Offline Access aka Download issue on Android

[gezling 0]

Hi there,

I've seen a few threads on this issue, but they're generally old and none of the suggestions have worked for me. So I thought I'd start a new thread to ensure there was complete detail on a single case of the problem. Though even with my "single case" there might be multiple issues as I'm seeing different behaviour on different devices.

The Emby server (v4.7.8.0) is running on a Synology Diskstation, and none of the Android clients (v3.2.92) appear able to download content for offline access.

• All devices are on the same local wifi network
• Devices were left on overnight to give as much time as possible to download

Steps taken on Samsung Tab S7 FE:

1. Select some content and hit download. Generally:
   1. Leave quality at 4Mbps
   2. Either select or deselect "Download unplayed videos only" - doesn't seem to make a difference
   3. Either select or deselect "Automatically download new content" - doesn't seem to make a difference
   4. Do not set "Item limit"
   5. Hit download
2. On Samsung tablet we get the snackbar saying "Downloading..." and the job is created.
3. Going to "Manage Downloads" the content is already listed as "Ready to Transfer".
4. Going to "Downloads" shows no content downloaded and does not seem to trigger the downloads to occur.
5. Checking the Server "Downloads" section shows the same content as "Ready to Transfer"
6. Looking for Android logs, I see the directory

   /Android/data/com.mb.android/files/

   But there is no `logs` subdirectory as described in the "How to report an Android problem" topic.

7. Looking at the Server logs there are some errors reported. I cycled the log file and did another round to generate the attached so it's not too long. They seem to be http timeouts. Whether they might be related or not I do not know.

8. Selecting the download job, the progress bar under "Ready to Transfer" never starts to fill up green for the download. I didn't even realise this was a progress bar until I saw one of the downloads converting.
    

Different things I've tried:

• Select "Downloads" section to trigger download job.
• Change quality of download to "original" so no transcoding is required.
• Selecting "remove download" works perfectly - instantly removing the job from both client and server.
• Changed "Download location" from "Internal storage" to "External storage (Downloads)" and accepted the access permissions.
• Deselected "Download only on Wifi" even though that's the only data connection so it shouldn't matter.
• Same general behaviour if trying to download music as opposed to video content

Slightly different behaviour...

I've done this whole process countless times. As I was writing this and clicking through the same steps to accurately document it, one of the downloads got the status of "Converting 0%". It converted each file in turn and then changed to "Ready to Transfer" and has stayed that way ever since.

On Google Pixel 7

On this device, if I select just "Download", I get a Download screen, with the green "Help" button in the top corner, and a big green Download button at the bottom, but no options to select from. Hitting the Download button doesn't seem to do anything. No snackbar and it doesn't change screen.

If I select "Download to..." I get to select a device and quality. Hitting download here, does removes the Download options screen and displays the "Downloading..." snackbar.

Strangely the device list doesn't show a Pixel 7 as an option. The first option is "DESKTOP-{7-random-characters}". I thought this might be because it's a "download to" selection and hence explicitly for downloading to different devices. But selecting the same thing on a tablet allows me to select that device. Another phone in the house is listed as an available device here too.

 

What's next?

Is there any other information that would be useful to diagnose what's happening?

Any suggested steps that I haven't already tried?

embyserver.txt

[gezling 0]

Also - I very much appreciate how much effort goes into Emby. I'm a very silent forum user because it largely just works without any issues. So big thanks for that!

If you're reading this thread and haven't subscribed to Premiere - please consider doing so now.

[gezling 0]

Unfortunately I can't edit original post...

• I forgot to mention that I also tried triggering the Scheduled Tasks > Downloads & Conversions on multiple occasions. Both "Convert media" and "Transfer media" report "taking 0 seconds" to complete.
• The Android mobile device not showing as a device under "Download to..." was resolved by uninstalling and reinstalling the Emby app on that phone. It can now have Download jobs assigned to it, but also stays stuck on "Ready to Transfer"

[Luke 37118]

HI, are you able to update to 4.7.11? Some users have reported improvement with that related to the download feature. Thanks.