Ability to select download folder for media

[Carlo 4330]

Yes of course.  It's an SD card so even if Android wouldn't let you delete things you can still put it in a PC and have access to the whole SD card.

[heffeque 38]

3 minutes ago, cayars said:

Yes of course.  It's an SD card so even if Android wouldn't let you delete things you can still put it in a PC and have access to the whole SD card.

Ah, hadn't thought about that.
Thanks!

[monotok 7]

@heffequeThe default file manager can access it but not third party ones (yet).

[heffeque 38]

12 minutes ago, monotok said:

@heffequeThe default file manager can access it but not third party ones (yet).

Not in my case (LineageOS 18.1 on Samsung Tab S5e).

[heffeque 38]

On 8/13/2021 at 4:28 AM, cayars said:

Yes of course.  It's an SD card so even if Android wouldn't let you delete things you can still put it in a PC and have access to the whole SD card.

Just wanted to comment that I tested to see if plugging the device through USB would also work but... it's still invisible.

I guess the only way is your way: to insert the SD card directly into your PC (if it can read ext4).

Edited August 25, 2021 by heffeque

[Painkiller8818 203]

I downloaded to the internal storage but i can't find the files. 

 

Where exactly is emby saving Songs on Android internal storage? It is not in music and not in downloads folder 

[Carlo 4330]

Hi,

Have you tried doing a search for one of the files transferred?  That's usually the easiest way to find out the location.

[heffeque 38]

15 minutes ago, cayars said:

Hi,

Have you tried doing a search for one of the files transferred?  That's usually the easiest way to find out the location.

Yup. It's completely hidden.

[danergo 28]

20 hours ago, Painkiller8818 said:

I downloaded to the internal storage but i can't find the files. 

 

Where exactly is emby saving Songs on Android internal storage? It is not in music and not in downloads folder 

In case you are downloading media to *internal storage*, only Emby will see those files (unless you have a rooted phone).

You want to change the location to *external storage* in admin menu, then you can access these files easily from other applications (even without rooting your phone).

By default, on my phone these files are downloaded into Download/emby_downloads.

[Painkiller8818 203]

you know external storage is only available if you have an external storage right? So what should we do with 128+ GB internal and no external storage?

No default File Explorer can find thos hidden .andoid folders where the files are stored in and also no normal audio player so i always have to find them with a special file explorer and copy the downloades music to the music or downloads folder.

Not really a good solution...

 

this should be improved.

[danergo 28]

6 minutes ago, Painkiller8818 said:

you know external storage is only available if you have an external storage right? So what should we do with 128+ GB internal and no external storage?

No default File Explorer can find thos hidden .andoid folders where the files are stored in and also no normal audio player so i always have to find them with a special file explorer and copy the downloades music to the music or downloads folder.

Not really a good solution...

 

this should be improved.

I don't even have a slot for SD card. "Only" 512GB internal storage. External here means "external" from the Emby application's private folder. (I have Samsung, other brands might work different).

[heffeque 38]

4 hours ago, danergo said:

In case you are downloading media to *internal storage*, only Emby will see those files (unless you have a rooted phone).

You want to change the location to *external storage* in admin menu, then you can access these files easily from other applications (even without rooting your phone).

By default, on my phone these files are downloaded into Download/emby_downloads.

It would be wonderful if it were true, but in my case it sends it to the internal memory Download folder, even when I select External storage Downloads.

And if I select External storage (Android), it does store it in the SD card, but to somewhere that's not accessible to any other App, not even the file explorers (native nor 3rd party).

Though the fact that it's not using internal memory is good enough for me, that's why I haven't complained anymore.

[danergo 28]

27 minutes ago, heffeque said:

It would be wonderful if it were true, but in my case it sends it to the internal memory Download folder, even when I select External storage Downloads.

And if I select External storage (Android), it does store it in the SD card, but to somewhere that's not accessible to any other App, not even the file explorers (native nor 3rd party).

Though the fact that it's not using internal memory is good enough for me, that's why I haven't complained anymore.

I believe (so might be wrong), that SD card is in general accessible to every app. (Logically thinking: what would be the benefit to deny access to some specific folders on the SD card? You can remove it, put into a computer, and access everything easily).

To help you more, please post a screenshot of your media path: you can see the downloaded media, open it, and there will be presented the current actual location.

[heffeque 38]

1 minute ago, danergo said:

I believe (so might be wrong), that SD card is in general accessible to every app. (Logically thinking: what would be the benefit to deny access to some specific folders on the SD card? You can remove it, put into a computer, and access everything easily).

To help you more, please post a screenshot of your media path: you can see the downloaded media, open it, and there will be presented the current actual location.

The SD is visible, yes.
The files inside Emby's path aren't!

Location of file (shown in Emby):

/storage/7AFB-B8A6/Android/data/com.mb.android/files/emby_downloads/...blablabla

But the file managers show the "data" folder empty (even if it's not).

[danergo 28]

If you put this SD into computer, can you access the data folder?

[heffeque 38]

Don't have Linux or any ext4 reader at hand.

Here's a clue.

Message from another file explorer:

Android 11+ removes access to the "Android/data" folder, blocking File Manager - XFolder from accessing any data within it.

[danergo 28]

11 minutes ago, heffeque said:

Don't have Linux or any ext4 reader at hand.

Here's a clue.

Message from another file explorer:

Android 11+ removes access to the "Android/data" folder, blocking File Manager - XFolder from accessing any data within it.

https://superuser.com/questions/37512/how-to-read-ext4-partitions-on-windows

"Generally, Android devices accept the SD card that has been formatted to FAT32, ext3, ext4, and exFAT"

If I were you (without linux), for sure I would reformat my SD into some format which I can read on my computer as well (like FAT32, or better exFAT which works well across Win, Mac, Linux).

Of course, this doesn't necessarily solve your problem, however, you might want to try formatting it as FAT32 or exFAT, in which case Android might be unable to deny access to any folders on it.

Of course2: an Emby option would be pretty nice for finetuning the exact default location after selecting "External storage", to just let us override if that's not suitable for us.

 

You might want to try another explorer which claims it can read data folder on SD cards: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/android-11-cannot-access-android-data-folder.4225293/

Edited August 12, 2022 by danergo

[Carlo 4330]

Format the SD Card on your PC using exFAT then create a download directory right off the root. Insert in your phone and check to make sure it has the full storage space available to it.

Now try setting Emby to use you new download subdirectory on the SD Card.
Is it available to other apps when setup this way?

 

[heffeque 38]

I'll let you know when I'm able to try it. I'll try get back to you during the weekend.

[heffeque 38]

Huh... just inserted the SD card in my PC and it was already as exFAT (I thought that it was ext4, sorry about that).

The "Download" folder on SD root was already there, so "External storage (Downloads)" is sill pointing towards internal memory for some reason.

As for storage, it has all 394 GB available to it, and is set up as external SD, not as internal memory.

It would be nice if the Emby Android app gave the option to point at a certain location, but anyway... as said before, the fact that it's possible to use the SD card is already good enough for me, so it's a "nice to have", not a "must have" (at least on my part).

Edit: another "nice to have": the possibility of configuring the amount of simultaneous downloads. Some people might have non-ideal internet connections (several downloads at the same time would probably help) and some people might have slow SD cards (writing a single file in some cases is much faster than writing more files at the same time).

Cheers!

Edited August 13, 2022 by heffeque

[dedyms 2]

Thanks for the hidden path information, pulled out my hair looking for where is this media downloaded. I hope options to download to some custom folder will available, as phone nowadays are getting rare using sd card due big internal memory.