Plexamp: Completely Restrict Cellular Streaming

Plex Labs
1

Hey all,

This got kinda long, so TL;DR at the bottom, skip the paragraph if you don’t care about my reasoning.

I really like Plexamp, and would like to switch to it as my main music app. I have a decently sized library that I can’t sync entirely, and while I do find that disappointing, I totally understand the reasoning as to why that isn’t supported and have other ways to get around that if I really desperately need my whole library. All that being said, the one thing that really puts me off of using it is that there seems to be no way to set a strict restriction for cellular streaming. The closest setting I can find is to set it to prefer downloaded media, but that still isn’t a hard limit to only use downloaded media, unless it’s supposed to be and just wasn’t working right for me. I’m okay with it still being able to connect to my server and communicate, I just don’t want it burning through my data streaming, especially when I have stuff downloaded. I’m not sure if playing a playlist/radio from downloads does strictly restrict playback to locally stored media (does it actually? never bothered) but that somewhat ruins the seamlessness. If I can’t store my whole library locally, I don’t want to have to remember to pause playback and switch to my downloads tab (assuming that does strictly play downloaded songs) every time I move out of WiFi range. Sure things can be cached, but I’m a serial-skipper and can burn through the max 40 song cache limit pretty quickly. I also don’t want to have to remember to switch back to a non-downloaded playlist/radio (again assuming that does restrict it) every time I’m back within range of WiFi to regain access to my whole library. Plus, if I’m quite enjoying a playlist/radio I’d like it to be able to keep playing from the cache without streaming, so that if I return to WiFi before I’m out of cache I can keep listening, and if I don’t it won’t start burning through my data. I know it’s such a first world problem to have, but it’s currently the thing that is somewhat of a deal breaker for me.

TL;DR: We have an option to disable downloads on cellular, and to prefer downloaded media on cellular, but can we have an option to disable streaming over cellular as well? Unless prefer downloaded media is supposed to restrict that and simply wasn’t for me. Or unless I’m just an idiot and keep missing it.

1 Like
2

I’ll second this. I have a limited data plan and am a little paranoid about Plexamp potentially streaming things when I don’t want it to. An option to explicitly prohibit that would be appreciated.

3

+1

Right now it’s the music app I use the most. But I also have a limited data plan

4

Yup, that’s exactly my reasoning. When I first downloaded the app I downloaded 24 hours of Library Radio and set it to prefer downloaded media on cellular. I went out later that day and it streamed around two out of every three songs. Not great for my pay for what you use plan if it burns through 2 gigs in an hour or so.

5

this is exactly as it works, by design, if you don’t want to stream media over cellular.

On iOS at least, you could disable the app’s ability to download over cellular via the system setting. That would make it work the way you’re implying where it “plays through” the cache and then stops when it hits something it has to download.

Right now, at least, the “correct” way to get no media streamed over cellular is to play out of the downloads tab.

6

I tried to restrict it from using cellular via iOS settings and it played until the end of the current song (or maybe the next?) then stopped playback. However, I expected it to keep playing the downloaded portion of that station (I have 24hr saved)…

I assumed the 24hr of downloaded station would serve as a huge buffer in this instance?

7

Did you play the downloaded station from the downloads tab?

1 Like
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