Multiple iOS Devices are seen by EmbyServer as same device

[MicMillon 2]

I have an iPhone and iPad, each with their own device name (listed under iOS Settings > General > About > Name) that are seen on the EmbyServer > Devices as the same device. 
 

they both technically work.. I can play a show from both devices. When I play a show from only 1 device, it shows up on manage server > dashboard, as expected; but when I start a second show from the other device (while the first device is still playing) only the second/new stream will show on the Emby Server. Stream still plays on first device, and I’m able to skip to the next episode, but it doesn’t show on server as a current stream while second device is playing

when either device does play, it shows the device they’re playing with as the same device. When I try to download content locally on the device, it tries to download the same content to each device (and doesn’t actually download it to either)

I’ve deleted the Emby app from both devices. Removed the device from Emby server. Rebooted Emby server. Reconnected only one device and it shows up as the old device again. 

[Luke 37062]

HI, that's odd. What version of iOS do they run?

Do you have music on your server? Does it also happen with that?

[MicMillon 2]

i dont use Emby for music, but i suppose i could load some and try if you think it will help resolve the problem

iPhone and iPad are both on 16.3.1 (i could upgrade to 16.5 if you think it could help) and use Emby for iOS 2.2.7

[Luke 37062]

Music won't help resolve it but might help answer some questions that I have. I don't think the iOS version differences matter there though. Thanks.

[MicMillon 2]

So, originally, I was looking at and old iPhone and iPad for the kids.. they're shared devices (for all the kids to use) so i named them FamilyFone and FamilyPad (respectively). they're both seen as FamilyFone (even when i deleted the apps from both devices, device from server), the FamilyPad was seen as FamilyFone.

after adding some music to the server, i tried to "download-to" my phone, and its seen as my old phone too. 

so i have an iPhone 11 and iPad 9 seen as same device (iphone's device name)

and i also have an iPhone 12 and iPhone 14 seen as same device (iPhone 12's name)

Wife's and daughters iphones seam to register only as themselves.. but havent tested/confirmed 

i remember also having the same problem with some of my android tablets (amazon fire actually) but deleting the device on the server and relogging into the server seamed to fix it for those devices)

[MicMillon 2]

so i added some music, it downloads on the iphone14, with the iphone12 name

[MicMillon 2]

I was looking at this again today.. i removed Emby app from both my iPhone and iPad. i removed all downloads from emby server > downloads. i remove the device from devices, on the server. i rebooted the phones and the server. 

when everything was "fresh, i installed emby on my iPad, and i connected to my server. it still showed up as "FamilyFone" (iPhone). I clicked on the hostname, where you can re-name devices, where the "FamilyFone" name was defined, and i removed it. now the iPad shows up as "iPad". i renamed it to FamilyPad. all is as expected, with this single device..

i powered up the iPhone, downloaded Emby app and connected to the server. iPhone is now seen as "FamilyPad". i clicked the name to rename it, removed the name, and now it shows up as "iPhone"

it seams that i'm able to use either the iPad, or iPhone with their own name, but not each with their own name. the only other thing i can think of, is they're both sharing the same appleid. 

as is my current/old iphone, that are seen as the same device as well. 

is there is some sort of unique identifier stored in iCloud that is sync'd across both devices, that are making Emby think they're the same device?

[MicMillon 2]

both iPhone and iPad are playing atm, neither have custom names defined. Emby Server > Dashboard shows 1 frame that keeps cycling between what each device is playing; as if it was 2 different streams, that keep starting/stopping... 

here it shows iPhone playing one show, that the activity shows started at 12:12 (note - it didnt finish) where John started another show that doesnt show "now playing"

Now it shows John's show, where Camren's doesnt. it just keeps cycling "now playing" frame with 2 different user/shows, each with their own IPs)

Devices shows only iPhone 

and if i wait a second, refresh (doesnt refresh on its own), now it shows only iPad

[MicMillon 2]

... just changed the iPhone to another AppleID and removed/re-downloaded emby app, and its doing the same thing

[MicMillon 2]

Emby Team, any feedback or recommendations? 

[madmack 1]

Just adding my 2 cents: my iphone and ipad do show two different devices under the server’s devices menu but i do have two ipads and they show as one. Today, I set one series to download on the smaller ipad, never showed up in that smaller ipad. after much debugging, i found the entire series in the larger ipad. This could very well be because they’re using the same apple id and are the same device (ipad). emby doesn’t seem to distinguish that they’re two separate ipads. I suspect the same thing will happen if I had two iphones.

[Luke 37062]

On 6/15/2023 at 9:36 AM, MicMillon said:

Emby Team, any feedback or recommendations? 

HI, I think we've got this resolved for the next update to the Emby app. It may require clearing app data on impacted devices.

[MicMillon 2]

On 6/20/2023 at 3:14 PM, Luke said:

I think we've got this resolved for the next update to the Emby app

this is Great! do you mean the Emby Server? or the device app.. 

[Luke 37062]

The emby iOS app.

[madmack 1]

I’m not sure about the others but my two iPads still show as one device under the server’s devices tab. I tried removing the device, uninstalling and reinstalling the app from both devices to no avail.

 

 

[Luke 37062]

20 hours ago, madmack said:

I’m not sure about the others but my two iPads still show as one device under the server’s devices tab. I tried removing the device, uninstalling and reinstalling the app from both devices to no avail.

 

 

How are you determining that they show as one device?

[madmack 1]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

How are you determining that they show as one device?

Under the server settings > devices. I only have one device called iPad although i’m using two different ones. Also, the “download to” feature gives only one ipad device to transfer to. 

[MicMillon 2]

On 6/23/2023 at 5:20 PM, Luke said:

The emby iOS app.

@Lukedo you know when the iOS update will be released? And how do you mean clearing app data? Just deleting app and it’s data, and reinstalling it? 

[Luke 37062]

5 hours ago, MicMillon said:

@Lukedo you know when the iOS update will be released? And how do you mean clearing app data? Just deleting app and it’s data, and reinstalling it? 

The update is already out, and yes that's probably the easiest way.

[MicMillon 2]

@Lukeso... I tried "it" again, and its the same thing... 

I deleted the app on all 4 of my devices, iPhone14 and iPhone 12 (seen as same device) and iPad9 and iPhone11 (seen as same device)
I deleted the devices from manage server > devices. and removed all downloads for all 4 of these "unknown" devices (since i removed them first)
restarted EmbyServer.. reinstalled app, logged in, and they received their old cosmetic name, on the server > manage devices > edit medadata. I think there is something on the server that needs to be removed, so it doesn't see them as the same devices they were before... 

[madmack 1]

2 hours ago, MicMillon said:

@Lukeso... I tried "it" again, and its the same thing... 

I deleted the app on all 4 of my devices, iPhone14 and iPhone 12 (seen as same device) and iPad9 and iPhone11 (seen as same device)
I deleted the devices from manage server > devices. and removed all downloads for all 4 of these "unknown" devices (since i removed them first)
restarted EmbyServer.. reinstalled app, logged in, and they received their old cosmetic name, on the server > manage devices > edit medadata. I think there is something on the server that needs to be removed, so it doesn't see them as the same devices they were before... 

Same exact thing happening with my two iPads unfortunately .

[MicMillon 2]

so, i took this a step further... I setup a brand new EmbyServer (Docker container - new ip/new config folder). I used both iphone12 and iphone14, connected to the brand new/fresh server (with the updated client, downloaded last night) and they're doing the same thing... both seen as the same device. 

[seanbuff 840]

I actually had this issue reported to me today by one of my family members, however in a slightly different way. It had to do with downloads to an iPhone device, the downloads would successfully transfer, but then magically disappear after a couple of hours. On the server dashboard the downloads could be seen for that device, and then will be completely gone later with no actions performed on the device itself.

So I performed some testing, my brother advised me he had Emby installed on 2 different iPhones. I got him to test playing something on iPhone 1 which I could see on the server dashboard. I then got him to stop that session, open Emby on iPhone 2 and play something there. I noticed on the Dashboard that Emby was reporting that second session playing on the first device (iPhone 1) when it was not.

@LukeI am PM'ing you a log. Key timestamps are from 15:15:13 in the log:

Playback Started on iPhone 1:

2023-08-04 15:15:13.623 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://host1/emby/Sessions/Playing?X-Emby-Client=Emby for iOS&X-Emby-Device-Name=iPhone&X-Emby-Device-Id=160D213C-4C8C-4CCB-8A72-6072393EFF8D&X-Emby-Client-Version=2.2.10&X-Emby-Token=x_secret4_x&X-Emby-Language=en-au&reqformat=json.
2023-08-04 15:15:13.625 Info SessionManager: Playback start reported by app Emby for iOS 2.2.10 playing 18. Started at 1888480 ms

Playback Started on iPhone 2:

2023-08-04 15:18:40.171 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://host1/emby/Sessions/Playing?X-Emby-Client=Emby for iOS&X-Emby-Device-Name=iPhone&X-Emby-Device-Id=160D213C-4C8C-4CCB-8A72-6072393EFF8D&X-Emby-Client-Version=2.2.10&X-Emby-Token=x_secret4_x&X-Emby-Language=en-au&reqformat=json.
2023-08-04 15:18:40.173 Info SessionManager: Playback start reported by app Emby for iOS 2.2.10 playing 18. Started at 2045804 ms

 

Both iPhones are in fact different phones, yet Emby is reporting them with the same Device Name and the exact same Device ID

Let me know what else you need, thanks.

[MicMillon 2]

Hah that’s funny.. That’s actually how my issue started too… I was trying to download shows to my old device, for my kids.. it would work when I first set it up, then wife would say “there isn’t anything on here” and then I’d “fix it” and it would happen again.. and again.. finally I figured out it was the “seeing it as same device” and reproduce it on my device as well… 

only thing I haven’t tried yet, is to wipe one of the Devices and try to duplicate it fresh.. I’ll work on that this weekend 

[Luke 37062]

This should be resolved in the next build of the Emby app, although for some of you the app may end up looking like a fresh install due to the change.

You might be able to resolve it ahead of time by clearing Emby app data from your iCloud syncing - but essentially this is the problem, that some application data was previously getting synced to iCloud that shouldn't have been.