@ MovieFan.Plex I uploaded few days ago the logs as you requested. Could you please provide some comments?
In few words, the Downloaded music is not always available, the app starts spinning as in the picture shown above.
Downloads is controlled by what we call nano. Itās basically a mini version of PMS running on the device. Your logs indicate the app is having trouble communicating with this. Iām not sure why.
The mini-player not working is also related to this. Itās trying to play the downloaded song but since it canāt communicate with nano, itās just not doing anything.
I just discovered this thread after weeks of fighting with the downloads feature. I have to say, Downloads is absolutely garbage. Seriously. I have never seen a company āimproveā a feature and take such a gigantic leap back from its previous functionality. I now have to plan syncing my content at least a week in advance because I know that there are going to be multiple failures. The Downloads will just sit on ā11 out of 200ā episodes all night. Iāll look at PMS and nothing is actively converting until I restart my iPadās Plex client.
Why does Plex not understand that we want to have the server convert all of our media in the background without having to keep an iPad on all night? Why do we have to change a global setting if we want to keep a higher quality movie but lower quality TV show episodes on our device?
If any Plex employees are still watching this thread, please just scrap the entire Downloads feature and give us Sync back. Thank you.
āDownloads is controlled by what we call nano.ā
Aha! It all makes sense now!
Do downloads work? Plex Team: āNano!ā
Will downloads ever work? Plex Team: āNano!ā
But we can send you more logs, will you then fix it? Plex Team: āNano!ā
Do you you care? Plex Team (altogether now): āNano!ā
I will never understand the reasoning for making downloads dependent on a device such as a phone or iPad have to be constantly on, unlocked, and doing nothing on the downloads page to sync anything. We are literally running an always on machine with a lot of processing power. Why canāt we say hereās what I want to download. You go do the work overnight transcoding it to a format that I requested for my device, and later Iāll open my device and have my iPad copy the completed files really quickly.
Even keeping my phone on/unlocked, focus on Plex and no transcoding, I cannot get my music playlists to fully download.
I get about 20-30 GB worth of FLACs at a reasonable download rate (which is about a weekās worth of listening while commuting for me - hardly extravagant) before it grinds to a halt.
From there on the app will intermittently initiate downloading, grab a few files before freezing/pausing again. Restarting the app/server used to ācoaxā it into trying a few more files before freezing/pausing yet again, but thatās not reliable either.
The recent beta update/s seemed to resolve the DNS binding issue for me so at least I donāt have to use a VPN now to get it to download at all.
Iād hoped the bad press from Linus et al recently would be the nudge they needed to get it working properly, but that might be misguided. Several years(?) of complaints from paying customers has barely got us a few steps forwardsā¦
In the interim, a button in the Android/iOS apps to manually force/initialise Downloading would be something. Or the same initiated from the server web UI.
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Love this post! Thanks PlexJB. It shows the level of frustration and how frustrated we are.
So I uploaded the log as requested by @ MovieFan.Plex more than 2 weeks ago though still did not hear anything backā¦
I responded a few days ago. Itās what PlexJB was responding to.
āYour logs indicate the app is having trouble communicating with this. Iām not sure why.ā
I guess is pertinent.
They areā¦ PerPlexed.
So in plain words the answer to the issue is āit is what it isā and āyeahā¦ we acknowledgedā¦ it does not workā ā¦ keep participating.
Frustrating is an understatement.
Theyāve been sitting on these issues for years.
The app is a black box for anyone whoās not in the Dev team yet for anyone remotely close to engineering or SW development itās hardly rocket science to make this work.
The situation beggarās belief.
Wellā¦ I appreciate PlexJB for responding but it concerns me your response which comes from an official Plex employee source:
āYour logs indicate the app is having trouble communicating with this. Iām not sure why.ā
Is there anything I can do from my part to try to help to figure out why is this happening?
Not at this time. We are investigating why your app is doing this. Iāll let you know if we need anything.
Bump to keep a legitimate request open
Downloads f******ing suck. I am trying to sync a few seasons of a show, and after 24 hours, itās only 50% done. Why can we not have the server do the heavy lifting while the iPad is sleeping? Why is the transcoding only doing 1 show at a time when I have practically 90% unused capacity on my M2 Pro Mac mini?
Plex, just swallow your pride and give us Sync back. Downloads flat out sucks and has not improved at all.
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Itās been over a year. Any updates on the investigation?
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