Metadata does not sync correctly between devices

General
1

It seems that there are related posts, but they are all locked so I’m opening a new one.

Over the years I’ve never been able to get the metadata to sync correctly between my iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Specifically when I make a change to the metadata on one device, it may or may not update on the other devices, even after clicking “Sync with iCloud” on all devices (or just waiting a while). For example if I use “Edit Metadata” to fix the metadata of a TV show on my iPhone, it may update on the Apple TV but not the iPad (or vice versa). It’s not consistent whether it will update on the other devices or not. Sometimes it will even update the metadata for some episodes of a show but not other episodes.

I have tried deleting the Infuse app and reinstalling. For example if I reinstall the Infuse app on the Apple TV, the metadata will be wrong for many shows/movies after the reinstall and I will need to fix them manually to match the correct metadata on the iPhone. Since the Apple TV occasionally loses all data due to a lack of space and needs to re-index (“Fetching details for [share-name]”) and re-download metadata, I need to manually make these changes on the Apple TV every time that happens. I’ve tried deleting the Infuse app from all devices except one (the iPhone) hoping that a “fresh start” would fix things, but that hasn’t helped.

Some additional info:

  • Metadata changes sometimes synchronize to the other devices, but not always.
    • The number of “Movies”, “TV Episodes”, and “Other” is not consistent between devices. For example the Apple TV shows “Other: 1209” while the iPhone shows “Other: 474”.
  • The Infuse app is up-to-date on all devices.
  • All devices are using the same Apple account and have an Infuse Pro subscription.
  • iCloud sync is enabled on all devices.
    • The “Sync with iCloud” button appears to succeed on all devices, and the “last” date/time updates to the current time as expected.
  • Infuse does not show any error messages on any device.
  • Settings such as the network shares and watch history sync correctly between devices.
  • Using a WebDAV share.
2

Just curious, do you have both iCloud sync and Cloud Back up enabled on the ATV?

3

Yeah the “Cloud Backup” feature was automatically enabled on the Apple TV so I’ve left it enabled. And the “iClould Sync” feature has always been enabled. But I’ve also been having this issue since before the “iCloud Backup” feature existed.

4

On top of that the syncing loses Watched status over time. I download a lot of video clips and I watch them. Now when I go back to the folder they’re in, suddenly I haven’t watched them? Huh? Most of those are obviously not found in TMDB (that is another discussion dragging on for years now), but the few that I do manage to link to something there (an official DVD, or a show from Hell fest or so), those assignments are lost as well!

In other words, sync is unreliable to put it mildly

1 Like
5

In my experience, the syncing does work but only between devices with the same latest version. Devices with older versions are left over.