Update on new Downloads feature

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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First off, we’d like to thank all the users who have been using and reporting issues related to our recently released Downloads feature. Due to these reports, we have identified several areas for improvement. We are providing an update on certain issues that have been reported to provide some transparency on this new feature. The cause of the following issues have been identified and are waiting for fixes to get implemented. We hope to have updated apps with these fixes as soon as possible. There are still some other minor issues that have been reported and they are not being ignored, but we have focused our attention to these issues to provide a more stable Downloads feature in preparation of the removal of Sync in the future.

For those that are still using Sync and worried about losing that functionality near the holidays, fear not. We will not be turning off Sync until at least after the holidays.

The following issues are not in any specific order. As always, fixes/changes will be included in release notes when a new release goes out, so we encourage users to monitor our Release Announcements forum category. We’ll also try to update this thread as fixes are released.

1. Downloading files > 2GB

Symptom: The Download is shown as complete but cannot be played.

When a large file needs to be saved on the target device, the app will split the file into 2GB chunks. The Downloads feature currently is not handling these chunks properly.

Work Around: None

Note: Already fixed for Android in 8.26.0+.

2. Duplicate tags (mostly affecting TV shows)

Symptom: Some shows/episodes will Download but others will not. The ones that fail will Download then show an error once completed.

Downloaded information is stored in a database on the client using information from the PMS database. A duplicate ID entry conflict between the PMS and local database causes the app to not be able to save the information on the item being Downloaded. This is mostly caused by the genre tag for the show, but can be from other tags as well.

Work Around: Check the Plex XML info for the show. See if there is a genre entry with the id of 1, 2, or 3 such as this example below. Changing/Removing this genre will allow the show to correctly download.
<Genre id="3" filter="genre=3" tag="Comedy" />

3. Hidden TV show seasons

Symptom: Downloading a TV show appears to work, but clicking on the show on the “Items” page does nothing. When the page refreshes, the Download starts again.

In PMS, there is an option available to hide seasons for a Show. The Downloads feature is not supporting these hidden seasons.

Work Around: Turn off the option to hide seasons in PMS.

4. DNS Rebinding preventing file transfer (iOS only)

Symptom: Appears to only be for transcoded content. PMS will show the video is transcoding, but the client shows “Downloading” with 0 progress. Even after PMS finishes transcoding, the progress on the client still doesn’t change. Streaming the same content work.

The iOS app is able to stream content in spite of any DNS Rebinding protection on a network. This is blocking Downloads.

Work Around: Turn off DNS Rebinding protection on your network. If your router does not have such a setting, you can try using a different DNS provider (1.1.1.1, Quad9, Google Public DNS, OpenDNS, etc.).

See How to Use Secure Server Connections | Plex Support for more information on DNS Rebinding.

Update: The fix is in the latest iOS Beta, 7.27 (1844)

5. Downloading to SD card is really slow (Android 11 only)

Symptom: Downloading to internal memory is normal, but Downloading to an SD card (or other external storage) is much slower.

Originally it was believed this was due to a change in how Android 11 interacts with SD cards. The new mechanism used by Android 11 is called FUSE. We’ve since discovered that it is not FUSE directly, but the way our Download mechanism interacts with FUSE. Downloads uses a different method to download files than Sync and Sync was not affected. We will be changing the download method to match Sync until we can determine why the new method is affected by FUSE.

Work Around: Change the SD card to not use FUSE. This is an advanced feature done through ADB and not advised.

Update: The crash is fixed in an earlier beta Plex for Android 8.28.0.29859-beta

6. Transcodes not respecting the quality setting (iOS only)

Symptom: Downloaded content is larger than expected.

Downloads should follow the quality set in the Downloads settings. The app appears to lower the resolution to match the setting, but the wrong bitrate is being used.

Work Around: None

Update: The fix is in the latest iOS Beta, 7.27 (1844)

7. Error shown “External storage not found” (Android only)

Symptom: The above error is shown even though the content is not being saved to external storage.

This appears to be a visual glitch on the Items tab. Using the Library tab allows you to access the content.

Work Around: None

Note: Fixed in Android 8.26.0+.

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This is one of the best communications from Plex to it’s users I’ve seen. Nice job.

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s/asb/adb/g it’s adb, the google tool for sideload and management of Android via usb from an attached host.

Given qwerty keyboard and ASDF you hit s instead of d…

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Huh? I don’t understand what you are trying to say here.

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  • Work Around : Change the SD card to not use FUSE. This is an advanced feature done through ASB and not advised.*

It’s not asb it’s adb

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Thanks. Fixed.

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I thought that a fix was being prepared for the rebinding issue. Many people will not be able to, or not want to change their setting on their router.

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I suppose that’s why it’s only listing a workaround for now. Above the issue list, the post also stated they’re still working on fixing those.

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Yes.

We hope to have updated apps with these fixes as soon as possible.

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Is it recommended that we simply use the old sync feature if it was at least functional (although I would say that is barely working as well these days), until the new apps are released? Some of these fixes are over my head =).

Is there any way to forcibly clear out the sync and downloads queue? I now have stuck things in Download, and stuck things in sync, and I can’t delete them no matter how many times I attempt… they are always there. From other threads I’ve read this can also cause some havoc…

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thank you for enumerating the existing issues and status. very helpful.

for me, the problem isn’t “the holidays” - my upcoming travels just happen to begin around the coming holiday but will continue without access to my home server at all for the 6 months afterward. if the download feature is not working for issue #5 in your list and the sync feature is removed (removing my content) during the next 6 months i’ll be unable to use Plex during the remaining time on my trip.

i can obviously workaround this with other products but the whole reason for using Plex is to, well, USE it.

i am happy to test and looking forward to the download feature - i just don’t want to be stuck without my content.

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The way I read it, #5 won’t stop you from using the new Downloads – it just means it’ll be slow(er) to download to the SD Card. With sufficient preparation time you could already move to Downloads and let your mobile download stuff while you celebrate with your family :wink:

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hi @tom80H, thanks for the input and encouragement. as i noted here the “slowness” is extreme and, for even a truncated version of the library of titles (music and movies) i want, it would take longer than a week to complete the download and, in my testing, fail multiple times along the way.

:wink:

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@anon18523487 Thank you for providing such an excellent example of good communcation. I really appreciate it.

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If you are concerned with losing your Synced content due to being away from your server for an extended time, don’t update the app. The removal will happen in a future app update.

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That would be a problem. You must stop any updates from 1 before switching to the other. How are you trying to delete these things? You can’t delete individual items.

Is there any way to forcibly clear out the sync and downloads queue?

There isn’t really a queue, the app checks fi there are updates to the Download/Sync tasks you’ve already created. If something is stuck, the best thing is to remove that task. i.e. There is something stuck when downloading a playlist, delete the playlist task.

If you’re not sure what is stuck, the best option is to delete everything and start over with just Downloads or just Sync.

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Well, I just checked today, and they are all gone somehow, so that’s good =). But previously, I would click sync - then in “manage” I would swipe to delete, and it would do nothing and stay there. It acted similarly in Downloads for a single episode of a show, which after clicking it would show a different MOVIE entirely (so yea, it was all very unusual). I couldn’t play it, even though it said it downloaded, nothing would happen when clicking play.

I will try to use Sync for this next week and see if it works well enough there while waiting for the updated app, thanks!

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thank you. yes, i’ll turn off automatic updates on my tablet so i can curate the app updates so Plex is not updated for 6 months. fantastic.

i am happy to see the sympathy noted below extends only to the point of inconvenience for you and the broken and rushed download feature rollout.

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Is there any plan to add the issue of Plex not downloading when the app is running in the background to this list?

I queue things up for download and the screen on my tablet stays live whilst an episode is actually downloading but in the time between one download finishing and the next initialising the screen turns off causing Plex to stop downloading.

On the latest gen Samsung A7 the screen timeout can only be set at a maximum of 30 minutes and cant be set to off. For whatever reason if the download has taken longer than the screen timeout setting (30mins because of the #5 SD card issue) as soon as the download finishes and the next has started initialising but not actually downloading the screen goes off and downloads stop.

Any suggestions?

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If you keep the app on the Downloads page the screen will not turn off.