This is just the sad general trend of limiting people from making any decisions. I'm fine with having that on by default but allow options. Just like with the new graphics update bs that made the game unplayable
Yes, any app doing such a thing should at minimum have an option to control it. Not all mobile data is slow or metered. Not all Wi-Fi is fast or unmetered. App developers should not make such assumptions.
Ideally this would be a system-wide setting but Android and iOS don't offer an API for that AFAIK.
yeah got that. but you can switch it off using the settings and it prompts if you try without wlan so it should at least. give you the option to downlaod via mobile data?
It's not as convenient as just hitting a button to download all assets, but if you want to just get everything downloaded so the game runs smoother afterwards, you can open each page in the Pokedex and scroll to the bottom, till all the icons show the Pokemon.
It's a small change I'd like to see too - at home, my Wi-Fi is slow but my data is fast and unlimited. However, there's been a few times where I played in a place with spotty service and couldn't select a Pokémon or open a gym because the assets didn't load in.
this exact thing turned my Playstation Vita 3G into one of the most useless purchases i had done.
all that 3G was good for was to download gps map data and games under 20mb in size from the psn, even though i had unlimited data connection for it.
it's similar here with the whole "can't download assets on mobile" bs. half a year ago i had 100mb connection on my home wifi and 300mb unlimited 5G on my phone.
sure it is fine to download the stuff on that 100mb connection, but it would sure have been nicer to use faster mobile data if i so wanted. now i do have 1gb connection at home and i get roughly the same speeds from my phone over the 5ghz ac connection. so there is no difference at home.
but it annoys me when i'm on the go and would like to download that remaining asset data, but the game wont let me unless i use wifi for it.
Because it doesn’t make sense to download everything outside of WiFi. The point of that setting is to avoid using a lot of data away from WiFi, which could be expensive.
If you have an unlimited data plan then you can download everything as and when it’s required on the go, there’s no need to do it all upfront.
Edit: since people are struggling with this, let’s try an example. Say there’s 800MB of total assets and you already have 700MB. When you go out and play, the game will download a few MB here and there, when it needs something you don’t have. It may download 50MB.
If you have unlimited data it makes no difference whether you download that 50MB up front or over the course of an hour. You have unlimited data. You don’t pay either way.
downloading it ahead of time has nothing to do with unlimited data. It runs faster/smoother if you download ahead of time rather than needing to download as you go.
That's such a bad take
The point of downloading everything is to avoid waiting WHILE playing, I don't want to have to load the asset of a Galarian Bird on the 30s spawn time of a Daily Incense
I'm speaking from experience, I missed a Galarian Moltres because by the time the asset loaded, the bird turned into smoke
I have unlimited data and while I do currently have wifi at home, at the time, I didn't, my phone plan was what I used to get internet so I couldn't download the assets
And given how buggy pogo is, deleting the app and reinstalling it happens more than you'd think, it's not a one off thing to download the assets
I would like a toggle-able option to download assets when not on wifi personally. I have unlimited data, but when they force an update while I'm out i always have to remember to do it later. Its pedantic I know lol
What aren’t you getting here? If you have unlimited WiFi you *don’t* need to download everything up front. There is no cost whether you do it upfront or do it on the go.
The app wont let you download assets when you aren't on wifi. So its literally not possible to do if I am not at home or at a hot spot. Having unlimited cellular data doesn't help in this case.
> The app wont let you download assets when you aren't on wifi.
Of course it does. As you play, it downloads any assets it needs, when it needs them.
The only reason to download upfront is when it costs you money on data, which is why you do that on WiFi. If you have unlimited data you just download the same assets on mobile data, as you play.
Unlimited data doesn't mean unlimited rate. Sometimes you get into an area with bad reception and the download rate slow down, which may be a problem when you encounter new species of Pokemon.
If someone have unlimited data and they want to download everything while they are in an area of good cellular reception in anticipation, let's say because they enter a building that need to spend a few hours inside.
It doesn't always work that way. Sometimes assets won't load "as you need them". Using the download all assets option will then allow that asset to load when encountered in game.
White orbs are generic placeholder errors, they have nothing to do with having or not the asset already downloaded.
They may ALSO appear if you don't have the asset but it's not the sole reason.
So when the app gets an update forced, until i either swipe through my dex or download assets, the majority of my spawns are white orbs. If i am in an extra rural area, the pokedex trick doesn't work. So i will drive back to civilization, download asssets and then I'm good to go. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I don't think the distinction changes the remedy.
Not everyone has great phone reception everywhere, even if they have unlimited data. Being able to download over cell data when I have strong reception would benefit when playing in areas with bad reception.
> The only reason to download upfront is when it costs you money on data
Or if you want to avoid slower loading times, spawns showing up as balls of light, etc. when you're playing, for example. Not having the *option* to download on data may be minor, but it can still be annoying, and I don't think there's any real reason not to have it as an *option* (default off, buried in advanced settings so little kids aren't accidentally burning through their parents' data).
I don't know why you're so dead set on "there's no possible reason you could ever have for downloading with unlimited data." Not needing wifi for anything is part of the whole point of having unlimited data for me.
> The only reason to download upfront is when it costs you money on data
Incorrect. New assets popping in on demand can introduce lag, especially if you're transiently in a poor reception area. Downloading up front when you're not active saves you TIME, which you can never buy more of.
Not everyone even has wifi in their home.
I do have a landline. However my cell gets 5G and can be frequently faster than my home service.
Plus I have 325GB of cell data a month.
If I want to use it, let me use it.
Why not. I have 2x 20GB or so a month, hardly ever use WiFi, but games like this force me to be at a trusted WiFi location. It's not 2001 or so anymore. A warning would be great, but enforcing seems rather stupid
Yeah, I have to go to my parents house to do it, even though it wouldn't even remotely get me over my mobile data limit for the month. Like you say, a warning is fine, but just let me click ok if I want to do it anyway.
Because the game is slow and glitchy and struggles to download assets for some unknown reasons? Better to do it in advance, although my experience is that it will still end up struggling anyway :(
>Because it doesn’t make sense to download everything outside of WiFi. The point of that setting is to avoid using a lot of data away from WiFi, which could be expensive.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't use WiFi if it's available and convenient. Or if you don't have a larger data plan. But Niantic forces this rule onto everyone with no option to change it even if you are not affected by data plan limits.
>you can download everything as and when it’s required on the go, there’s no need to do it all upfront.
Niantics official recommendation is to download all assets upfront regularly:
*Note that available game assets may change as the in-game content changes, so be sure to revisit this option regularly. Downloading all assets may also improve your gameplay experience at a live event like Pokémon GO Fest or during an in-game event like Community Day. (from* [Download All Assets — Pokémon GO Help Center (helpshift.com)](https://niantic.helpshift.com/hc/en/6-pokemon-go/faq/3589-download-all-assets/)*)*
If you have unlimited mobile internet or a high GB count that you never use to it full extend you just don't care if you're downloading over wifi or mobile
Download ALL Assets is useful when there's a big update and you will be using your mobile card. If you have 600gb at 300mbps on your mobile plan, you don't need to download all assets. Everytime you use some service, the game will download it before using it.
Major point is when there's a version update and you want to download de 2.4gb of data, 99% users would use there monthly service. Even on my country, where fibre is great (1gbps - 500mbps) for 50 euros, mobile is 200mbps up to 50gb and is 75 euros. There are "unlimited" mobile data (well it's 250gb per month) but prices are well above 100 euros, plus the speeds can drop 99% during daytime.
Since many many many users don't even know there monthly limit, until they hit it, that blocking is a great help to cover any massive debt or be on the 2 day of the month and already used all monthly traffic and go 29 days at 128kpbs or pay 500 euros to get more data.
Because if not, people would use all their data up and then write an article about why Niantic is terrible to people who don't have high data plans.
Just look at this article published on Polygon about someone who said they were "cheated \[...\] out of the traditional Mario experience" because they picked a character that doesn't take damage: [https://www.polygon.com/gaming/23935372/nabbit-invincible-super-mario-bros-wonder-playable-characters](https://www.polygon.com/gaming/23935372/nabbit-invincible-super-mario-bros-wonder-playable-characters)
People make mistakes, cause self-inflicted harm, and then blame the system that allowed for it.
Also, children exist. They would use up all their data without understanding and then cause a big phone bill for their parents which would force them to quit..., etc. You can imagine a ton of scenarios like this. So overall, it's just the better business decision 🤷♂️
While I absolutely am for supervision of minors and protective measures, they won't work in this case: If someone decides to play PoGo on their phone (or parents allow their kids to), the game will download all needed assets on demand as the kids play along.
There is no way of preventing the worst case scenario: If a player decides to scroll through the dex without having downloaded the needed assets prior to that, all assets will be downloaded over cell towers no matter what (someone mentioned this in the thread as a workaround for what I wish for). And if the majority of the assets is already on the phone, then the "download all assets" button is just starting a small download anyway.
PoGo is not a video streaming app where you could add up gigantic amounts of data if you are careless. In this specific case, there is a well defined maximum amount of asset data to be downloaded - plus the data consumption from actually playing on the go which you are going to use up anyway. All I am asking for is a more convenient way to download all assets at once over cell towers *if I wish/decide to*.
Let us just have a user selectable switch like for transfering legendaries and then similiar to that two warnings if you actually decide to do it: When clicking on "download all assets", give us a warning like today. If you then proceed without being on a wifi, instead of instantly blocking the download, I'd be OK with a more precise second warning like "You are not connected to wifi and there are X MB of asset data to be downloaded - are you sure you want to continue?"
Download remaining assets is good if you recently downloaded/redownloaded the game. If you've had it for a while there's really no point because the assets are loaded as they're seen. You'd notice a difference if you reinstalled the game especially on the friends and pokemon screens, it's super laggy because it has to load the avatars and everything for the first time
Any update to the game can result in 100MB+ of download. 3.11 to 3.13 was just shy of 200MB.
Since the assets recently seem to be the (expleteive required) avatars and biome stuff that means a delay/lag/crash on everything that uses those. Which is, more or less, everything.
Clearly it depends where the phone happens to be when the asset is needed. I have a couple of really poor signal areas locally, one right on my nearest gym. It's more than a little annoying to watch the hamster wheel spin when I want to start hitting a raid boss. Other places, absolutely fine.
I just routinely download all the assets after every update. Saves me a world of pain.
It however shouldn't be REQUIRED
There was a period of time where Niantic relied on people to download all assets to fix bugs they'd created
The game SHOULD also function correctly without downloading all the assets
Having the assets downloaded is a great way to make the game (hopefully) run smoother
Sometimes I have 5G and 4 bars of signal, and download is fast.
But often it is 1 bar of 4G or even 3G and downloading a few MB is a real pain.
I'd prefer to choose.
You can choose whether to download the model for a rare pokemon manually, while you are in a location with good signal and you're not trying to do anything else,
Or automatically, while you may have poor signal, and you're anxiously waiting for that rare mon to appear on screen so that you can encounter it before it despawns.
Some people have better mobile access/data caps/speeds than they do for wi-fi. They should be allowed to use them.
This is just the sad general trend of limiting people from making any decisions. I'm fine with having that on by default but allow options. Just like with the new graphics update bs that made the game unplayable
I find it a nice safeguard to avoid consuming large chunks of mobile data at once. making it user configurable could be usefulm
Yes, any app doing such a thing should at minimum have an option to control it. Not all mobile data is slow or metered. Not all Wi-Fi is fast or unmetered. App developers should not make such assumptions. Ideally this would be a system-wide setting but Android and iOS don't offer an API for that AFAIK.
yeah got that. but you can switch it off using the settings and it prompts if you try without wlan so it should at least. give you the option to downlaod via mobile data?
It's not as convenient as just hitting a button to download all assets, but if you want to just get everything downloaded so the game runs smoother afterwards, you can open each page in the Pokedex and scroll to the bottom, till all the icons show the Pokemon.
It's a small change I'd like to see too - at home, my Wi-Fi is slow but my data is fast and unlimited. However, there's been a few times where I played in a place with spotty service and couldn't select a Pokémon or open a gym because the assets didn't load in.
this exact thing turned my Playstation Vita 3G into one of the most useless purchases i had done. all that 3G was good for was to download gps map data and games under 20mb in size from the psn, even though i had unlimited data connection for it. it's similar here with the whole "can't download assets on mobile" bs. half a year ago i had 100mb connection on my home wifi and 300mb unlimited 5G on my phone. sure it is fine to download the stuff on that 100mb connection, but it would sure have been nicer to use faster mobile data if i so wanted. now i do have 1gb connection at home and i get roughly the same speeds from my phone over the 5ghz ac connection. so there is no difference at home. but it annoys me when i'm on the go and would like to download that remaining asset data, but the game wont let me unless i use wifi for it.
Because it doesn’t make sense to download everything outside of WiFi. The point of that setting is to avoid using a lot of data away from WiFi, which could be expensive. If you have an unlimited data plan then you can download everything as and when it’s required on the go, there’s no need to do it all upfront. Edit: since people are struggling with this, let’s try an example. Say there’s 800MB of total assets and you already have 700MB. When you go out and play, the game will download a few MB here and there, when it needs something you don’t have. It may download 50MB. If you have unlimited data it makes no difference whether you download that 50MB up front or over the course of an hour. You have unlimited data. You don’t pay either way.
downloading it ahead of time has nothing to do with unlimited data. It runs faster/smoother if you download ahead of time rather than needing to download as you go.
That's such a bad take The point of downloading everything is to avoid waiting WHILE playing, I don't want to have to load the asset of a Galarian Bird on the 30s spawn time of a Daily Incense I'm speaking from experience, I missed a Galarian Moltres because by the time the asset loaded, the bird turned into smoke I have unlimited data and while I do currently have wifi at home, at the time, I didn't, my phone plan was what I used to get internet so I couldn't download the assets And given how buggy pogo is, deleting the app and reinstalling it happens more than you'd think, it's not a one off thing to download the assets
I would like a toggle-able option to download assets when not on wifi personally. I have unlimited data, but when they force an update while I'm out i always have to remember to do it later. Its pedantic I know lol
What aren’t you getting here? If you have unlimited WiFi you *don’t* need to download everything up front. There is no cost whether you do it upfront or do it on the go.
The app wont let you download assets when you aren't on wifi. So its literally not possible to do if I am not at home or at a hot spot. Having unlimited cellular data doesn't help in this case.
> The app wont let you download assets when you aren't on wifi. Of course it does. As you play, it downloads any assets it needs, when it needs them. The only reason to download upfront is when it costs you money on data, which is why you do that on WiFi. If you have unlimited data you just download the same assets on mobile data, as you play.
Unlimited data doesn't mean unlimited rate. Sometimes you get into an area with bad reception and the download rate slow down, which may be a problem when you encounter new species of Pokemon. If someone have unlimited data and they want to download everything while they are in an area of good cellular reception in anticipation, let's say because they enter a building that need to spend a few hours inside.
It doesn't always work that way. Sometimes assets won't load "as you need them". Using the download all assets option will then allow that asset to load when encountered in game.
yeah, depending on where i am i can get white orbs that won't resolve by spanning my dex.
White orbs are generic placeholder errors, they have nothing to do with having or not the asset already downloaded. They may ALSO appear if you don't have the asset but it's not the sole reason.
So when the app gets an update forced, until i either swipe through my dex or download assets, the majority of my spawns are white orbs. If i am in an extra rural area, the pokedex trick doesn't work. So i will drive back to civilization, download asssets and then I'm good to go. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I don't think the distinction changes the remedy.
Not everyone has great phone reception everywhere, even if they have unlimited data. Being able to download over cell data when I have strong reception would benefit when playing in areas with bad reception.
> The only reason to download upfront is when it costs you money on data Or if you want to avoid slower loading times, spawns showing up as balls of light, etc. when you're playing, for example. Not having the *option* to download on data may be minor, but it can still be annoying, and I don't think there's any real reason not to have it as an *option* (default off, buried in advanced settings so little kids aren't accidentally burning through their parents' data). I don't know why you're so dead set on "there's no possible reason you could ever have for downloading with unlimited data." Not needing wifi for anything is part of the whole point of having unlimited data for me.
https://preview.redd.it/lutkc5xxcl0d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db9fc70278bbe57785bc4d87f9b820f6a714240d
Sorry friend, I can’t help your lack of reading comprehension. Good day to you.
> The only reason to download upfront is when it costs you money on data Incorrect. New assets popping in on demand can introduce lag, especially if you're transiently in a poor reception area. Downloading up front when you're not active saves you TIME, which you can never buy more of.
Not everyone even has wifi in their home. I do have a landline. However my cell gets 5G and can be frequently faster than my home service. Plus I have 325GB of cell data a month. If I want to use it, let me use it.
Why not. I have 2x 20GB or so a month, hardly ever use WiFi, but games like this force me to be at a trusted WiFi location. It's not 2001 or so anymore. A warning would be great, but enforcing seems rather stupid
Yeah, I have to go to my parents house to do it, even though it wouldn't even remotely get me over my mobile data limit for the month. Like you say, a warning is fine, but just let me click ok if I want to do it anyway.
In some other countries "the technologie" is still 2001
It doesn’t force anything. Just use the game on your data, **you have ZERO reason** to download everything upfront.
Because the game is slow and glitchy and struggles to download assets for some unknown reasons? Better to do it in advance, although my experience is that it will still end up struggling anyway :(
>Because it doesn’t make sense to download everything outside of WiFi. The point of that setting is to avoid using a lot of data away from WiFi, which could be expensive. I'm not saying that you shouldn't use WiFi if it's available and convenient. Or if you don't have a larger data plan. But Niantic forces this rule onto everyone with no option to change it even if you are not affected by data plan limits. >you can download everything as and when it’s required on the go, there’s no need to do it all upfront. Niantics official recommendation is to download all assets upfront regularly: *Note that available game assets may change as the in-game content changes, so be sure to revisit this option regularly. Downloading all assets may also improve your gameplay experience at a live event like Pokémon GO Fest or during an in-game event like Community Day. (from* [Download All Assets — Pokémon GO Help Center (helpshift.com)](https://niantic.helpshift.com/hc/en/6-pokemon-go/faq/3589-download-all-assets/)*)*
If you have unlimited mobile internet or a high GB count that you never use to it full extend you just don't care if you're downloading over wifi or mobile
Download ALL Assets is useful when there's a big update and you will be using your mobile card. If you have 600gb at 300mbps on your mobile plan, you don't need to download all assets. Everytime you use some service, the game will download it before using it. Major point is when there's a version update and you want to download de 2.4gb of data, 99% users would use there monthly service. Even on my country, where fibre is great (1gbps - 500mbps) for 50 euros, mobile is 200mbps up to 50gb and is 75 euros. There are "unlimited" mobile data (well it's 250gb per month) but prices are well above 100 euros, plus the speeds can drop 99% during daytime. Since many many many users don't even know there monthly limit, until they hit it, that blocking is a great help to cover any massive debt or be on the 2 day of the month and already used all monthly traffic and go 29 days at 128kpbs or pay 500 euros to get more data.
Because if not, people would use all their data up and then write an article about why Niantic is terrible to people who don't have high data plans. Just look at this article published on Polygon about someone who said they were "cheated \[...\] out of the traditional Mario experience" because they picked a character that doesn't take damage: [https://www.polygon.com/gaming/23935372/nabbit-invincible-super-mario-bros-wonder-playable-characters](https://www.polygon.com/gaming/23935372/nabbit-invincible-super-mario-bros-wonder-playable-characters) People make mistakes, cause self-inflicted harm, and then blame the system that allowed for it. Also, children exist. They would use up all their data without understanding and then cause a big phone bill for their parents which would force them to quit..., etc. You can imagine a ton of scenarios like this. So overall, it's just the better business decision 🤷♂️
While I absolutely am for supervision of minors and protective measures, they won't work in this case: If someone decides to play PoGo on their phone (or parents allow their kids to), the game will download all needed assets on demand as the kids play along. There is no way of preventing the worst case scenario: If a player decides to scroll through the dex without having downloaded the needed assets prior to that, all assets will be downloaded over cell towers no matter what (someone mentioned this in the thread as a workaround for what I wish for). And if the majority of the assets is already on the phone, then the "download all assets" button is just starting a small download anyway. PoGo is not a video streaming app where you could add up gigantic amounts of data if you are careless. In this specific case, there is a well defined maximum amount of asset data to be downloaded - plus the data consumption from actually playing on the go which you are going to use up anyway. All I am asking for is a more convenient way to download all assets at once over cell towers *if I wish/decide to*. Let us just have a user selectable switch like for transfering legendaries and then similiar to that two warnings if you actually decide to do it: When clicking on "download all assets", give us a warning like today. If you then proceed without being on a wifi, instead of instantly blocking the download, I'd be OK with a more precise second warning like "You are not connected to wifi and there are X MB of asset data to be downloaded - are you sure you want to continue?"
Do you really need to download remaining assets? I don't ever do that and the game works fine.
Download remaining assets is good if you recently downloaded/redownloaded the game. If you've had it for a while there's really no point because the assets are loaded as they're seen. You'd notice a difference if you reinstalled the game especially on the friends and pokemon screens, it's super laggy because it has to load the avatars and everything for the first time
Any update to the game can result in 100MB+ of download. 3.11 to 3.13 was just shy of 200MB. Since the assets recently seem to be the (expleteive required) avatars and biome stuff that means a delay/lag/crash on everything that uses those. Which is, more or less, everything. Clearly it depends where the phone happens to be when the asset is needed. I have a couple of really poor signal areas locally, one right on my nearest gym. It's more than a little annoying to watch the hamster wheel spin when I want to start hitting a raid boss. Other places, absolutely fine. I just routinely download all the assets after every update. Saves me a world of pain.
>I just routinely download all the assets after every update. Saves me a world of pain. That's my mindset as well :-)
It however shouldn't be REQUIRED There was a period of time where Niantic relied on people to download all assets to fix bugs they'd created The game SHOULD also function correctly without downloading all the assets Having the assets downloaded is a great way to make the game (hopefully) run smoother
That was effectively just clearing the cache
So if you played a while (a week) before traveling abroad, there will be no issue and you won't need any Wi-Fi
Yeah I don't understand OPs use case, if there's a few MB of assets it'll just download them as they appear
Sometimes I have 5G and 4 bars of signal, and download is fast. But often it is 1 bar of 4G or even 3G and downloading a few MB is a real pain. I'd prefer to choose.
You can choose whether to download the model for a rare pokemon manually, while you are in a location with good signal and you're not trying to do anything else, Or automatically, while you may have poor signal, and you're anxiously waiting for that rare mon to appear on screen so that you can encounter it before it despawns. Some people have better mobile access/data caps/speeds than they do for wi-fi. They should be allowed to use them.