Optimized storage of media items

• US 10,205,989 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2016
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Alsina, Thomas, Jorgensen, Cody D., Schmidt, Edward T., Callender, James H., Cielak, Matthew J., Carrigan, Taylor G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donabed, Ninos
• Application Number:
  US15/273,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20170359435A1
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format

Abstract

The present technology is for optimizing storage on a computing device. A media application on the computing device can allocate a minimum amount of storage on the computing device. The media application can further be configured to automatically download and store media items added to a media library of an account associated with the computing device. The combination of these features can put strain on computing devices with limited amounts of storage. Accordingly, the present technology can automatically delete media items in cache to allow media items to be automatically downloaded, or allow other uses of storage by other applications on the computing device, while also preserving the minimum amount of storage of media items on the computing device.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the instructions, when executed, effective to cause a computing device to:

enable an allocation of a minimum amount of storage space for one or more media items;

receive, by a cache management application on the computing device, a notification from an operating system of the computing device to make available an amount of storage space on the computing device, wherein media items are stored in a cache, each of the media items being associated with an album from among a plurality of albums; and

in response to receiving the notification from the operating system to make available an amount of storage space on the computing device,

sort the plurality of albums into a not-in-library group including albums having no media item from the album associated with a media library of an account associated with the computing device, a favorites group including albums associated with at least one media item stored in the cache that is marked as a favorite, and an in-library-non-favorites group including all other albums;

rank the albums in each group from least recently playedback to most recently playedback, wherein an album playback date is the date that a most recently playedback media item from the album was playedback; and

delete, up to the allocated minimum amount of storage space, media items in reverse chronological order with respect to the playback date of the album with the media item is associated, starting with media items associated with albums in the not-in-library group, then media items associated with albums of the in-library-non-favorites group, and then media items associated with albums in the favorites group, until the amount of storage space to make available has been made available.

2. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further effective to cause the computing device to:

receive a notification associated with a first priority level; and

in response to receiving the notification associated with the first priority level, delete all media items stored in the cache except those associated with an album from the plurality of albums for which at least one media item from the album is also in a media library of an account associated with the computing device.

3. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further effective to cause the computing device to:

receive a notification associated with a second priority level; and

in response to receiving the notification associated with the second priority level;

execute instructions associated with a first priority level notification;

sort the plurality of albums into a favorites group, and a non-favorites group, the favorites group including an album from the plurality of albums associated with at least one song stored in the cache that is marked as a favorite;

rank the albums in the non-favorites group from least recently playedback to most recently playedback, wherein an album playback date is the date that a most recently playedback media item from the album was playedback; and

delete a plurality of media items associated with albums in the non-favorites group in reverse chronological order such that media items associated with least recently playedback albums are deleted before more recently playedback albums.

4. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions are further effective to cause the computing device to:

receive a notification associated with a third priority level; and

in response to receiving the notification associated with the third priority level notification;

perform instructions associated with a first priority level notification and a second priority level notification;

delete any remaining media items associated albums from the plurality of albums in the non-favorites group;

rank the plurality of albums in a favorites group from least recently playedback to more recently playedback, wherein an album playback date is the date that a most recently playedback media item from the album was playedback; and

delete one or more media items associated with the plurality of albums in the favorites group in reverse chronological order such that media items associated with least recently playedback albums are deleted before media items associated with more recently playedback albums.

5. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further effective to cause the computing device to:

request to download a new media item from a content distribution system;

determine that additional storage space is needed to store the new media item; and

after having deleted the media items in reverse chronological order with respect to the playback date of the album with the media item is associated download the new media item.

6. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions effective to cause the computing device to request to download a new media item from a content distribution system comprise instructions to automatically request a new media item in response to receiving a notification by the content distribution system informing the computing device of an update to a media library of an account associated with the computing device.

7. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further effective to cause the computing device to:

display a graphical user interface listing one or more media items stored in the cache, the one or more media items being listed in an order in which the one or more media items are to be deleted; and

receive an input within the graphical user interface indicating that one or more of the one or more media items listed should not be deleted.

8. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the media items were stored in the cache by a media playback application allowing streaming of media items through a subscription and purchase of media items without subscription, the media playback application allowing addition of at least one of the media items streamed through the subscription to a media library along with any purchased media items.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the notification is responsive to a detection that a maximum amount of storage space reserved for media items has been exceeded.

9. A computing device comprising:

a media playback application configured to stream media items from a media streaming service, and store the streamed media items in a cache, the media playback application including a setting effective to reserve a minimum amount of storage space for one or more media items;

an operating system configured to manage storage services for applications including the media playback application, and to notify applications of a storage level condition;

a cache management application configured to receive a notification from the operating system to make available an amount of storage space on the computing device, wherein the cache management application is further configured to, in response to receiving the notification from the operating system to make available an amount of storage space available on the computing device, group the streamed media items into a plurality of albums;

sort the plurality of albums into a not-in-library group including albums having no media item from the album associated with a media library of an account associated with the computing device, a favorites group including albums associated with at least one media item stored in the cache that is marked as a favorite, and an in-library-non-favorites group including all other albums;

rank the albums in each group from least recently playedback to most recently playedback, wherein an album playback date is the date that a most recently playedback media item from the album was playedback; and

delete, up to the reserved minimum amount of storage space, media items in reverse chronological order with respect to the playback date of the album with the media item is associated, starting with media items associated with albums in the not-in-library group, then media items associated with albums of the in-library-non-favorites group, and then media items associated with albums in the favorites group, until the amount of storage space to make available has been made available.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the media playback application is further configured to:

request to download a new media item from a content distribution system;

determine that additional storage space is needed to store the new media item;

delete, up to the reserved minimum amount of storage space, media items until the additional storage space is available; and

download the new media item.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the request to download a new media item from a content distribution system comprises a request to automatically download a new media item in response to receiving a notification by the content distribution system informing the computing device of an update to a media library of an account associated with the computing device.

12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the cache management application is further configured to:

display a graphical user interface listing a plurality of media items stored in the cache, the plurality of media items being listed in a suggested order in which the plurality of media items are suggested to be deleted.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the cache management application is further configured to:

receive an input within the graphical user interface indicating that one or more of the plurality of media items suggested for deletion should not be deleted.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the streamed media items include media items having been stored in the cache by a second media playback application allowing streaming of media items through a subscription, and allowing purchase of media items without subscription, the second media playback application allowing addition of at least one media item streamed through the subscription to a media library along with any purchased media items.

15. A method for managing storage on a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving, by a cache management application on the computing device, a notification from an operating system on the computing device to make available an amount of storage space on the computing device, wherein media items are stored in a cache, each of the media items being associated with an album from among a plurality of albums; and

in response to receiving the notification from the operating system to make available space on the computing device, sorting the plurality of albums into a not-in-library group including albums having no media item from the album associated with a media library of an account associated with the computing device, a favorites group including albums associated with at least one media item stored in the cache that is marked as a favorite, and an in-library-non-favorites group including all other albums;

ranking the albums in each group from least recently playedback to most recently playedback, wherein an album playback date is the date that a most recently playedback media item from the album was playedback; and

deleting media items in reverse chronological order with respect to the playback date of the album with the media item is associated, starting with media items associated with albums in the not-in-library group, then media items associated with albums of the in-library-non-favorites group, and then media items associated with albums in the favorites group, until the amount of storage space to make available has been made available.

16. The method of claim 15 for managing storage on a computing device, further comprising:

requesting to download a new media item from a content distribution system;

determining that additional storage space is needed to store the new media item;

deleting media items until the additional storage space is available;

downloading the new media item.

17. The method of claim 15 for managing storage on a computing device, further comprising:

displaying a graphical user interface listing media items stored in the cache, the media items being listed in an order in which the media items a to be deleted; and

receiving an input within the graphical user interface indicating that one or more of the listed media items should not be deleted.