Problem playing video in Android app

[mjremijan]

Ok, so I checked the log files and the only one that seems to be getting changed today is " jellyfin20250630.log " I tailed this log file when making the request to play the problematic video.  

From --- Android --- the logs were consistent and looked as follows. 

Code:

[2025-06-30 11:09:54.260 -05:00] [INF] User policy for "jellyfin-parent". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2025-06-30 11:13:12.294 -05:00] [INF] Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2025-06-30 11:15:52.872 -05:00] [INF] Playback stopped reported by app "Jellyfin Android" "2.6.3" playing "Mr. Denton on Doomsday". Stopped at "0" ms
[2025-06-30 11:15:52.872 -05:00] [INF] Playback stopped reported by app "Jellyfin Android" "2.6.3" playing "Mr. Denton on Doomsday". Stopped at "0" ms
[2025-06-30 11:17:00.294 -05:00] [INF] Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.

Android never starts playing the video. The android app shows an image from the video like a waiting splash screen, but it just gets stuck there.

I also tried playing the problematic video from Microsoft Edge through the Jellyfin web app.  When I do, it streams successfully. The log files look identical though.

Code:

[2025-06-30 11:27:26.472 -05:00] [INF] User policy for "jellyfin-parent". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True

I also tried on Android streaming a few different videos and they were able to successfully play. For example, one video played successfully and I saw this in the logs:

Code:

[2025-06-30 15:27:07.343 -05:00] [INF] User policy for "jellyfin-parent". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2025-06-30 15:27:16.139 -05:00] [INF] "/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg" "-dump_attachment:t \"\" -y  -i file:\"/media/sf_videos/Movies/Kids/Olympus Has Fallen (2013)/Olympus Has Fallen (2013).mp4\" -t 0 -f null null"
[2025-06-30 15:27:17.571 -05:00] [INF] ffmpeg attachment extraction completed for "file:\"/media/sf_videos/Movies/Kids/Olympus Has Fallen (2013)/Olympus Has Fallen (2013).mp4\"" to "/var/cache/jellyfin/attachments/2774b45a427a1da240d5d384ff43df15"
[2025-06-30 15:27:17.584 -05:00] [INF] "/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg" "-analyzeduration 200M -probesize 1G  -canvas_size 720x480 -i file:\"/media/sf_videos/Movies/Kids/Olympus Has Fallen (2013)/Olympus Has Fallen (2013).mp4\" -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -threads 0 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map -0:0 -codec:v:0 libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 23 -maxrate 3053988 -bufsize 6107976 -profile:v:0 main -level 40 -x264opts:0 subme=0:me_range=16:rc_lookahead=10:me=hex:open_gop=0 -force_key_frames:0 \"expr:gte(t,n_forced*3)\" -sc_threshold:v:0 0 -filter_complex \"[0:2]scale,scale=-1:360:fast_bilinear,crop,pad=max(720\,iw):max(360\,ih):(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2:black@0,crop=720:360[sub];[0:0]setparams=color_primaries=bt709:color_trc=bt709:colorspace=bt709,scale=trunc(min(max(iw\,ih*a)\,min(720\,360*a))/2)*2:trunc(min(max(iw/a\,ih)\,min(720/a\,360))/2)*2,format=yuv420p[main];[main][sub]overlay=eof_action=pass:repeatlast=0\" -start_at_zero -codec:a:0 copy -copyts -avoid_negative_ts disabled -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -f hls -max_delay 5000000 -hls_time 3 -hls_segment_type fmp4 -hls_fmp4_init_filename \"fc414c34829497840c7f2ba03666de13-1.mp4\" -start_number 0 -hls_segment_filename \"/var/cache/jellyfin/transcodes/fc414c34829497840c7f2ba03666de13%d.mp4\" -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_list_size 0 -y \"/var/cache/jellyfin/transcodes/fc414c34829497840c7f2ba03666de13.m3u8\""

A different video played successfully without using ffmpeg, an it looked like this in the logs:

Code:

[2025-06-30 15:28:42.839 -05:00] [INF] User policy for "jellyfin-parent". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True

NOW, HERE IS A FINAL BIT OF FUN INFORMATION.  If I use the same server URL in Chrome on Android, I can successfully stream the problematic video, but the Jellyfin app on Android still can't stream it.  

Dashboard > Logs

Alternatively: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/admini...-directory

You can remove your domain or other private data like a public IP and post them to privatebin.net or similar pastebin and we can take a look. If transcoding is triggered, those logs would be useful as well.