Offline Sync Last Added

[screwfaze]

I know syncing for offline play is not implemented yet but when it is can we please have option to sync last added songs?

Thanks

[screwfaze]

Any update on this feature request pleaseeeee? I really love the app and want to use it daily but there is no data where I am listening to music so please can you add this?

Thanks

[dkanada]

No updates, haven't felt like adding it yet. I almost never need offline playback so it's not a high priority for me.

[screwfaze]

No updates, haven't felt like adding it yet. I almost never need offline playback so it's not a high priority for me.

Guess I will have to keep using dsub then but keep up the good work mate.

[zombiehoffa]

I'm in the same boat screwfaze "damn this is nice but I need a way to sync all or a chosen subset of my collection to my phone as mp3s for offline listening since I leave the house sometimes." dsub and airsonic it still is for now since I am not a programmer (yet).

[dkanada]

I have no estimate for true offline support, but I'm currently testing recents caching on a local build. As long as the phone is online to access metadata, the songs themselves would get cached to reduce data usage. There's no way to request a cache manually though, it happens transparently while the songs are downloaded for playback.

[screwfaze]

I have no estimate for true offline support, but I'm currently testing recents caching on a local build. As long as the phone is online to access metadata, the songs themselves would get cached to reduce data usage. There's no way to request a cache manually though, it happens transparently while the songs are downloaded for playback.

How are you getting on with this? Any chance you have a version I can test.

[dkanada]

Caching and proper downloads have been added, but can anyone explain what this feature would look like with some examples in other services? Should it sync in the background, what options should be available, et cetera?

[zombiehoffa]

How I use this feature in dsub with airsonic as the backend is I tell it to download most of my collection transcoded as mp3 of a certain bitrate, which I then use to play my music when I am not home. When I am on my network it streams my music as flac from the airsonic server.

In airsonic this is accomplished by starring all my albums and having it set to download starred items in a specific format. It would be better to just set default behavior and then flag stuff to nit be transcoded and Downloaded.

[kevincox]

In my mind it should be a background sync and most things in the app should work offline. (Offline-first if you will.) So probably cache and sync all library metadata (IDK if some people have libraries too big for this but it seems unlikely, but eventually someone will want to filter what they see on their phone anyways so that is something to keep in mind) then the app can just use that. (maybe if online it can try to use the server first? However personally I would prefer the snappiness of the offline cache anyways.) Then there would be some way to select what to download offline (precaching). This could be "pinning" an album, playlist or song for offline. (or the favourites list) then those pins would be kept up to date, even if those albums or playlists change.

It would also be good to have an offline mode, where everything that isn't downloaded is filtered out. (This is actually quite hard to do well as you probably want to filter out albums and playlists that have no songs downloaded as well, which can be a little difficult to do efficiently)

An advanced feature is auto-rotating downloads. For example I could say "download me 2GiB of music" and it pre-caches that on my phone, then slowly cycles the cache as I listen to it.

[screwfaze]

What @kevincox above said, basically like how GPM(sorry best app I used with offline sync) used to work where almost everything was cached offline and you had an option to filter downloaded only mode or online but you could search, filter and do everything else offline and did not feel like the way you navigate the app changed at all.

Thanks

[rigrig]

Caching and proper downloads have been added, but can anyone explain what this feature would look like with some examples in other services? Should it sync in the background, what options should be available, et cetera?

What I think Syncing would ideally look like:

Some ways to select what to sync:

• A new menu item for songs/albums/artists/playlists "Sync this item"
  -> replaces "Download", to make clear that future updates to artist/playlist will also be synced
• A setting to toggle "Sync all favorites" (as set in Jellyfin)
  (would be nice if you could also set favorite status from Gelli btw.)
• A setting to toggle "Sync new songs": user can choose between a. all songs added in the last N days, or b. the N last added songs
  • A setting to toggle "Sync N queued songs" (N=0 means unlimited)
  • A setting to choose Cleanup mode: "Aggressive" or "On demand"

Some way to view synced items:

• A list of all manually selected items with sync status
• A list of all synced songs, with sync status and reason why they are synced (e.g. "manually selected", "part of synced playlist such-and-so")
• A list of previously downloaded, no longer wanted, but not yet cleaned up songs

Settings for when to sync:

• Enable background sync
  • on any connection
  • when on WiFi
  • only on selected WiFi network(s)
  • never: Manual sync only
• Don't sync while battery saver is active
• Only sync while charging

A Sync button in the main menu with dynamic behavior:

• While sync is active: "Stop sync"
• While sync not active, but network present: "Sync now" or "Resume sync" if previously stopped
• No network: disabled, "Sync: no network"

Sync behavior:

Sync state:

Sync mode is in one of five states: "disconnected", "paused", "stopped", "automatic" or "manual".

• disconnected: no network, sync is impossible
• paused: automatic sync is enabled, but network/battery/charger conditions are not met
• stopped: sync was running but manually stopped by user (no notification/background process)
• automatic: keep periodically looking for new items to sync
• manual: download all wanted songs, then switch back to automatic/stopped

All states except "Stopped" keep running in the background and show a notification
I think this state diagram covers it all:
(I cheated a bit by just restarting whenever settings change, but things seemed complicated enough already)

Background Sync operation: (both Manual and Automatic)

• (Optional fast resume: if we have a recent remembered list of songs to download: continue downloading, see below)
• Synchronize meta data (we need this to be up-to-date to determine wanted songs)
• Determine wanted songs
  • manually selected songs, or songs that are part of selected albums/artists/playlists
  • (if favorites enabled) favorited songs, or songs that are part of favorited item
  • (if new songs enabled) songs added in the last N days/N newest songs
  • (if queued songs enabled) N next queued songs (none if there is no queue)
• For all previously downloaded songs that are no longer wanted: if not already marked as unwanted: mark them as unwanted since {current time}
• Remove unwanted mark from wanted songs that were already downloaded (i.e. not yet cleaned up songs we now want again)
• Calculate needed space
• Cleanup previously downloaded songs, depending on setting:
  • Aggressive: remove all unwanted songs
  • On demand: only remove enough unwanted songs to make sure there is enough available space, starting with those with the oldest unwanted since time
• If still not enough free space: warn the user (but start downloading anyway until all space is used up)
• (Optional fast resume: remember list of songs to download, so we can skip above steps for short network failures)
• Start downloading wanted songs we don't have yet
• If sync settings/network/battery/charging conditions change: see diagram. But only stop downloading if sync mode actually changes.
• When all wanted songs are downloaded:
  • Automatic mode: sleep a bit, then start again from "Synchronize meta data"
  • Manual mode: see diagram

[rigrig]

Also

What I think a minimal implementation could look like:

Some ways to select what to sync:

• A new menu item for songs/albums/artists/playlists "Sync this item"
  -> replaces "Download", to make clear that future updates to artist/playlist will also be synced

Some way to view synced items:

• A list of all manually selected items with sync status

Settings for when to sync:

• A setting to "Enable background sync while on WiFi"

Sync behavior:

Sync state:

Sync mode is in one of three states: "disconnected","stopped", "automatic".

• disconnected: no network, sync is impossible
• stopped: sync is disabled in settings (no notification/background process)
• automatic: keep periodically looking for new items to sync

All states except "Stopped" keep running in the background and show a notification
State diagram:

Background Sync operation:

• Synchronize meta data (we need this to be up-to-date to determine wanted songs)
• Determine wanted songs
  • manually selected songs, or songs that are part of selected albums/artists/playlists
• Cleanup: remove all previously downloaded songs that are no longer wanted
• Calculate needed space
• If not enough free space: warn the user (but start downloading anyway until all space is used up)
• Start downloading wanted songs we don't have yet
• If WiFi disconnects or settings change: see state diagram.
• When all wanted songs are downloaded: sleep a bit, then start again from "Synchronize meta data"

[kevincox]

Oh, we also forgot an important point. When offline metadata changes need to be tracked and applied when you come back online. For example:

1. Add to playlist.
2. Add Favourite.
3. Play counts. (is this tracked?)
4. Delete.
5. Metadata operations (like track name)

[TomRomeo]

I'd really love this feature