iOS downloads: missing artwork, custom folder images and a separate Home visibility setting

[OSBuckeyes4Life 13]

Hi Emby team, could you please take a look at a couple of issues with downloaded content on iOS, and a related Home screen setting? I would like to keep using my existing downloads without having to remove them or download everything again.

Setup: Emby for iOS 2.2.59, with Emby Server 4.10.2.0 in Docker on Arch Linux (rolling release), host kernel 7.2.11-arch1-1. I checked the App Store and 2.2.59 is the current public version.

1. Missing artwork for downloaded music

Some songs in Downloads show broken-image/question-mark placeholders instead of their cover artwork. The server has artwork for those tracks. I checked the direct Primary image endpoints for all 1,128 unique music tracks in the affected jobs: every endpoint returned HTTP 200, an image MIME type, and nonempty image data. I also checked the specific tracks shown with missing covers individually. This verifies the server can serve the artwork, but I cannot confirm whether the app successfully saved its offline copies.

Is there a supported way to refresh or retry just the artwork and metadata for downloaded items, without deleting the downloaded media, clearing the app's data, reinstalling Emby, or downloading the media again? I would appreciate guidance on what to check next rather than replacing artwork that already works on the server.

Scrubbed diagnostic evidence

The following is a server-side test summary, not an iOS cache test:

Unique queued music tracks tested: 1,128
Valid image responses: 1,128
Failed image responses: 0
Result: HTTP 200; image MIME type; nonempty response body

I also found the following artwork errors in the server log. These requests concerned downloaded movies, not the affected music tracks, so I am including them as a separate clue rather than claiming they explain the missing song covers. Addresses, credentials, item IDs, image tags, timestamps and request identifiers have been removed:

Info ImageService: Response 500 to [REDACTED_IP]
GET http://[REDACTED_HOST]/emby/Items/local:[REDACTED_ITEM_ID]/Images/Primary?api_key=[REDACTED]&MaxWidth=400&Tag=[REDACTED]
System.FormatException: Unrecognized Guid format.
  at Emby.Api.Images.ImageService.Get(GetItemImage request)

Should a local-prefixed item ID ever reach the server's image endpoint, or is that a client-side issue? I have not assumed that this error and the music artwork problem have the same cause.

2. Images for the local Downloads folders

My connected server libraries already have custom images, but Downloads shows plain Music, TV and Movies category tiles. Can these local tiles inherit the images from the corresponding server libraries, or can I assign those images separately? If neither is currently supported, could this be looked at as a feature request? I would like the downloaded Music folder, for example, to use the same picture as my Music library on Home.

3. Hide the Downloads row on Home without disabling downloads

When downloads are enabled, a Downloads row appears on Home even though it is not listed in my editable Home Sections. I disabled the user's content-download permission and fully closed/reopened the app; that removed the Home row, while my existing downloads remained available from the bottom Downloads tab. Before restarting, the row had remained visible.

I do not want to disable downloading just to control my Home screen layout. Could there be a separate configurable “Show Downloads on Home” option, independent of download permission, that can be applied across devices? Ideally I could hide that row on all my devices, keep downloading enabled, and still access downloaded media through the Downloads navigation.

The missing artwork was visible before I disabled the download permission as well. I would like to preserve both the existing downloaded files and my current Home layout while troubleshooting.

Related discussions: I found the two threads below, but I am not claiming they are confirmed duplicates or that the older cache discussion necessarily describes the current app:

Layout/filtering/sorting not respected for music when used offline
Keep poster images cache in iOS device permanently

Could you please look into this and let me know whether there is a safe artwork-only repair available now, and whether the folder images and separate Home visibility option can be supported? Thanks.

Attachments: Cropped screenshots show the broken music-cover placeholders and the plain local category tiles. The attached text file contains selected, scrubbed server error excerpts plus a separately labeled artwork-test summary. It is not a full server log or an iOS app log.

emby-artwork-expanded-sanitized.txtDownload screenshot: offline-music-missing-artwork.pngDownload screenshot: offline-category-tiles.png

On a positive note, Emby looks fantastic on the iPhone Duo! I am really enjoying the interface and how my library looks on that display. Getting the offline artwork and Home screen controls polished would make the experience even better. Thanks for all the work you put into the app!

Edited 8 hours ago by OSBuckeyes4Life
Expanded to 279 lines of scrubbed diagnostics; screenshots provided as downloadable attachments rather than inline images.

[Luke 43420]

Quote

1. Missing artwork for downloaded music

Some songs in Downloads show broken-image/question-mark placeholders instead of their cover artwork.

Hi, there isn’t other than redownloading. But can you get it to happen again with a new download? If you can catch it in the act then we should be able to get to the bottom of it.

[Luke 43420]

Quote

2. Images for the local Downloads folders

Would it make more sense for us to just display this as a list so that there’s no big gray square?

[Luke 43420]

That’s great to hear about the iPhone duo.