Server administration
You open the admin area via Server settings in the user menu. Almost everything in it applies without a restart. You only need to touch the container when paths or network settings change.
Overview and server status
The first tab shows how the server is doing right now:
- Library: number of tracks, albums, artists
- Storage: space used in the data directory
- Cache: memory used and configured limit
- Plays and the server's uptime
- the Tunetorch version that's running and, if there is one, the channel your image comes from
- Tunetorch (last card): your installation's licence status in two lines. Connection says whether this server is connected to an account on tunetorch.de. Subscription says whether Pro or Free is running here right now. The two are independent of each other; a connected server can also run without Pro. If the server is connected, the term and the last and next check are shown below. The subscription is managed on the Tunetorch Pro tab. It only appears here so that you don't have to switch tabs for the question “is it still running?”. Whoever owns the server sees the term and check times. Other admins see connection and subscription.
You only see the channel line if your image isn't the normal case. If you run a published
image, the channel is prod and the line is missing. If it says dev, a development version
is running. It also has a DEV label next to the Tunetorch wordmark, an app icon of its own
and is called “Tunetorch Dev” on the home screen. That way you can run both side by side
without mixing them up.
If something seems odd to you, look here first.
Maintenance & cron tasks
Tunetorch keeps itself tidy. For each task you decide whether it's on or off and whether it runs at a fixed interval or at one or more fixed times. Run now starts any task immediately.
There's one exception: Ongoing cleanup has no on/off switch but the note Always on. It keeps security data, caches and copies for casting small. Without this task they would keep growing. You can still set when it runs, though.
| Task | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Ongoing cleanup | Continuously clears what builds up in operation: expired IP blocks and sign-in attempts, surplus tracks in the cache of converted files, and left-over casting copies. | always on, every 10 min |
| Measure loudness | Measures the loudness (LUFS) of tracks that don't have a value yet. | off |
| Scan the music library | Reads the mounted music folder in again. | off |
| Delete marked items for good | Deletes tracks and accounts marked for deletion once their retention period has passed. | on, at night |
| Clean up the database | Removes orphaned entries (artists, albums, cover art without tracks) and checks that the database and the files match. Images and converted files that no entry refers to any more are deleted after one day; your music files themselves are never touched. | on, at night |
| Compact the database | Frees up storage that's allocated but no longer used. | on, at night |
| Renew the Tunetorch Pro licence | Fetches the current licence status if a Pro code has been entered. | off until a Pro code is entered, then on, daily |
The three frequent clean-up jobs are one task, because they run together anyway and none of them should be switched off. That's also why it has no switch.
Two tasks are off out of the box:
- Measure loudness: the loudness is already measured on upload and import, and made up for during playback if it's missing.
- Scan the music library: you only need it if you really have mounted an external music folder.
The Pro licence renewal adapts to your server. Without a Pro code entered, it's set to off and makes no contact with the outside. As soon as you enter a code, it's on by itself. You don't need to change anything for that.
Two values are set directly on the task in question: how many tracks the loudness measurement handles per run, and how long items marked for deletion are kept. The limit for the cache of converted tracks (default 100 tracks), on the other hand, is in the server settings under Advanced → Converted tracks.
The tasks run on a 10-minute cycle. That's why intervals and the minutes of fixed times can only be set in steps of ten.
Log viewer
Here you see the server logs from the last hour up to 28 days directly in the interface. You can filter by:
- Source (area of the server, such as sign-in, DLNA or error reports from the app)
- Level: warnings and above, errors and above, or a single level
You can set all three selection fields before the first fetch, and they apply to the fetch itself. That matters: each fetch returns at most 5,000 lines, and this limit only counts the filtered entries. “Errors only” therefore shows all errors even when the log is overflowing, and not just the few that happen to be in the last 5,000 lines. After the first fetch, every change to the period, level or source reloads the result.
The list of sources fills up on the first fetch. It always shows all sources in the period, even while you're filtering for a particular one.
The viewer also reads older log files that have already been rotated out. So the history has no gaps.
Every line starts with a code such as [TT-DLNA-012]. You set the language of the rest
of the line under Server log language; the code is the same in both
languages. Only lines at the DEBUG level have none. They're meant for development and stay
in German.
Errors from the Android app end up here too (source “app”). The app reports them itself, somewhat later after a network outage.
Marked for deletion
This section shows everything waiting to be deleted for good:
- Tracks, grouped by album
- User accounts
Each entry shows when it will be deleted for good, and there are two actions:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Restore | Takes the mark back. The track is back immediately. |
| Delete for good | Deletes immediately, after a confirmation. |
The maintenance task takes care of deleting automatically. You set the retention period
(default 28 days) right there. 0 means: immediately on the next run.
Export sessions
As an admin, here you see all exports of all accounts with status, progress and who started them. The Export the entire music database button starts the export of the whole library.
Export sessions aren't cleaned up automatically (an export can take hours). They stay until someone deletes them. More on this under Exporting music.
Collection import
If an import folder is mounted, an import box with progress, error list and earlier runs appears at the very top. See Adding music.
Rip CDs
Under Audio & playback you'll find the Rip CDs section. It contains the main switch (off out of the box; when you switch it on, Tunetorch asks first because of the AccurateRip query), the AccurateRip check and the drives. A detected drive first has to be enabled for ripping; only enabled drives show up when ripping, and only a CD in an enabled drive makes the menu entry appear. When you enable a drive, the read offset is detected right away if a known CD is inserted; otherwise you enter it by hand or let it be detected later. An enabled drive stays in the list even when unplugged, so that you can disable it. Below that you see the open rips of all accounts: CDs that have been read but that nobody has added or discarded yet, with owner and space used. They don't expire. This is where you discard what's been left lying around. How the drive gets into the container and how a rip works is described under Adding music.
Managing tags
You look after tags centrally: name, colour, description.
Every Tunetorch server comes with ten standard tags: Live · Acoustic · Remaster · Instrumental · Cover · Remix · AI · Orchestral · Demo · A Cappella. They describe the recording, not the release, which is what people actually filter by in a library. For these you can only change the colour. Name and description are fixed, and they can't be deleted. The reason is the exchange between servers: tags travel along in file names and metadata when exporting, and another Tunetorch server recognises them by their name. If the names could be changed, a second tag would arrive there next to the first. If you've already created a tag of your own whose name becomes a standard tag in an update, Tunetorch takes it over: its assignments and colour stay, name and description follow the standard from then on.
Two of them are meant narrowly: AI means “the recording was generated by an AI”, not “AI was involved somewhere in the studio”. Orchestral means “recorded with an orchestra”, not “this is orchestral music” (that's what the genre is for).
You create all other tags yourself and can freely rename, recolour and delete them. They're assigned in the metadata editor. Each name exists only once, regardless of spelling: next to “Bootleg” you can't create “bootleg”, next to “Straße” no “STRASSE”. Another server couldn't tell the two apart on import.
Regenerating images
New image dimensions only apply to images added from now on at first. What's already in the library keeps its previous resolution. That's why, after you save the Image quality, Tunetorch asks whether the existing images should be regenerated and tells you how many there are. The same question comes after a reset to the defaults. If you choose “Later”, you can catch up at any time with the Regenerate all images button in the same section.
Images are always regenerated from the stored original, never from an already reduced version. So even several changes in a row cost no quality, and you can always go back to larger dimensions. The originals stay unchanged.
This applies to album cover art and to images of artists and people.
Only one regeneration ever runs at a time. If someone starts it a second time, say in another tab or from a second admin account, the server refuses instead of doing the same work twice. On small hardware that's the difference between “takes a while” and “stuck”.
Time zone
Out of the box the server runs in Europe/Berlin. You choose the time zone here from the
complete IANA list, and it applies immediately. It affects the timestamps in the log, all dates
and the fixed times of the maintenance tasks.
This default applies to new installations. A server set up before September 2026 keeps its
value from back then (usually UTC). Tunetorch doesn't change existing settings.
Server log language
The section sits in the System & maintenance tab, directly below the time zone. Out of the box the server writes its log in German; here you switch it to English. The change applies to every new line within 30 seconds at most, including the background processes for casting and CD ripping. What's already in the log stays as it is.
The code at the start of every line ([TT-DLNA-012]) doesn't change. Mention it when you ask
for help: then the line can be found whatever language the log is currently written in.
Resetting all settings
Every section has a ↺ button at the top that resets its values to the defaults. Before that, it shows you what will change. See Configuration.