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+date = 2023-07-19
+title = "How to Avoid Plex Error: 'Conversion failed. The transcoder failed to start up.'"
+description = "Learn how to avoid Plex conversion errors caused by subtitles."
++++
+
+## Plex Transcoder Error
+
+Occasionally, you may see an error in your Plex client that references a
+failure with the transcoder conversion process. The specific error
+wording is:
+
+```txt
+Conversion failed. The transcoder failed to start up.
+```
+
+## Debugging the Cause
+
+In order to get a better look at what is causing the error, I'm going
+to observe the Plex console while the error occurs. To do this, open the
+Plex web client, go to `Settings` > `Manage` >
+`Console`. Now, try to play the title again and watch to see
+which errors occur.
+
+In my case, you can see the errors below are related to a subtitle file
+(`.srt`) causing the transcoder to crash.
+
+```txt
+Jul 19, 2023 16:49:34.945 [140184571120440] Error — Couldn't find the file to stream: /movies/Movie Title (2021)/Movie Title (2021).srt
+Jul 19, 2023 16:49:34.947 [140184532732728] Error — [Req#7611/Transcode/42935159-67C1-4192-9336-DDC6F7BC9330] Error configuring transcoder: TPU: Failed to download sub-stream to temporary file
+Jul 19, 2023 16:49:35.225 [140184532732728] Warning — [Req#760d/Transcode] Got a request to stop a transcode session without a valid session GUID.
+Jul 19, 2023 16:49:45.561 [140184532732728] Info — [Req#7648] AutoUpdate: no updates available
+Jul 19, 2023 16:51:23.402 [140184510081848] Info — Library section 1 (Movies) will be updated because of a change in "/movies/Movie Title (2021)/Movie Title (2021).srt"
+```
+
+## Solving the Error
+
+In my case, I simply removed the subtitle file because it was not
+critical to keep. You may also avoid this by turning off subtitles if
+you don't want to delete the file.
+
+```sh
+rm -rf "/movies/Movie Title (2021)/Movie Title (2021).srt"
+```
+
+Once the subtitle is removed from the directory or subtitles are turned
+off, try to play the title again. At this point, it should play without
+error. If not, reopen or refresh your Plex client and the Plex server:
+
+```sh
+sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver.service
+```
+
+## Related Discussion
+
+Looking at [a related Plex forum
+post](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles-crashing-plex-transcoder-samsung-q80-tv-with-or-without-hardware-transcode/741441/2),
+it seems that `.srt` subtitles are the core issue here.
+However, Plex does not seem to have a resolution that fixes these
+errors.
+
+Unfortunately, I would suggest converting subtitle formats, burning the
+subtitles into the title, or simply removing subtitles when they cause
+crashes.