Copy downloaded items from IPad

[Sirbyteme 8]

Hello.
I have a bunch of downloaded movies and shows on an IPad.
My server had a Hard Drive problem and lost a bunch of things.
I have fixed my server.
Is it possible to copy the downloaded items on the IPad back to the server?

Thanks.

[Luke 37071]

HI, you might be able to find a way to access those files, but we don't currently have a feature that will do it for you.

[Sirbyteme 8]

Yeah, I didn't see any way in the app.
I was hoping for more info on how to find those files.
Like where does emby store them on the IPad?

 

[Luke 37071]

In the app's designated private storage. I have never tried to access these folders directly so I really don't know how you might do that. I'm sure somebody's figured out a way but I just don't know.

The one thing I can tell you is that we have marked it to not sync with icloud so you won't be able to get it there.

[Sirbyteme 8]

OK, thanks.

Wouldn't the emby ios app dev know?
Can I contact him?

[Luke 37071]

That's us, including me. What I gave you is a generalized response that could apply to any iOS application.

It's the app's private storage folders, but how an end user such as yourself might hack into them, I don't know, never tried it.

[Sirbyteme 8]

So by saying "hack into them", are you saying that there isn't a normal way to access them?
I am a windows user and there, I would assume I could go to something like C:\Program Files\emby or C:\Users\Jerry\AppData\Roaming\Emby.

Does the app or apple hide/obfuscate/encrypt the files for some reason?
I'm just trying to figure out how hard it would be to recover my files or if it is even worth trying.

Thanks.

[Luke 37071]

Correct. There isn't a normal way and I believe it would end up being a dead end. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a way to access an app's private storage folder but none that I know of.

[Sirbyteme 8]

Bummer.
Thanks anyways.

Hey when is emby server 7.8 going to go stable?
Been waiting for quite awhile now, must be close!

[Luke 37071]

It has been quite a while. Hopefully in the next month.

[Sirbyteme 8]

OK, thanks.
Can hardly wait!

I had asked in my other post about Picture-in-Picture...
Any chance that is coming soon?

[Luke 37071]

Just now, Sirbyteme said:

OK, thanks.
Can hardly wait!

I had asked in my other post about Picture-in-Picture...
Any chance that is coming soon?

What other post? 

[Sirbyteme 8]

 

[softworkz 3335]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Correct. There isn't a normal way and I believe it would end up being a dead end. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a way to access an app's private storage folder but none that I know of.

How about the "Share" feature - do we have that in the iOS app?

[Sirbyteme 8]

There is no "Share" function in my IPad.

Since Luke said they specifically do not copy the data to icloud, I am getting the feeling that they want the downloaded files to be controlled and
don't want the ability for a user to forward/share them for security(?).
Or maybe they just haven't thought of it/gotten around to it.
It seems to me that it would be great to have a "Share" feature with a setting per user to enable/disable it.

FYI... After more research, it appears that some of the ios backup apps can get to those files.
I will be experimenting with that.

 

[softworkz 3335]

28 minutes ago, Sirbyteme said:

There is no "Share" function in my IPad.

Many apps have this at least for pictures (right-click or long-press). If that works, maybe it could be added for videos as well - not sure, I'm not an iOS expert.

30 minutes ago, Sirbyteme said:

Since Luke said they specifically do not copy the data to icloud, I am getting the feeling that they want the downloaded files to be controlled and
don't want the ability for a user to forward/share them for security(?).

I can guarantee you that this is not the case.

Your files are yours and anything else would be totally against the spirit of Emby.

 

Why you cannot easily access those files

This is due to the design of iOS, which has the concept that an app's files are private to the app. 

Why your files are not synced to iCloud

I don't see much reasons why somebody would want this, but many reasons against doing so:

• Topology Logic
  You have Emby Server to store and access your media, so why store them on a second location?
• Offline Feature
  The download/sync feature is meant to allow users get media content on their devices for offline use
  The local files may change frequently and you have the original versions on your Emby server,  and are rather of temporary nature.
  Syncing them up to iCloud might quickly fill up your iCloud storage
• Bandwidth
  Media files are typically of large size. You sync the files from Emby Server to your iOS device. If they would be then synced again to iCloud, it would double the data transfer
• Privacy
  Letting things happen without the user being aware of, is always a bad thing.
  If we would enable this, it would happen for all users and many wouldn't even notice in the first place and content would end up being on iCloud of which users would never want it to be there

 

[Sirbyteme 8]

Makes sense... thanks for the info!

[samuelqwe 313]

2 hours ago, softworkz said:

Why you cannot easily access those files

This is due to the design of iOS, which has the concept that an app's files are private to the app.

Whilst this is true, I just want to point out that it is possible for apps to integrate within the system's Files app and expose access to certain files. Emby doesn't currently support this, but it would have been useful in a situation like the one described in this topic, as you would have been able to retrieve the downloaded media files directly. This is something Infuse does support and why I generally prefer it for downloading Emby content for offline consumption. This way, I have direct access to the files and I can even AirDrop them to another family member during road trips, vacation, etc...

[softworkz 3335]

 

8 hours ago, samuelqwe said:

integrate within the system's Files app and expose access to certain files

I can't tell why it hasn't been done that way. Maybe it's because the Emby app is downloading in the background and writing to a shared location requires a user interaction.

@Lukewill probably know