Video Application Cache

Question

Hi All,

a user of my app has just made me aware of the fact, that all videos in the HTML5 player are cached on the disk. (In package folder/AC)
This can quickly get very big when watching HD videos etc. (especially on a device with only 20GB or of usable space or so...)

How can I clear this cache?

Is this cache automatically cleaned by Windows?

I can't see the files causing the large folder size in Windows Explorer, and I can't find any documentation on what cache this is.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

CensoredUser

Answer 1

Hi,

Please try the code as follow:

<video id="video-01" height="320" width="480" controls>
    <source src="my-video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>
…
<script>
    document.getElementById('video-01').autobuffer = false;
</script>

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Answer 2

Hi,

this does not fix my issue. The video still buffers and plays fine, but it is still cached in the app's package folder.
(C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Packages\%packagename%\AC)

Essentially what I am looking for is a way to clear obsolete data from this cache (like after the video has played).
Of course I would only need this if this cache is not maintained by Windows automagically (which would save me all the work).

So my question is: is the cache (in the folder mentioned above) cleared by Windows when it is obsolete or space is needed?
If not, how do I clear it programmatically?

Thanks

Answer 3

Hi,

I think the job you could do is not download the video automatically. And you could set <video preload="auto|metadata|none">.

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Answer 4

Hi,

again, this doesn't fix my issue. I don't mind the player buffering, in fact I want the player to buffer. But I don't want to keep that buffered data in the Application Cache if Windows doesn't automatically reclaim this space. I want the buffered data to be removed after the video has finished playing or another source has been selected.

Again, the main question I have is whether this cache (C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Packages\%packagename%\AC) is managed by Windows and whether the space is reclaimed by Windows when there is little Local Storage space left.

Thanks for your help

Censored

Answer 5

Hi,

I think you can't do that directly with winjs.

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Answer 6

I have done some more research into this. The folder that is causing the large size is INetCache.
This folder contains images loaded from the web via setting img tags src, as well as video data loaded from the video tag.
The folder is set as protected OS file folder, that's why I couldn't see it initially.

I suppose the space this folder uses is then automatically cleared when the Disk is low on space?

Answer 7

Hi,

Ok. Have a try with ApplicationData.ClearAsync() http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh701423.aspx .

If that still doesn't work. I think there is no better way.

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Answer 8

Okay I tried it. It does not work. It clears all Data BUT the cache I want to clear.
I looked in the C# Forums Matt Small actually stated there is no way of clearing this cache.

For me one question remains open though: will Windows delete old Files here automatically?
Because if that does not happen, a 16GB Drive could fill up very quickly just by the user watching a bunch of HD videos.

Thanks for all your help on this!

Answer 9

Yes, it is cleared automatically by Windows.  We have not published what that algorithm is however.

-Jeff

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Jeff Sanders (MSFT)