u/awfulWinner

Sorry for the back to back posts, but wanted to add another while fresh in my mind.

When I launch Plex client on my phone, select my media, then click on the cast icon > select my bedroom TV chromecast > start casting.

If any of the following occurs:

1. I put my phone off to the side for any length of time
2. My phone screen goes black
3. I switch to another app in the phone during playback

The moment I go back into the Plex app.. i see the cast icon is in connected state, i see the episode it's playing at the bottom of the interface which i can expand up into the full pane.

However, any manipulation or modification of the current stream (pressing pause/scrubbing the timeline/30seconds forward or backward button) do absolutely nothing.

Using the 30 second buttons as an example. I can press it, i can see like it looks like it's doing it on the phone, but nothing happens on the tv, and that\s it. If i scrub the timeline, I can see the phone looks like it's trying to do something, but nothing happens on the TV (no spinning circle) and after about 5 seconds the timeline dot returns to the exact position it was in before I scrubbed it.

Even if I close the app, reopen and reconnect to the Chromecast, the controls will still not respond. Once it reaches this state, I have to stop the cast entirely.

Worse still is sometimes I can not even disconnect from the chromecast once it reaches this point. I can click on the Stop button, I can click on the X, nothing. I have to go into Google Home and select my Chromecast and click on Stop Casting to shut the stream down.

Really annoying to be sure.

Plex app version 2026.13.0
Manage app if unused > disabled
Allow background usage > enabled > Unrestricted

I don't remember if this was always a thing, but I"m pretty sure I had this issue on the old app, but it was resolved at some point. I just know that now it's become super irritating at the speed at which the connection drops from first launch to whenever I need to control something.

Thanks in advance.

So I'll start with the TL;DR, then expand.

TL:DR
Watching episodes of CSI or House of the Dragon on my Chromecast in bedroom, at some point during the episode, it stops the current episode and begins loading the next episode. Does not happen on Hisense TV with Plex app in living room.

Long Version
I have a 3rd gen Chromecast connected to my bedroom TV. It will play most of my TV shows without issue. But I first noticed when I started watching the first season of CSI Vegas that it would play for a few minutes, then automatically jump to the next episode. Every episode did this.

I tried watching it downstairs on my Hisense TV with the Plex app, and it played the whole episode through. Now House of the Dragon is doing it.

I have my suspicions but it doesn't make sense that it works on one device and not the other if the issue was related to 'mistaking' the commercial break cuts as 'end of episode, next episode' triggers. Also might be the way the file is encoded? Both of these series are in x265.. other series that do work (Law n Order, Your Honour) are x264.

My PLEX server uses hardware transcoding on a 3060ti. The server shows no signs of struggle when playing the file. There is no stutter or issues with the episode.. just the instant out of the blue 'Next Episode' jump coming out of nowhere.

Happens when launching PLEX through either my Android phone or my wifes iPhone so it's not localised to a phone model.

Help?