@plexibla That all sounds normal until the crash. That is not something we’ve seen. Please send me your ios log and PMS logs when the crash happened.
I’ve asked a few times why the are deleting synced content at the end of the year. Does not look like the Plex team wants to answer that question.
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I don’t remember seeing this question. It’s being removed because the code for Sync is being removed. We don’t technically need to remove the content, but without Sync you can’t access it. If you were Syncing to an external storage, then you could access it with another program, but it is not convenient. If it’s saving on the internal storage, then it would sit there wasting space until you uninstalled the app.
Will it be done through a future app update so I can just stop plex on ios from updating?
What about the “Sync” option in server status settings? It used to show which content was synced to each of my devices, now it just shows “Nothing is synced to this device.” even though that’s not true. Will it be replaced with a Downloads section as well?
Seems like it’s impossible to transcode/download a 4K HEVC file to 1080p without it failing. I’m using a Ryzen 5900X and it works with the previous sync.
The previous system of separating transcode and download was a benefit because the heavier transcoding could be cached without the app being open, allowing for the lighter downloading to be much faster.
The biggest limitation of either Downloads or Sync is the amount of time before the mobile Plex app gets terminated in the background. By front-loading the transcode, that limitation is less of an issue because the download can complete faster and more reliably.
I don’t think this is ready to be the only download system in 2 months. It’s just too buggy.
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Just updated to the latest versions of the server and iOS app, and I’m really bummed to see that this new Downloads feature doesn’t have any way to sync a whole library. I use Plex almost entirely for music, not videos, so having my whole music library sync’d to my phone was really easy. Please consider adding a sync-all option to libraries. This was really the main reason I bought a Lifetime Plex Pass, and this update just yanks it out from under me.
Yes. If you don’t update to the version that removes the content, you can continue to access it.
Sync was controlled by the server, which is why it knew what was Synced and could show a list. Downloads is controlled by the client and the server doesn’t know this information. We are looking to possibly show history of what was Downloaded but there isn’t a plan to show what is currently on a device.
I’m able to do this. Will need to see your logs to check what’s failing.
tried out downloads on my fire 10 HD, downloaded a movie and a tv show, tv show plays offline, movie just says “error playing file"External storage not found” dont know what its saying that as i have 200 GB free on my external storage and the tv show plays fine. think ill just have to go back to using VLC
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@anon18523487 I can’t get the Download feature to work. It’s either transcodes or it’s not downloading at all. I will send you the logs. And is there an update on when EAC3 will work?
Server Version is: 1.24.5.5173
Plex iOS Version is: 7.24.1
iOS Version: 15.0.2 on an iPhone 12 Pro
I’m not sure if maybe something happened in the backend while this change was being implemented, but all of my unmanaged users whom were home users were booted and now only show up as ‘friends’.
This means they can’t stream using their apps. Any idea what might of happened? I’d hate to re-add everyone all over again and walk them through doing the accepting the invitation step again.
Thanks.
@Mowee Your logs indicate a DNS rebinding protection issue. See the end of Plex iOS Download feature is unusable as it does not ever complete a download for a discussion on this issue.
That is a future update correct? I am already seeing the in app warning Sync removal at the end of 2021 but looking at release notes for the last year saw nothing about Download replacing sync or content deletion.
Yes, a future update. I can’t say that Sync will continue to work and you can Sync new content, but what you already have Synced shouldn’t get removed.
I noticed that Downloads doesn’t support partial downloads, so in order to download a 2 hour 4K HEVC movie that transcodes at 3x speed, you would need to keep the Plex app in the foreground for 40 minutes without closing it or sleeping the device, otherwise the download will fail and you would need to start back at the beginning.
In comparison to sync where the transcode would be completed transparently in the background on the server and the final download would take minutes.
This is the error on the server when it fails:
Oct 29, 2021 08:12:35.053 [0x1475aef2cb38] Debug — [TranscodeOutputStream] Input processing thread exited after writing 753497032 bytes, m_closed=0, m_endOfFileReached=1, session->isStopped()=0
Oct 29, 2021 08:12:35.128 [0x1475b16e2b38] Debug — [TranscodeOutputStream] Reached end of file
I have tried 4 different 4K HEVC files. This same m_endOfFileReached=1 error occurs on all, and at random percentages of the transcode each time when re-attempted.
I finally got downloads working after fixing the dns rebinding (related to pihole and unbound). However, the lack of ability to “shuffle all” or “play all” on the downloaded media is really frustrating. I use 2 playlists to handle what needs to be downloaded automatically to my phone, full albums and just singles I like. But I can’t play both at the same time as when the source is pinned, it doesn’t have the same options as those played directly from the media server.
Sync seemed to allow shuffling all. Downloads should also allow shuffling/playing all media.
I’m going to need to see more of the logs. Just seeing that error doesn’t help explain what caused it.
Okay thanks, that actually really seems to solve all of my issue as far as I can tell. Tried a bunch of videos to download. Only one was transociding but this was actually done really fast.
I only have one issue still remaining. If I download multiple files my phone might go in standby. This caused my download the fail and I had to retry it. Can you either enable background downloads or disable the screen to go in standby. Otherwise I have to sit next to my phone watch it or disable the standby in general.
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So gave this a shot this week as I’m about to go away without internet and want some local content
Straight up doesn’t work.
I queued up 15 videos to download to my iPad. (up to date, latest plex app version and iOS.).
I plugged it in to power just to make sure, and kept it unlocked while I watched a 4 hour program on TV.
4 videos succeeded. Everything else I tried to download would get to 99% complete, error out, and restart. It did this for 4 hours straight.
I then docked it so that I could make sure it wasn’t WiFi related. Chose new movies to try to download. 2 or 3 succeeded. Everything else continued to fail. Got to 99% and then immediately said “error” then restarted. I was able to watch as this feature transferred several terrabytes of movies to my ipad, only to fail 85% of the videos at 99% completion.
I went back to a version with the ability to use Sync… And while it’s slower to transcode everything, it’s working with a 100% success rate.
On an 3rd gen ipad pro with all updated apps and system updates.
Also notice that “Downloads” doesn’t handle unwatched TV series like Sync did.
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