Get All Transcode Sessions

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When Plex can't direct play a media item it will decide to transcode the media so it can be streamed to the client. This API command will return all active transcode sessions on the Plex server.

URL

GET http://{ip_address}:32400/transcode/sessions/?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}

Parameters

Name	Description
ip_address	The IP address of the Plex Media server.
plex_token	The Plex token.

Return Status

HTTP Code	Description
200	Success - The request was successful.
401	Unauthorized - The Plex token provided was not valid.

Response

XML string value that lists all the currently active transcode sessions on the server. An example of the XML returned from the request is shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <MediaContainer size="1">
      <TranscodeSession key="ac99lf8sr9h9i7jfahvge6un" throttled="0" complete="0" progress="50" size="-22" speed="2.4000000953674316" error="0" duration="10000" remaining="2" context="streaming" sourceVideoCodec="hevc" videoDecision="transcode" protocol="http" container="mkv" videoCodec="h264" transcodeHwRequested="1" timeStamp="1676047584.4802699" maxOffsetAvailable="0" minOffsetAvailable="0" />
  </MediaContainer>

The XML returned provides a list of the all the active transcode sessions on the Plex server. The root is the MediaContainer element. This element contains a single attribute that indicates the number of active transcode sessions.

MediaContainer Attributes
Attribute	Description
size	The number of transcode sessions.

The MediaContainer element will still be returned if no transcode session is active. The size attribute will be 0, and there will be no TranscodeSession child elements.

Within the MediaContainer there are one or more TranscodeSession child elements. Each TranscodeSession element represents one transcode session that is active on the Plex server.

Transcode Session Attributes
Attribute	Description
key	The unique key for the transcode session.
throttled	Transcode session is throttled, meaning the server is able to transcode than necessary, so the server is throttled down. 0 - the server is not throttled, 1- the server is throttled.
complete	Flag indicating if transcode session is complete. 0 - transcode session is not complete, 1 - transcode session is complete.
progress	The progress, as a percentage, of the transcode session.
size	Unknown.
speed	The speed of the transcode. A value of 1.0 or greater means the transcode is sufficient for streaming the media.
error	Flag indicating there is an error. 0 - no error, 1 - an error occurred.
duration	The duration, in milliseconds, of the media.
remaining	The remaining amount of media to be transcoded.
context	The context of the transcode session.
sourceVideoCodec	The video codec of the source media item.
videoDecision	The type of stream that Plex decided to use.
protocol	The protocol of the streaming session.
container	The container of the media item.
videoCodec	The video codec used for the transcode.
transcodeHwRequested	The server requested the transcode use hardware transcoding.
timeStamp	The current date and time, in epoch time, of the transcode.
maxOffsetAvailable	The maximum time offset.
minOffsetAvailable	The minimum time offset.

Examples

curl -X GET http://{ip_address}:32400/transcode/sessions/?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}

import requests
plex_url = http://{ip_address}:32400/transcode/sessions/?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}
response = requests.get(plex_url)
print(response.text)

$response = Invoke-RestMethod 'http://{ip_address}:32400/transcode/sessions/?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}' -Method 'GET'
Write-Output $response

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