I have created a playlist with all of my albums in it and have downloaded this playlist to the iPhone in ARC (9980 tracks / 732 Albums)
When using ARC online I can see and navigate all of my albums in the ‘Album’ view within ARC, I can also search etc…
When using ARC in offline mode (or with aeroplane mode on), I can no longer see any albums in album view and cannot search (although recent searches return cached results) The only way to access downloaded content is to access the playlist in the ‘Downloads’ view. Doing this gives me a flat list of 9980 tracks with no search and no option to view/sort by album etc.
Why is this a problem? - If ARC is to replace Apple Music, or remove the need to carry a separate DAP, then I need to be able to navigate my local synced content when travelling and/or temporarily without internet (e.g. when on a flight)
I think you was advised to do this in another post. However, that isn’t the correct way in order to view albums.
What you need to do is download each album you want to be stored as offline. This way, you can play each album. If you wanted to shuffle albums/tracks then the playlist that you’ve created is only way it can be achieved. While it can be somewhat of an annoyance having to do them one by one, it is the only way for now. We’re only on a very early build of ARC to stop us all moaning that we couldn’t take our music outside the home.
IMHO, for those wanting offline access to their entire library, ARC’s severe limitations with downloaded albums/playlists is way more than somewhat of an annoyance.
As it stands for offline listening via ARC, it’s fine if you just want to take a few albums or playlists with you, but beyond that, no.
Btw, there’s at least one thread where a user is unable to play some of his/her downloaded albums with the phone in Airplane Mode (ie - completely offline).
It’ll be interesting to see if ARC develops into a much more useful and user friendly offline player, or if the focus will remain on online streaming.
