First of all, thank you for creating such a fantastic app. I’ve been using Infuse enthusiastically in combination with pCloud to organize and stream my media collection. It’s truly one of the best solutions available for home media playback.
However, I’m currently facing a recurring challenge in a shared household setup:
I share my library with four family members, each using their own Apple ID and device. While metadata is technically synced via iCloud, it often arrives incorrectly or incompletely on other devices. As a result, I’m constantly having to manually correct metadata like cover art, titles, sorting options, and more – something my family members wouldn’t know how to do on their own.
My questions:
Is there any way to export or centrally manage the metadata database outside of iCloud, for example via pCloud, so that all users can access the same, manually curated metadata without having to repeat corrections on every single device?
If that’s not currently possible: Does Infuse offer an API or any form of technical interface that would allow centralized metadata management across multiple devices – even when different Apple IDs are used?
I’ve read that multi-user profile support is planned. Will this feature allow profiles to be created independently of the Apple account? A shared Apple ID isn’t an option for us – I’ve already had to lock down my parents’ devices to avoid accidental purchases and settings changes
I’d really appreciate any insights or suggestions you may have – or whether a solution is already in development. This would be especially helpful for families like mine who use Infuse as a shared media streaming solution.
Thank you again for your excellent work – Infuse continues to be the most elegant app in the media space!
Do you mean that you had to restrict their purchases and settings adjustments using the Sharing setting in the Screen Time and Content & Privacy Restrictions, or did you mean just restricting them in their own ID?
I only applied those restrictions to my parents’ accounts , using Screen Time and Content & Privacy Restrictions on their own Apple IDs — just to prevent accidental purchases or unwanted changes.
Supposedly, you can do the same if you use family sharing for Infuse and lock their purchases in infuse and also lock the settings. That way the icloud sync should cover all of the edits for metadata.
I miss the good ol days when you could just pry off the “$” button on their remote…
Thanks for the suggestion! Just to clarify something that’s still confusing me:
Since each family member is using their own Apple ID and iCloud account, wouldn’t that mean all metadata (like corrected titles, artwork, watched status, etc.) is still saved separately?
Even with Family Sharing and content restrictions in place, I assume I’d still have to fix the metadata manually on each device – unless everyone was using the same Apple ID, which isn’t really an option for us.
I really hope that full support for multi-user profiles (independent of iCloud accounts) is on the roadmap – that would honestly fix everything!
And yes – I do miss the good old days… when fixing the TV just meant hitting it on the side and it magically worked again
Now it’s all iCloud syncs, user permissions, and metadata madness!
Yeah that may be the gotcha with multiple user IDs.
One thing that may get you through is as long as you’re the only one curating the content, you could set up a non shared directory in pCloud and check on your Infuse that new additions are ID’d correctly and then move it to the shared directories. That way if there was a problem you could fix the file naming and hopefully correct it that way then move it to the shared directory.
Kind of a kludgy fix but until there’s a slick exotic high tech solution it’d keep the family satisfied.
It’d be nice to have a way to remote access the family ATVs and just fix it when their napping. LOL
Hey NC_Bullseye , thanks a lot – that’s actually a really clever workaround!
Using a private folder to pre-check and clean up metadata before sharing sounds like a solid way to keep things tidy (and my sanity intact ).
Quick follow-up though:
When I move the files from the private to the shared folder, does Infuse re-scan and fetch metadata again, or does it keep whatever was assigned the first time? Just wondering how “final” the first match is.
And yes, remote access to family ATVs while they nap would be the dream. Maybe in Infuse v100?
By the way NC – just for fun:
I actually developed my own program to manage Infuse media. It’s been in development for about two years now and is running fully automated at this point.
There’s even a private web interface where family and friends can request movies or shows directly via Telegram. Once the system picks them up, they’re automatically sorted and added to Infuse – complete with proper metadata and everything.
To top it off, users even receive an email notification when new media becomes available in Infuse.
It’s been a passion project, and it’s made the whole setup for my family much smoother – apart from the multi-user metadata headaches we’ve been discussing!
This is what it looks like when the email gets sent out automatically:
I’ve been doing a form of this for a while and it seems to stick but for me I’m putting the new files in a non library share, tenderizing it to get the right match and then copying it to a share included in the library. I trash the non library file after I see everything working like i wanted. I’ve got so used to looking at how TMDB names the videos first and then changing things to match it’s become second nature when the first try goes awry.
Haha, feel free to keep doing it your way – I actually really like your style!
It’s fun, it works, and hey… whatever gets the job done without pulling your hair out, right?
Honestly though – for me, there’s nothing better than Infuse. I truly mean that. Emby, Plex, Jellyfin? Nah… for me, they’re just fancy doormats in comparison. I’ve been with Infuse for several years now, and I’ve really grown attached to it – and so has my family!
That last update where they fixed the sync behavior? Absolute game changer. Everything runs faster, smoother – like a freakin’ rocket launch .
It just keeps getting better and better. Sure, it takes time – but hey, same here! Nothing ever works perfectly the first time, right? That’s just part of the journey.
But seriously: the love and attention to detail in Infuse is something you can really feel. That’s what makes it special.
I’m still hoping our little sync suggestion makes it onto the Infuse home screen someday – would be awesome to see that idea fly!
My questions:
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