New to Plexamp and I really like it. It makes managing and enjoying my music collection a real pleasure.
However, I’ve noticed that on the Plexamp macOS client, even if you download an entire album or playlist, local files are only used when you access the album/playlist via the Downloads tab. If you play from any other entry point, the tracks are still re-cached to the disk (always prefer downloaded media is enabled). I’m not sure if this is a bug or a feature xD.
My concern is that if I have a large music library, even if I download the entire collection—every time I play it triggers a new cache to the disk. Moreover, since some playlists exceed the configured cache size, the tracks are re-cached over and over as they cycle through playback. I know I could set the cache size to its maximum (that’s what I did), but that defeats the purpose of downloading. Wouldn’t it be better to unify caching and downloading?
Additionally, I believe one of the advantages of streaming is to reduce SSD r/w operations. While my SSD capacity and write lifespan are limited (though I’m not overly worried about that), I do have unlimited bandwidth. Could you consider adding an option to use only memory caching? This would be a perfect solution for users who only want to cache the next track, and it wouldn’t consume too much memory.
I didn’t find an option to share logs, in the debugging section there is only a “Reset to Default” option. I can share a simple reproduction process: keep Activity Monitor open, search for “plexamp” in the Disk tab, and observe the Bytes Write changes.
In Playback - Caching, click “Delete Caches” and set “Only cache next track.”
Download any album (Activity Monitor will show a write size equivalent to the album’s capacity).
Play that album from Downloads (the write amount hardly changes).
Locate the album in Home/Library and play it (each time you switch songs, the Bytes Write increases by the size of the next song).
* My system is macOS Sequoia 15.3.2. The album songs are all MP3 320K, and both the playback and download quality in Plexamp are set to maximum.
thanks for the detailed explanation. you’re seeing a nuance of the way the cache is shared between offline and regular. the file is copied from the offline area to the disk cache area so that it can managed separately.
Thanks for the explanation. It is somewhat reasonable, but if the caching and download sharing could be further optimized, it would greatly reduce resource consumption. Other than that, I’m very satisfied with Plexamp. Thanks for all your development and work!
