Lots of issues with the iOS app on my iPad lately

[joekrill 6]

I've noticed the iOS app getting progressively worse over the past few months. Some issues I've been seeing:

• Extremely slow to load on a "cold" launch (i.e. if I  close the app by swiping it away). For at least 10 or 12 seconds I'll be staring at a blank, black screen before the Emby logo and loader even appears. This is consistent and reproducible for me.
• Often, after launching the app, it "reloads" itself after a few seconds (the Emby logo reappears and I'm returned to the main page). It's a long enough delay that I often start playing a video first, so when the reload happens it causes the video I've played to disappear, returning me to the main page. But it's still playing in the background - I can hear the audio, and if I minimize the app the floating video shows up. But I have no way to get back to it in the app. Playing a new video (or restarting the one I'm watching) "fixes" this, as it "overrides" the playing video. This was happening in the past, and at one point was fixed, so I'm not sure if this is a regression or something new. I can't reliably reproduce it, but it happens quite often.
• If I play offline content it often doesn't sync the play state when I next come back online. It seems like maybe it gets worse the longer I'm offline for? It's hard to tell what's happening because there's no insight into when/how the sync eventually happens. And it's not a matter of not waiting long enough - I've gone to watch a new episode of a show, only to find I'm rewatching an episode I had watched offline a few weeks back, because the episode never got marked as watched.
• Playing a video sometimes results in the sound being played, but no video. The show's backdrop image remains visible, and the overlay controls display and work when I touch the screen (except the 10 second back/30 second forward buttons are grayed out). So it's playing, but the video is not visible at all. So far I've only noticed this happening with videos that I have downloaded to the device. I don't know how to reliably reproduce it, but it almost always happens after having already watched something within the same session (downloaded or streamed), and then watching a downloaded episode right after. 

The current version of the app I'm running is 2.2.44, but these issues have been ongoing for weeks, if not months. This is an iPad Pro (3rd gen) currently running 18.7.1. I have plenty of free space on the device and have no issues with any other apps (nothing runs sluggish or is problematic). 

[Luke 42077]

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[joekrill 6]

14 hours ago, Luke said:

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

I'm not sure what other specifics I can provide for these. I think I followed the directions in "How to Report a Problem", but these aren't server-side problems so there's no logs that apply here (and as far as I can tell there's no way to get additional logs from the iOS app). 

For the startup issue, I attached a video showing it taking ~15 seconds to load.

For the reload issue, I can try and get a video, but it just sort of happens randomly so I'll have to get lucky and catch it (and remember to start screen recording every time I open the app). 

I'm not even sure what else I can provide for the sync issue? There's really no insight into the syncing process as far as I can tell, and zeroing in on the specific server logs seems quite difficult.

For the final issue (playing the video but only sound showing) I attached a few screenshots (one showing what I see when initially playing, the other after touching the screen which shows the overlay controls). In this particular case I tried playing a downloaded Always Sunny episode - you'll notice the show's backdrop image. I'll try and get a video of this if I can - I just have to remember to start recording first. As I said, this usually happens after watching a full episode of something I haven't downloaded to the device, and when that's over, attempting to watch something that is downloaded to the device. But it's not consistently reproducible - it just happens sometimes, but always under those circumstances. 

What other sort of info can I provide here? Do you want me to make separate posts for each of these issues?

[visproduction 315]

I wonder if the limit of cache for iPads contribute to this problem.  Apparently, 500 MB is the cache limit.  It's probably possible that other apps, even if they are closed, might have already taken some of the cache memory.  Things like browser history might do this.  I woud think 500 MB would be enough to playback most videos.  Here is a link discussing clearing the cache.  Maybe this will help.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-clear-your-ipad-cache-and-wipe-out-lag-for-good/

[Neminem 1518]

Jep reminds me of the IT crew

Edited December 11, 2025 by Neminem

[Luke 42077]

On 11/22/2025 at 10:58 AM, joekrill said:

I'm not sure what other specifics I can provide for these. I think I followed the directions in "How to Report a Problem", but these aren't server-side problems so there's no logs that apply here (and as far as I can tell there's no way to get additional logs from the iOS app). 

For the startup issue, I attached a video showing it taking ~15 seconds to load.

For the reload issue, I can try and get a video, but it just sort of happens randomly so I'll have to get lucky and catch it (and remember to start screen recording every time I open the app). 

I'm not even sure what else I can provide for the sync issue? There's really no insight into the syncing process as far as I can tell, and zeroing in on the specific server logs seems quite difficult.

For the final issue (playing the video but only sound showing) I attached a few screenshots (one showing what I see when initially playing, the other after touching the screen which shows the overlay controls). In this particular case I tried playing a downloaded Always Sunny episode - you'll notice the show's backdrop image. I'll try and get a video of this if I can - I just have to remember to start recording first. As I said, this usually happens after watching a full episode of something I haven't downloaded to the device, and when that's over, attempting to watch something that is downloaded to the device. But it's not consistently reproducible - it just happens sometimes, but always under those circumstances. 

What other sort of info can I provide here? Do you want me to make separate posts for each of these issues?

@joekrill

Hi there, please attach the Emby server log from when the problem occurred:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!