Exactly 1 month ago we introduced Downloads, our new replacement to Mobile Sync. This was an opt-in feature only available for Android mobile, Sync is Dead (almost). Long Live Downloads!. We are happy to announce that we have opened up this feature for our Plex for iOS app. Some of the main advantages to the new Downloads include:
Simplicity. Most things can be downloaded with a single tap. No fiddling with settings or item limits. (You can still “subscribe” to TV shows to keep the next few eps on hand.)
Speed. Start downloading right away at full speed in most cases.
Reliability. Downloads are more consistently accessible and playback reliability has been improved whether you’re online or not.
Better format compatibility, less transcoding! Direct download anything your device can play. (You can still choose to limit the quality/size in settings if you like.)
Progressive conversion and simultaneous downloading. Downloads begin even while the source media is being transcoded; no more waiting for the entire transcode to finish before the download can begin.
Simplified management. Everything is visible and managed in the Downloads list on the device where the media was downloaded.
For the time being, you’ll be able to switch back and forth between old-style Sync and Downloads, but content that you have Synced will not be available under Downloads and vice versa. You should (re)Download any content you’d like to keep on your device in the long run. (Sync, along with any synced content, will be removed in a future version of the app – we’ll be sure to warn you before that happens though!)
Note: You will need to be signed into your Plex account with an active Plex Pass subscription or be part of a Plex Home of a user with a Plex Pass to use Downloads.
To start testing:
Install the latest version, 7.21, of our Plex for iOS app
Open the Plex app and make sure you’re signed in to your Plex account.
Go to Settings > Sync
Check the new “Enable new downloads” opt-in setting (make sure you pay attention to the information in the warning text that gets displayed!)
NOTE: There is a known issue that if your Plex Media Server crashes while a Download is in progress, the app will think the Download is complete but the item will be unplayable. You will need to delete and redownload these items.
iOS version: 7.21
PMS Version: Nvidia SHIELD TV 1.23.5.4862
I click the “Download” link. No matter if I’m in Movies, Shows, or Music, nothing happens. The button gets clicked and I go to downloads but nothing seems to happen.
Firstly thank you for the great step forward, sync is the key reason I went with Plex Pass and this feature has never been reliable.
Just one thing to report, maybe this is by design, however I can’t help but feel that things are transcoding where they don’t need to, for example anything with Dolby is transcoding before download. The progressive approach helps a fair bit with keeping thing running.
My guess is this is because Plex has no license to playback Dolby Digital Plus or the like, so it transcodes it to AAC instead…any workarounds here? Most of my library is now Dolby in some format or another.
Also to report an issue with iOS 15 beta 1,2,3&4, any HEVC/X265 files downloaded refuse to play, this is on two different iPads. 264 content works without a problem. Understand beta beware, so just providing this as info, no outcome expected
Same file on another iPad running iOS 14, both 264 and 265 work just fine.
I’m happy to PM the debugging data that I grabbed from iOS client if that helps, but this is an issue that I can re-create 100% of the time.
Yeah, we are missing a few codecs. We are working on this. Basically, if you can direct play it, it should download without a transcode. I can confirm ac3 and eac3 are causing a transcode right now. These should work.
Thanks a lot for this feature. Sync was just useless.
I just did some tests and it worked great, including subtitles which were my first concern. Thanks to all the team involved!
Only two things:
First, I can’t tell who is downloading the file. I guess that will be implemented…
Second
I couldn’t find this feature. Can users subscribe to “new episodes only?”
Being able to access Downloads across users is perfect for the kids’ shared iPad.
I was able to reproduce this. I added multiple Downloads - a few episodes, movies, and a season/unwatched job. After a few minutes I cancelled the season/unwatched job, and PMS crashed again.
I can PM logs, or try to find a minimal way to reproduce it.
that sounds promising and hopefully that will solve the issue of out of sync audio and problems with choosing subtitles on synced items.
However I can’t seem to activate that new feature. I’ve updated Plex for iOS, went to the settings and accepted the warning popup, but whenever I tap on a “download” button nothing happens. The arrow icon seems to respond (it shrinks a bit) and then… nothing. Nothing in the Downloads category either.
I went ahead and checked if there was a server update and… there was, but it still doesn’t work. I’ve relaunched both the server and the app to make sure but it’s still not working. Interestingly, I’ve tried to go back to Sync and now, that won’t work either…
Anything I should do? Happy to send logs if needed.
Same problem here. Clicking the Download buttons yields no activity, as if the button’s not linked to any function.
Running PMS 1.19.5.3112
Plex iOS 7.21
iOS 12.5.4
In Plex iOS, under Settings, Downloads → Enabled, Original, Original, No Limit.
(About to head about for the weekend, which isn’t the most convenient time to learn this, with apologies, so I won’t be able to post logs until I get back on Monday…)
