Requesting some clarity on "Libraries in the cloud" in Infuse 6

General
#1

Infuse 6 feature:

“iCloud libraries allow for seamless syncing of metadata, library settings, and playback progress between all your devices. Start a video on iPhone, and easily jump back in where you left off on Apple TV. Mark a few things as watched on one device, and they will instantly sync over to others. No server software to set up and manage, just super-fast, automatic syncing between all your devices…exactly how it should be.”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the previous version of Infuse offered syncing of playback progress via iCloud, but just not syncing of metadata, or library settings, correct? I never had to set up or manage server software.

#2

The big change compared to v5 is that iCloud now acts as a central library for all your devices. This means once one of your devices scans/indexes your files, other devices can pull this info from iCloud instead of having to index the same files for themselves. This saves a ton of time, especially if you have more than one device.

This also allows for watched statuses and playback progress to sync via iCloud, whereas in v5 this required being logged into Trakt.

Also, the new iCloud integration allows for some limited background operations, so there is generally less time spent for Infuse to update its library.

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#3

A welcome feature, indeed! So, if I correct the metadata for a movie on one device, it automatically syncs the changes in Infuse across all devices sharing the same iCloud account?

Also, in version 5, I didn’t have a Trakt account, and yet movies I was watching on one device would appear in the recently watched list of another. Same with watch progress. But you say iCloud didn’t sync that?

#4

Yep! Corrections sync too.

Watched info for items in the Up Next (Watching) list would sync between devices via iCloud in v5, but the rest of the library would not.

In Infuse 6, everything syncs. :slight_smile:

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#5

If I just use shares and not library do I still need to keep tract to sync my progress across devices?

Will iCloud be used for syncing basic share meta data scraping?

#6

Infuse 6 will sync everything through iCloud, so Trakt isn’t required. This includes scraped metadata. We’ll start syncing artwork in a future update as well.

Staying logged into Trakt will allow you to keep your Trakt profile up to date, which can be helpful with syncing other apps.

#7

Thanks, no need for trakt apart from infuse so I’ll log out.

Will it switch over to iCloud automatically when I log out of trakt?

I already have iCloud enabled.

#8

What will syncing Infuse to iCloud mean for my available space on iCloud?

#9

If you’re running Infuse 6 (with PRO active) Infuse will start using iCloud automatically. The Trakt sync is handled secondary to iCloud, so you won’t lose anything by disabling it.

#10

Right now Infuse only syncs textual metadata, watched history, etc… which doesn’t take much space (~9MB per 1,000 videos).

In the future, there will be an option to sync artwork as well. This will take more space, but will be disabled by default.

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#11

Looking forward to this so that it helps when the ATV4K decides it wants to clear the metadata and you have to rescan again.

#12

Yep! It definitely helps if that happens. :slight_smile:

#13

I have to say, my favorite update from today’s release is, by far, the ability to instantly jump backward or forward while watching a movie streaming from Google Drive without having to wait several seconds for buffering. Hallelujah.

#14

Hi, Sorry to jump on this thread with something that might not be completely relevent.

You mention we can disable trakt because of icloud syncing. What effect would this then have on family sharing with a pro subscription?

#15

How about family sharing? Is still Trakt necessary ?
And regarding cloud synchronization, will devices on diffrent apple accounts, but within family sharing group be synchronized via iclud?

#16

Great to hear! :slight_smile:

Trakt is still required for Family Sharing, at least until Apple sorts out a way to do it natively (it seems long overdue as many apps are subscription based now).

iCloud libraries will be unique to each Apple ID. However, if you have a paid iCloud storage plan, that space can be shared between all your family members. This may come in handy once we add the option to start syncing artwork to iCloud.

#17

Hi James,

I have upgraded from V5 lifetime.

I have one question regarding iCloud. I have a Synology NAS, an AppleTV 4k and an iPhone X. AppleTV is on the same local network and connected to the NAS via auto discovered IP, everything works fine. When I want to set up the NAS on my iPhone (connected via 4G, not local, so I can access the NAS from outside the home), I have to add it via Other-WebDAV.

In this way, if I enable iCloud sync, I get two shares both on the AppleTV and the iPhone. One share is from ATV (IP based) and the other one is from iPhone (WebDAV). The problem is only one works on each device, the one which was set up from each.

I don’t understand how iCloud actually helps me here, as I have two different ways of connecting to my NAS and both devices need to scan the library again, independently.

Maybe there is something I am missing.

#18

Hi James,
Long time pro user here since v3.0.2 (!) Great to see you are still putting in so much effort to continue evolving the app.
I strongly feel my yearly subscription gets the most value for me but also is a great investment for Firecore long term support.
v5.9 is suiting my purposes very well at this point in time however having v6 already paid should naturally let me roll over to the next step.
The difficultly there when I went from v4 to v5 was the entire metadatabase was contained within the v5 app and there was no way I could see to migrate the artwork into the new version.
The issue is our family live in a remote location with a very slow unreliable and expensive internet connection, hence my continuation to keep a large (8TB) collection of media the family access through four tablets, three phones and an TV4k. You can imagine how long and how much data it would take for all those devices to rebuild their metadata and artwork etc. There are also a large number of files that don’t automatically access the correct artwork, so these have to be manually edited.
I think you’d agree, I really don’t want to go through all that for the sake of an upgrade to an app that is already as advanced as Infuse.
I understand I probably don’t represent your typical user who would more likely have a high speed uncapped plan (but would also have the attraction of online streaming services that I don’t have access to due to prohibitive cost)

So down to my question: (apologies if this has already been answered but I haven’t been able to find it)
Will the stored metadata in v5 migrate over to v6 if I opt to upgrade?
Is there a simple way to do this?
From what I can understand from this thread, if I turn on cloud sync, my textual edits will migrate over: is this correct?

Thank you

(Yep, still on ElCap 10.11.6, Mac Mini Late 2012, 4K SONY Bravia KD-X900F 55’ over mDP)

#19

iCloud won’t help here as much, at least for right now, as Infuse is recognizing files from each share as unique.

Soon, we’ll be able to link watched statuses together, so if you start watching something from the remote share it will get marked as watched/in progress on other shares.

If you’re using the free Infuse 5 app (not Infuse Pro 5) the Infuse 6 update would be installed on top of your current app, which allows all your existing info to remain intact, unchanged.

Turning on iCloud sync at this point would allow you existing data to sync to iCloud and be available on other devices.

#20

SO - James - a sensible question for you here … I have 4 ATV’s - and they are ALL currently trying to sync to icloud - from your desription of this new addon it would seem logical to me that in order to set this up properly to start with only 1 device should sync to iclud and then when it has sucessfully done that enable icloud on all the other devices - yes ???