I cannot see my iTunes videos in Joobik Player, even though they are not DRM protected

This article has moved to the new Joobik Player website: http://www.joobikplayer.com/f-a-q

Why doesn't Joobik Player show all my iTunes videos?

Apple do sell some of their videos with Digital Rights Management (DRM), some without. This policy differs from country to country. E.g. in Germany they usually sell music videos without DRM, but movies and tv shows are DRM protected. Depending on where you live some of your purchased videos might be DRM protected. You can check this in iTunes by inspecting the "Kind" property on a video. If it reads something like "Protected video file", Joobik Player will not be able to play it.

Please check all of the videos not appearing in Joobik Player for the "Kind" property in iTunes. If all of them are protected, Joobik Player hides them. This is a restriction by Apple. They let only their own apps access DRM protected content.

If you find any unprotected video not appearing in Joobik Player, this blog post might help.

Can Joobik Player show folders within folders, like my playlists in itunes?

Yes, when the Playlist Premium Pack is enabled,  Joobik Player will show playlist folders from iTunes!

Could we get play count syncing with iTunes?

This article has moved to the new Joobik Player website: http://www.joobikplayer.com/f-a-q

What does Joobik mean?

Joobik is a phonetic mixture of "Jukebox" and "ubiquitous". So it means: Your everywhere-jukebox! I thought, it looks a bit better written with "Joo", instead of "Ju".

Joobik Video Playlist Player- iTunes App Store Reviews Replied

Here I will answer some of the reviews of Joobik Video Playlist Player I received from iTunes app stores all over the world. Unfortunately the iTunes store doesn't give me the possibility to answer a review directly in the store. So this post is my way of giving feedback.

First of all, I want to say thank you to anybody who leaves a review comment to one of my apps at the iTunes store - Be it positive or negative! All these comments are valuable input and inspiration to my further app development!

But now let's start. I'll post the original comments, english translations (if needed), plus my replies, all sorted by date.

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2012/12/31 Endlich kontinuierlich Videos im Auto abspielen!

Germany - McGybrush
Joobik Player 2.0

Review (English Translation) - Finally I can play videos continuously in the car
There are some players that play videos continuously. But this one uses my existing smart playlists. I don't have to create new playlists or edit existing ones when I load new videos into my smart lists.
To my opinion, the swipe-to-skip-gesture is inverted. I would like to have this changed.

Review (Original - German)
Es gibt einige Player die das gleiche können. Aber dieser nutzt meine vorhandenen Intelligenten Wiedergabelisten und muss wenn ich öfter Videos nachlade nie eine eigene neue Wiedergabeliste erstellen bzw die alten erweitern. Ich kann einfach die nutzen die sowieso schon da sind. Das Titel weiter swipen mit der Gestensteuerung empfinde ich für mich leider als Spiegelverkehrt. In der CarTunes APP die so ähnlich für NICHT Videos ist, fühlt sich das swipen richtig rum an. Die dort enthaltenen Gesten sollten auch hier noch eingeführt werden. Trotzdem 5 Sterne.

Reply
Thanks a lot for this feature request, McGybrush! In Joobik Player 2.1 the swipe-to-skip gesture will be configurable in the app settings.

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2012/12/26 I can use my playlists again on my Ipad!

United States - Wendy NJ
Joobik Player 2.0

Review
Thank you so much for making this app.  Sadly my video playlists stopped working on my iphone and ipad 10/2012 and I figured out a workaround by changing the media type to music video.  It fixed the iphone problem, but the playlists still would not work on my ipad 1 and after some research, I found this app.  I liked that this app took my existing playlists and listed them as opposed to another where I had to recreate the playlists.  I do wish that it would show folders within folders, like my playlists in itunes, instead of listing all the folders separately by name.  Maybe a future version could support that.  Also, it is a little slow getting to the videos, but that could be because I have an original ipad 1!  I am very happy with this app as it allows me to see my videos easily in an organized fashion!  THANK YOU!

Reply
I'm very unhappy with the folder-thing, too, because this is how I do organize my playlists as well. So if there where a way of telling which playlist is actually a folder, it'd be the first thing I'd build into Joobik Player. But currently the guys from Apple do not provide any means to third party developers which would let them identify a folder hierarchy. A playlist folder on the iPad looks like a smart playlist to me, which contains only tracks, no other playlists.

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2012/12/14 Super App!

Germany - Oneo88
Joobik Player 2.0

Review (English Translation)
I own the App for 3 months and am very happy. Only shortcoming is that after shuffling it never starts playback from position 1, but from somewhere in the middle of the list.

Review (Original - German)
Besitze die APP. Seit 3 Monaten und bin sehr zufrieden. Einzigstes Manko ist das man bei der Shuffle Wiedergabe nie von Position 1 anfängt sondern irgendwo in der liste anfängt .

Reply
Thanks a lot for this bug report, Oneo88! In Joobik Player 2.1 it will be fixed!

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2012/12/11 Playlists keep vanishing

United States - Apple IIc User
Joobik Player 1.6

Review
This is a good program … until all my playlists vanish, first from my iPad Mini, and then upon syncing, from iTunes. The actual videos remain intact on the iPad, but the lists are gone. This has happened a few times.

Reply
In this case I can take all the fear from all of you: For a third-party-app (like Joobik Player is) it isn't possible to do any modifications to your iPad's, or (even worse) your Mac's or PC's iTunes library. Apple's programming interfaces do prevent this reliably. If you doubt, please inquire the Apple support team!So I guess your problems come either from the new behaviour and UI of iTunes 11, or you simply didn't sync your playlists correctly. Please find some playlist syncing instructions here.

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2012/12/02 Movie output

United States - Sancho2012
Joobik Player 1.6

Review
Is there a way that you can make it so that videos can play back when its hooked up with a j-link cable or do it through bluetooth?

Reply
If by "j-link" you mean J-Link, then it isn't. Just like it isn't for bluetooth. The current Apple programming interface available to third party developers does only support external screens via AirPlay out of the box. Apple does actively prevent third party apps from outputting video via cable. I guess the intention is to push AirPlay. Even if I could find a way of enabling tv out it could be they would reject my app from the app store due to their API usage rules.
There seem to be some workarounds for custom videos which are copied to the iPad via different ways than iTunes (like web videos). But I couldn't get this to work for videos from the iTunes library.

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2012/11/17 Fantastic App

United Kingdom - Kaves17
Joobik Player 1.6

Review
Great app, allows me to play all my video playlists. Could we get play count syncing to the music/video app?

Reply
Unfortunately Apple does not give write access to iTunes meta data to 3rd party apps. So it's currently not possible to modify play count and sync it back to any Apple app or iTunes.

How to sync video playlists from iTunes to iPod, iPhone, or iPad

Joobik Player plays videos from playlists synced to your iPod, iPhone, or iPad. To use it, please create a video playlist in iTunes and then sync the list to your device, not only the videos themselves.


For example: To sync a movie playlist, on the tab where you select videos for synchronization in iTunes, you have to either uncheck the "Automatically include" checkbox, or with the checkbox checked you must choose any other option than "All movies" from the drop down list in order to display the playlists for syncing.

On the "TV-Shows" tab it is the same.

If you have a mixed playlists, containing movies and tv shows for example, this playlist must be selected under the "Movies" and the "TV Shows" tab for syncing. Otherwise it will only contain either of the video types when synced to your iOS device.

iTunes Match Users: If you are using iTunes Match to sync your videos to your iOS device, you must download the videos from iCloud to the device in the first place. Only then they will appear in Joobik Player. Downloading can be done with the standard Apple iOS Video or Music App.
When iTunes Match is turned on on your iOS device, Joobik Player will not be able to recognize iTunes Folders.

Detailed instructions about iTunes Match can be found in this blog post.