Sync is Dead (almost). Long Live Downloads! (Part 2 - iOS)

Plex Players Mobile Devices
,
124

Do you have the app set to use the old player? That won’t work with some downloaded content. Turn that option off and see if playback starts.

125

Nope, it’s set to use the new player.

I have tried downloading both “original” quality as well as a transcoded quality. Neither of which works.

126

While viewing the downloads page, change the sort to “size” and check if the size makes sense for the item downloaded. Just curious if it maybe didn’t finish downloading. There was a bug previously where if the connection to the server failed, the app would think the download was complete and have only a partial file while won’t work. You’ll need to re-download these.

If the file is complete, please get me the entire log.

127

Download is around 1gb for 30 minute show at 720p so that sounds about right.

logs are attached. PlexDebugInfo-jkirkcaldy-7.22-887 (2021-09-14 10.44.40 +0100).zip (2.1 MB)

128

The amount downloaded is different every time I delete/redownload.

129

It shows you have the option enabled to do the automatic bitrate adjustment. This causes the app to revert back to the old player even if it’s set to use the new one. Turn off this feature and see if playback works.

130

@bbeecher That sounds wrong. Plex re-download and get me the both the app and server logs once it finishes. Also provide me the XML for the episodes that downloaded.

131

Same problem with me here. Server running on docker / Linux - latest public version. Several iOS devices connected. Sync works everywhere - with download won’t happen anything.
Edit Logs addedPlex Media Server Logs_2021-09-15_12-19-01.zip (6.5 MB)
PlexDebugInfo-Woolkie-7.23-1076 (2021-09-15 13.16.30 +0200).zip (415.8 KB)

132

Figured out myself - but a little concerning solution… I had to disable secure connections in the server options. Hope that helps.

133

I have tried to go all in with downloads. I have deleted Sync items. I have run across a couple of things.

  1. Sometimes tv shows when being watched get stopped prior to the end by a couple of minutes and don’t flag as being watched. This means that the new unplayed episodes don’t download. I found that I didn’t get the new episodes and didn’t have anything to watch.

  2. When you download a season, it only shows the season is downloaded. There is no indication on the individual episodes or in the downloads list to know which episodes are downloaded. This means that I can’t see if new episodes have been downloaded before I travel. This leaves me with no content to watch which makes me grumpy.

134
  1. I also can’t delete an individual episode or movie like I could before. What happens if you have a piece of media set to never delete and have a dozen other pieces of media downloaded. You can only delete the original media if you delete everything.
135

Breaking PiP support is an unacceptable regression. It’s basic iOS functionality, if Plex is going to break this for half my library then I’ll need to find a better app and seek some sort of plex pass refund.

1 Like
136

I agree with your reply, this is not reasonable and really should have been called out. PIP is a key use case for me. Any chance we can confirm if a fix to this will be made, or is this the way it is from now on?

I watch Plex content exclusively on my iPad Pro 12.9", most of the time in PIP mode so I can do other things in the background.

Please (I beg) can we confirm if this is on the roadmap to remove this limitation, going back to sync isn’t an option as that isn’t reliable. The only other option would be to use the “other” common client, and I’d rather not do that.

The only reason I have Plex Pass was for offline content, and I don’t think I’m alone. So just hoping one day to use the key feature (offline playback) reliably on my iOS devices.

2 Likes
137

We, as consumers of the product, should not stand for “this is the way it is now.” I am so tired of Plex releasing half-baked features that are missing functionality from the previous “feature” they are replacing.

7 Likes
138

Where can I get support for my failed downloads?

Server Version#: 1.24.2.4973
Player Version#:8.22.0.27533

Plex Media Server Logs_2021-09-14_09-35-03.zip (3.4 MB)

I am unable to download most content to my Android tablet. More times than not, it fails with an error, but some videos will download in full. However, those same downloads might fail another time.

Any help?

139

Please reproduce the error, then grab both the android logs and the server logs. Also let me know what video it was so I know what to look for.

140

I currently can’t download when I am not in the home network, or connected via VPN.

Just tried to download something to my mobile phone from work. I just got the very helpful error message saying that An error occurred, please try again later. Where can I find out what the error is?

Restarted the app, restarted the phone, even updated the server, nothing helped. Once I connected my VPN to home and tada. I could press the download button again. And no, my server is fully accessible from the internet, at least Plex itself tells me so.

141

Thanks for the reply.

Here’s the logs, and the show is 'Psych’devicelog.txt (1017.5 KB)
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-09-21_12-41-28.zip (3.0 MB)

143

So my iPad tells me sync is going away so I just spent the best part of a day moving content into downloads and now I find out that I can’t do Picture in Picture?! Way to go plex for ruining my day AGAIN. Some upgrade.

1 Like
144

Similar problem with download with a few extra data points.

I used to use Sync with no problem. I switched to download, and no data is downloaded, even after sitting for hours. When I switch to cellular instead of Wifi, the download works and occurs very fast (about 10 seconds for a 25 minute show).

I thought this might be a network problem as mentioned here, but interestingly, I can use download on my Mac when connect to the same Wifi as the iPhone. The Mac download works, but the iPhone download doesn’t while on Wifi. I can play the same movie from both the Mac and iPhone while on Wifi. It’s only the iPhone that doesn’t work with download while on Wifi.

And I tried it with an iPad. Same results as the iPhone. Doesn’t download while on Wifi, but does download when on ellular.
Configurations:

iPhone x 14.8 (and same problem on 14.7.1)
IOS Plex Player Version 7.23 (deleted and reinstalled)

Mac OS Big Sur 11.6
Mac Plex player Version - 1.35.1.2632-c6783c78

Ipad 14.8
Ipad Plex player Version 7.23

DS1019 Synology DiskStation Plex server 1.24.3.5033-6000

Both iPhone X and Mac connect to the same Wifi Synology router.