Sync Question

General Discussions
1

Hi All:
I have a question on Plex’s Sync option. I am syncing some music, whole albums, to my iPhone. As a 1st time user of the Sync option I am curious as to what is actually happening during the process.

Plex Server version - 1.0.0.2261 (I know there is an update waiting to download)
iPhone App version – 4.2

My music files on the server all have been downloaded using maximum quality options for .mp3 files. When I choose to sync those files to my iPhone Plex seems to be going through a conversion process which I can watch as it happens by viewing the Conversion tab.

My iPhone’s Plex app is set to use maximum quality for music downloads. As I said I can view the conversion per song but when it completes there is no record in the Optimized Version Settings for any music.

So now for my question – What is Plex converting and/or optimizing during this process and if it is optimizing why are those files not saved as they are for video files?

Randy

2

iOS only supports Apple’s formats. What PMS is doing is, if necessary, converting FLAC or other form to MP3 for iOS (yes, they are stuck on MP3). It’s also making sure nothing else special need be done to the file before transfer to the phone.

The files, when sync’d to the phone, can’t be written into Apple’s Video or Music libraries due to how Apple partitions apps in iOS. It’s part of the mechanism which keeps iOS devices from getting viruses :smiley:

3

And Sync is not the same as Optimize. Optimize makes the conversion and saves it locally. Sync does the conversion (if needed) and sends it to the device. There is no local copy kept afterwards.