Please try downloading again, then provide the full logs from your iPhone so I can check what the error is.
@anon18523487 I tried out a few things today to try and fix/debug downloads. I have 5 different VLANs in my Unifi stack. Plex sits on the the ‘apps’ 10.0.20.x/24 network. My ‘main’ network is on 10.0.10.x/24. I have a plex pass unlimited subscription with the “Lan Networks” setting within plex set to 10.0.0.1/8 (I have also tried 10.0.0.1/255.0.0.0). My iOS client usually sits on the ‘Main’ (10.0.10.x) network.
On a whim today, I created a WIFI network on the ‘apps’ (10.0.20.x) network. Exact same hardware; I just added the SSID using the ‘apps’ network in the Unifi gear. I switched my phone over to the new wifi SSID and downloads worked.
Here is a sanitized request from the ‘apps’ wifi network, (working) iOS client from IP 10.0.20.222 (same network as the plex server):
Request: [10.0.20.222:52770 (Subnet)] GET /updater/status (32 live) #131e79 TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (my_token) (iPhone)
Sanitized request from my ‘main’ wifi network from the same iOS client 10.0.10.129:
Request: [10.0.10.129:51943 (WAN)] GET /updater/status (31 live) #132e02 TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (my_token) (iPhone)
My main network got labelled as “WAN” even though I told plex my LAN Networks should include it “10.0.0.1/8” as a Subnet.
Can you double check the logic around the source ip and subnet validation?
Are you sure you put that into the correct setting? Can you provide your entire PMS logs so I can see what’s going on?
Why is this STILL not fixed?
What is “this”? We’ve fixed a bunch of things but I need specifics if you are still having issues.
Hi.
Plex server running on:
- Raspberry Pi 4.
- Raspberry Pi OS.
- Latest version of Plex Server.
- Latest version of Raspberry Pi OS.
- Connected using ethernet 1000/1000.
- Relay deactivated.
- Remote access activated and running correctly.
- Streaming (from LAN and WAN outside the house) runs perfectly.
- Of course, transcoding deactivated on server AND clients. Both streaming and Downloads.
- Running on a fast SSD.
- No issues when streaming, even 4K HDR.
I have a plex pass on my account.
Downloads on iOS devices are painfully slow when outside the house. 2-10Mbps.
But even when at home (on LAN reaching ~160 Mbps) the iOS apps are showing download errors when downloading a full season.
Even showing “Downloading 13 episodes” when there’s just 9. And of course, taking ages to download, if anything.
I’ve been reading this post for years now. I’ve kept my server updated, my network running perfectly (my router is a fantastic Unify Dream Machine) debugged the hell out of it. Reinstalled everything from scratch. And this problem: PERSISTS.
I don’t know what issue is so hard to fix with this feature, but I can’t really understand why we are in 2023 and there’s no reasonable stable way to download content for offline use.
It’s nuts. When using SFTP to transfer the media files from the Server SSD to my Mac (3-5 GB) it is done in a matter of 1-3 minutes. And it never fails.
Plex clients and/or servers have a serious issue with this. And it’s unacceptable when the purpose of Plex is serving media.
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I need to see the logs from the iOS app and your server after reproducing the issue. For more than 1 issue, please provide separate logs after reproducing each one. This makes it easier to look for the problem.
I wanted to chime in and say that downloads are terrible, even within network, to my iPad. I’ve at least figured out how to stop it from failing (have to leave the ipad display on with plex open), but it seems to be downloading in realtime,
I wish I had more specifics to offer, but I came here to say I agree with how frustrating the new Downloads tab has been since it launched. It seems infinitely slower than the old sync, and it’s incredibly infuriating how little visibility and control there is to the process as well.
Here are some possibly more helpful frustrations and suggestions:
On iOS, if you open the main downloads page to “Libraries”, all you see is the little spinner going around the hamburger, with no indication of what is happening or how much progress is made. If you open the sidebar, at least there it says “Downloading 1 of 8” so you can sort of tell how much progress is being made. The “Items” page shows the percentage of each thing downloaded, which is hard to map to the count of items that you see in the side menu. Can’t there be some sort of consistent representation of the download progress?
I would like to be able to click on a season/show in the “Items” list to see the progress of that season.
When downloading a season, it should prioritize the downloads in episode order. For example if I’m downloading a whole season but run out of time before I have to leave, I don’t want to be stuck with episodes 1, 2, and 5 downloaded when it should have downloaded episode 3 before 5.
I don’t have a concrete example of this next one, but for some reason it’s incredibly difficult to figure out what has been downloaded or in the queue when I’m online and browsing the main library. The little download icon doesn’t seem to consistently represent the actual download state. Maybe this is a matter of looking at an individual episode vs downloading a season? I am not sure but it’s unreliable enough that it’s frustrating and useless.
Sorry I don’t mean to pile on, but at this point I wish we could have kept using the old Sync function from 2 years ago instead of this.
Yeah this needs to be fixed, it’s a really awful experience.
Tried to download media once again (after not using it for quiet a while, since it was rubbish). But it really surprises me that it still does not work on iOS devices.
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Need to keep this thread open and therefore chime in as I as a lifetime user share all of your pain.
For me there can be only one explanation to this scenario:
PLEX had exactly one developer who was working on the downloads feature and as he sucked at his job, his code was crap and they fired him three years ago. Since then no one has ever dared to touch that legacy, technical debt code!
SERIOUSLY PLEX: You roll out stupid DVR features no one wants or uses for years but HUNDREDS of users alone in this forum are using - better: trying to use - download and you are not providing a SINGLE bug fix, while the issue can be reprod in minutes!? Just admit it: The MPAA and RIAA are threatening to shut you down if you properly implement it, right?
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Sooooo, now five months later @anon18523487 , what’s the conclusion?
Oooh and btw Plex, you still advertise it as your #1 reason why people should buy the PlexPass … for a broken feature???
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Yeah, the downloads feature is really bad on iOS. Buggy and unreliable. Doesn’t even resume interrupted downloads and cryptic errormessages that leads nowhere. Has there been a official response from Plex yet?
For the love of god: Just completely rewrite that whole download feature. It really, really sucks for everybody. No control. No stats. Nothing. It is nothing but a shame for an app 2023.
I think I fixed my issue, so I’ll list the settings below if they are helpful with others. The one item that remains is background downloads - you all should vote here to help prioritize it - iOS allows background downloads, why doesn’t Plex enable it - Feature Suggestions - Plex Forum
Network
- Disable IPv6 (unlikely to be helpful in this, but I don’t use IPv6 internally so don’t need it)
- Preferred Newtork Interface - I only have one, but i set it to that instead of “Any”
- Disable “Treat WAN IP as LAN Bandwidth”
- Disable “Enable Relay”
Transcoder
- Transcoder Quality - Automatic (i have latest i9, but when I set to this instead of make cpu hurt, definitely improved speed of transcode)
- Background transcoding x264 preset- ultra fast
- Enable HDR Tone Mapping (some people won’t have hardware support/setup for this, but works for me)
- Use Hardware Acceleration when available
- User hardware-accelerated video encoding
-Hardware transcoding device - Auto
Some of these may have impacts on quality of transcode (e.g. the ultra fast), but I recommend giving it a shot first to see if it eliminates your error, then going from there.
Thx, sad we have to do this for a PAID service
To be fair, Plex has spent the last how many months on this “Discover Together” feature nobody asked for or cares about.
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just checking in to see if anything is resolved… the download feature has never worked for me and its been years now 
get this every time
