Plexamp is the best reason to host your own music library. It turns your Plex server into a personal Spotify with one killer advantage: offline downloads of your own lossless music. Commuting, flying, camping, or anywhere without reliable internet — your full-quality library comes with you. Here’s how to set it up and fix it when it breaks.
Setting Up Offline Downloads
Requirements
- Plex Pass subscription (required for Plexamp)
- Plexamp app (iOS, Android, desktop)
- A Plex Music library with properly tagged files
- Enough device storage for the music you want offline
How to Download Content
- Open Plexamp and navigate to an album, playlist, or artist
- Tap the download icon (arrow pointing down) next to the content
- The download starts immediately over your current connection (WiFi recommended)
- Downloaded content shows a checkmark and is available in the Downloads section
Smart Downloads
Plexamp can automatically download content based on your listening habits:
- Recently played: Automatically download your recently played albums and playlists
- Sonic Adventure stations: Download auto-generated radio stations based on your library
- Playlists: Set any playlist to auto-sync — new tracks added to the playlist are automatically downloaded
Configure these in Plexamp Settings → Downloads → Smart Downloads.
Audio Quality Settings
Plexamp lets you control the quality of downloaded music separately from streaming quality:
- Original: Downloads the exact file from your server (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, whatever you have). Best quality, largest file size. A typical FLAC album is 300–500 MB
- High (320 kbps): Transcodes to high-quality AAC/MP3. Good balance of quality and size. A typical album is 80–120 MB
- Normal (192 kbps): Smaller files, still decent quality for most listening scenarios
- Low (128 kbps): Minimal storage use, suitable for podcasts and background listening
Set download quality in Settings → Downloads → Download Quality. If your library is already in lossy format (MP3/AAC), choosing Original avoids re-transcoding and quality loss.
Managing Storage
Offline music can consume significant storage, especially with lossless files:
- Check current download size: Settings → Downloads → Storage Used
- Set a maximum storage limit: Settings → Downloads → Maximum Storage
- When the limit is reached, oldest downloads are automatically removed to make room for new ones
- To free space immediately: go to Downloads, swipe left on any album/playlist, and tap Delete
Rule of thumb: 1 GB of storage holds about 15–20 FLAC albums or 80–100 MP3 albums at 320 kbps.
Troubleshooting Download Issues
Downloads stuck at 0% or failing
- Check your internet connection (downloads require server access)
- Verify remote access is working in Plex Settings → Remote Access
- Check available device storage — downloads fail silently when storage is full
- Restart Plexamp and try again
- If downloads work on WiFi but not cellular, check that Plexamp is allowed to use cellular data in your phone’s settings
Downloaded music won’t play offline
This usually means the download didn’t complete fully. When you go truly offline (airplane mode), only fully downloaded tracks play. Partially downloaded tracks show in the list but won’t play. Delete and re-download while on a stable connection.
Plexamp shows "server unavailable" but downloads should work offline
Plexamp needs a brief initial authentication check even for offline content. If the server is completely unreachable and Plexamp hasn’t authenticated recently, it may not recognize the local downloads. The workaround: make sure Plexamp is open and authenticated while you still have internet, then switch to offline/airplane mode.
Best Practices
- Download over WiFi. Large FLAC libraries can consume gigabytes of cellular data
- Use playlists for curation. Create a "Travel" or "Offline" playlist, add music to it, and set it to auto-sync
- Keep your library tagged properly. Album art, artist names, and track numbers in your files’ metadata directly affect Plexamp’s display and organization
- Use 320 kbps for mobile devices. The difference between 320 kbps and FLAC is inaudible through earbuds in noisy environments, and you’ll fit 4–5x more music in the same storage space