Your downloads, even without a connection
You can now download movies and episodes to your iPhone and watch them with no signal: on a plane, on the subway, or when the server at home is down. Without a connection, the Library tab switches to what's on your phone, and what you watch there syncs back once you reconnect.
Full release notes
✅ Works with MovieClaw Server 0.28.0 or later, the same as 0.7.0. Downloading to iPhone needs Server 0.38.0 or later. That server version requires a Docker image update. On older servers, the download options don't appear. Install from TestFlight, or sideload the unsigned IPA from https://github.com/movieclaw/MovieClaw/releases/tag/ios-v0.8.0. It's no longer attached to the server release.
Highlights
Take a movie or a whole season with you
Streaming from home stops the moment you lose signal. Now you can download ahead of time and play straight from your iPhone. Open a title in the library, tap the ⋯ button (更多操作) at the top right → Download (下载), pick a quality, then tap Download at the top right of the sheet.
- Choose the original file, or a 1080p / 720p / 480p version below the source's resolution that the server converts while you download. Their sizes are estimates (marked ≈) and aren't always smaller than the original.
- Smaller versions need a server that can transcode, and HDR titles need a GPU or the Mac transcoder; otherwise only the original is offered. They turn HDR into SDR, keep one stereo audio track, and leave out image-based subtitles (PGS).
- Blu-ray and DVD folders and ISO images can't be downloaded yet.
- For shows, choose this episode, the next few, the unwatched ones, or all that remain; episodes already on your iPhone are skipped. You can also long-press an episode card → Download this episode (下载这一集).
- Downloads use Wi-Fi only by default, and may not run on Wi-Fi in Low Data Mode or on an iPhone hotspot. To allow cellular: Me → Downloads → the gear button (下载设置) → Use cellular data for downloads (使用蜂窝网络下载).
- The app leaves 2 GB free. If a download won't fit, the sheet shows how much space is needed and you can't start it.
When the server is out of reach, your downloads are still there
Without a connection to your server, you used to see nothing at all. Now, when your iPhone has no network (for example in airplane mode), the Library tab switches to the titles on your iPhone, with a row to pick up where you left off. It may also switch if the server can't be reached right after you open the app, or after the app has been in the background for more than 10 minutes. When the server answers again, the app goes back online by itself, or you can tap Reconnect (重新连接).
- A slow network doesn't switch you offline. If the home screen reports a connection error, tap Watch the N on iPhone (看 iPhone 上的 N 部) to switch yourself.
- Offline mode only appears when at least one finished download is on your iPhone.
- What you watch offline is added to your progress and history once you reconnect, with the time you actually watched it.
- While offline, Discover, Subscriptions, Activity, Search, AI sessions and Settings show a placeholder. Title pages are read-only.
- Known issue: while offline, the ▶ button (片段) and the ⋯ menu at the top of the Library tab, the cast on title pages, and the AI message box on the Me tab (administrators) still respond but can't load or send. Use them once you're back online.
More features and improvements
- One page for all downloads: Me → Downloads (下载) lists downloads in progress, downloaded titles, a suggestion to delete what you've finished, other accounts' downloads on this iPhone, and storage used. Swipe or long-press a title to delete it; this only removes the iPhone copy and keeps your watch progress. While something downloads, a bar on the Library home opens this page.
- Downloads run one at a time: progress shows on the episode card, or above the Play button for movies. To stop a movie, tap ⋯ → Cancel download (取消下载). For a show, long-press the episode card to pause or cancel, or tap ⋯ → Cancel all downloads (取消全部下载). Downloads may also continue in the background or with the phone locked.
- Downloaded titles play from your iPhone, even when you're connected: you get the quality you downloaded, and the resume point follows the server when it's reachable. To stream from the server again, delete the iPhone copy. To change quality, long-press the Local (本机) row under Files → Download another quality (改下其他画质); the old copy is deleted right away.
- Signing out asks about downloads: when you sign out of the current account, you can delete its downloads or keep them for the next time you sign in. Sign out of all accounts (退出全部账号) offers to delete every download on this iPhone.
For administrators
- Members can download to their devices by default. To stop a member, on the web go to Settings → Members → Edit member → turn off Download videos to device (下载影片到设备); the iPhone app doesn't have this switch.
- Turning it off stops new and unfinished downloads; copies already on the phone still play. Downloads in Infuse and other players may be blocked too.
- Smaller versions use the same transcoding as playback (GPU, Mac transcoder, or software transcoding if you enabled it). Only one is converted at a time, and it waits while playback needs the transcoder. Each file is deleted once the phone finishes downloading it, unless another device at home still needs it.
- Known issue: cancelling or deleting a download on iPhone doesn't stop its conversion on the server. Everything already queued, such as a whole season, is still converted, and the copies stay for at least 72 hours. To stop it, stop the container, delete the
cache/offline-exportsfolder in the data directory, then start the container. Unfinished smaller-quality downloads for the account signed in on the iPhone start over by themselves a while after the app is next opened; if one shows an error, delete it and download it again. - Known issue: if the Mac transcoder goes offline while the server has no other way to convert (an HDR title, or software transcoding off), the current conversion stays at Waiting for the transcoder (等待转码器空闲) and everything behind it waits too. Bring the transcoder back online, or clear the queue as in the previous item.
Before you update
- The title page's ⋯ menu no longer has Search resources (搜索资源). Go back to the tab's home page, tap the magnifier button (搜索) at the top right, switch to Resources (资源), and type the title. It's no longer filled in for you.
- The title page's ⋯ menu no longer has Clear watch history (清除观看记录). In the app you can only clear by time or by library, from the ⋯ next to Continue Watching (接下来继续) on the Library home, which appears when that row is showing. The web title page can still clear a single title.
- The rest of that menu is regrouped: Download, Add to collection and Share (administrators) sit in one row at the top. Administrators find the maintenance actions under Manage (管理), and Delete (删除影片) is now Delete from library (从媒体库删除).
- Downloads aren't included in iPhone backups. After moving to a new iPhone or restoring from a backup, download them again.
- If you go back to 0.7.0, downloaded files may stay on your iPhone and use space without being visible. Delete them in Me → Downloads before downgrading.
Full changes: ios-v0.7.0 → ios-v0.8.0.