What can I expect from the "Download" option for Android devices? Seems very unreliable.

[Guest]

I really don't get what the "Download" option is supposed to be good for. I expected something like in Yatse: If the server is not available, downloaded content will nevertheless be available on the mobile device. However, I don't get this functionality working reliable on my devices (Android 4.4, 10 and 11, all the same, trying to sync with a dockerized Emby on Ubuntu).

I want to keep my music library (about 5000 songs) and audio books (about 500 tracks) competely in sync. All tracks in the library are completely tagged and playable without problem directly from the server. They are all MP3 and a few FLAC files. 

• If I download the same drawer on several devices, or even if I start several attempts on the same device, the number of tracks to be downloaded varies at every attempt?!? I also had cases where the number of tracks to be synced mysteriously multiplies. Maybe because I clicked several times on the "start download" button, as the app takes very long to initiate the download for larger drawers and in the meantime seems to do nothing from a user pov.
• Even if it seems to work, there are always tracks missing.
• Sometimes, not a single track is downloaded, the download list does not show a hint why this is the case (IMHO in case of an error, there should be some information why it went wrong). I don't even see an option "try again".
• If the server is offline, I am able to choose "Download" as the server. However, here I only get the tracks which I was able to download as a completely unstructured list in the single folder "Music" which is almost unusable for browsing (no search, no library nodes like genre, etc.). Is this by design? I expected the usual interface.
• The bitrate setting has to be set in the app settings. Why do I still have to set a video bitrate when configuring the download (for music folders)? 

Maybe I have the wrong expectations, or am I doing something completely wrong?

[Luke 42077]

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If I download the same drawer on several devices, or even if I start several attempts on the same device, the number of tracks to be downloaded varies at every attempt?!?

Hi @Nosepull can you please go over a specific example?

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• Sometimes, not a single track is downloaded, the download list does not show a hint why this is the case (IMHO in case of an error, there should be some information why it went wrong). I don't even see an option "try again".

We'll look at improving this. Thanks for the feedback.

Quote

• If the server is offline, I am able to choose "Download" as the server. However, here I only get the tracks which I was able to download as a completely unstructured list in the single folder "Music" which is almost unusable for browsing (no search, no library nodes like genre, etc.). Is this by design? I expected the usual interface.

This should be improved with the latest updates to the server and apps.

[Guest]

On 9/21/2021 at 4:20 AM, Luke said:

Hi @Nosepull can you please go over a specific example?

We'll look at improving this. Thanks for the feedback.

This should be improved with the latest updates to the server and apps.

What are the versions that should have an improved behaviour? I am updating regularly both the server (on Linux) and the Android client. I've seen no improvement at all for a long time.

I have started a few sync processes (music songs per genre) yesterday from server to Android phone, and they are simply stuck, with no discernible reason why, or any possibility to restart or resume the download. There is not even a hint that there are incomplete downloads. I only notice it because lots of songs are missing. In the list of downloads all my transfers are listed as "queued", and that's it,

In the app, the songs which are downloaded are listed "flat", only grouped by albums, in a "Music" section. Not really a structure, no genre, no artist, etc.

In fact, this behaviour seems so obviously buggy to me that I'm asking myself if I have gross misunderstanding of what functionality the "Download" function is supposed to provide.

I would have expected functionalitäy like in Yatse: Downloaded media is available even if the server is offline. In Yatse, this is completely transparent, you are only noticing that the server is not available if you select some media which is not yet downloaded. In the Emby app, the download functionality seems to be added as an afterthought, with another, pretty restricted, workflow than online usage,  And it is unreliable...

[Luke 42077]

Hi @Nosepull what device and version of android are you on? Have you tried the latest update to the app?

[Guest]

I'm now using Yatse for all interaction with Emby including offline downloading and so I do not longer use the Emby Android app. That fixes the problem for me ;-). 

[Luke 42077]

Can you try Emby for Android 3.2.32?