harry0703/MoneyPrinterTurbo · error · ElevenLabsMusicError

failed to run FFmpeg for ElevenLabs video proxy

Error message

failed to run FFmpeg for ElevenLabs video proxy

What it means

ElevenLabsMusicError raised when subprocess.run cannot even launch or manage the FFmpeg process — OSError (e.g. FileNotFoundError when the ffmpeg binary is missing from PATH, or PermissionError). The half-written proxy file is removed and the original OS error is chained. This is an environment problem, not a video problem: FFmpeg was never successfully executed.

Source

Thrown at app/services/elevenlabs_music.py:250

        str(MAX_PROXY_BYTES),
        proxy_path,
    ]
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(
            command,
            capture_output=True,
            text=True,
            timeout=600,
            check=False,
        )
    except subprocess.TimeoutExpired as exc:
        _remove_file(proxy_path)
        raise ElevenLabsMusicError(
            "ElevenLabs video proxy generation timed out"
        ) from exc
    except OSError as exc:
        _remove_file(proxy_path)
        raise ElevenLabsMusicError(
            "failed to run FFmpeg for ElevenLabs video proxy"
        ) from exc
    if result.returncode != 0:
        _remove_file(proxy_path)
        detail = (result.stderr or "").strip().replace("\n", " ")[-500:]
        raise ElevenLabsMusicError(
            f"failed to generate ElevenLabs video proxy: {detail}"
        )
    proxy_size = os.path.getsize(proxy_path) if os.path.isfile(proxy_path) else 0
    if proxy_size <= 0 or proxy_size > MAX_PROXY_BYTES:
        _remove_file(proxy_path)
        raise ElevenLabsMusicError(
            "ElevenLabs video proxy is empty or exceeds the 200 MB limit"
        )
    logger.info(
        "ElevenLabs video proxy prepared: "
        f"source={video_path}, size={proxy_size} bytes"
    )

View on GitHub (pinned to 1f9f19c202)

Solutions

  1. Install FFmpeg in the runtime environment (apt-get install ffmpeg / apk add ffmpeg) and verify `ffmpeg -version` runs as the same user.
  2. If launching from an IDE/service manager, ensure PATH includes the FFmpeg location or use an absolute binary path configuration.
  3. Check execute permissions on the binary in custom images.

Example fix

# Dockerfile fix
# before: FROM python:3.12-slim
# after
FROM python:3.12-slim
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends ffmpeg && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import shutil, subprocess

def ffmpeg_ready() -> bool:
    path = shutil.which('ffmpeg')
    if not path:
        return False
    return subprocess.run([path, '-version'], capture_output=True).returncode == 0

Try / catch

try:
    generate_bgm(video_path, output_path, prompt)
except ElevenLabsMusicError as e:
    if 'failed to run FFmpeg' in str(e):
        raise EnvironmentError('FFmpeg not runnable; install it and retry') from e

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: ffmpeg (or the configured FFmpeg executable) is not installed or not on PATH in the running process's environment; the binary lacks execute permission; resource limits (fork failure) on constrained containers.

Common situations: Slim Docker images without the ffmpeg package; virtualenvs/IDE launches that scrub PATH; images where ffmpeg was copied without +x; cgroup pids/memory limits causing process spawn failure.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of harry0703/MoneyPrinterTurbo@1f9f19c202 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ffbb6d7ba750e8a5. Report an issue: GitHub.