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No longer able to download media remotely (but can still stream remotely)


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ChrisJ60
Posted

We have been using Emby for quite a few years now (we have an ongoing subscription). One way in which we use it is to download media from our Emby managed library to our iOS devices (primarily iPads) for watching when we are travelling. Usually we perform the downloads while we are at home (on our home network) before we travel (as it is of course much faster) but sometimes we need to download some items remotely. Our Emby server is properly setup for remote access and in the past we have been able to successfully download items remotely without issue. Recently I had cause to do this while staying in a hotel and I was unable to complete the download; no error was produced but the download just sat at 'Transferring 0%' forever and never completed. Since returning home I have performed a number of tests and I can confirm that remote downloads no longer seem to work. Remote streaming works okay it is just downloads that do not work. These are downloads that do *not* require the file to be transcoded and where I choose 'original' for the quality. They are also items that download fine (and quickly) when on my home network.

 

Of course since the last time I was able to download successfully there e has been an Emby server update, an update to the iOS app and also an iOS update. My guess is that one of these (or some combination) has broken this functionality.

 

Server:  Emby 4.3.1.0 on macOS Mojave 10.14.6 (Mac mini)

iOS app:  Emby for iOS 1.9.3 on iPadOS 13.3.1 (iPad Pro 11")

 

How can we diagnose this and more importantly how can we get this functionality to work again.

 

Chris

Posted

Hi, currently the progress will always show 0. That may lead you into thinking that it's not working, but if you just give it time the downloads will finish.

 

Also keep in mind you cannot swipe close the app or the system will not execute the app's background download process.

ChrisJ60
Posted

Hi Luke,

 

I'm aware of the annoying bug whereby the progress always shows 0 (that really needs to be fixed) and of the need to keep the app open and the iPad awake in order to complete the downloads. I have tried that and the fact is that even for very small video files the downloads never complete when I am not on my home network. I can download the same files to my iPad using other methods in just a few minutes so this does look to be some problem with Emby (either server or app). As I said, it has worked okay in the past. How can we investigate this? What diagnostics are available?

 

Chris

Posted

Do you have the wifi only option enabled in the app settings?

ChrisJ60
Posted

Yes of course. This is an iPad and the only connectivity it has is WiFi... Does that option even have any effect in this case? I can see that it would have an effect on an iPhone, or an iPad that also has cellular connectivity, but our iPads are all WiFi only...

Posted

Ok so you're saying it's a remote connection, but on wifi? Perhaps we may have missed something there. We'll take a look at it. Thanks.

ChrisJ60
Posted

One of the easiest things that would help with this is to make the download progress indicator actually work. That way at least one can quickly see if it is actually downloading. At the moment one has absolutely no way of knowing. If the file is large (they usually are) and the (remote) connection slow (they often are) all you can do is wait, and wait, and wait, and wait until you *think* that the download should have finished. It is actually really hard to know if it is working or not... I'm sure it can't be hard to fix this..

 

Chris

.

Posted

Yes you're right. Thanks for the feedback.

  • 7 months later...
altramarine
Posted

Hi there!

I am witnessing the same behavior. On the server backend I am shown "transfering 0%"

On the iPhone app, there is no indication of given download. The network is being barely used so I do not think it is actually transferring because I waited over two hours and no success.

This is observed while being connected to my LAN where the server resides or even outside.

 

Emby server: 4.5.2.0

OS: CentOS 7.7

iOS Emby 1.9.8

 

Posted
On 10/15/2020 at 11:34 PM, altramarine said:

Hi there!

I am witnessing the same behavior. On the server backend I am shown "transfering 0%"

On the iPhone app, there is no indication of given download. The network is being barely used so I do not think it is actually transferring because I waited over two hours and no success.

This is observed while being connected to my LAN where the server resides or even outside.

 

Emby server: 4.5.2.0

OS: CentOS 7.7

iOS Emby 1.9.8

 

HI, please make sure not to close the Emby app on the device. It's OK to move it to the background, but if you swipe close the app then iOS will not run the background download process. Please see if that helps. Thanks.

altramarine
Posted
1 hour ago, Luke said:

HI, please make sure not to close the Emby app on the device. It's OK to move it to the background, but if you swipe close the app then iOS will not run the background download process. Please see if that helps. Thanks.

Thanks much Luke. That appears to be the case. Hopefully, it'll be slightly more visual at some point with a progress bar on the client side:)

Just curious, is the download (if Original) available on my device to share with other apps?

 

Many thanks!

Posted

Yes it will be. Thanks for the feedback.

  • Like 1

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