Waveforms not used when transcoding

Support
1

App version

Production

Issue description

When I enable transcoding by setting a maximum bitrate, the waveform is not displayed and used for smart fade. It is used if there is no transcoding when I set the maximum bitrate to original.

Device type

Phone

Media provider

Plex

Steps to reproduce

  1. Go to Playback > Decoding and transcoding
  2. Set WiFi (or mobile) maximum bitrate to any value other than Original
  3. Play any song in the library

Screenshots

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Screenshot_20260823_122921.png
Screenshot_20260823_122921.png1968×2184 672 KB

I searched existing issues first

on

I understand that logs are mandatory

on

Log upload name / description

cal no waveform when transcoding in plex

2

In the logs you paused before the extraction is done.

For mobile you also need to be sure to enable the extraction on mobile as it’s off by default.

3

Sorry, could you explain what you mean by extraction? And where I can find the setting for mobile? I don’t seem to be able to find this setting.

I paused at the same time for both cases with and without transcoding, and did see the waveform without transcoding. So when it’s transcoding, is there something else happening that’s not using the original waveform? Is it recalculating a new waveform based on the transcoded file?

4

Advanced/Database.

And in the logs for that song you started the media then paused with transcoding before they are extracted. Then you started again without transcoding and after -+2s the data was extracted and then displayed.

If you enable again transcoding for that song it will be displayed.

5

Ok I enabled the setting. I played the full song with transcoding but still never saw the waveform. I uploaded a new debug log (I think it appended to the older one rather than making a new file) named “cal no waveform full song playback” that started the debug mode, played one song fully with transcoding, and then stopped debug mode. Before I started debug mode, I cleared playback and media info cache.

6

The server returns errors, can you check it’s logs ?

7

I uploaded the Plex server log file when I tried playing a file with transcoding (using the upload web page; hopefully that was the correct way of sharing). Seems like the server isn’t transcoding properly? Or not understanding the transcode request from Symfonium? These lines in the log keep repeating:

Aug 25, 2026 17:47:01.471 [139853445446456] WARN - [Req#1c77f/Transcode] ClientProfileExtra: invalid add-limitation directive query string: add-limitation
Aug 25, 2026 17:47:01.471 [139853445446456] WARN - [Req#1c77f/Transcode] ClientProfileExtra: ignoring directive: add-limitation(add-limitation)
Aug 25, 2026 17:47:01.471 [139853445446456] WARN - [Req#1c77f/Transcode] TranscodeUniversalRequest: at least one profile extra directive could not be read
Aug 25, 2026 17:47:01.471 [139853445446456] ERROR - [Req#1c77f/Transcode] ClientProfileExtra: music transcode target already exists for streaming http

Either way, I’m not sure what is going on, since in the end the media file is transcoded to mp3 with the correct bitrate, and I’m not seeing the download size of the original FLAC file.

8

On a side note, Plexamp transcodes to opus with this same maximum bitrate setting, so I was wondering whether Symfonium can do this too instead of mp3.