App, PWA & offline

Tunetorch runs in any current browser. For everyday use on a phone or computer there are two more options: the installable PWA and the Android app.

Installing the PWA

You can add Tunetorch to the home screen on your phone and computer. It then opens in a window of its own without the browser bar.

Settings → “App” tab → Installation shows you how. It shows exactly what fits your device:

• Computer: a note about Chrome/Edge and, as soon as the browser offers it, an Install now button.
• iOS: instructions (“Share → Add to Home Screen”). There's no separate iOS app.
• Android: the link to the Tunetorch app in the Play Store (see below) and, below it, the web app as an alternative.

The interface and the cover art are cached on the device (cover art for 30 days), but not the music itself. Updates arrive automatically: a new version is picked up by itself and the app reloads.

The PWA needs a server that can be reached over HTTPS. Browsers only allow the service workers it needs over HTTPS or localhost. See Configuration → Reverse proxy.

Native Android app

On Android, the app is the better choice. It plays independently of the browser and keeps running reliably in the background, without you having to set up battery exceptions.

It's distributed through the Google Play Store and updated there too. You'll find the link under Settings → App → Installation. Your server doesn't need to provide anything for it.

The app isn't in the store yet. Publication is under way; it's coming soon. Until then, a note appears in place of the link. In the meantime you use Tunetorch on Android as a web app: once placed on the home screen, it opens in a window of its own. What's missing that way is in the next section.

On first start you enter your server's address, the same one you use to open Tunetorch in the browser. The app can manage several servers.

The app's language depends on two settings. What the app shows itself (server setup, server selection, the notification and the tabs in Android Auto) follows your phone's system language: German on a German device, English otherwise. The interface of your server inside it follows your setting under Appearance. If that's set to “Automatic”, both are the same language.

The “App” tab

The user settings have an App tab. What's on it depends on where you open Tunetorch:

• In the browser and in the PWA, it contains the Installation section (see above).
• In the Android app, it contains the settings that apply only to this device and aren't synced with the server: the app version at the top, below it the three storage areas. The Installation section is missing here; the app is already installed, after all.

Audio cache

Tunetorch stores tracks you've already listened to on the device. That way they play in a dead zone too, and you save mobile data.

• Keep recently played tracks (off out of the box) holds on to tracks you've played. You decide how many (10 to 200). Once the limit is reached, the track not played for the longest time is dropped.
• The storage used and the number of tracks update while you listen.
• Clear cache tidies up.
• If the original on the server changes, the stored version is discarded.

Downloads

Besides the automatic cache, you can store single tracks, whole albums or all of an artist's tracks permanently for offline use: options menu (⋮) → Download for offline. You choose the quality while doing so (Original / High quality / Small file). While the download runs, a small notice above the bottom bar shows the progress (“3 of 5” for several tracks) and tells you at the end that the tracks are available offline.

Unlike the cache, which pushes older tracks out again, downloads stay until you remove them yourself. Without a network, the app plays them from the stored copy, and the statistics still count them.

You manage them under App → Downloads. There you see the storage used and the number, and the Manage button opens a list of all downloads sorted by album. Albums with several tracks can be opened; each track shows its quality and format. You can remove single tracks, whole albums or everything at once.

Cover cache

The app stores album and artist images on the device as it shows them. That makes browsing faster and shows cover art offline too. You'll find the storage used, the number and a Clear button under App → Cover cache.

All three storage areas apply only to this device and aren't synced with the server.

Offline mode

The app starts without a network too and then only shows what can be played offline: your downloads and fully cached tracks you've already listened to.

The mode switches on automatically as soon as the device is offline. A short notice appears, and as long as the mode is active, an offline icon next to the username shows it. When the network comes back, the app switches back.

You can also switch it on yourself, via the user menu → Offline mode. For example, to check before a flight what you'll be able to listen to on the way.

In offline mode:

• Tracks available offline play regardless of the chosen quality level. It's always the copy on the device that plays. If a track is there in several qualities, the app takes the best one. That's why the quality selection in the menu is hidden.
• Features that need the server (upload, statistics, playlists, favourites, editing, deleting, export) are hidden.
• Plays don't get lost. The app remembers them and records them as soon as the network is back. Statistics and history stay complete.

Several servers

So that you always know which server you're connected to, the name you gave the connection is shown at the very top of the user menu. That only applies to the app. In the browser you see the address in the address bar anyway.

If you tap this name, the server selection opens with all saved connections and how much storage they use. There you can open another one, edit or remove one, or create a new one. You're not signed out in the process: if you go back with the back button, everything carries on, including the music. Only when you open a different connection does the app restart with it.

That's why the app has no “Sign out” entry of its own. The server selection signs you in again anyway when you open a connection. (In the browser, “Sign out” is in the menu as usual.)

If you delete a connection, the app first signs you out on the server. Your sign-in there is then invalid immediately. After that it removes all downloads and caches that belong to this connection. Without a network only the sign-out is skipped; the deletion still happens.

Do you share your phone with others? The app remembers the username and password for each connection. Whoever opens the app is therefore signed in and sees your library. To prevent that, delete the connection before you hand the device over. That's how the app also forgets your saved password. Your downloads for this server go with it. The next time, simply set up the connection again.

The app also takes the device's edges into account (status and navigation bar, camera cut-out), so that nothing is hidden. That applies in every layout, including on a tablet in landscape, where the app shows the desktop view with header and sidebar.

Android Auto

In the car you browse your library via four tabs or play something with voice search. The app's interface doesn't need to be open on the phone for this.

Continue listening

If you were listening on your phone and get into the car, Tunetorch simply keeps playing as long as the app is still running. If it has been closed in the meantime (swiped away from the overview, phone restarted), Home shows “Continue listening” at the very top. Tapping it resumes the last queue, at the same track and the same spot. The same happens if you press the play button on the steering wheel while nothing is playing.

• The entry only appears when there's something to resume. If you cleared the queue in the app, it's missing.
• With the setting “Start with an empty playlist” (User settings → Playlist) there is none. That's where you explicitly want to start fresh every time.
• The queue belongs to your account. If you sign out, it's gone, and whoever signs in on the phone afterwards isn't offered it.

Audiobooks in the car

In the car, audiobooks play in audiobook mode just as in the app: Tunetorch remembers the spot, and playback always resumes there. That also applies if you tap a different chapter in the car, because in the car Tunetorch can't ask the way the app does. You then pick a particular chapter from the queue.

Home → Audiobooks in progress lists every audiobook you've started, including those from the browser or another device. The car recognises an album as an audiobook if it has an audiobook genre or has already been started as an audiobook.

Audiobook outside the audiobook genres: the first time, you start it in the app, the browser or the PWA via “Play as audiobook”. You can't do that directly in the car, which has no options menu there. After that, the car recognises it by itself.

Also

• A streaming quality of its own for the car (User settings → Playback → Android Auto), independent of the quality in the app.
• Continue playback (on out of the box): if you tap a track in a list, the list continues from that track. That also applies if you reached it via a letter group (see below). The whole list then continues, not just the group.
• Long lists are grouped by letter. Android Auto can only show lists up to a certain length. From 200 entries on, Tunetorch therefore first shows a choice by initial letter (A · B · C … · # for digits and special characters) and the entries within it. If a letter is itself too full (under “S” a few hundred artists quickly add up), a choice by the second letter follows (Sa · Sb · Sc …) and, if needed, by the third. Letters with few entries lead straight to the list. Where the order matters (playlists, “recently played”, favourites), the list is split into sections instead (“1–200”, “201–400” …), so that the order is preserved.
• The playback screen has a heart: tapping it adds the current track to your favourites or removes it again. A filled heart means the track already is a favourite. You'll find the same heart in the notification on your phone. The app on the phone shows the change the next time it loads the library.
• Cover art appears in all lists and during playback. Volume matching, the equaliser and the counting of plays work as in the app.
• Tags appear in square brackets after track and album names ("Wish You Were Here [Live]"), in the lists as well as during playback. Android Auto can't show coloured labels like the app does – it draws all text in its own typeface.
• If the library can't be loaded (for example when starting in a dead zone), an entry with the name of the list and the note “Couldn't be loaded · Tap to try again” appears at the top of the tab instead of empty lists. Tapping it tries again. As soon as the phone has reception again, the app loads the library by itself.
• If it says “Sign-in needed”, the server rejected the saved password – usually because it was changed. Then open the app on the phone: it goes straight to editing the connection, where you enter the new password.
• The library is already filtered by account. Restricted accounts only see what's shared with them. For that, you need to have signed in to the app once beforehand. When the sign-in expires (after 7 days without use by default), the app signs in again by itself in the car, using the saved password – you don't have to touch the phone.

Note: if you installed the app as an APK file (instead of from the Play Store), Android Auto only shows it if “Unknown sources” is enabled in the developer settings.

Where to go next

• Casting on your home network
• Troubleshooting