Emby media downloads, Android App on desktop guide (Linux)

[electricwildflower 17]

I have used Emby for a while now on my Truenas server and whilst it's a fantastic piece of software, media downloading (download your movies, tv series, albums) is a little lacking to an extent. On the desktop using your web browser and signing into your server using the IP address (if Emby is installed on a server or different computer), if you want to download full tv series, full albums or even collections of movies to the desktop/laptop you can only do this individually (with a limit of i believe 6 items at a time) . IE if i want to download a TV series i have to click individual episodes and click download and i can cue download 6 episodes at a time and can't just download an entire series in one go. You can when choosing to download a full album, tv series, movie collection pick a device to download to IE Android phone, tablet, smart tv or any other device that you can install the app on and it will download a full album, tv series etc. Just downloading from a web browser on your desktop or laptop is lacking and can't be done in full as of YET.

(Maybe in the future it will change or is in the works of changing)

Below i have create a guide on how to get the Android Emby app installed on your Linux desktop (using Linux Mint), with this guide not only can you download complete series on your Desktop without needing to download a few episodes at a time but you can also run the Emby Android app on your desktop which may be useful for anyone who would like to use the app instead of a web browser.

To do this you will need the following 

* Emby Android APK (find it on the Emby website or any other website) make sure it's the Emby app for streaming and not the Emby server app, there is a difference (unless you want to run Emby Android server??
* Snap - For installing snaps like Anbox

* Anbox - It runs Android apps on a desktop

 

Step 1 - Your first step is to get snaps installed so you can install the Anbox snap for running Emby apk, to do this you will need to install snapd, there is currently a limitation that you need to get past first due to the fact Mint doesn't support snaps out the box so to do this type the following into the terminal.

sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref

Press enter and once done type 

apt install snapd

This will get the latest snap installed for you

Step 2 - Now you have snap installed we are now going to get anbox set up so in terminal type 

snap install --beta anbox --devmode
 

Currently Anbox is in beta mode so you will need to add --devmode at the end for it to install successfully, once it's installed we can now get Emby set up

Step 3 - After Anbox is installed it needs to be running so we can install Emby so go to your start menu and select other/anbox application manager and start it up, once it's loaded we can install Emby

Step 4 - CD to the location of your emby.apk file in terminal IE cd /home/username/Downloads if it's in the Downloads folder or what ever location it is then type the following in the terminal

adb install emby.apk

Change the file name to what ever the file name of your Emby apk file is called, this will install the Emby app on your Anbox and should now show in Anbox. to run Emby just click on the icon as you would on an Android device., it will load, sign in and your connected to your server using the Android app 

How to download complete TV series

To download complete series, albums, collections from an Emby server it's as simple as choosing a TV series, album etc, choosing download to and selecting Ambox which shouls show up in the list. This should then start downloading to ambox on your desktop. To find the files follow the guide below.

1 - Open file manager
2 - Click on file system
3 - Follow the following to get to the Emby downloads

var/snap/anbox/common/data/media/o/Android/data/com/mb.android/files/download

You will notice a lock on the media folder but don't worry, clicking will request your desktop password but once entered you can continue to the location of your downloads. 

And there you have it, a better way of downloading files to your desktop/laptop and doesn't need to do each episode or song individually, a way to install the Emby android app on your desktop and even a way to run the Emby Android media server if that's what you want to do. Hopefully this guide may be useful for anyone wanting to get the Emby app on their desktop or for dowloading. 
 

Edited January 20, 2022 by electricwildflower

[Luke 42078]

Hi, that's great info. Thanks for sharing.

[electricwildflower 17]

It's a little work around for anyone who would like to download complete series, complete albums, movie collections etc for offline viewing on desktops/laptops etc.

I have recently found an easier solution to get apps on Anbox using the official Google playstore. There is a link to a guide below which will run through the process of getting the playstore installed in Ambox if that's a preferred way for anyone. Although the play store isn't needed for some apps if you have the .apk so the original guide is still useful if anyone prefers it this way

https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/07/anbox-how-to-install-google-play-store.html


A few tips

Esc button - this acts as the back button in Emby although it's very sensitive and if i am viewing a movie and want to go back to the movies library it will jump back to the home screen sometimes

Downloads - If you download anything that's going to be transferred to another device or location, make sure you transfer it first and then remove the download from the list of downloads or else it will re download the media or my mistake of deleting the download and it removed the downloaded content (i thought it would just remove it from the list and not the actual content) 

Beta - Ambox is in beta mode at the moment so whilst Emby does work fine and i have had little issues, i can't guarantee it's perfect or will run any other apps well. If anyone wants to give Ambox a spin and run the Emby app for further testing feel free to report back anything. 

Emby Android Server App - I'm trying to think of any use for the Android server app because Emby server can be installed in Linux which would make the Android App on a desktop/laptop pointless unless someone could make use of it someway for testing purposes.