Better implementation of Android Auto and Downloaded files

[nospotify 186]

As requested for years elsewhere in these forums, the ability to download a usable playlist (the audio files and a modified m3u or whatever that points to those downloaded files where they now reside on the device) is what's needed to make the download function fully useful. I hope that's actually going to happen soon, please.

Even without that functionality, using Emby via Android Auto doesn't make the "dowloaded" files directly accessible from the main Emby dashboard screen, which diminishes the benefit of downloading before a road trip to avoid heavy wireless data usage and/or dead zones. Please add "Downloaded files" as a main-screen selection button, in addition to "Recents," "Favorites," etc.

[Luke 42130]

Hi, yes these are both planned for future updates. Thanks for the feedback.

[sh0rty 721]

This would be really helpful. My Emby instance is not publicly available and I use a VPN. Android Auto, at least on my my Android 14 phone, detects any kind of VPN (Wireguard with split tunnel just my home subnet) and Twingate Zero Trust) and throws out error 21. So meh, AA is pretty useless in my usecase with no publicly available server. Start audio on the phone so that it becomes available on the AA screen at least (but without cover art) feels wrong.

 

 

Edited May 21, 2024 by shorty1483

[ColinPostsHere 1]

On 9/8/2023 at 9:37 PM, Luke said:

Hi, yes these are both planned for future updates. Thanks for the feedback.

Did this ever materialize? In early 2026 with Emby Premiere, I see that I can download a playlist, but that only downloads the albums and songs. The Playlist itself is not available offline, nor is the critical (for me) sort by Artist. That is lost when offline on Android. Without playlists or artists, I effectively can't use Emby to play music when driving. 

Also, especially important when driving in Android Auto: a "jump to letter" option. So, for example, if I want to play ZZ Top, I can press Z to jump to those artists, rather than having to scroll through dozens or hundreds of pages to get there. When driving, that's both difficult and dangerous.

I had really assumed that Premiere, promoted as supporting offline playback, would include this. I can see how it may not be needed for movies -- you take a few with you on a trip, you don't really need all the sorting and metadata features -- but for audio/music, it isn't really usable at all without playlists and artist grouping. It should work just like when it's online to the Emby server at my house. I can select Playlists, hit the one I want, and play those songs. It's also important that there be some mechanism to SYNC (not just a onetime download) music for offline play. I'm always adding new songs and albums to Emby, so need a way to efficiently sync them to the offline/downloaded files on my phone.

Edited 1 hour ago by ColinPostsHere