DS Get replacement application for iOS with DS Download Manager app

[Appsley]

Dear Download Station users,

As you all know, Synology decided to not continue the DS Get app. Sadly, this forced a lot of iOS users to use alternative applications on the App Store. Since I have been developing iOS applications for quite some time, I've decided to make my own for some simple reasons:

• Full control over the applications implementation.
• Be 100% sure the application I'm using is safe to use.
• As a developer, you always want to learn new cool things.

I have been testing it for some time myself, and I'm looking for a few (2 people) of you that are willing to test the application (you will be provided with a promo code). Please DM in case you would like to participate in giving me feedback.

Currently the application has a lot of the basic features that DS Get used to. Logging in with OTP, QuickConnect and all the fancy things are supported. Adding/removing tasks and using the search modules on your NAS is also implemented (currently very basic).

You can find the application in the App Store with the name "DS Download Manager". If you would like a direct link, you can also DM me.

Hope I can make some of you happy with this.

Cheers,
Wesley

 

[briankfree]

One feature that some of the other 'alternatives' have an issue with is that there is no pagination of subfolders. For instance, if I were to direct a download task into a subfolder where there happens to be more than 1000 folders, I cannot see anything past folder 1000. Is that something this app supports?

 

[Appsley]

Hmm interesting. I haven't tested whether that works since that is probably a pretty rare use case, but it would be good to see if that works (hence why I need some people that would like to foolproof the app). It could be something to indeed fix if it doesn't.

 

[robwired]

Hi Wesley!

I’m sort of a DS Get enthusiast and have purchased or tried every app so far meant to replace it. Some torrent sites use magnet links and some host .torrent files.
i’ve found that some of the iOS apps work with magnet links and others with .torrents but for some reason none work well with both as either the magnet links don’t open the DS Get style apps or the apps don’t have their iOS share sheets working for their app to appear in Safari.

Could you please make your app free to try so that we can all give you feedback and simply enable in-app purchases for use over 7 days or to unlock it with payment or subscription?

if you make a great app Im sure many will pay your fee or even become subscriptions but its hard to make a 4th purchase for a DS Get app when none of the devs will finish the basic features.

Also, any reason not to make it iPad size too so I can fully manage torrents there?

 

[Telos]

Would be logical to offer a full 30-day trial, benefitting bother developer and user.

FWIW, Download Station is quite a limited and outdated tool. My first action would be to avoid it altogether.

 

[robwired]

I could write a novel with my experiences in trying to replicate DS Get and workarounds.

I thought that the Orion browser would be the answer since it allows any Chrome/Firefox or Safari browser extension, but its not ready for real world use yet and the extensions wouldn’t connect to Synologt. It would be really cool to have a browser extension that actually works though like the deprecated Safari Synology download extension.

I tried other browsers other than Safari but each has a hiccup. The closest I got was Edge and Opera and after downloading the.torrent file I then save to a designated torrent download folder and Synology loads the torrenf file automatically. While this does work, magnets don’t open correctly using any if these DS Get apps.

i am talking to the devs of each and hope with lots of back and forth to get them fixed but wow, its a big job for what should not be a big task.

i haven’t tried this app so hopefully the dev will take my advice and make it in-app purchase rather than upfront.

i would be willing to pay $25 for an app that has all the functionality of Synology Download Station. There ar so many pieces so the devs could enable each part for $5 easy.

 

[Appsley]

It's hard to make an app for free. There are currently apps in the App Store that look "free" but have a paywall with a subscription model when you try to login. I personally hate this, hence I've done it different. A one time payment, and you will get free updates. You have to understand that it costs a lot of time to create even the initial version that I have created so far. For now, it's a very low price to pay for at least the simple functionality.

I am looking for testers that are willing to test the app's currently functionality and provide me with more insights into what would make sense to make next. If you are willing to test the application, I can provide a TestFlight version (which is ahead of the App Store version) for testing purposes. Obviously, you can use it fully.

 

[robwired]

How did you misunderstand that we are talking about you being paid more for your work, not less?

No one suggested the app be free. Neither an in-app purchase nor a subscription model, which were suggested are free. If anything, they provide a lot more options for both devs and users to pay more for an app as they can support features that they want.

DS Get has a lot of different modules and you can certainly charge separately for each one with users deciding which works best for them.

If you don’t want to give a 30 day demo then make it 7 days or even 3 days.

The point is that you want the largest number of users trying your app to see if it has value. There are some people who will fund a kickstarter but there are many who won’t and want to drive the car around the block.

Once you have users on board and revenue growing you can devote more time which is a win-win for all.

i‘d be thrilled to be a testflight contributor but I still feel like you should reconsider using modern marketing options.

Rob

 

[Appsley]

I suppose you have a fair point. I would need to reconsider it at a later stage. I think the app is not at the level I would want to ask a lot of money for it. A few dollars now is fine for the limited amount of features one gets.

For now, I would want to bring the app into a really good working state before changing or looking into updating the payment model.

 

[robwired]

i’m gonna be a friend here and help you past this belief system.

Again, no one is asking you to charge more or less, just giving people an opportunity to try it then pay exactly the same amount to then have usage of it.

Just add an in-payment option of the exact same amount that you are charging now.

Whether you feel it the app is worth more or less is irrelevant to the concept of people trying it, right?

its better to have people come into the store and take a look and possibly buy than to lock the front door, isn’t it?

 

[WST16]

I could write a novel with my experiences in trying to replicate DS Get and workarounds.

Did you try DS Manager Pro? it has a DS module. I’m not a heavy user so I might not be the right person to give feed back, but it works for me especially on the iPad. I can launch it floating and drag and drop magnet links to it.

 

[robwired]

DS Manager Pro is beautiful but there are problems right now with opening .torrent downloaded files and its still very buggy. The dev did tell me he is going to fix the issues soon and he seems responsive so we will see. I bought the lifetime subscription so I really hope it gets fixed soon.

The larger problem is that it is missing 80% of the Download Station functionality. 20% isnt bad for a start though. Hopefully he doesn’t decide that 20% is enough.

I accepted Wesleys beta invite today and gave him feedback. In a week I will hopefully be able to report good news, right Wesley?

 

[Appsley]

DS Manager Pro is beautiful but there are problems right now with opening .torrent downloaded files and its still very buggy. The dev did tell me he is going to fix the issues soon and he seems responsive so we will see. I bought the lifetime subscription so I really hope it gets fixed soon.

The larger problem is that it is missing 80% of the Download Station functionality. 20% isnt bad for a start though. Hopefully he doesn’t decide that 20% is enough.

I accepted Wesleys beta invite today and gave him feedback. In a week I will hopefully be able to report good news, right Wesley?

So far thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure about the timeline. But it's for sure a priority to solve said things.

 

[javifields]

Dear Download Station users,

As you all know, Synology decided to not continue the DS Get app. Sadly, this forced a lot of iOS users to use alternative applications on the App Store. Since I have been developing iOS applications for quite some time, I've decided to make my own for some simple reasons:

• Full control over the applications implementation.
• Be 100% sure the application I'm using is safe to use.
• As a developer, you always want to learn new cool things.

I have been testing it for some time myself, and I'm looking for a few (2 people) of you that are willing to test the application (you will be provided with a promo code). Please DM in case you would like to participate in giving me feedback.

Currently the application has a lot of the basic features that DS Get used to. Logging in with OTP, QuickConnect and all the fancy things are supported. Adding/removing tasks and using the search modules on your NAS is also implemented (currently very basic).

You can find the application in the App Store with the name "DS Download Manager". If you would like a direct link, you can also DM me.

Hope I can make some of you happy with this.

Cheers,
Wesley

I would like to test it (I don’t see it with that name in the App Store in Spain)

 

[Appsley]

I would like to test it (I don’t see it with that name in the App Store in Spain)

For now, I have a few people testing the application and getting a lot of input. Mostly on wanting more features. So for now, I will focus on adding more features.

It's weird that you cannot find it on the App Store. You should be able to find it. Otherwise I'll DM you the link.

 

[Appsley]

Good news for everyone using the application. The latest update has a better task detail screen + will open magnet links from the browser.

 

[Appsley]

Glad to give another update. Due to testers helping me out, I have put out a new version which contains a lot of new things since the latest update on the forum. Some of the features include a share extension (a big wish from @robwired too ), and RSS feed support.

 

[briankfree]

One feature that some of the other 'alternatives' have an issue with is that there is no pagination of subfolders. For instance, if I were to direct a download task into a subfolder where there happens to be more than 1000 folders, I cannot see anything past folder 1000. Is that something this app supports?

Thanks for continuing to update this app. Any chance my previous question has been addressed? This is a pretty big deal for me. I can't really use this app if I cannot select subfolders past a certain number. If you need more information about this particular scenario, please feel free to reach out. Thanks!

 

[Appsley]

Thanks for continuing to update this app. Any chance my previous question has been addressed? This is a pretty big deal for me. I can't really use this app if I cannot select subfolders past a certain number. If you need more information about this particular scenario, please feel free to reach out. Thanks!

I did test whether that's the case, and it seems that it does work. Which means it was already working in the very first version . I've tested it with 2000 folders currently.

 

[briankfree]

Thanks. I also downloaded it and tested this. Confirm this is working now. I do get some resets and refreshes sometimes, that seemingly takes me back to the 'Tasks' tab, even when I'm scrolling or on a different page. Also had it simply just take me back to the login screen as well. I will continue to keep looking at this and so far it seems improved from earlier this year.