Emby 2.0.3 Apple TV 4K – Emby app crashes during playback (Direct Play) with no server errors

[Eliran 6]

Hi, I’m having repeated crashes with the Emby app on Apple TV 4K. The app closes instantly during playback, but the server shows no errors and continues running normally.

My setup:

• Apple TV 4K Model : A2843

• tvOS version: 26.3

• Emby for tvOS version: 2.0.3

• Emby Server version: 4.9.3.0

• Network: Wired 

• Playback mode: Direct Play

• Video file: MKV with external SRT subtitle (but crash happens even without subtitles)

What happens:

• Playback starts normally

• After a few minutes, the Emby app closes itself

• No error message

• No buffering

• No server-side warnings

• Server logs show only “client disconnected”

• The same file plays perfectly on Plex on the same Apple TV

What I already tried:

• Disabled Match Frame Rate on Apple TV

• Reinstalled Emby app

• Restarted Apple TV

• Tried multiple files

• Tried with and without subtitles

• No transcoding involved (Direct Play only)

Additional notes:

• Plex plays the exact same file without any issues

• This looks like a tvOS client crash (possibly mpv/libmpv related)

ebr asked me to post here so the issue can be tracked properly. If needed, I can provide logs, timestamps, or test additional builds.

Thanks.

[Luke 42412]

 

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

 

[Eliran 6]

Here is the log file
the crash happened  (this time) after 29 minutes of play it happened around 8:45 AM (plus minus 10 minutes) 

movie file that was playing : Shelter.2026.HDR.2160p.WEB.h265-ETHEL.mkv

 

Thank You

embyserver.txt

[Luke 42412]

OK we'll take a look at this. Thanks.

[GOTCHA_SA 9]

On 23/02/2026 at 15:55, Eliran said:

Hi, I’m having repeated crashes with the Emby app on Apple TV 4K. The app closes instantly during playback, but the server shows no errors and continues running normally.

My setup:

• Apple TV 4K Model : A2843

• tvOS version: 26.3

• Emby for tvOS version: 2.0.3

• Emby Server version: 4.9.3.0

• Network: Wired 

• Playback mode: Direct Play

• Video file: MKV with external SRT subtitle (but crash happens even without subtitles)

What happens:

• Playback starts normally

• After a few minutes, the Emby app closes itself

• No error message

• No buffering

• No server-side warnings

• Server logs show only “client disconnected”

• The same file plays perfectly on Plex on the same Apple TV

What I already tried:

• Disabled Match Frame Rate on Apple TV

• Reinstalled Emby app

• Restarted Apple TV

• Tried multiple files

• Tried with and without subtitles

• No transcoding involved (Direct Play only)

Additional notes:

• Plex plays the exact same file without any issues

• This looks like a tvOS client crash (possibly mpv/libmpv related)

ebr asked me to post here so the issue can be tracked properly. If needed, I can provide logs, timestamps, or test additional builds.

Thanks.

Having the exact same issue on exactly the same HW.

Adding my +1 for an update

[Jonathan1683 32]

I am having an issue where shows i am watching stop playing and just exit to the tv show main page as if i stopped playing it. I look in the log and it still shows im currently watching. This has been happening every day for the past week. Happens every couple of hours. 

[CraigCarson 1]

Also having this same issue, any word on a fix yet?

[Jonathan1683 32]

my other apple tv is doing the same thing a lot worse it’s a generation older 

[Eliran 6]

Can we please get an update on the issue ?

it’s a denial if service situation or do they fix just premiere users issues ?

I paid for the app for external streaming , but now I  need to pay Plex they don’t have this issue 

[Jonathan1683 32]

this is pretty bad i’ve been around forever and this is the biggest problem i have faced. The dev team is very talented so i know they can fix it or maybe we can revert to a previous version ? i’m not sure though. i am a premier user too. 

[rootabaga 1]

I notice the same thing happens with music. After turning on music, walking away and not touching it, at about 30 minutes the log will say it disconnected and the AppleTV app will shutdown. To watch a complete movie, it seems like you have to keep giving it input with the remote.

Sometimes with video, the shutdown will happen immediately after selecting something from the library. The app crashes, the show never plays on the TV, but the server will report that it started playing it and it will later show up in the "Continue watching" section with a minute or two watched.

Edited March 21 by rootabaga

[Eliran 6]

Hi ,
I'm the one who posted this issue , last night apple tv version 2.0.5(3) dropped (auto updated) and it seemed to fix the crash problem, i watched two full episodes in total of about 2 hours straight no crashes , can the EMBY Team please give us a brief as of what was the issue and was it specifically addressed in that release ? 
thank you , write if it helped you too
Emby Windows server version is 4.9.3.0 (not sure if it was updated too) 
 

[Eliran 6]

just an update ,

i take it back it didn't solve the problem watched a movie now after about 15 minutes crashed again..so EMBY Team we would love some inpout.

[alex77777 37]

@EliranHave you tried updating to tvOS 26.4?

[Eliran 6]

Yes I did , all is auto-update I even manually checked all latest versions 

[Luke 42412]

Hi, we are looking into it. Thanks.

[Sigenar 1]

@LukeGood morning

 

Any update for this issue? Same problem here.

[Cricard 1]

@Luke

Same problem here.
Client: Apple TV 2.0.5
Server: Emby Server 4.9.3.0 on Darwin 21.6.0

My gut feeling is that it might be related to subtitles or it might be related to the AppleTV screensaver.

This has happened to me for a month or two but I think the behavior has slightly changed, possibly after a recent update of my server.
Before the update of the server to 4.9.3.0, the subtitles stopped working ~5 seconds before the crash.
The behavior after the update is that the subtitles work until the crash, but right after the crash, the AppleTV turns into screen saver mode.

I am sorry I cannot be more sure about when/what happened. I have treated Emby as an appliance that just works, not like an application I have to debug. The change in behavior may have been caused by something else or it might be just random.

[Interwebz 1]

+1

Same issue on Apple TV 26.4 and Emby app 2.0.5 (3) and LG webOS app 1.0.50. Emby server 4.9.3.0.

@CricardI have the same experience as you. It's been an issue for a while. It even happened on 4.8.11 which is why I updated to 4.9.3.0. It seems to be a client issue, not a server issue. Either the client app loses track of the stream, pauses and then resumes where it left off 10-15 seconds later, best case scenario. Worst case scenario the Apple app crashes to home screen or the screen save just kicks on, it has happened to me twice. Works well on the Windows store app though.

[Luke 42412]

Hi, we are looking into this. Thanks.

[SCV44281 3]

I’ve also been running into this issue for about a month or two now. It seems to happen on some of my mkv files but not others. All of them have their subtitles embedded in the mkv container. All mkv files are direct played over WiFi

The subtitles disappear for a short duration before returning to the episode/movie summary page or the Emby app crashes to the Apple TV Home Screen

The issue only seems to be occurring on my tvOS app(WiFi), not on my iOS client(WiFi), browser(WiFi/ethernet), or Emby for windows clients(ethernet)

 

running Emby server 4.9.3.0

tvos 26.4 latest Emby app

ios 26.4 latest Emby app

windows 11 25h2 latest Emby for windows clients

[Luke 42412]

On 4/29/2026 at 3:01 AM, SCV44281 said:

I’ve also been running into this issue for about a month or two now. It seems to happen on some of my mkv files but not others. All of them have their subtitles embedded in the mkv container. All mkv files are direct played over WiFi

The subtitles disappear for a short duration before returning to the episode/movie summary page or the Emby app crashes to the Apple TV Home Screen

The issue only seems to be occurring on my tvOS app(WiFi), not on my iOS client(WiFi), browser(WiFi/ethernet), or Emby for windows clients(ethernet)

 

running Emby server 4.9.3.0

tvos 26.4 latest Emby app

ios 26.4 latest Emby app

windows 11 25h2 latest Emby for windows clients

@SCV44281are you still having an issue with this?