Navidrome

What it's good for#

Navidrome is for the music you already own. Point it at your collection and it reads the tags, sorts everything into artists and albums, and gives you a tidy web player with playlists, favourites and a play history. It's small and quick, happy on modest hardware, and it copes with very large libraries.

Where it really earns its place is your phone. Navidrome speaks the Subsonic protocol, so dozens of polished music apps can stream from it, and many can download albums for when you're offline.

Signing in#

A new Navidrome has no accounts and asks whoever opens it first to create the admin. LibrePortal doesn't leave that open. While it installs, Navidrome is reachable only from the server itself; LibrePortal makes the admin through that same first-run form, checks the login works, and only then lets anyone else in.

The account is called admin. Its password is in the Login Details shown when the install finishes; press Welcome on the app's page to see it again. Open Navidrome with the Music Server button.

Navidrome has no Tools tab in LibrePortal, so everything after this happens inside Navidrome. If you change the admin password there, the one LibrePortal shows you goes out of date. That doesn't break anything day to day, since LibrePortal only signs in to Navidrome to check an install (see the timezone note below), but it's worth noting the new one somewhere safe.

Getting your music in#

Navidrome has no upload page. It plays whatever is in its music folder on the server:

/libreportal-containers/navidrome/music

(or wherever you've moved Navidrome to). The folder belongs to Docker's own user on the server, dockerinstall, so copy your music in with sudo and hand it to that user. From a folder in your home directory, for example:

sudo rsync -a --chown=dockerinstall:dockerinstall ~/Music/ /libreportal-containers/navidrome/music/

Any layout works, because Navidrome goes by the tags inside the files rather than folder names. Artist/Album/01 Track.flac is still a good habit, and a cover.jpg in each album folder gives you artwork when the files don't carry their own.

Navidrome notices new files by itself, and LibrePortal also has it look through the whole folder every hour, so new albums turn up without you doing anything. Big collections take a while on the first scan.

Adding people#

Everyone should have their own account, so their playlists, favourites and play counts stay separate. Signed in as admin, you'll find Navidrome's user management in its menu; add each person there with a username and password. If someone wants a separate collection, you can run a second copy of Navidrome with its own music folder and its own accounts.

Listening on your phone#

In any Subsonic app, add a server with:

• Server: Navidrome's address, exactly as you open it in the browser, for example http://192.168.1.50:5234 (your port will differ).
• Username and password: your normal Navidrome login.

A few that are well liked: Symfonium (Android, paid), Tempo and its fork Tempus (Android, free), substreamer (Android and iPhone), and play:Sub and Amperfy on iPhone. Feishin is a good desktop player. Navidrome's own website keeps a longer list.

LibrePortal leaves Navidrome's port open to anyone who can reach your server, with no extra login in front, because phone apps can't get past one. If you only listen at home, make it private and use the LibrePortal VPN when you're out. With a domain, Navidrome answers at music.your-domain, which is the tidier choice if you listen away from home without the VPN.

Good to know#

• Updates are automatic, with a backup taken first.
• Backups include everything in its app folder: the database with your accounts, playlists and play history, and the music folder itself. A big collection makes a big first backup, so make sure your backup location has room. After that, only new files add to it.
• Idle web sessions sign out after 24 hours. Phone apps aren't affected, since they sign in on every request.
• It runs on your server's timezone from 0.4.7. Installs made with 0.4.6 or earlier run on UTC, because the setting never reached the app, so the times in its logs are in UTC. Press Update Configuration on its Config tab, without changing anything, to fix that: it rewrites the app's compose file, which an update leaves alone, and keeps your accounts and playlists. It also checks the admin login as an install does, so if the password in the Login Details no longer works (you changed it inside Navidrome, or made the admin yourself before 0.4.7), Navidrome comes back reachable from the server only. Restart it to open it up again.