SOLVED: AndroidTV app does not play media after upgrading to latest server version

[Divine Knight]

Hey there,

I have upgraded my Android TV Client to 0.16.11 quite a while ago.
There was no issue with the older Server version I had (the last 10.8.X server? I sadly don't know which one it was) but upgrading the Server to 10.9.6 causes (presumably) all shows to do nothing during AndroidTV app playback.
Starting an episode of any show causes the player to simply do nothing. No media playback, not error message which I have gotten in the past by screwing up my transcode settings, simply a a blank player with the episode title at the top.
Core issue exists with both ExoPlayer and LibVLC with the key difference being that using the return button during the non-existing playback with  LibVLC, causes the App to freeze for 30 seconds before returning me to the Firestick Home Screen.

The Web Client, Android Mobile App and IOs App seem to be fine.

So far I have tried:

• AndroidTV App cache/data clear
  
• AndroidTV App full reinstall
  
• Switching between different default Players (Exo, LibVLC)
  
• Limited the bitrate in the app to 100
  
• Fiddling with the Transcode/Hardware acceleration settings
  
• Browser cache/cookie clear
  
• A full server reinstall, after uninstalling and deleting all default windows directories ('local/jellyfin', ' ProgramData\Jellyfin', 'Program Files\Jellyfin')
  

Server:

• Jellyfin Server 10.9.6 (executable installer)
  
• Windows 10  22H2
  
• 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-12400F
  
• RTX 3070
  

Client:

• Fire TV Stick 2021
  
• jellyfin-androidtv 0.16.11 release
  
• Amazon AFTSSS
  

Logs should be set to debug. Hardware Transcoding was disabled and ExoPlayer was used when generating these Logs.
I am at my wits end here, so thanks in advance for any sort of help.

[TheDreadPirate]

Why is hardware trancoding disabled? The 3070 is a great transcoder.

Also, Firestick users have had a better experience when explicitly using libVLC.

[toytown]

Also, Firestick users have had a better experience when explicitly using libVLC.

Unfortunately using LibVLC means you get H264/AVC instead of the superior H265/HEVC transcoding (using exoplayer)

[Divine Knight]

Why is hardware trancoding disabled?  The 3070 is a great transcoder.

Also, Firestick users have had a better experience when explicitly using libVLC.

Take the transcoding settings and App settings with a grain of salt, I have done a lot of trial and error messing with them trying to narrow my issue down.

I had hardware transcoding enabled using NVENC (before and after the update).
I just disabled it after my latest full reinstall to see if that was causing the issue.

LibVLC was also my default before resetting my App preferences.
In regards to my issue, it does not make a difference whether it is Exo, LibVLC or an external app (e.g. MX Player).
Any of these players worked before the server update.

If any player/transcode setting combination might be interesting I can reproduce it and send logs.

[Divine Knight]

Just a heads up. I have just fully uninstalled my previous 10.9.6, all data and directories cleared and reinstalled 10.8.13.
No settings changed so everything has 10.8.13 defaults and it works, just like it did before the update.

[ThomasPGH]

I have upgraded my Android TV Client to 0.16.11 quite a while ago.
There was no issue with the older Server version I had (the last 10.8.X server? I sadly don't know which one it was) but upgrading the Server to 10.9.6 causes (presumably) all shows to do nothing during AndroidTV app playback.
Starting an episode of any show causes the player to simply do nothing. No media playback, not error message which I have gotten in the past by screwing up my transcode settings, simply a a blank player with the episode title at the top.
Core issue exists with both ExoPlayer and LibVLC with the key difference being that using the return button during the non-existing playback with  LibVLC, causes the App to freeze for 30 seconds before returning me to the Firestick Home Screen.

It's not going to help you directly with your issue but I thought it'd be a good idea to let you know that I got a very similar setup (Windows server, Android TV client) and that at least the shows I've started for testing after reading your post maybe 30 minutes ago do in fact play.

10.9.x needs a few minutes to reorganise the database after an upgrade from 10.8.13 when started for the first time. Since my nssm config is non-default I usually uninstall the service manually and run a batch script with the correct config after each Jellyfin upgrade. Due to the warning at https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues I made sure Jellyfin is fully up and running this time, which is something I normally don't do. I also shut it down from the webinterface, which is also something I usually never do.

Could it be that you somehow killed 10.9.6 before the database reorganisation completed and that you maybe ended up with a corrupt database?

[Divine Knight]

10.9.x needs a few minutes to reorganise the database after an upgrade from 10.8.13 when started for the first time. Since my nssm config is non-default I usually uninstall the service manually and run a batch script with the correct config after each Jellyfin upgrade. Due to the warning at https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues I made sure Jellyfin is fully up and running this time, which is something I normally don't do. I also shut it down from the webinterface, which is also something I usually never do.

Could it be that you somehow killed 10.9.6 before the database reorganisation completed and that you maybe ended up with a corrupt database?

Thanks for the suggestion!
I might have accidentally updated Jellyfin via winget using the silent switch and winget breaking that db migration/update process.

But I doubt this directly relates to my issue since a completely fresh Jellyfin 10.9.6 installation, with the 'ProgramData/Jellyfin' folder (which contains the jellyfin.db and library.db) being deleted, still causes my issue on that "vanilla" setup.
While a fresh 10.8.13 install does not.

I might try to upgrade to 10.9.0 this weekend to see if that works.
I just want to get past the "Upgrade your server to at least 10.9.0 or else this client won't be compatible after the next update" message present in the AndroidTV app.

[Divine Knight]

Sorry for the very late response, it was a very busy month. Anyway, I can report success on updating to 10.9.8.

Upgrading from 10.8.13 to 10.9.0.1 did work but upgrading from that version directly to 10.9.8 did not (all of my users were gone, etc).
Upgrading from 10.9.0.1 to 10.9.5 and then to 10.9.8 finally did the trick.