HTTP 500 when playing remote Plex content (Apple TV / Infuse Pro)

[osw2610]

Hello Firecore Team,

I am experiencing a reproducible playback issue with Infuse Pro when accessing a remote Plex Media Server.

Environment

• Apple TV 4K
• Latest tvOS
• Latest Infuse Pro
• Plex Media Server 1.43.2.10687
• Direct Remote Access configured correctly (no Plex Relay)
• Plex Remote Access reports the server as fully accessible from outside the network

Problem

Infuse connects successfully to the Plex server.

Everything appears to work correctly until playback starts.

• The Plex server is detected successfully.
• Libraries are displayed correctly.
• Posters and metadata load correctly.
• Continue Watching and watch history are displayed.

However, every movie and TV episode fails immediately after pressing Play.

After approximately 2 seconds, Infuse displays:

HTTP 500 (Internal Server Error)

The problem affects every title, not just a specific file.

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Additional observations

• The official Plex app on the same Apple TV plays the exact same content without any issues.
• Another Apple TV using the same Plex server, same Plex account, same Infuse version and same tvOS version plays the same content correctly.
• Only this specific Apple TV running Infuse is affected.
• When playback fails, no playback session appears in the Plex Dashboard.

This suggests that playback fails before Plex creates an active playback session.

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Relevant Plex Media Server log

GET /library/parts/…/file.mkv

Streaming Resource: Attempting to create AdHoc session

TranscodeUniversalRequest: using profile Generic

Bandwidth exceeded: 22011 kbps > 10000 kbps

MDE: received PLEX_PROTOCOL_ANY

No direct play video profile exists

Cannot convert this item

Streaming Resource: Cannot make a decision because either the file is unplayable or the client provided bad data.

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Observation

One log entry that stood out during troubleshooting is:

TranscodeUniversalRequest: using profile Generic

followed by:

No direct play video profile exists

I don’t know whether this is the cause of the problem or simply a consequence of another issue, but it seemed unusual compared to a working setup.

---

Additional information

Originally, the Plex server’s remote streaming limit was configured to 10 Mbps.

Every failed playback attempt also contained the following log entry:

Bandwidth exceeded: 22011 kbps > 10000 kbps

As part of troubleshooting, I increased the limit to 25 Mbps. At the time of writing this report, I have not yet been able to verify whether this changes the behaviour.

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What has already been verified

• Latest Plex Media Server
• Latest Infuse Pro
• Latest tvOS
• Direct Remote Access working correctly
• Plex Relay is not being used
• Plex app works correctly
• Same content plays correctly from another Apple TV running Infuse
• Library browsing works correctly
• Authentication appears to be successful
• The issue is fully reproducible on one Apple TV only

---

Question

Is this a known issue with the interaction between Infuse and Plex Media Server?

Could the fallback to the Generic client profile be expected in this situation, or would you expect Infuse to identify itself differently during playback?

If there are additional diagnostics (Infuse logs, debug mode, etc.) that would help identify the root cause, I would be happy to provide them.

Thank you very much for your time and support.

[NC_Bullseye]

It’s always a good idea to provide actual version numbers for Infuse, OS, and any other related apps since there are very frequent releases of all of these. Also some users that say “Latest” or “Most Current” are referring to beta releases so giving the actual version numbers helps eliminate that as a possible problem.

[osw2610]

Hello.

I´am sorry für the less information. Hope this will help:

• tvOS: 26.5
• Infuse: 8.4.8
• Plex Media Server: 1.43.2.10687

[NC_Bullseye]

Just looking through some older thread and saw this that may help.

Plex not playing videos / HTTP 500 error

For anyone else that comes up against this issue (or if I ever forget the solution), I was able to fix it by changing the limit for Internet Upload Speed in Plex from 100 Mbps to 1000 Mbps. My actual upload speed is 102 Mbps but when it was set to 100 Mbps I could not play 4k remuxes through Infuse without getting the HTTP 500 error. I could still play 1080p remuxes but now that it is set to 1000 Mbps all of the 4k remuxes are also playing fine in Infuse. You can find the input for this in Plex…

and this one

Videos play in Plex but get HTTP 500 with Infuse on Apple 4K TV

Your suggestion about remote access gave me a hint. I seem to have solved the problem by making two settings changes. To test, I tried movies and TV shows that would not previously play. This is how I seem to have solved it. In Plex settings, I changed the network type to IPV4 instead of both. I added a netmask for the LAN (192.168.12.*). I also changed the preferred network interface to be the physical. I unchecked remote access. I can’t do port forwarding from outside my LAN because T-Mobi…

Also there’s quite a few others with this issue that may help narrow things down. This is using the search function for the forum.

https://community.firecore.com/search?q=HTTP+500+plex

[osw2610]

Update – Additional testing and reproducible behavior

Hi,

I have performed a large number of additional tests and was able to reproduce the issue consistently. I hope this helps narrow down the root cause.

Test environment

• Plex Media Server 1.43.2.10687 (latest public release)
• Infuse 8.2.8
• tvOS 26
• iOS 26
• Plex Remote Access enabled
• Plex Remote Access upload limit increased from 10 Mbps to 30 Mbps

To eliminate differences between my mother’s network and my own environment, I connected my local Apple TV and iPhone to the FRITZ!Box guest Wi-Fi. Plex identifies these devices as Remote clients, allowing me to reproduce the problem entirely within my own network.

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Initial observation

Originally, a single remote Infuse stream failed because Plex’s Remote Access upload limit was set to 10 Mbps.

After increasing the limit to 30 Mbps, a single remote Infuse client works correctly.

This confirms that the original bandwidth setting was one issue.

However, the following tests revealed a second, different problem.

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Test results

Test 1

One remote Infuse client (iPhone)

• 1080p movie (~21 Mbps)
• Direct Play
• Works correctly

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Test 2

One remote Infuse client (Apple TV)

• Same movie
• Direct Play
• Works correctly

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Test 3

One remote Plex client (Fire TV)

• Same movie
• Direct Play
• Works correctly

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Test 4

Two simultaneous remote Plex clients

• iPhone using the official Plex app
• Fire TV using the official Plex app

Result:

• Both streams work correctly
• One stream is hardware transcoded
• The other remains Direct Play

This demonstrates that Plex is able to handle multiple simultaneous remote playback sessions.

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Test 5

Start one remote Infuse stream.

While it is playing, start a second remote Infuse client.

Result:

• Immediate HTTP 500 error
• Playback never starts.

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Test 6

Start one remote Plex client.

While it is playing, start an Infuse client.

Result:

• Immediate HTTP 500 error
• Playback never starts.

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Test 7

Instead of the movie, I tested a 720p TV episode with an average bitrate of approximately 7.7 Mbps.

Result:

• Immediate HTTP 500 error

This suggests that the problem is not simply related to the media bitrate.

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Additional observations

• If no remote stream is active, Infuse starts immediately and works correctly.
• As soon as any remote playback session is already active (even an official Plex client), Infuse immediately returns HTTP 500 before playback begins.
• Stopping the first stream immediately allows Infuse to start successfully.
• During the HTTP 500 failure:
  • Plex CPU usage remains very low.
  • No additional transcoding session starts.
  • No second playback session appears in the Plex Dashboard.

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Summary

Based on all tests, I can consistently reproduce the following behavior:

• One remote Infuse client → works.
• One remote Plex client → works.
• Two simultaneous remote Plex clients → work.
• A remote Infuse client fails with HTTP 500 whenever another remote playback session is already active, regardless of whether the first client is Infuse or the official Plex app.
• The same behavior occurs even with a 720p (~7.7 Mbps) file.

At this point, the issue no longer appears to be caused solely by the Plex Remote Access bandwidth limit. Instead, it seems to be specifically related to how Infuse establishes a remote playback session while another remote session already exists.

I can reproduce this behavior consistently.

Thank you for taking a look.

[osw2610]

Additional update after some more testing:

I was able to reproduce several additional scenarios.

Working:

• Infuse (Apple TV) → Plex (iPhone)
• Infuse (Apple TV) → Plex (iPhone) + Plex (Amazon Fire TV)

All three remote streams played simultaneously without any issues. The Plex server handled:

• one Infuse Direct Play session,
• one Plex Direct Play session,
• and one Plex hardware-transcoded session
  at the same time.

CPU usage remained very low.

This makes me think the issue is not related to the number of simultaneous remote streams or overall server performance.

Still failing:

• Plex → second Infuse
• Infuse → second Infuse

Both scenarios still fail immediately with HTTP 500 before playback starts.

This now seems to indicate that the problem only occurs when an additional remote playback session is initiated by Infuse, while adding Plex clients afterwards works normally.

If needed, I can also provide logs for these scenarios.

[james]

Can you disable the remote access bandwidth limit and see if this changes the behavior you are seeing?

I will note that the bitrate listed for a particular video will be the average bitrate throughout the file. In practice, there are potions that can have much higher bitrates (double or more) so there are many discussions on the Plex forums that indicate the limit needs to be set substantially higher than the actual video files you are trying to play.

Also, in the current version, Infuse will direct play all videos and never transcode. The Plex app will of course transcode at times when needed. The upcoming 8.5 version of Infuse will include a set of transcoding features that may be helpful to avoid issuers here if upload bandwidth is limited and you need to play multiple streams at once.

[osw2610]

Hi James,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I disabled the remote stream bitrate limit by setting it to Original (No Limit) and repeated the tests using exactly the same setup as before.

Unfortunately, the behavior is unchanged.

Test environment

• Plex Media Server running on a Synology DS920+
• Apple TV and iPhone connected through the FRITZ!Box guest Wi-Fi (forcing remote access)
• Infuse Pro (current version)
• Plex Dashboard used to monitor every playback attempt

I tried to keep each test identical and only changed one variable at a time so the results would be directly comparable.

Results

Test 1

• Apple TV (Infuse) starts a remote stream successfully.
• About one minute later, I start another remote stream in Infuse on the iPhone.
• The iPhone immediately returns HTTP 500.
• The Apple TV stream continues playing normally.
• No second playback session ever appears in the Plex Dashboard.

Test 2 (reverse order)

• iPhone (Infuse) starts the remote stream first.
• Apple TV (Infuse) then attempts to start another remote stream.
• Same result: immediate failure (com.firecore.media.player Error 1 / HTTP 500).
• The first stream continues playing normally.
• Again, no second playback session is created in the Plex Dashboard.

Additional observations

• Two simultaneous remote streams using the Plex app work correctly.
• Three simultaneous remote streams also work when using a combination of Plex and Infuse.
• The issue only occurs when a second remote Infuse playback is started.
• I also reproduced the issue with a 720p file averaging about 7.7 Mbps, so it does not appear to be limited to higher bitrate content.
• CPU usage on the Synology remains very low throughout all tests.

So, removing the remote bitrate limit did not change the behavior.

I also generated a fresh diagnostic log immediately after reproducing the latest error. The Log ID is available if needed.

If there are any additional tests you would like me to perform, I’d be happy to help.