Improved management of Downloads

[simonselmer 27]

Hi

Me and my family just went on vacation and wanted to download movies and series to our phones for offline usage.

But we experienced that some of the requsted downloads never arrived to the phone.

Hence it would ne a good improvement to have better control and overview of the downloads, like:

 - Where it says "Ready to tranfer", then capability to "force" download, because I experienced several items saying that, and never downloading

 - Improved overview og status. Like if it's saying "Ready to tranfer", then I would like to see why doesn't it download, what is it waiting for.

 - Ability to see in a movie or a series, IF I already requested it to download once. Because I would forget IF I set a specific movie to download or not, and it would great it what was illustrated on the movie.

- And if I already requested a movie to download once, and I do it again, then that Emby pop up and say I already requested that, if I want to cancel the first request.

I for example tried downloading whole season 1 -3 of a show, and then it turned out, it hadn't downloaded ep 1+2 in first season., and where also missing ep 8+9+10 in 2nd season, and I could tell why or force it to download.

I hope it makes sence and hope an improvement for the Downloads

[rechigo 364]

I fully agree with this. Coming back to Emby after abandoning my media server ~2 years ago, the download manager on Android (likely iOS as well) is still extremely hit or miss. Sometimes it downloads fine, but it's still extremely touchy... Sometimes stuff never downloads, sometimes the downloads just freeze (especially during any network changes/hiccups), and IF they resume downloading (that's a hard IF,  frequently I have to intervene myself to delete the download and re-add it), it usually starts the download again from scratch. I can't even count the number of times Emby has screwed me over before a flight/road trip because the download manager just straight-up sucks, to be honest. I get Emby is a small team, they have to support a ton of platforms (in terms of the server itself and clients), but the download manager just needs some love from the devs.

Edited February 23, 2024 by rechigo

[Luke 42077]

HI, yes improvements to this are planned for future updates. Thanks.

[bjerne 20]

@Luke

Any update on when these improvements can be expected?
The whole download to mobile device experience still feels flaky.

[strichmo 21]

This continues to be a very poor experience with bugs and problems on top and would really benefit from improvements ASAP.

* On Android the resume button on the notification never works.

* There have been random cases where something has downloaded according to the UI but it never showed, like it silently cancelled.

* The ux is very poor on the UI around trying to figure out how a download is going. The only way to see is via the Android notifications tray, but it lies or doesn't show the full queue.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we'll look at improving this. Thanks for the feedback.

[Captest 4]

youve been 'looking to improve this' since 2022 and still have not - as it's part of the premier experience that we are paying for then you are in breach of contract.  either fix it quickly or make it a flaky free feature.  downloads are the only thing i have premier for and it doesn't work reliably!

[svefro 1]

Just adding a few more things from the other post i made here:

 

Also. it would be great with the option to start or stop downloading. i'm sometimes on a metered wifi connection and i do not want downloading to happen then.
Users should also be able to move items to the top of the queue if there are something we want to download first.

if i'm on a metered connection and want to download 1 item. i should be able to mark it for download, move it to the top if the queue. and then stop downloading after the item that i want is finished.
when i get on a better network i can resume downloading the other items.
this way the server can prep the items for transfer in the meantime. 

[svefro 1]

still have this issue. not resolved.

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, yes we are working on improving this. Thanks.

[jerfly 0]

Yeah. Same problem. Very frustrating and inconsistent. 

[strichmo 21]

Guys we really need to see some progress on this. I went on holiday with my family last week and Emby download was a constant source of frustration across all devices (Android and iOS):

* There is no way on the mobile app to check the status of a download until it is completed. Even then it can be difficult to understand when something has completed.

* It is possible for the user to start download the same content multiple times as I can see on the server dashboard the same content queued up.

* Downloads that are "ready to transfer" on the server just never start at all on the clients. The user has tried restarting the app etc.


It's just all broken and unworkable. Can we PLEASE get this feature improved?

 

[Jdiesel 1431]

I gave up on my last trip and ended up downloading videos using the web app last minute at the airport and playing them in VLC. You only have the option of original quality but at least it worked.

[hedeus 9]

Same thing here, I tried to download the whole season. It downloaded everything except the first eight episodes. I tried deleting the downloaded files and starting again, but the same thing happened. Episodes 1-8 are stuck at "ready to transfer." Other episodes downloaded successfully. I faced this issue two years ago when I was first trying out Emby. It is still not fixed. And it happens randomly; after failing to fix the issue, I tried downloading another show's season. Everything went smoothly.

Edited April 18, 2025 by hedeus

[8lack8ear 0]

Can I suggest that to solve this problem the down loads and online media should not be two separate (for lack of a better word) entities. When you download an audio book the app should switch to reading from the download, and not the server based media (like the Audible app) This way the down load becomes transparent to the user and no switching between the two "locations" is needed. The only interaction required from the User being "Download Media" and "Remove "Media" I hope this makes sense.  This would also require an offline mode for the app, that does not require the server to be available. Hope this makes sense.

[tommo22 0]

Hi,

Wondered if any improvements have been made or are in pipeline for downloads? 

I tried out Emby today to see if how it stacks up as a plex replacement and it really like it, but the download functionality is definitely lacking. For what feels like the key feature of the Premier plan, that feels a little amiss.

One example: On iOS there's no ongoing notification to let you know a download is in progress/has finished. I assumed it hadn't worked until I eventually found the manage downloads screen. Even there there's no progress/speed indicator.

I'm holding off from buying a lifetime license for now as it feels like this has been the case for a while.

[strichmo 21]

On 09/01/2025 at 04:43, Luke said:

Hi, yes we are working on improving this. Thanks.

It is now exactly 1 year since this was said. I know you never committed to a timeline, but this problem continues to be a major issue - Do you have any updates on where this is in your roadmap?