New iOS App Purchase

[Luke 37060]

overClocked!,

 

What you are saying makes sense to me. However, that's not how it looks to be working. I don't have a supporter's membership. That being said, I paid $4.99 for the unlock playback feature to be able to play on any of my devices tied to my Apple ID.

 

However, when I restore the purchase on my 3 other devices, for some reason after some time (less than a day), they lock again and it doesn't let me play anything unless I reinstall the app and restore the purchase again (on every device), which lets me use playback for few more hours.

 

Is this a bug? I still don't understand how, after restoring the in app purchase, the playback gets disabled after few hours.

 

Thoughts?

 

Hmm, that's not right. Can you describe in more detail what you mean by they lock again and don't let you play?

[megamacx 3]

Thanks for your reply Luke!

 

That's what is happening. To be more specific:

 

I am going to refer to devices 1, 2 and 3:

 

Device 1:

- I install app.

- I try to play a song. App gives me 3 options ($4.99 one time, $6.99 monthly, restore purchase).

- I select restore purchase. The app let's me play the song.

 

Then I go to device 2, and go through the same steps I mentioned for device 1. Everything is fine and I can also play on device 2.

 

Then I go to device 3, and go through the same steps I mentioned for device 1 and 2. Everything is fine and I can also play on device 3.

 

At this point I can have all 3 devices playing simultaneously content.

 

If I either close Emby on device 1 (maybe after a restart, or after some time (this is what I haven't able to replicate exactly)), when I go to Emby again (device 1), and try to play a song, I get the message that says:

 

"Unlock this feature with an active Emby premiere subscription. If you have an active Emby premiere subscription, simply sign into the app using your WiFi connection within your home network."

 

And there's only 1 option (not 3, like when I delete and reinstall the application as I described above on device 1) called "Restore Purchase". If hit the button, it either doesn't do anything OR Emby crashes (which is most likely what happens).

 

From this point, the only thing I can do to restore the playback again for some time, is to reinstall Emby and start over as I mentioned above.

 

One thing that I have noticed (which shouldn't be working like that) is that after reinstalling, when I try to play a file and it asks me to restore the purchase, since I get prompted to enter my Apple ID password, the playback starts behind the screen that is waiting for my password. It means that somehow the app let's me play the file even before I have finished the restore purchase process. I usually finish entering my password to finalize the restore purchase process, but that doesn't seem to fix the problem permanently.

 

Yesterday I had left my devices ready for the playback, and since you asked to get more details, I just tried playing a file on one of them, and as I was expecting, today the playback was disabled (that's how I was able to capture the exact message, as I entered above in double quotes).

 

Let me know if you need anything else.

[Luke 37060]

Ok, if that is happening there is some kind of failure with the app store going on. is the device jail broken by any chance? or by chance are you running beta versions of ios?

[megamacx 3]

Ok, if that is happening there is some kind of failure with the app store going on. is the device jail broken by any chance? or by chance are you running beta versions of ios?

Not at all. Even I am tech savvy, I don't have time to hack into these devices. . All devices are on official iOS 9.1 and not jailbroken.

 

Emby is the first app I have these issues with in app purchases. Any suggestions I can try (other than wiping the device)? At the current state, Emby is pretty much unusable for me (and I am somewhat frustrated for the long time I patiently waited for this to be released).

 

I am not giving up on this. Emby is a great product. Let me know what I can try?

 

Thanks!

[Luke 37060]

Thanks I will look into what might be the cause.

[deepseth 10]

Agreed, and I am more than willing to pay $89.99 for Emby, for a great product, that gets periodic 'updates' to its server and clients for the next 5-10 years. However, I would be upset (again) if in 2-3 years Emby2 came out and my lifetime membership didn't transfer (again).

 

 

Monthly: $5 ($60/year)

Yearly: $40 (33% discount on the monthly rate over a year)

Lifetime: $90

 

Using your lower bound for 'upset' at 2 years, you'd have effectively paid $45/year, a 12% premium over the yearly rate.

Using your upper bound for 'upset' at 3 years, you'd have effectively paid $30/year, a 25% discount over the yearly rate, 50% discount over the monthly rate. 

Using your lower bound for 'willing' at 5 years, you'd have effectively paid $18/year, a 55% discount over the yearly rate.

Using your upper bound for 'willing' at 10 years, you'd have effectively paid $9/year, a 77% discount over the yearly rate.

 

 

I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to what a reasonable amount of time software should be supported for and at what cost.

 

Comparisons to Apple giving their iOS/OSX software updates for years for free will be mocked, unless you're ready to spend a bunch on high-margin Emby hardware (in which case I can sell you an iPad with a sticker on it for a 50% markup, including 10 years of Emby/Emby2/etc )

[MGuest 2]

I've read all the posts in this thread and I'm still left with fundamental questions about how paying for this app works.

 

If I buy a premiere membership, either monthly, yearly or "lifetime", does that mean any user on my server, regardless of Apple ID, can download the free app, connect to my server, and view movies on their IOS device for as long as my account has premiere status? If they connect to another server, that's dependent on that server's status. On the other hand, if they upgrade the app for $4.99 then any device using the same App Store Apple ID used for the upgrade, can view movies from any server they can connect to, no matter what the premiere status of that server is.

 

As far as I can discern that's how it works, but I haven't really seen it clearly stated, here or elsewhere.

[ebr 14910]

I've read all the posts in this thread and I'm still left with fundamental questions about how paying for this app works.

 

If I buy a premiere membership, either monthly, yearly or "lifetime", does that mean any user on my server, regardless of Apple ID, can download the free app, connect to my server, and view movies on their IOS device for as long as my account has premiere status? If they connect to another server, that's dependent on that server's status. On the other hand, if they upgrade the app for $4.99 then any device using the same App Store Apple ID used for the upgrade, can view movies from any server they can connect to, no matter what the premiere status of that server is.

 

As far as I can discern that's how it works, but I haven't really seen it clearly stated, here or elsewhere.

 

Yes, that is correct.

[overClocked! 63]

I've read all the posts in this thread and I'm still left with fundamental questions about how paying for this app works.

 

If I buy a premiere membership, either monthly, yearly or "lifetime", does that mean any user on my server, regardless of Apple ID, can download the free app, connect to my server, and view movies on their IOS device for as long as my account has premiere status? If they connect to another server, that's dependent on that server's status. On the other hand, if they upgrade the app for $4.99 then any device using the same App Store Apple ID used for the upgrade, can view movies from any server they can connect to, no matter what the premiere status of that server is.

Best explanation I've seen on this. Thanks for breaking that down.

[theirman 0]

Hi, I've bought a lifetime subscription when this app was released.

I added the key to my emby installation...

 

Since the BSD emby-server is lagging a few versions behind, I made sure to upgrade it myself to the latest version.

The server isn't using emby connect, and I select "Skip" in the app to straight go to adding the server directly. I use the local IP of the server in my network.

 

I simply cannot unlock the local "play" feature. Tried it on 1 phone and 2 tablets.

 

2 devices are jailbroken and running 9.0.2. I booted up without any tweaks active just to make sure they didn't interfere (they shouldn't, but wanted to single it out anyways).

I also ended up installing the app on yet another, not-jailbroken, iPad Mini running iOS 9.1. Exactly the same problem.

 

So to sum up:

- 3 devices (2x 9.0.2 JB, 1x 9.1 stock)

- latest stable release emby-server with a lifetime subscription (2 days old now)

 

I rebooted the server in order to have a clear log and connected with each of the devices. Hopefully this helps (?)

Logfile: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4480569/server-63583397833.txt

[Luke 37060]

Thanks, we're looking into it

[theirman 0]

Just dropping a line that the issue persists with 1.0.2.

Kind of weirded out by the fact that noone else seems to suffer the same problem.

 

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Do I need to use the default port?

[Luke 37060]

When you installed the app fresh was your device able to detect the server on the network, or did you have to manually enter the address? currently the local requirement is depending on automatic discovery and that is something we're correcting for the next update, 1.03.

[Luke 37060]

I'll be setting up the external testing program this weekend so if you'd like to get access to test builds, please PM me your itunes email address. thanks.

[theirman 0]

When you installed the app fresh was your device able to detect the server on the network, or did you have to manually enter the address? currently the local requirement is depending on automatic discovery and that is something we're correcting for the next update, 1.03.

No, it didn't. Simply said that no server could be found, so I just entered it manually every time. That must be it then. For some reason the automatic discovery fails. 

I've sent you my iTunes info.

 

Thanks Luke!

[ebr 14910]

Make sure the firewall on your server machine is allowing UDP traffic through to the server.

[theirman 0]

Make sure the firewall on your server machine is allowing UDP traffic through to the server.

It should. For instance, when I had DNLA enabled in emby, that got autodiscovered just fine.

Isn't it easier to just check when making a (re)connection with a server whether the premiere subscription is (still) active?

[ebr 14910]

It should. For instance, when I had DNLA enabled in emby, that got autodiscovered just fine.

 

That is a different beast so I wouldn't make the leap that UDP discovery is working (it obviously isn't for some reason).

 

I made my suggestion just for overall usability of all the apps.  Luke is addressing the specific issue with Premiere status in this app.

[theirman 0]

Emby is running inside a bsd jail, but behind NAT. Firewall is active on the host system, but allows all packets inside the LAN. And since DNLA is being detected, those packets are also coming from that place, and isn't DNLA also UDP? I didn't even know emby has an auto-discovery builtin. Is it an option? Maybe it turned it off

[theirman 0]

Just wanted to say this has been fixed in the official 1.0.3 version.

Thanks!

[megamacx 3]

Not at all. Even I am tech savvy, I don't have time to hack into these devices. . All devices are on official iOS 9.1 and not jailbroken.

 

Emby is the first app I have these issues with in app purchases. Any suggestions I can try (other than wiping the device)? At the current state, Emby is pretty much unusable for me (and I am somewhat frustrated for the long time I patiently waited for this to be released).

 

I am not giving up on this. Emby is a great product. Let me know what I can try?

 

Thanks!

Hi Luke,

 

Have you had a chance to look into this? With version 1.0.3, instead of the restore purchase button I now see the ability to play for 1 minute.

 

Thanks!

[Luke 37060]

Hi Luke,

 

Have you had a chance to look into this? With version 1.0.3, instead of the restore purchase button I now see the ability to play for 1 minute.

 

Thanks!

 

If the button is not there at all then that means there was some failure talking to the app store. do you have an internet connection? are you signed into itunes using the same account that you used to make the unlock purchase?

[megamacx 3]

If the button is not there at all then that means there was some failure talking to the app store. do you have an internet connection? are you signed into itunes using the same account that you used to make the unlock purchase?

OK, I found something that I didn't notice before (or even tried), but as part of the effort I am doing to solve this, I just tried it.

 

In order to prevent children from making purchases, all my devices have the AppStore disabled (under Settings->General->Restrictions), so the options "Install Apps", "Delete Apps" and "In-App Purchases" are all disabled at all times.

 

With all these options disabled, after v1.03, whenever I played a song or video, I was getting the option to play for 1 minute.

 

However, after enabling all the AppStore options again, closing Emby entirely and reopening it, when I tried to play the media, the play just started right away (didn't ask my to restore purchases or anything. I guess because the purchase was already restored).

 

On my other iPad, it happened the same thing.

 

I hope this gives you more details as to where to find this bug. It looks like there's something on Emby checking these AppStore options and preventing the playback even after the purchase was resorted, just because these options are disabled.

 

I will report if after this, it keeps working once I disable the options again.

[megamacx 3]

OK, I found something that I didn't notice before (or even tried), but as part of the effort I am doing to solve this, I just tried it.

 

In order to prevent children from making purchases, all my devices have the AppStore disabled (under Settings->General->Restrictions), so the options "Install Apps", "Delete Apps" and "In-App Purchases" are all disabled at all times.

 

With all these options disabled, after v1.03, whenever I played a song or video, I was getting the option to play for 1 minute.

 

However, after enabling all the AppStore options again, closing Emby entirely and reopening it, when I tried to play the media, the play just started right away (didn't ask my to restore purchases or anything. I guess because the purchase was already restored).

 

On my other iPad, it happened the same thing.

 

I hope this gives you more details as to where to find this bug. It looks like there's something on Emby checking these AppStore options and preventing the playback even after the purchase was resorted, just because these options are disabled.

 

I will report if after this, it keeps working once I disable the options again.

Ok Luke, I was finally able to narrow it down. If I open Emby and the "Install Apps" (AppStore) option is disabled, then when playing media, the "Unlock App" message that allows to play for 1 minute comes up.

 

For some reason, Emby is linking the playback with having the install Apps option enabled. That is actually the bug.

 

If the install Apps option is enabled, the playback starts right away.

 

Let me know what you find.

[Luke 37060]

Thanks, I will look into it.