Android Emby app - One User cannot use the download feature - no Premiere license.

[looking111 30]

I'm experiencing some strange behavior here. The offline function/media download (Android) is not working for one user. When attempting to use the feature, a message appears stating that there is no Premiere license. However, there is a license, and the feature works for other users on the same mobile phone.

• Embyserver: 4.9.1.1 beta
• Android 13 with e/OS 3.0.1
• Emby App version 3.4.74

What I have already tried:

• Other User on the same phone → working
• The user reported that it does not work, but it works on every other mobile phone except this one. However, we have the same phones here with identical software versions → super strange
• App with all data deleted and reinstalled
• The Download feature for this one user is working with the WebUI
• As workaround the user clicks on Media in the web interface and selects “Download to.” Then select the Android phone, and the download will start
• When I test it from my mobile phone, and it doesn't work, no log message appears on the Embyserver under "/var/lib/emby/logs/embyserver.txt"

Any ideas?

[ebr 16169]

More than likely, the phone cannot reach our server to validate Premiere.

[looking111 30]

26 minutes ago, ebr said:

More than likely, the phone cannot reach our server to validate Premiere.

That's what I thought at first. But other users on the same phone with the same app (change user) are working fine. That's why I'm so confused about this.

[Luke 42077]

Can you try logging out and back in again and see what happens?

[looking111 30]

On 6/21/2025 at 1:03 AM, Luke said:

Can you try logging out and back in again and see what happens?

Same result. 

[Luke 42077]

Strange. Are you still having an issue with this?

[looking111 30]

I had already given up searching. But while looking through the app on this phone, I found the log feature. So I activated the feature and tried several times to download “DuckTales” to this phone for offline viewing. This failed with a message saying that there is no Emby Premiere and that I should activate it in the admin interface.

Maybe you can see something in the log that will put us on the right track?

I even connected the phone to the same VLAN with an Ethernet cable, where the Emby server is located, but there was no change.However, there has been one change: currently, no other user can download anything on this device, even though this was working a few weeks ago. Reinstalling the app did not help.Just to remind, all other devices can download files. Could it be that the phone is broken? It's still quite new...

emby_android_1752943473403.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi, is this still an issue for them?

[looking111 30]

On 7/26/2025 at 6:14 AM, Luke said:

Hi, is this still an issue for them?

Well, I could try resetting the entire mobile phone. But since the device doesn't have any problems with other apps, I'd like to avoid that if possible. Because then I'd have to spend hours setting everything up again.

I've now also done the following:

• Stopped the app
• Cleared the cache
• Deleted the app data
• Uninstalled the app
• Shut down the phone - Removed the battery
• Deleted all devices from the Emby admin interface
• Restarted the phone - Completely reinstalled the Emby app
• Conclusion → Unfortunately, the same problem persists; no user can use Emby Premiere features, not even an admin.

[Luke 42077]

Are they behind a VPN? They may have something blocking outgoing requests.

[looking111 30]

I have now obtained an identical device with the same OS and version for testing. It worked immediately. This means that the problem is on the end device. I am not sure where or why. The device was also installed in the same Wi-Fi network with the same user and IP (Same security settings on purpose) .

• Solution (probably) Reset the Android phone to factory settings → but I'm definitely not going to do that, it's far too much work to set everything up again.
• Workaround (at least for downloads): Start the downloads on another device via the Emby webinterface.

Edited August 23, 2025 by looking111

[Luke 42077]

Please keep us posted if you find anything. Thanks !