A case in which CarPlay PlexAmp streams instead of playing downloaded song

Plex Labs
1

From within CarPlay, when the iPhone is using cellular data and I play a song from a downloaded album then click on the blue text to play additional music from the artist, if I choose the same downloaded album currently playing and select a different song, then Plex will start to stream that song (Opus 256) instead of playing the downloaded song. The codec on PlexAmp when looking directly at the iPhone display shows Opus 256 when I expect ALAC 24/96.

2

That will depend on what the app’s settings are for Prefer Downloaded Content.

3

Thanks @elan but I’m already set to always prefer downloads

4

then we’d need logs to figure out what’s going on.

5

Plexamp-Logs-2022-08-30-1.zip (772.1 KB)

Here’s my logs from a session I did just now, the behavior this time was different. Now when I played any downloaded album and chose the blue link from the now playing screen I got nothing at all, so it doesn’t see the downloaded album at all.

I did change the library prior to this session and the downloaded album was not from the current library so perhaps one issue is that it always goes to the server to find music by the artist from the current library and ignores the downloads completely. If the downloaded album came from the current library then it does find that on the server but streams it rather than playing the download.

So, my hunch is that this link just totally ignores downloads.

Maybe we can start there and see if you are able to play any downloaded albums when using that link from the now playing or does PlexAmp on CarPlay just ignore the downloads when invoking that link?

I’m happy to provide more details if it helps

Thanks

6

The last 18 plays in your log are coming from downloads/cached. I see it streaming a few transcoded tracks (e.g. Coldplay / Warning Sign). There’s a bit too much going on for me to be able to posit anything else, best best is to capture logs right after an adverse event so we have more context.

That shouldn’t have anything to do with anything :sweat_smile: Cached/offline files are stored with the right identifiers to make them match up properly. If you have multiple copies of the music in different libraries, then yes, it’ll treat them as different.

We would need them.

7

Thanks — is it possible that the phone itself is showing the wrong Codec if CarPlay is active?

Since CarPlay doesn’t show the Codec I’ve been looking at the phone while parked :slight_smile:

Maybe I can check the logs myself to verify as to not bother you. I’ll see if I can make sense of them based on your note.

8

CarPlay shouldn’t make a difference, no.

If you think it’s streaming something it shouldn’t be, capture logs right after that and ship them over.

The only other caveat is that the downloads need to be somewhat recent to be able to be used as cache when streaming (but within the last year or so).

9

Will do.

BTW in CarPlay it would be great to see a cloud icon (and/ or download icon) when navigating the songs / albums. I’ve found this useful on other CarPlay apps.

10

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.