UPDATE: Thank you guys for all the suggestions! I got Navidrome installed on my NAS in a matter of minutes, got to test like a half dozen Subsonic compatible apps (both FOSS and Play Store), and it looks like Symfonium + Navidrome meets my needs. I’ll keep testing before my free trial for Symfonium ends, but I really appreciate the nudge to try a new music server!
I’m self-hosting my music collection (synology NAS), and while I’ve liked Poweramp, it only reads local music files, which means I have to copy many GB of music to my phone, even if I’m not particularly listening to it.
The Synology DS Audio app actually does what I want: it caches music locally as you’re streaming it, but it reads directly from the NAS.
The only problem with DS Audio is that it sucks as an actual music player.
Are there any Android music players, preferably FOSS or at least privacy-friendly, that will read from the NAS and cache in an intelligent way but also works well as an actual music player?
I did try Symfonium, but couldn’t get it to work with Webdav or SMB, plus the dev comes off as a real asshole, so I’d rather not give them money.
EDIT: To clarify what I’m looking for:
The app must be able to connect to my NAS music collection (through my local network is fine).
Most importantly, the app must be able to cache my music either as I’m streaming it, or in advance when I’m running through a playlist… then future plays of the song should be from the cache.
I do NOT want to have to manually download or sync files, which is how I’ve been doing, and I don’t like this at all.
If you’ve used the Synology DS Audio app, then you’ll know exactly the behaviour I’m looking for. It really is a shame that DS Audio sucks as a music player, or else it would be exactly what I’m looking for.
As other’s have said Navidrome is the way to go. Not the most featureful, but it’s so much faster than every other solution that you make it work. It’s also very close to a huge update to support plugins and stuff.
I use the DSub app. Free from fdroid. Configured to download 10 songs in advance, for when I’m driving with spotty service, and download my favorites.
It also let’s you set different internal and external IP addresses, if you need that. I think most people do unless you run a DNS server.
It was erroring out when I tried to set up either Webdav or SMB. Maybe I was setting it up wrong, but I’ve got those things set up on multiple devices and multiple apps without any trouble.
Ah, I can’t speak Symfonium’s WebDAV or SMB handling. My music server runs Navidrome that uses the subsonic api. All I have to do is point my music player at my url and I can sync favorites and listen counts across everything, it’s pretty great.
I decided on Symfonium as well - especially once I realised the author, Tolriq, was the same on who’d made Yatse, my favourite Kodi remote. Tolriq is an indie developer and always has very fair pricing and excellent support, so I’m happy to pay (once, per app) for a polished experience.
Not sure how much it lines up with your specifics but I’ve used Neutron for ages and it supports WevDAV, SFTP, UPnP/DLNA amongst other things and sounds great (to my untrained eats anyway)
Emby will let you do it but you need a host server. Same with plexamp. Foobar2000 offers remote smb folder access but I don’t remember if it works as the library of it it just lets you download the files from smb.
So, paid app (if you want wireless sync) - Media Monkey.
The Android app can read network shares and network media servers (I forget exactly what it can read). But it works best if you run the server app - then you can stream the library or sync media, similar to iTunes.
The Android app is free for basic functionality ($5 for wireless sync), the desktop/server app is free ($30 to enable wireless sync and a few other features). It’s been worth it for me. Even the free versions work very well.
Server: Navidrome but any music server supporting Subsonic API would work here. Navidrome has a nice UI, and reads MusicBrainz IDs, and can scrobble to ListenBrainz, that’s why I settled with this.
Mobile app: Ultrasonic, on Fdroid. There are a lot of ways you can set up caching. I set up that it should automatically download everything from my “Now playing” playlist, at home on wifi I just add a bunch of albums and playlists to the “Now playing” list, it takes a while but it transcodes and downloads everything in a couple of minutes. It has very good Android Auto support, and a widget. Due to an annoying bug I had to downgrade to version 4.7.1, but otherwise I love it.
I tried that recently. I didn’t like that it doesn’t have a widget, and the downloads and current playlist are completely separate. Also there was no option to automatically continue when connecting to a headset (this was working in Ultrasonic 4.8, but not in 4.7.1 I hope they fix that bug sometime…) So after some weeks use I switched back to Ultrasonic.
I like having my downloads and current playlist separate, that seems like a personal preference. A widget would be nice; I guess I don’t use it enough for that to be a deal breaker. For a while it seemed like all the clients I tried had some weird quirk that made it kind of suck to use. Tempo was the first one that didn’t. I don’t think I ever tried Ultrasonic though. I’ll keep it in mind.
On my synology nas I have installed navidrome to serve the music, and consume it via web, and a few android and linux apps like ultrasonic or supersonic
Install a subsonic server on a synology. There are many apps that support the protocol. I use the ultrasonic android app which is FOSS and pretty much acts how you want it to. I use it to stream my collection when I’m on the road.
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I have used Tempo but I self host Navidrome
As other’s have said Navidrome is the way to go. Not the most featureful, but it’s so much faster than every other solution that you make it work. It’s also very close to a huge update to support plugins and stuff.
I use the DSub app. Free from fdroid. Configured to download 10 songs in advance, for when I’m driving with spotty service, and download my favorites.
It also let’s you set different internal and external IP addresses, if you need that. I think most people do unless you run a DNS server.
Or you access Navidrome from inside a VPN.
If you don’t want to run a DNS server and don’t want to set up different internal & external IPs you can also use NAT Hairpinning
Not FOSS but I use Symfonium to stream music from my Navidrome instance on my NAS while I’m out of the house.
Edit, saw your last comment. What couldn’t you get working?
It was erroring out when I tried to set up either Webdav or SMB. Maybe I was setting it up wrong, but I’ve got those things set up on multiple devices and multiple apps without any trouble.
Ah, I can’t speak Symfonium’s WebDAV or SMB handling. My music server runs Navidrome that uses the subsonic api. All I have to do is point my music player at my url and I can sync favorites and listen counts across everything, it’s pretty great.
OK, I’m going to give this another look!
I decided on Symfonium as well - especially once I realised the author, Tolriq, was the same on who’d made Yatse, my favourite Kodi remote. Tolriq is an indie developer and always has very fair pricing and excellent support, so I’m happy to pay (once, per app) for a polished experience.
Ohh damn, the same dev made Yatse. That’s awesome, I’ve been using that app for years.
LineageOS’s default music app, Twelve, supports Jellyfin as a source:
But does it cache, or only stream?
Not sure how much it lines up with your specifics but I’ve used Neutron for ages and it supports WevDAV, SFTP, UPnP/DLNA amongst other things and sounds great (to my untrained eats anyway)
I haven’t tried it in she’s but foobar2000 might do everything you’re hoping for.
Like you, I’m confused there hasn’t been an open source solution to this by now.
Emby will let you do it but you need a host server. Same with plexamp. Foobar2000 offers remote smb folder access but I don’t remember if it works as the library of it it just lets you download the files from smb.
So, paid app (if you want wireless sync) - Media Monkey.
The Android app can read network shares and network media servers (I forget exactly what it can read). But it works best if you run the server app - then you can stream the library or sync media, similar to iTunes.
The Android app is free for basic functionality ($5 for wireless sync), the desktop/server app is free ($30 to enable wireless sync and a few other features). It’s been worth it for me. Even the free versions work very well.
My offline android music workflow:
Tempo is my favorite Navidrome client at the moment.
Tempo is soo good !
I tried that recently. I didn’t like that it doesn’t have a widget, and the downloads and current playlist are completely separate. Also there was no option to automatically continue when connecting to a headset (this was working in Ultrasonic 4.8, but not in 4.7.1 I hope they fix that bug sometime…) So after some weeks use I switched back to Ultrasonic.
I like having my downloads and current playlist separate, that seems like a personal preference. A widget would be nice; I guess I don’t use it enough for that to be a deal breaker. For a while it seemed like all the clients I tried had some weird quirk that made it kind of suck to use. Tempo was the first one that didn’t. I don’t think I ever tried Ultrasonic though. I’ll keep it in mind.
Oh, neat setup!
On my synology nas I have installed navidrome to serve the music, and consume it via web, and a few android and linux apps like ultrasonic or supersonic
Install a subsonic server on a synology. There are many apps that support the protocol. I use the ultrasonic android app which is FOSS and pretty much acts how you want it to. I use it to stream my collection when I’m on the road.