Systemd-tmpfiles vs Plex: When /tmp Aging Breaks EAC3 Transcoding
A Plex server with 90 days of uptime, a green service status, and perfectly working H.264 playback can still fail every single EAC3 transcode with a generic "Conversion failed" error. Nothing about Plex changed. No update, no config edit, no disk full. A systemd timer quietly deleted the transcoder's scratch directory out from under it, and Plex has no idea. This one is worth understanding if you…
A Plex server can still fail EAC3 transcoding despite being stable and functioning properly for 90 days. This issue arises because systemd-tmpfiles deletes the transcoder's scratch directory, which Plex relies on for audio transcoding. The problem is caused by an automatic /tmp cleaning feature present in Debian 13, which removes files in /tmp that are older than 10 days.
This affects Plex's watch folder for EAC3 transcoding, causing failures when the directory is deleted. To resolve the issue, create a tmpfiles.d exclusion file for Plex's temp directory to prevent systemd-tmpfiles from cleaning it. Alternatively, relocate the EAE watch folders to a path outside of /tmp to avoid the cleanup process. Restarting Plex Media Server temporarily fixes the issue but does not address the root cause.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
