/var/lib/jellyfin/transcodes

[JZ123]

I use Jellyfin on Proxmox LXC. It's been been working normally until y-day.
I notice /var/lib/jellyfin/transcodes is filled with .ts files quickly when I play a content. Once it's filled up, Jellyfin of course hangs.
Now I create a cronjob to delete files from this location every minute. Obviously this is not the solution.

How to fix this?

Thanks.

[TheDreadPirate]

How small is the volume that /var/lib/jellyfin/transcodes is located on?

You have a few options.

1) Increase the size of the volume that transcodes are written to.
2) Enable "delete segments" and "throttle transcodes" in Dashboard > Playback. This will limit how far ahead Jellyfin will transcode and will clean up segments that were already watched. Both settings are configurable to further tighten how much space is used. "Throttle after" and "Time to keep segments".
3) Also in Dashboard > Playback you can change what directory transcodes are written to. You could change it to another volume entirely. "Transcode path"

[JZ123]

How small is the volume that /var/lib/jellyfin/transcodes is located on?

You have a few options.

1) Increase the size of the volume that transcodes are written to.
2) Enable "delete segments" and "throttle transcodes" in Dashboard > Playback.  This will limit how far ahead Jellyfin will transcode and will clean up segments that were already watched.  Both settings are configurable to further tighten how much space is used.  "Throttle after" and "Time to keep segments".
3) Also in Dashboard > Playback you can change what directory transcodes are written to.  You could change it to another volume entirely.  "Transcode path"

the location is 8GB. It doesn't make sense to have a larger file system just for this. It generates around 2-3Gb per min.
"throttle transcodes" is already enabled; I don't have  "delete segments" option in Playback.

The thing is the issue never occurred before,  I didn't do the upgrade or update on this LXC. It's weird.

[TheDreadPirate]

What version of Jellyfin are you running? 10.8.X? You have to be if delete segments is not an available option.

2-3GB per minute is pretty normal for hardware accelerated transcodes or remuxes.

Keep in mind that /var/lib/jellyfin also contains all your metadata. It is where images are stored (assuming you aren't saving them in the media directory) as well as the database. My /var/lib/jellyfin directory was 4GB before I enabled trickplays. Now it is 17GB.

So if you've added a lot of new media, /var/lib/jellyfin will slowly continue to grow as it stores more images. Which means less room for transcodes.

Also, if you are adding higher quality media, the transcodes will also be larger. Or if your clients were direct playing before, but your new media uses codecs that your client can't direct play so it now has to transcode.

A lot of possibilities.

But if you don't want to increase the volume size, #3 is your best bet. Move the transcode path to another volume.

[JZ123]

Thanks for your advice.
But I don't think any of this explains why the issue never happened before. My library hasn't been grown for months. If 2-3Gb per min is normal, then ppl need 180G for one 3 hrs movie. Then what happens next? Will Jellyfin at least automatically delete all files from this location? Yes, version is 10.8.13

[Efficient_Good_5784]

Thanks for your advice.
But I don't think any of this explains why the issue never happened before. My library hasn't been grown for months. If 2-3Gb per min is normal, then ppl need 180G for one 3 hrs movie. Then what happens next? Will Jellyfin at least automatically delete all files from this location? Yes, version is 10.8.13

You're talking about the transcode directory.
The rate this directory grows entirely depends on the source that's being transcoded. A transcoded video needs to be stored somewhere on the server so that it can be streamed to a client.

When a client is done with the transcoded stream, the transcode should be automatically deleted (in most cases).

You state that your transcode directory has access to 8GB. That's probably fine for 30 minute episodes. But for things like 4K movie transcodes that are hours long, that may be too small for the transcode to be stored.
Also, if you have multiple people transcoding at once, all that data is being stored in the same place.

Generally, storage has gotten cheaper over the years. It shouldn't cost you too much to upgrade the storage size for your Jellyfin server. 8GB is just to small for some cases when it comes to transcodes.

[JZ123]

Thanks for your advice.
But I don't think any of this explains why the issue never happened before. My library hasn't been grown for months. If 2-3Gb per min is normal, then ppl need 180G for one 3 hrs movie. Then what happens next? Will Jellyfin at least automatically delete all files from this location? Yes, version is 10.8.13

You're talking about the transcode directory.
The rate this directory grows entirely depends on the source that's being transcoded. A transcoded video needs to be stored somewhere on the server so that it can be streamed to a client.

When a client is done with the transcoded stream, the transcode should be automatically deleted (in most cases).

You state that your transcode directory has access to 8GB. That's probably fine for 30 minute episodes. But for things like 4K movie transcodes that are hours long, that may be too small for the transcode to be stored.
Also, if you have multiple people transcoding at once, all that data is being stored in the same place.

Generally, storage has gotten cheaper over the years. It shouldn't cost you too much to upgrade the storage size for your Jellyfin server. 8GB is just to small for some cases when it comes to transcodes.

No, I don't agree what you are saying, 'cause I have been streaming for long time w/o any issues. Yes, 2-3 hrs 4k movies, no disk space issue.
But hey, free is free, it might come at a cost.

[Efficient_Good_5784]

Try the following.

Can you turn off your Jellyfin server for a bit, then delete everything in the transcode directory?
After that, can you check how much space /var/lib/jellyfin is taking up from the 8GB volume?

Subtract that from 8GB and the remainder is how much space you have left for transcodes.

[TheDreadPirate]

Thanks for your advice.
But I don't think any of this explains why the issue never happened before. My library hasn't been grown for months. If 2-3Gb per min is normal, then ppl need 180G for one 3 hrs movie. Then what happens next? Will Jellyfin at least automatically delete all files from this location? Yes, version is 10.8.13

You're talking about the transcode directory.
The rate this directory grows entirely depends on the source that's being transcoded. A transcoded video needs to be stored somewhere on the server so that it can be streamed to a client.

When a client is done with the transcoded stream, the transcode should be automatically deleted (in most cases).

You state that your transcode directory has access to 8GB. That's probably fine for 30 minute episodes. But for things like 4K movie transcodes that are hours long, that may be too small for the transcode to be stored.
Also, if you have multiple people transcoding at once, all that data is being stored in the same place.

Generally, storage has gotten cheaper over the years. It shouldn't cost you too much to upgrade the storage size for your Jellyfin server. 8GB is just to small for some cases when it comes to transcodes.

No, I don't agree what you are saying, 'cause I have been streaming for long time w/o any issues. Yes, 2-3 hrs 4k movies, no disk space issue.
But hey, free is free, it might come at a cost.

You may not have been transcoding before.  We don't know your history, what kind of devices you have, nor what codecs your media is encoded with now vs before.

If you've only recently added 4K movies that is, I'm assuming, also HDR, keep in mind that HDR compatibility is inconsistent between devices.

If the original file is 70GB (typical for 4K HDR video) the transcode will be, at least, that big.  Probably bigger if you are stepping down from HEVC to H264.

Regardless of WHY it's happening now and not before, it's happening now.  I gave you your options, of which #2 doesn't apply to 10.8.13.  Expand the volume /var/lib/jellyfin is located on or change the directory that transcodes are written to in Dashboard > Playback > Transcode path.

[fflam]

I cant say why it was working and why now it is having issues.

However in the dashboard -> Scheduled Tasks, there is a Clean Transcode Directory job. It is set by default to run every 24h. you can lower that time and see if it helps.

also there is an option near the bottom of Playback -> Transcoding, called Delete Segments, This deletes the transcode files right after they were sent to the client.

2 options to try