When I travel, I scroll through my library and download several shows/movies. Since I travel frequently, sometimes shows from one trip remain on my iPad over the course of several trips. After I finally watch a show, I will go into into Downloads & Sync, manage and try and delete the content since I am offline or in an area with limited internet access. Under manage, there are two sections. One label Synced Items, the other labeled Downloads.
Usually the item(s) I want to delete are listed under both sections. If I see the item under Synced items, select it and the select Delete, it will usually be removed from my iPad. Sometimes though, the item is not listed under Synced Items, only under downloads. If I select the trash can icon next to the name and tell it to delete, it will not delete from my iPad. Like right now, I have about 6 movies listed only under Downloads. I try and delete them. But they will not be deleted. The only way to remove the items is to delete the app and all content from my iPad.
Since I travel so much, I maintain a few hundred gigs of content on my “mobile library”. The process of deleting the app and then redownloading everything takes days. Before anyone goes down the path of optimized content to try and speed up the download process, I do not have the space to maintain two versions of every show/movie. The rest of the family streams the content locally and I am the only one who constantly travels.
So, how do I delete content from my downloaded items without spending days having to resync everything?
Mobile sync used to give me a similar issue in the past. After enabling the new Downloads feature, I’ve no longer had that problem – items seem to delete just fine and it’ll allow original downloads (if my iPhone is capable to play them), so it’ll save a lot of optimizing-before-sync.
Please, help me, I’m lost. It doesn’t feel like it’s an added option to me. Looks like it’s the only way of doing it from now on.
I actually need to optimize, I don’t feel like I can anymore. It’s a phone, I don’t need 1080p 10Mbps bitrate… Sync was a dream, I added the show, set it to sync to 2 episodes, choosed the resolution, unawatched only and forgot about it. Done! All the wizardry and black magic just happened on my server and my phone, it just worked and I didn’t have to burden my phone with unnecessary gigabytes.
I’m desperate. I have Plex Pass Lifetime and I already installed Emby on my server to check out as a alternative. I really need a simple sync option. Sync is probably 80% why I adopted Plex into my life, it was so easy.
I really feel like I’m missing something, it can’t be a downgrade like I think it is.
Changed the settings, adding some stuff to test. Thank you.
So, on the surface, it’s not like they made it actually simpler. They just separated the options in two places now. Oh, and removed the option to easily use different quality per TV show, movie or whatever, I’m assuming you can still use different quality per show if you go to the new Settings > Download and change then before you add it to Download.
