Movies don't resume, they start from beginning

[Nabukodonosor 13]

I have the FireTV version of the app. The issue is when I resume a movie, it starts from the beginning. This was not the case before, but now it happens in 70% of the cases. Any ideas why?

[Luke 42135]

 

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

 

[Nabukodonosor 13]

Here.

embyserver.txt

[visproduction 322]

In embyserver.txt

1524 times "Response 204" followed by "Disconnected by host" on the test media.

Suspect test media has bad timeline data.  Try a quality test media to see if the problem is with the media Horizon: An American Saga.  Playing the media in a 3rd party player does not guarantee the media is error free. TV Apps, mobile and browser playback handle problem issues differently. You can also test the media with ffmpeg probe.

Test media sources: 1, 2, 3

 

[Nabukodonosor 13]

This doesn't occur every time I resume a movie, or an episode, but sometimes. But more and more often. And not with only this movie you mentioned, but with multiple random movies/tv shows. So I don't think the movie is the problem.

  

6 hours ago, visproduction said:

Suspect test media has bad timeline data.

What does this mean?

Edited February 8 by Nabukodonosor

[visproduction 322]

Media that is previously converted from an original and then copied, might have damaged timeline data or not have the timeline optimized for streaming.  Optimization, brings the timeline startup to the beginning of the file.  The timeline counts off where you are in the media.  For other media types, the timeline can be differently embedded to optmize for blu-ray or DVD playback.  Some content has copyright protection and sometimes a version of this process actually includes setting up jumps in the timeline and then the content producer puts the file to map to these jumps in an end area of the blu-ray disc, that nomally cannot even be copied.  I don't know how often this is done, but it use to happen.  This makes playing back the media very difficult, when it is not on the original disk.

Encoders and ripper software have various counter software to help create a media copy that should play back correctly, but it's possible that some combination of encoding, copying, encryption creates media that has a non-optimized timeline data for playback.  You can sometimes see this when opening a media and there is no duration info or the duration is far too long.  Other symptoms are clicking on the timeline is delayed or does nothing.  Some 3rd party players, like VLC I believe, has a correction feature, that helps playback media with a problem timeline.  You often remux a video to a streaming container and codec .mkv or .mp4 and repair the timeline.  ffmpeg also has a command that can remux.  This is a very fast process, typically under a minute for a two hour media.

If the media plays on VLC or other 3rd party player, fine. That does not mean the media is perfect.  TV apps, mobile, browser are not so sophisticated with fixing issues.  They can easily be hung up by some problem with the media.  Of course, it could be Emby.  It could also be a lot of videos that you think are fine, but they are not.  The symptom could be that sometimes they play and sometimes not.  Have you already remuxed all your videos?  Test with a proper quality demo video to eliminate the possibility that your videos have issues. Otherwise, you could be barking up the wrong tree, so to speak.

Remux and encoding software I prefer: AVIDemux

Edited February 8 by visproduction

[Luke 42135]

Hi.  Can you try searching for our standard android app (Just "Emby" on Amazon and "Emby for Android on Google) on the same device's app store and see how that compares?

Thanks.

 

[Nabukodonosor 13]

I have your standard app already installed, but I don't use it. Compared to the ATV app it sucks. I mean, GUI wise.

BTW, it stills happens. Last night I was watching Landman, and when I wanted to continue watching an episode, it started from the start of it.

[ebr 16296]

Do you use a proxy of any sort?  It sounds like maybe something is interfering with the apps ability to update play state on the server.  An incorrectly configured proxy could cause this.

[Nabukodonosor 13]

No proxy. Nothing.

[ebr 16296]

Okay, any chance your router recently updated its firmware?  We had a recent occurrence of someone's router's firewall specifically blocking certain traffic from Fire devices.

[Nabukodonosor 13]

Nope. Everything is as it always was. It just randomly starts an episode/movie from the start instead of resuming.

[ebr 16296]

Is there a "Resume" button and it just doesn't resume or there is no resume button at all?

[PedroDelCargo 1]

I had the same issue yesterday. I had the Resume button, but when I pressed it, the movie started from the begining.

[Nabukodonosor 13]

On 2/12/2026 at 4:10 PM, ebr said:

Is there a "Resume" button and it just doesn't resume or there is no resume button at all?

Yeah, there is a resume button, and it's displays the current time where it should continue, but it starts from the beginning.

[ebr 16296]

Okay, when that happens, are you able to immediately seek forward without restarting the video?

[Nabukodonosor 13]

The movie starts from the beginning and everything works like that was the first time I started it. I fast forward to find the time I want.

[ebr 16296]

Can you please reproduce the problem and then follow the instructions to send a log from the app?

 

[Nabukodonosor 13]

Logs sent.

I was watching the movie Nuremberg. I sent the log between 16:45 and 16:50 UTC-5. Username Nabukodonosor.

[yocker 1321]

1 hour ago, Nabukodonosor said:

Logs sent.

I was watching the movie Nuremberg. I sent the log between 16:45 and 16:50 UTC-5. Username Nabukodonosor.

Is it transcoding?

[ebr 16296]

From the log it doesn't look like the resume button was pressed.

 System.out: Play called with pos: 0 and sub index: -1

Exactly how did you play it?

[visproduction 322]

Maybe Play button style is overlapping the Resume button area, so when the user clicks on Resume, they are clicking the play button instead.  This can easily happen in web with CSS styles button margin and padding ,especially set to percentages and the app widths were not QA'd for the different monitor sizes so a large monitor works fine, but a smaller monitor causes an overlapping.  Can the presentation width of the UI on the TV app be adjusted by the user?  Can the poster size be changed to something smaller?  Maybe changing this can stop the overlap.  Just a guess. 

[Nabukodonosor 13]

19 hours ago, yocker said:

Is it transcoding?

No.

 

5 hours ago, ebr said:

From the log it doesn't look like the resume button was pressed.

 System.out: Play called with pos: 0 and sub index: -1

Exactly how did you play it?

Like I played every other movie I continued to play in the last few years...pressing the resume button.

[visproduction 322]

Nabu,

It's possible there is a code that needs tweaking. I just wanted to point out that when you say "pressing the Resume button'", it is more accurate to say you are clicking the Resume button area.  That does not aways mean that the Resume button is being clicked.  If the Play button area overlaps, then you think you are clicking the Resume button, but you are actually clicking the overlapped area of the Play button.  This type of bug can change with different screen sizes. The wrong button getting pressed could totally disappear on a large monitor. This type of bug can appear with either an update in the code or a change in the screen size, possibly even after a TV app update.  I mention this weird case, because it would explain the log and I have often seen it crop up with online video streaming sites production.

There is also an issue of assigning buttons to functions that can cause this.  That would be a different bug with the similar symptoms.

Do you get any indication that you actually clicked the Resume button?  Does that button change at all when you click it?  I would prefer to just test everything, but I don't have your setup.

Edited 19 hours ago by visproduction

[ebr 16296]

I don't believe there is any way that could happen in the TV app.

I am befuddled as to what is going on here.