm not sure if it is user account related, but would make sense if it was. The other Roku devices are used with my sign in and neither one has that issue.

Next time the issue happens, I'll re-visit this thread and post the logs.

 

[coreymichael 1]

This just happened again, at least while I was able to catch it.

The problem happened watching a show called jesse watters. The error happened at 5:42pm

Here's the logs if it helps.

Also, I just upgraded the ffmpeg in the emby folder and the working system folder with the latest version. Maybe that might help. IDK.

ffmpeg-directstream-fb38b7b3-7575-4de8-b1e7-8bdb8ad46aaa_1.txt

Edited September 26, 2024 by coreymichael

[seanbuff 1315]

31 minutes ago, coreymichael said:

Also, I just upgraded the ffmpeg in the emby folder and the working system folder with the latest version. Maybe that might help. IDK.

What was the reason for that? AFAIK Emby uses a customized version of ffmpeg, so by replacing it you could be potentially introducing some incompatibility and loss of features.

[coreymichael 1]

If I do end up with more issues, I can revert back to the original ffmpeg that's in the directory.

[yocker 1247]

It can be annoying specially when transcoding have been used as it just keeps going but for now all we can do is teach people to properly close Emby when they are done.

Testing with an Android TV, watching a movie and just pressing the power button on the TV actually had the sound just keep going while the TV was supposed to be off.
Hard to know if the Emby team can actually fix this if Android it self can't even terminate running programs when turning off.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we are looking into this. Thanks.

[Sarge88 9]

I know this is a old thread and there are prob several other threads like it.

I'd just like to add mine shows the same but I only have the option to send a msg to the client, no stop or pause buttons. 

Is there not a way to make Emby kill the stream on its end of it detects no transcoding or activity within a set timeframe? Obv this is a Roku problem as I don't think IV noticed this issue with other playback options.

[pwhodges 2012]

The server is meant to notice; but even while they improve it, there still seem to be odd ways in which that can fail.  The thing is, it can't be too quick because people may have good reason to pause for a long time - though I guess the app should be announcing a pause to the server.

It's largely a Roku problem specifically because if you click the Roku Home button (which people will do whatever you say) it kills Emby (or any other app for that matter) without warning - the app has no chance to send a final message announcing its death.  There are complaints about this on the Roku forums over the years...

Paul

[yocker 1247]

12 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

The server is meant to notice; but even while they improve it, there still seem to be odd ways in which that can fail.  The thing is, it can't be too quick because people may have good reason to pause for a long time - though I guess the app should be announcing a pause to the server.

It's largely a Roku problem specifically because if you click the Roku Home button (which people will do whatever you say) it kills Emby (or any other app for that matter) without warning - the app has no chance to send a final message announcing its death.  There are complaints about this on the Roku forums over the years...

Paul

In my experience Samsung TVs are very prone to do it to.
Specially one of my users tend to just turn off hes TV or something leaving my Emby server with a stuck instance, very annoying specially since hes one of those that can't figure of the auto quality thing and thus transcodes so the server keeps on transcoding even though hes not watching.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, this should be much improved in the upcoming 4.9 server release. Thanks.

[bandit8623 213]

On 1/18/2025 at 4:56 PM, Luke said:

Hi, this should be much improved in the upcoming 4.9 server release. Thanks.

still happening for me.  my sister had paused a show and it was sitting idle for 5 hours.  rebooted server instance came back still paused at same location.

[pwhodges 2012]

So it's just paused - IOW, Emby hasn't been told to end it?

Paul

[bandit8623 213]

11 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

So it's just paused - IOW, Emby hasn't been told to end it?

Paul

its likely the user paused the show and turned off tv. this has been an issue since the beginning and has been brought up to have a timeout option.  i have no idea if its paused or not from the server admin side we should be able to get rid of these.  noone needs to be able to pause for more than 30 min.  if the user wants to go and finish the show they can go to continue watching and play it there..  plex has a timeout option so this doesnt happen.

Edited June 3, 2025 by bandit8623

[bandit8623 213]

not only roku this is firestick. been stiing here since yesterday

[bandit8623 213]

stuck on screen,  but user sessions shows not there.  still a bug.

 

[Luke 42077]

39 minutes ago, bandit8623 said:

stuck on screen,  but user sessions shows not there.  still a bug.

 

 

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

 

[bandit8623 213]

On 9/11/2025 at 11:19 PM, Luke said:

 

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

 

when i see again ill add some logs. 

[bandit8623 213]

3 days sitting idle on my dashboard

 

embyserver (18).txt

embyserver-63898934397.rar

Edited November 18, 2025 by bandit8623

[sa2000 674]

9 hours ago, bandit8623 said:

3 days sitting idle on my dashboard

Emby Server does have "idle" playback session detection and would normally remove the session. But obviously this "idle" session detection is not always working and the cause needs to be found.

I did 3 tests with roku today, pressing the remote "Home" button during playback and even pulling the power lead - and in all the 3 tests, idle detection worked ok and the session was removed from the dashboard

3 examples in my tests - idle is detected when the periodic playback progress updates from the app stop

2025-11-18 12:51:10.495 Debug SessionManager: Playback progress (TimeUpdate) reported by app Roku SG 4.1.50 on Roku 3 (UK) - 6225AG007943 playing Robin and the Hoods. Position: 32000 ms. PlaySessionId: 74413d299d5044b993d25d7eee5050e5
2025-11-18 12:51:21.493 Debug SessionManager: Playback progress (TimeUpdate) reported by app Roku SG 4.1.50 on Roku 3 (UK) - 6225AG007943 playing Robin and the Hoods. Position: 43000 ms. PlaySessionId: 74413d299d5044b993d25d7eee5050e5
2025-11-18 12:52:28.519 Info SessionManager: PlaySession 74413d299d5044b993d25d7eee5050e5 has gone idle while playing


2025-11-18 12:55:19.426 Debug SessionManager: Playback progress (TimeUpdate) reported by app Roku SG 4.1.50 on Roku 3 (UK) - 6225AG007943 playing I Am Legend. Position: 22000 ms. PlaySessionId: 77d1a8abefc44aa4b5d6d0d07251171f
2025-11-18 12:55:30.430 Debug SessionManager: Playback progress (TimeUpdate) reported by app Roku SG 4.1.50 on Roku 3 (UK) - 6225AG007943 playing I Am Legend. Position: 33000 ms. PlaySessionId: 77d1a8abefc44aa4b5d6d0d07251171f
2025-11-18 12:56:30.438 Info SessionManager: PlaySession 77d1a8abefc44aa4b5d6d0d07251171f has gone idle while playing


2025-11-18 13:03:55.592 Debug SessionManager: Playback progress (TimeUpdate) reported by app Roku SG 4.1.50 on Roku 3 (UK) - 6225AG007943 playing The Adventures of Tintin - S2, Ep2 - The Broken Ear (1),  The Broken Ear (2). Position: 895000 ms. PlaySessionId: bd3e7f71a1c34b2dbfc7c8b12c4ad293
2025-11-18 13:04:05.981 Debug SessionManager: Playback progress (TimeUpdate) reported by app Roku SG 4.1.50 on Roku 3 (UK) - 6225AG007943 playing The Adventures of Tintin - S2, Ep2 - The Broken Ear (1),  The Broken Ear (2). Position: 905000 ms. PlaySessionId: bd3e7f71a1c34b2dbfc7c8b12c4ad293
2025-11-18 13:05:11.207 Info SessionManager: PlaySession bd3e7f71a1c34b2dbfc7c8b12c4ad293 has gone idle while playing

 

There is currently an issue open with the development team regarding idle session detection

 

Edited November 18, 2025 by sa2000

[GrimReaper 4739]

11 minutes ago, sa2000 said:

Emby Server does have "idle" playback session detection and would normally remove the session. But obviously this "idle" session detection is not always working and the cause needs to be found.

Kudos to @bandit8623for being so persistent, it has been a few years since I've tried to get to the bottom of that and at some point simply gave up as other obligations (both with forum growth and RL) left little to no time to follow that further. 

What I did observe, however, is that issues like this are still being reported fairly regularly - and as for my setup, I'm seeing it on frequent basis to this day, just last night had one (for me, Safari sessions have been/are particulary notorious). I just delete offending device as I don't particularly care that the user will have to login again, having my OCD not screaming is more important. 

Anyway, let's see how will that open ticket with the Dev team turn out. 

 

[sa2000 674]

I just managed to get a playback session remain in the dashboard for a roku by pausing playback on the roku and leaving the session paused

After some time, the TV screen that the roku is connected to blanked out.  Remote did not seem to make any difference. Powered roku off and on - session remains in the dashboard

I will leave it for some time to see if it does actually remain forever and if it does, i will add my new diagnostics to the open issue.

 

[sa2000 674]

It did disappear from the dashboard and furthermore a repeat test of pausing a playback got detected as idle and the session was removed. So not always possible to reproduce

 

[Neminem 1518]

What happens if you leave the stream running and just turn off your TV ?

Will the stream stop when reaching end ?