Where is Support?

[Tango]

I haven’t had support issues in the past - getting help from Infuse or others, but since Saturday afternoon, I’m getting no responses at all. I’ve filed my 2nd trouble ticket through Infuse itself today, the previous one is still waiting for a response, and, in the past week, I’ve asked for help on multiple topics - and almost no responses. This is just after I upgraded to Pro.

What am I doing wrong and why can’t I get support? Is it that Infuse is a small company and it took everyone to get ready for 8.5.6? Or am I not describing the issues well enough? Please, I need to either get some answers so I can set up Infuse or know what I did wrong in asking for help. I have some reading/learning disabilities and try to give as much detail as I can because I’m not always sure what details help.

The trouble ticket I submitted was because my Mac Infuse install won’t sync with the others at all, but I also mentioned I’m having other issues, like different Infuse installs report different info for total movies, TV shows and “other” videos and that one won’t categorize any videos. The ticket I submitted today is on an Apple TV. It is apparently upgraded. I went to settings and got “Upgrade to Infuse Pro.” What? I’m on Infuse Pro and was signed in. So I click it and get to the upgrade page. “Restore” looks ghosted out, but it’s there. I click it, use my iPhone as a remote, enter my Apple password and there are no errors, but I get the same page back and click Restore again and it repeats. (I’m betting this is a bug in the upgrade.)

Some of the issues, like collections or multiple accounts or profiles, are important, but not critical for use. Others are critical just to use Infuse for what it’s designed for - and those functions are just not working and I can’t get help. What am I doing wrong?

The forum posts are:

From 7 days ago - one response, a link to the doc page, which I pointed out does not seem to cover my issue (then no other responses):

Use the same multiple user profiles on multiple devices

I want to use multiple profiles on Infuse. Other than my own, there’s no need for them to connect to iCloud or other services. The main purpose of using Infuse is for viewing local video files that could be movies or TV shows. (Or other videos I have stored on my LAN NAS.) So I would have my own profile (Call it Tango, like my user name here.) Then one for “House,” which would be the one my wife and I use when watching TV together. Then another, “Barn.” We have an old pig barn that’s been renov…

Also from 7 days ago, no responses:

Collections (New Subscriber - setting things up)

I’ve used Infuse in the past, dropped it because of some issues that have since been fixed. I’ve been trying to get time to test it out and set it up because I want to drop what I’m using now for local video playback. I’ve had some good help here, but I’m still trying to get my system set up. We have multiple Apple TVs in the house and I use Infuse on my iOS devices and sometimes on my Mac. (I have a Pro membership.) So I have a lot I’m trying to get used to on Infuse. I have set up Trakt for t…

From 5 days ago, no responses:

New to Pro and haven't used Infuse for years

My main purpose is to play TV shows and movies stored as video files on an NAS on my LAN. I’ve been using another program to do this for a while, but want to move on to something else for a number of reasons. I’ve been trying to get used to Infuse for a while and it’s taken some time to get things set up and working. Right now I’m using Infuse Pro on my Mac, and two Apple TVs. I have them all signed in to Trakt and set to use iCloud for syncing. I can’t remember signing in to any of the three i…

From 5 days ago, responses and help on some topics from @NC_Bullseye , who I know has been here for years and is always helpful! (I’d even say he’s the main source of help here!)

New to Pro and haven't used Infuse for years

My main purpose is to play TV shows and movies stored as video files on an NAS on my LAN. I’ve been using another program to do this for a while, but want to move on to something else for a number of reasons. I’ve been trying to get used to Infuse for a while and it’s taken some time to get things set up and working. Right now I’m using Infuse Pro on my Mac, and two Apple TVs. I have them all signed in to Trakt and set to use iCloud for syncing. I can’t remember signing in to any of the three i…

From 4 days ago - no responses:

Casting - plays only audio on Apple TV

I’ve been using and experimenting with Infuse for a few months, and finally decided to go “all in” and get a Pro subscription and set things up so it can be my primary video player on Apple TV and my iPhone. I use videos to fall asleep to - without something like that playing, I can’t keep my brain still. I set up a number of playlists of old shows that I’ve seen many times and use them for working and sleeping. By “playlist,” I didn’t exactly make playlists. The NAS that has all the videos (av…

From 2 days ago - no responses:

Infuse Pro on 3 machines - basics don't work - they won't handle my video library and don't share

I’m trying to change to Infuse for viewing my local video library, which means it’s something my wife and I would use daily. I’ve had multiple functional issues and I’ve had some various responses, but, in most cases, I’m still trying to get basic functions to work on my systems. I don’t know if my messages and descriptions of the issues are unclear, or if my posts are just buried under newer posts, or if I’m asking questions that are tough to answer. (One question, for example, was about user p…

[rockdewey]

I think most of your issues would be solved by setting up a media server (Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby) and connecting it to Infuse. You have a large library, multiple devices, and multiple profiles on each device. The level of coordination needed to make it all work seamlessly isn’t necessarily beyond Infuse’s capabilities, but in practice, there are so many potential pitfalls. For example, iCloud syncing is famously capricious, and some of the features you want either aren’t implemented in Infuse or aren’t fully implemented. A centralized server specifically designed to manage media libraries would be much more reliable and flexible for your use case.

As for the AirPlay issue, there seems to be a long-standing system bug for which there’s still no fix.

[Tango]

Thanks! It’s so nice to get a reply and help with all this! I hope I don’t scare you off with more questions about what’s going on!

@rockdewey

long-standing system bug

Okay, that explains one of the issues - thank you! One weird thing is that, before I subscribed to Pro, it played all the TV shows I use for BGTV (BackGround TV - I need it in the background while I’m thinking and it helps me fall asleep). And now it works for some. I wish I could find out what the issue is that makes it work sometimes and not others, but I think I may start using VLC for casting. I realized there’s one advantage to using VLC: It doesn’t track what you have and haven’t watched, so if I fall asleep with something on, it doesn’t mark it was watched in Infuse.

@rockdewey

I think most of your issues would be solved by setting up a media server (Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby) and connecting it to Infuse.

I was kind of hoping to avoid that. I don’t want to get into naming or judging, but one of those is one I’m “fleeing from” at this point. I’m quite frustrated because they tend to treat Apple devices as “We’ll get to it when we get to it.” One big reason I like Infuse is it doesn’t require a server. I get what you’re saying, but I’m at the point where I look at things and think, “What will happen to this if I’m on a trip or gone and my wife is using this?” I don’t want her to have to deal with a Linux server and update server software. Plus, I’ve had a few other issues I don’t want to get into.

I would think, though, that if I have 3 instances of Infuse running, and they’re scanning the same share on an NAS, they should get the same numbers and all 3 should have the same number of TV shows, movies, and other videos. So that one is puzzling to me. (I have found some issues with naming the files that I had missed and I’m fixing those, so that’s on me - but when I finish a session of updating file names, and update all 3 Infuse instances, I would still think they would get the same answer each time from the same data.)

At this point, the main things I want to fix are to get the install on one ATV (which is identical to the other ATV that works) to be able to ID the files. (It still says 0 movies and 0 TV shows!) The other thing I’d like to do is get the Mac install of Infuse to sync with the others - as it is, it doesn’t sync with the others at all.

Are those two issues something that I should be able to fix without server software running?

(Also, I’m putting it on my list to check the servers besides the one I’m having issues with. I organize my files hierarchically and the one server I’m writing off can’t even check subdirectories for videos. It’s got other issues. But I’ll look into the other two for things like ease of install/updating and seeing how it handles other issues.)

[rockdewey]

@Tango

At this point, the main things I want to fix are to get the install on one ATV (which is identical to the other ATV that works) to be able to ID the files. (It still says 0 movies and 0 TV shows!) The other thing I’d like to do is get the Mac install of Infuse to sync with the others - as it is, it doesn’t sync with the others at all.

Are those two issues something that I should be able to fix without server software running?

I believe this should all work if you’re a Pro subscriber. I mainly use Infuse as a front end for Plex, connected in direct mode. I haven’t touched Infuse’s built-in library functionality in a long time.

By the way, Jellyfin supports scanning media more than one level deep, so I’d go with that if that’s your main issue with Plex. You’ll still have to follow the recommended naming conventions for media files, though, and I think Jellyfin is actually stricter than Plex in that regard. All of these media servers are pretty low-maintenance once you’ve set them up.

[Tango]

@rockdewey

I believe this should all work if you’re a Pro subscriber. I mainly use Infuse as a front end for Plex, connected in direct mode. I haven’t touched Infuse’s built-in library functionality in a long time.

I’m doing the bulk of my testing on my Mac and ATV1 (Both ATV1 and ATV2, for brevity, are A2625, 32GB, with 26.6 on them now.) ATV1 is in my study, near my Mac, so they were easy to use for testing. In the thread where I asked about syncing data, someone pointed out that Infuse only syncs between identical versions, so I checked and the Mac version was older. Updated and now things are syncing - collections I made on the Mac, what I’ve watched on ATV or the Mac - it’s all syncing now.

I eventually want to add 2 more profiles, but I’ll wait until I have everything working to do that. But at this point data is syncing. I don’t know if that’s through Trakt or iCloud. (Maybe I have it wrong, but I’m under the impression the iCloud syncing is just keeping the metadata up to date on each system - not for syncing between systems. (But I don’t know - maybe I’m really wrong.!)

I was having problems with using the Pro version on my systems - turns out there was some kind of weird issue with my bank and the card. (Not overdraft - my bank is looking into it.) My first sign of it was Infuse not restoring my Pro subscription. It’s resolved and I can use Pro again.

So the syncing is working, BUT for some reason ATV2 is simply NOT processing the video files. It has the right number for “Other,” so I know it’s scanned all the files on the NAS share. It’s just not processing or categorizing them - and it is signed in on Pro now.

In fact, what’s odd is it knows how many TV shows and episodes have been watched, so that (and my collections) are syncing. It just is not categorizing the files as movies or TV shows.

Thanks for the help! I was wondering just what was going on, since I was simply not getting any replies!

Do you, by chance, know what is shared through sync? Is it just metadata, or does it include anything like file information as well?

[remotevisitor]

What is synced via iCloud is documented here iCloud Sync – Firecore Support

[Tango]

In a separate thread, I was getting help from @james and pointed him to one of the threads in the list above and he gave solved it for me, so I’m updating here:

On one Apple TV, I had a problem where it had found all the files, but was NOT classifying any of them, so I had over 25,000 “Other” files, and 0 Moves and 0 TV Shows. It turns out the “Metadata Fetching” was off. I have no idea how that happened, but I’m sure it was at a point where I was trying to set things up. It’s not an option I would choose, so maybe I misread it. Anyway, I turned it on, went into Settings->Library->Refresh Metadata. It took a few minutes, I looked away, then the screensaver going on caught my eye, and I looked back and hit a button on the remote to stop the screensaver. At that point it had found a small number of movies and TV shows. The amount doesn’t matter - what does matter is it was FINALLY categorizing movies and TV shows so we can find 'em easily.

I’ve found I had a lot of TV shows (mostly old animated ones) that, due to them being cheaply done (yes, they were the official discs - just cheap - nobody ever accused Hanna Barbera of spending extra money!), I had ordered the files with volume, disk, and track numbers at the end (figuring I could go through, at some point and make sure they matched the right titles). So the frustrating part is that I have to go through and check and rename those files. Still, that’s on me and I always knew I’d have to do that at some point.

The biggest issues I had were syncing info (which started working once I made sure each Infuse install was the latest version) and getting that one ATV to classify all the files.

Also, I had some questions about collections. You cannot put a collection in another collection, but collection info does sync between systems.

Both of those are solved. So I’m taking a breather and I’ll deal with the issue of setting up profiles on my Apple profile. That should be the last issue I have to tackle.