# Proposal for Auto Download Redesign

**URL:** https://forum.antennapod.org/t/proposal-for-auto-download-redesign/1291
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [September 3, 2021, 4:38am UTC](https://forum.antennapod.org/t/proposal-for-auto-download-redesign/1291 "2021-09-03T04:38:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 5

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### Author: ![ByteHamster](https://forum.antennapod.org/user_avatar/forum.antennapod.org/bytehamster/32/4041_2.png) [@ByteHamster](https://forum.antennapod.org/u/ByteHamster)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://forum.antennapod.org/t/proposal-for-auto-download-redesign/1291/5 "2021-09-13T06:08:46Z")

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Sorry, it took a while because the text is really long and because the redesign is coupled with quite a few difficult decisions.

> [@peakvalleytech](#):
>
> Overtime other features were added without a proper redisgn leading to our current need for a complete rework.

Yup, that’s the main problem with auto download

> [@peakvalleytech](#):
>
> replacing it with a feed specific setting ‘keep last N episodes’

I think the reworked setting should be in some way backwards compatible. Otherwise, we risk a bunch of complaints by users. So there should be a way to set it up that is “close enough” to the current behavior (whatever that means).

> [@peakvalleytech](#):
>
> Soft meanig that the will not eforce that epsidoes passed N will not be allowed. The setting only makes sure the last N episodes are downloaded. No assumtions will be made about episodes past N. This will be entirely managed by a seperate episode auto delete feature.

Sounds good to me but I think there still needs to be some kind of global setting. We also have a request somewhere to limit the total auto-downloaded episodes by storage space, which doesn’t really make sense on a per-subscription basis.

> [@peakvalleytech](#):
>
> This means auto deleting will now only be found and set under one location (maybe storage settings).

I like that it is decoupled. Still, I wonder how it would work in the UI. Would there be two independent per-subscription settings to set the numbers for auto download and auto delete? I don’t really see a use case for two different numbers there. Then we would need to come up with a good name, though.

> [@peakvalleytech](#):
>
> Have a defaultl N setting and a retain the gobal setting to turn on auto download for all feeds

If you are subscribed to, say, 10 feeds but 5 of them are “dead” (no longer produce new episodes), setting the default N could be confusing. I like the idea though. Not sure how to tweak it for clarity.

> [@peakvalleytech](#):
>
> It will implment many of the suggestions regarding finer control of auto delete

When auto delete is set to something like “episodes older than x days, independently of listened or not”, this would overwrite auto-download, right? So even if it is in the top N episodes, it doesn’t get downloaded. When now increasing the N, we need to make sure that we don’t download all N episodes and immediately delete them afterwards (that’s the advantage of having the features coupled: they work together. Still, I think it is better to decouple)

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