[Bug]: Server crash when closing playback window before transcoding starts #1540

New Issue

Closed

opened 2026-04-24 23:49:23 +02:00 by adam · 3 comments

adam commented 2026-04-24 23:49:23 +02:00

Owner

Copy Link

Copy Source

Originally created by @dmasice on GitHub (Nov 20, 2023).

Describe the issue

I'm using Firefox from Linux to play some audiobooks. The server is a raspberry pi 4 with docker using the official image.

If the audiobook I'm trying to play requires transcoding, it can take a bit to start streaming. If I push the play button to start playback and close the playback window via the close player button before streaming starts, the server crashes.

I think it could be related to #2157.

Here's the log:

[2023-11-20 13:18:02] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] startSessionRequest for device Linux x86_64 / Firefox (PlaybackSessionManager.js:64)
[2023-11-20 13:18:02] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] "admin" starting direct play session for item "8861a05e-f987-41f6-b8ed-fd70a114d13b" with id f4e3df70-8b10-4f65-a2e1-313c227abae0 (Device: Linux x86_64 / Firefox) (PlaybackSessionManager.js:240)
[2023-11-20 13:18:03] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] startSessionRequest for device Linux x86_64 / Firefox (PlaybackSessionManager.js:64)
[2023-11-20 13:18:03] INFO: [PlaybackSessionManager] startSession: Closing open session "BOOK_TITLE" for user "admin" (Device: Linux x86_64 / Firefox)
[2023-11-20 13:18:03] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] closeSession "f4e3df70-8b10-4f65-a2e1-313c227abae0" (PlaybackSessionManager.js:306)
[2023-11-20 13:18:03] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] Removed session "f4e3df70-8b10-4f65-a2e1-313c227abae0" (PlaybackSessionManager.js:330)
[2023-11-20 13:18:03] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] "admin" starting stream session for item "8861a05e-f987-41f6-b8ed-fd70a114d13b" (Device: Linux x86_64 / Firefox) (PlaybackSessionManager.js:244)
[2023-11-20 13:18:03] INFO: [STREAM] START STREAM - Num Segments: 12017
[2023-11-20 13:18:04] INFO: [INFO] FFMPEG transcoding started with command: ffmpeg -seek_timestamp 1 -f concat -safe 0 -i /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/files.txt -y -loglevel error -map 0:a -c:a copy -f hls -copyts -avoid_negative_ts make_non_negative -max_delay 5000000 -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -hls_time 6 -hls_segment_type mpegts -start_number 0 -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_list_size 0 -hls_allow_cache 0 -hls_segment_filename /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/output-%d.ts /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/final-output.m3u8
[2023-11-20 13:18:04] INFO:
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [adts @ 0x7f9fc48340] Scalable configurations are not allowed in ADTS
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [out#0/hls @ 0x7f9d232e70] Could not write header (incorrect codec parameters ?): Invalid data found when processing input
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [aost#0:0/copy @ 0x7f9dac69f0] Error initializing output stream:
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO:
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO:
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] ERROR: Ffmpeg Err "ffmpeg exited with code 1:
" (Stream.js:342)
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [Stream] Re-attempting stream with AAC encode
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] WARN: File path does not exist /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/output-0.ts (HlsRouter.js:75)
[2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [HlsRouter] Stream 987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175 is currently resetting
[2023-11-20 13:18:06] WARN: File path does not exist /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/output-0.ts (HlsRouter.js:75)
[2023-11-20 13:18:06] INFO: [HlsRouter] Stream 987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175 is currently resetting
[2023-11-20 13:18:07] INFO: [Watcher] "Books" Ready
[2023-11-20 13:18:08] WARN: File path does not exist /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/output-0.ts (HlsRouter.js:75)
[2023-11-20 13:18:08] INFO: [HlsRouter] Stream 987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175 is currently resetting
[2023-11-20 13:18:10] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] closeSession "987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175" (PlaybackSessionManager.js:306)
[2023-11-20 13:18:10] INFO: Closing Stream 987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175
[2023-11-20 13:18:10] INFO: Deleted session data /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175
[2023-11-20 13:18:10] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] Stream closed for session "987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175" (Device: Linux x86_64 / Firefox) (PlaybackSessionManager.js:254)
[2023-11-20 13:18:10] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] Removed session "987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175" (PlaybackSessionManager.js:330)
[2023-11-20 13:18:15] ERROR: [STREAM] Transcode never closed... (Stream.js:407)
[2023-11-20 13:18:15] INFO: Stream Reset New Start Time 0:00.0
[2023-11-20 13:18:15] INFO: [STREAM] START STREAM - Num Segments: 12017
node:internal/process/promises:279
            triggerUncaughtException(err, true /* fromPromise */);
            ^

[Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/files.txt'] {
  errno: -2,
  code: 'ENOENT',
  syscall: 'open',
  path: '/metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/files.txt'
}

At this point, the server has crashed and the container is restarted. If I let the streaming start, it plays fine.

I've been able to reproduce the crash every single time.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Start playing an audiobook that requires transcoding to play in Firefox.
2. Wait for the ffmpeg exited with code 1 error to appear in the server log.
3. Close the player via the close player button and before the new transcoding ffmpeg job starts.
4. Server crashes after a few seconds, if not immediately.

Audiobookshelf version

v2.5.0

How are you running audiobookshelf?

Docker

Originally created by @dmasice on GitHub (Nov 20, 2023). ### Describe the issue I'm using Firefox from Linux to play some audiobooks. The server is a raspberry pi 4 with docker using the official image. If the audiobook I'm trying to play requires transcoding, it can take a bit to start streaming. If I push the play button to start playback and close the playback window via the close player button before streaming starts, the server crashes. I think it could be related to #2157. Here's the log: ``` [2023-11-20 13:18:02] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] startSessionRequest for device Linux x86_64 / Firefox (PlaybackSessionManager.js:64) [2023-11-20 13:18:02] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] "admin" starting direct play session for item "8861a05e-f987-41f6-b8ed-fd70a114d13b" with id f4e3df70-8b10-4f65-a2e1-313c227abae0 (Device: Linux x86_64 / Firefox) (PlaybackSessionManager.js:240) [2023-11-20 13:18:03] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] startSessionRequest for device Linux x86_64 / Firefox (PlaybackSessionManager.js:64) [2023-11-20 13:18:03] INFO: [PlaybackSessionManager] startSession: Closing open session "BOOK_TITLE" for user "admin" (Device: Linux x86_64 / Firefox) [2023-11-20 13:18:03] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] closeSession "f4e3df70-8b10-4f65-a2e1-313c227abae0" (PlaybackSessionManager.js:306) [2023-11-20 13:18:03] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] Removed session "f4e3df70-8b10-4f65-a2e1-313c227abae0" (PlaybackSessionManager.js:330) [2023-11-20 13:18:03] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] "admin" starting stream session for item "8861a05e-f987-41f6-b8ed-fd70a114d13b" (Device: Linux x86_64 / Firefox) (PlaybackSessionManager.js:244) [2023-11-20 13:18:03] INFO: [STREAM] START STREAM - Num Segments: 12017 [2023-11-20 13:18:04] INFO: [INFO] FFMPEG transcoding started with command: ffmpeg -seek_timestamp 1 -f concat -safe 0 -i /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/files.txt -y -loglevel error -map 0:a -c:a copy -f hls -copyts -avoid_negative_ts make_non_negative -max_delay 5000000 -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -hls_time 6 -hls_segment_type mpegts -start_number 0 -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_list_size 0 -hls_allow_cache 0 -hls_segment_filename /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/output-%d.ts /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/final-output.m3u8 [2023-11-20 13:18:04] INFO: [2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [adts @ 0x7f9fc48340] Scalable configurations are not allowed in ADTS [2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [out#0/hls @ 0x7f9d232e70] Could not write header (incorrect codec parameters ?): Invalid data found when processing input [2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [aost#0:0/copy @ 0x7f9dac69f0] Error initializing output stream: [2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [2023-11-20 13:18:05] ERROR: Ffmpeg Err "ffmpeg exited with code 1: " (Stream.js:342) [2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [Stream] Re-attempting stream with AAC encode [2023-11-20 13:18:05] WARN: File path does not exist /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/output-0.ts (HlsRouter.js:75) [2023-11-20 13:18:05] INFO: [HlsRouter] Stream 987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175 is currently resetting [2023-11-20 13:18:06] WARN: File path does not exist /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/output-0.ts (HlsRouter.js:75) [2023-11-20 13:18:06] INFO: [HlsRouter] Stream 987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175 is currently resetting [2023-11-20 13:18:07] INFO: [Watcher] "Books" Ready [2023-11-20 13:18:08] WARN: File path does not exist /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/output-0.ts (HlsRouter.js:75) [2023-11-20 13:18:08] INFO: [HlsRouter] Stream 987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175 is currently resetting [2023-11-20 13:18:10] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] closeSession "987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175" (PlaybackSessionManager.js:306) [2023-11-20 13:18:10] INFO: Closing Stream 987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175 [2023-11-20 13:18:10] INFO: Deleted session data /metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175 [2023-11-20 13:18:10] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] Stream closed for session "987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175" (Device: Linux x86_64 / Firefox) (PlaybackSessionManager.js:254) [2023-11-20 13:18:10] DEBUG: [PlaybackSessionManager] Removed session "987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175" (PlaybackSessionManager.js:330) [2023-11-20 13:18:15] ERROR: [STREAM] Transcode never closed... (Stream.js:407) [2023-11-20 13:18:15] INFO: Stream Reset New Start Time 0:00.0 [2023-11-20 13:18:15] INFO: [STREAM] START STREAM - Num Segments: 12017 node:internal/process/promises:279 triggerUncaughtException(err, true /* fromPromise */); ^ [Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/files.txt'] { errno: -2, code: 'ENOENT', syscall: 'open', path: '/metadata/streams/987485cd-a3fd-44e8-902a-b57c0374c175/files.txt' } ``` At this point, the server has crashed and the container is restarted. If I let the streaming start, it plays fine. I've been able to reproduce the crash every single time. ### Steps to reproduce the issue 1. Start playing an audiobook that requires transcoding to play in Firefox. 2. Wait for the `ffmpeg exited with code 1` error to appear in the server log. 3. Close the player via the `close player` button and before the new transcoding ffmpeg job starts. 4. Server crashes after a few seconds, if not immediately. ### Audiobookshelf version v2.5.0 ### How are you running audiobookshelf? Docker

adam added the bug label 2026-04-24 23:49:23 +02:00

adam closed this issue 2026-04-24 23:49:24 +02:00

adam commented 2026-04-24 23:49:25 +02:00

Author

Owner

Copy Link

Copy Source

@thevoltagesource commented on GitHub (Dec 14, 2023):

I ran in to this issue but in a different situation. My audiobook folder is also my Calibre library. Starting with 2.5.0, when Calibre updates its database, the creation and removal of the metadata.db-journal causes the same exception and the container crashes. This issue also exists in 2.6.0 but was not in 2.4.4 or earlier.

It seems like this might be a side effect of the change made to the watcher to solve the issue of it adding files before they were complete (Watcher triggering scan before file is fully copied to folder https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf/issues/1362).

In my situation the journal file is flagged by watcher to be scanned. While Watcher is in the loop checking to see if the file is done being modified, the file is deleted and Watchers call to fileUtils.getFileMtimeMs throws an exception because the file no longer exists.

@thevoltagesource commented on GitHub (Dec 14, 2023): I ran in to this issue but in a different situation. My audiobook folder is also my Calibre library. Starting with 2.5.0, when Calibre updates its database, the creation and removal of the metadata.db-journal causes the same exception and the container crashes. This issue also exists in 2.6.0 but was not in 2.4.4 or earlier. It seems like this might be a side effect of the change made to the watcher to solve the issue of it adding files before they were complete (Watcher triggering scan before file is fully copied to folder https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf/issues/1362). In my situation the journal file is flagged by watcher to be scanned. While Watcher is in the loop checking to see if the file is done being modified, the file is deleted and Watchers call to fileUtils.getFileMtimeMs throws an exception because the file no longer exists.

adam commented 2026-04-24 23:49:26 +02:00

Author

Owner

Copy Link

Copy Source

@thevoltagesource commented on GitHub (Dec 30, 2023):

@dmasice I think I found a solution to the issue you and I are both having and a PR has been submitted for consideration. But after digging in to the code, there is something that concerns me with your situation. The Watcher is only monitoring the library paths for changes, so for it to see the temp transcoded/stream files in your metadata folder, it would seem to indicate that your metadata folder is a subfolder in one of your libraries.

I think ideally the folder structure should look something like this:

/docker/abs
/docker/abs/library -> /audiobooks
/docker/abs/metadata -> /metadata
/docker/abs/config -> /config
/docker/abs/podcasts -> /podcasts

But maybe yours is more like this:

/docker/abs
/docker/abs/library -> /audiobooks
/docker/abs/library/metadata -> /metadata
/docker/abs/library/config -> /config
/docker/abs/podcasts -> /podcasts

While it would probably work (and if this is how you have it, it obviously is working), I could see this causing issues with Watcher picking up config changes, backups, temp files for transcoding, etc, and causing unnecessary scans and possibly other unexpected errors/events.

@thevoltagesource commented on GitHub (Dec 30, 2023): @dmasice I think I found a solution to the issue you and I are both having and a PR has been submitted for consideration. But after digging in to the code, there is something that concerns me with your situation. The Watcher is only monitoring the library paths for changes, so for it to see the temp transcoded/stream files in your metadata folder, it would seem to indicate that your metadata folder is a subfolder in one of your libraries. I think ideally the folder structure should look something like this: ``` /docker/abs /docker/abs/library -> /audiobooks /docker/abs/metadata -> /metadata /docker/abs/config -> /config /docker/abs/podcasts -> /podcasts ``` But maybe yours is more like this: ``` /docker/abs /docker/abs/library -> /audiobooks /docker/abs/library/metadata -> /metadata /docker/abs/library/config -> /config /docker/abs/podcasts -> /podcasts ``` While it would probably work (and if this is how you have it, it obviously is working), I could see this causing issues with Watcher picking up config changes, backups, temp files for transcoding, etc, and causing unnecessary scans and possibly other unexpected errors/events.

adam commented 2026-04-24 23:49:27 +02:00

Author

Owner

Copy Link

Copy Source

@advplyr commented on GitHub (Dec 31, 2023):

Fixed in v2.7.1 thanks @thevoltagesource !

@advplyr commented on GitHub (Dec 31, 2023): Fixed in [v2.7.1](https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf/releases/tag/v2.7.1) thanks @thevoltagesource !

Sign in to join this conversation.

No Branch/Tag Specified

Branches Tags

master

book_tags_genres_dedupe

episode_download_fallback

Issue-4540-SortBy-StartedDate-and-FinishedDate

episode_meta_tagging

fix_authorize_race_condition

redirect_transcode_requests

progress_updated_sort

fix_ereader_socket_event

fix_change_empty_root_password

fix_podcast_session_track_index

fix_set_token

session_modal_user

localize_durations

fix_oidc_create_user

jwt_auth_refactor

fix_scanner_deleting_single_file_books

fix_mediaprogress_updatedat_2

experimental_next_client

podcast_episode_duration

episode-timestamps-clickable

book_author_secondary_sort_title

podcast_useragents

pathexists_user_access

fix_pathexists_join

book_author_secondary_sort

clean_duplicate_mediaprogress

sanitize_html_description

trix_prevent_attachments

check_path_api_fix

fix_mediaprogress_updatedat

increase_express_json_limit

fix_dockerfile_nunicode

search_episodes

audiobook_tools_update

episode_secondary_sorts

hls_stream_url_update

new_session_track_endpoint

audiobook_tools_enhancements

watcher_rescans_update

player_track_tooltip

fix_exclude_prefixes_crash

socket_item_events

fix_podcast_episode_scanner_promise

new_stats_controller

count_cache_for_userpermissions

parsing-opf-v3

validate_migration_files

fix-quick-match-all-crash

fix-chapter-end-sleep-timer

stringify_sequelize_query

remove-col-ambiguity

fix_next_prev_edit_description

details_trim_whitespace

fix_content_url_basepath

fix_logger_fatal

progress_bar_visibility

batch-edit-populate-map-details

feed_generator_updates

bookmark-modal-updates

migrate-library-item-in-scanner

migrate-new-library-items

migrate-podcasts-new-library-item-2

migrate-podcasts-new-library-item

fix-remove-episode-from-playlist

playback-session-use-new-library-item

refactor-library-item

fix-heatmap-caption

feed-episodes-upsert

share-media-player-media-session-api

remove-old-playlist

remove_old_collection_object

plugin-implementation-demo

feed_migration

refactor-feeds-from-item

fix_remove_authors_no_books

v2.17.3-fk-constraints-migration

migrations-first-upgrade

sqlite_2

feature/nuxt-target-server

waveform

sqlite

playlists

video

v2.35.1

v2.35.0

v2.34.0

v2.33.2

v2.33.1

v2.33.0

v2.32.1

v2.32.0

v2.31.0

v2.30.0

v2.29.0

v2.28.0

v2.27.0

v2.26.3

v2.26.2

v2.26.1

v2.26.0

v2.25.1

v2.25.0

v2.24.0

v2.23.0

v2.22.0

v2.21.0

v2.20.0

v2.19.5

v2.19.4

v2.19.3

v2.19.2

v2.19.1

v2.19.0

v2.18.1

v2.18.0

v2.17.7

v2.17.6

v2.17.5

v2.17.4

v2.17.3

v2.17.2

v2.17.1

v2.17.0

v2.16.2

v2.16.1

v2.16.0

v2.15.1

v2.15.0

v2.14.0

v2.13.4

v2.13.3

v2.13.2

v2.13.1

v2.13.0

v2.12.3

v2.12.2

v2.12.1

v2.12.0

v2.11.0

v2.10.1

v2.10.0

v2.9.0

v2.8.1

v2.8.0

v2.7.2

v2.7.1

v2.7.0

v2.6.0

v2.5.0

v2.4.4

v2.4.3

v2.4.2

v2.4.1

v2.4.0

v2.3.5

v2.3.4

v2.3.3

v2.3.2

v2.3.1

v2.3.0

v2.2.23

v2.2.22

v2.2.21

v2.2.20

v2.2.19

v2.2.18

v2.2.17

v2.2.16

v2.2.15

v2.2.14

v2.2.13

v2.2.12

v2.2.11

v2.2.10

v2.2.9

v2.2.8

v2.2.7

v2.2.6

v2.2.5

v2.2.4

v2.2.3

v2.2.2

v2.2.1

v2.2.0

v2.1.5

v2.1.4

v2.1.3

v2.1.2

v2.1.1

v2.1.0

v2.0.24

v2.0.23

v2.0.22

v2.0.21

v2.0.20

v2.0.19

v2.0.18

v2.0.17

v2.0.16

v2.0.15

v2.0.14

v2.0.13

v2.0.12

v2.0.11

v2.0.10

v2.0.9

v2.0.8

v2.0.7

v2.0.6

v2.0.5

v2.0.4

v2.0.3

v2.0.2

v2.0.1

v1.7.2

v1.7.1

v1.7.0

v1.6.0

v1.5.5

v1.5.0

v1.4.11

v1.4.9

v1.4.7

v1.4.6

v1.4.4

v1.4.2

v1.4.0

v1.4.1

v1.3.4

v1.3.3

v1.3.1

v1.2.8

v1.2.6

v1.2.5

v1.2.4

v1.2.1

v1.1.15

v1.1.14

v1.1.13

v1.1.12

v1.1.11

v1.1.10

v1.1.9

v1.1.8

v1.0.0

0.9.61-beta.0

0.9.61-beta

Labels

Clear labels

authentication

backlog

bug

chapter editor

config-issue

ebooks

encoding/embedding

enhancement

help wanted

listening sessions & progress

planned

possible plugin

progress sync

pull-request

Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request

sorting/filtering/searching

unable to reproduce

upload

users & permissions

waiting

No Label bug

Milestone

No items

No Milestone

Projects

Clear projects

No project

Assignees

Clear assignees

adam (Adam Melkus)

No Assignees

1 Participants

Notifications

Subscribe

Due Date

No due date set.

Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: starred/audiobookshelf#1540