Application
Find out how two install, and use the application.
Installation
There are two ways to install the application. If you have access to Google Play Store, the application is available for direct download.
Search for "MusicBee Remote" and install like every other application.
Alternatively, there are two apks available on the project GitHub page. The play release is the same version that is uploaded to the Play Store and uses the Crashlytics SDK to track crashes, on the other hand, the GitHub release is without Crashlytics and doesn't track any crashes.
In the second case you have to download the apk on your device and enable the installation of non-market apps on your android device. A quick Google search will provide you with information on how to enable the installation of non-market applications.
Connection
In version 1.0.0, the application should normally be configured automatically. There is a mechanism in place that runs the discovery functionality automatically when the application starts, and if a remote host is detected, it should connect without requiring input from the user.
If for some reason the automatic discovery doesn't work for you, then you have to configure the application manually.
You need two pieces of information to manually configure the application. The first one is the IP address of the pc running the plugin. This is available in the Address list of the plugin settings panel.
**Important! If you have multiple network interfaces keep in mind the one you need is the one that is in the same network as your Android device
The second one is the listening port (the default is 3000). This is also available on the plugin settings panel.
To configure the connection manually, you have to open the side navigation menu select the Settings entry, and when the settings open, you have to select the Manager Connections.
This will open the connection manager screen where you either can change the default settings, manually add, delete or edit existing connection settings, or start the discovery function manually.
This represents a connection entry. You can see the name of the device in the first line and the IP address and Port combination on the second line.
The check mark represents the default (active settings). If you have multiple entries, keep in mind that the app will try to connect to the one with the check mark.
The popup menu of the connection manager offers you the options to set the selected connection settings as default, delete or edit the selected connection settings.
It will initiate the automatic service discovery.
Opens a dialog to manually enter the connection settings. The IP address and port can be found on the plugin's settings panel.
After adding the new connection (and setting it default) if everything is OK, the application should connect automatically.
Other Settings
When enabled, it performs a preselected action when there is an incoming call while the application is connected. The option is disabled by default and requires the PHONE_STATE permission to work. There are three actions that can be performed.
- Reduce Volume: Reduces the volume to 20% of the current volume
- Stop: Stops the playback on incoming call.
- Pause: Pauses the playing track on incoming call.
Enables the Notification shown by the application. This is by default enabled. Important! Keep in mind that due to recent changes in the way services work, the notification is required to ensure the proper operation of the application.
It should periodically check for updated versions of the plugin and notify the user about the updates. Currently broken.
When enabled, it keeps logs of the application operation. These logs can be attached to the mail created by the Feedback screen.
This option is a leftover from pre v1.0.0, and it is planned to change how it works in v1.0.2. It allows you to change the default action when pressing an item on the library, (e.g., an Artist, Album, etc.). The available actions are Play Now,Queue Last, Queue Next, and Open Subcategory, Open Subcategory is not available for Tracks. This was useful in previous versions with the search functionality, however, from version 1.0.2 this will affect only the tracks. It will allow you to select the default action when clicking on a track entry. For Genres, Artists, and Albums it will open the view to display the subcategory data for the selected entry.
Application Main Screen
Hamburger menu: Opens the application navigation menu.
Rating Star: Opens the rating dialog that allows you to rate the playing track.
Love Icon: Adds the track as a favorite or removes a track from favorites. If you have last.fm this will love the track on last.fm
Overflow menu: Here you can find the last.fm enable checkbox that enables/disables scrobbling if you have provided your last.fm credentials to MusicBee. It also provides the share button that shares the playing track information to other applications installed on the device.
Cover: Displays the cover of the playing track if it is found, or a placeholder image if not.
Track Progress: The first value represents the current position of the playing track. The last represents the total duration of the track. The slider can move the playback position to any point.
Track Information: In the first line you can see the Title of the playing track, in the second you can see the Artist. The third line displays the Album along with the Year if the year exists.
Mute Button: Mute or unmute the audio output.
Volume Slider: Controls the volume level.
Controls: The first one is Repeat which supports only All and None. (At some point repeat one was not supported by the MusicBee api, I have no idea if this has changed since). Then you have Previous, Play/Pause and Next. If you long press the Play/Pause it will stop the playback. Finally, there is Shuffle which supports OFF, ON, AUTODJ. When pressed it will switch to the next status with the order specified above.
Navigation Drawer
Connection Button: Despite the looks, this is actually a button. Pressing it should start the connection. Long pressing it should reset the connection. When connected the power logo should have a Green color.
Connection Label: This is a complementary label that shows the current status of the connection.
Basic Navigation: This is the basic navigation menu. That you use to access all the screens of the application.
Settings: Opens the settings screen mentioned above.
Help & Feedback: Opens the Help & Feedback screen. Here you can access this help guide in app and also send feedback about the application.
Library Browse Screen
Initially, the library browsing screen is empty and no data will be displayed. To have your metadata displayed, you have to manually sync the metadata.
You can also swipe to refresh each tab.
Important! please keep in mind that if you don't complete the metadata sync the search features won't work.
The plans are to add an option for auto sync later, or autosync at least on the first connection when there is no data available.
The sync operation might take a while depending on the size of your library.
To refresh the library metadata, you have to open the overflow menu on the top right of the ActionBar and select the Refresh entry.
After selecting the refresh option, you will have to wait until the operation completes. This might take a while depending on your library size.
One user reported that for 60.000 tracks this was around 20 minutes.
After the completion of the sync operation, you should be able to see the metadata for your library in each category (1).
By default, if you didn't change anything in the option, pressing on one item should open the related sub view.
- A Genre opens a list of all the Artists that have songs in this Genre.
- An Artist opens all the Albums of the Artist. (Normally this should show all the albums by the artist or where the artist appears. Unfortunately due to a bug currently the compilations will show no data.)
- An Album will list all the Tracks belonging to the Album
- Pressing a Track will clear the queue and play that track.
Currently, due to some code left from the previous version, you can change what happens when you press on an entry in the library view. This will be changed in an upcoming update to affect only the track view.
By opening the context menu on each entry (2) you get the option to either Play Now, Queue Last or Queue Next all the tracks matching the specific entry. Excluding the track view, you can also open the subcategory results.
If you, for example, select to Play Now a Genre, it should queue all the tracks matching the selected Genre for playback.
The application also provides a keyword search on the library metadata (3).
In the library search view, you can see all the results fuzzily matching your keyword grouped by the category in which they belong to.
In this view you have access to the same actions as in the Tabs of the Library Browser.
Now Playing Screen
On the Now Playing screen you can view the Now Playing List of MusicBee.
On the now playing screen you can press a track to immediately play it. There is an indicator (1) of the playing track. And you can also search for a track (2) that will be played immediately.
There are plans to improve the now playing search by adding the option to automatically scroll to the entry on the now playing list.
You can also remove tracks from the Now Playing list by pressing on the entry and swiping the entry from left to right.
You can also reorder tracks in the Now Playing list. To start moving a track, you have to long press on an entry and start moving the track either upwards or downwards.
Playlists
Currently, the playlists view is really simple. You can swipe to refresh the playlists that are cached locally on your device, and you can press on a playlist to start playing all the tracks of the said playlist.
For version v1.x, there are no plans to enhance the playlist functionality.
However, for v2.x you will be able to delete playlists from the device, add tracks to existing playlists through the library browser, or create new playlists. You will also be able to view the tracks for each playlist and probably also remove tracks from playlists.
Extras
Mini Control
The application provides a mini control in most of the alternative screens.
In the mini control you can view the cover of the playing track (1), The basic information (Artists, Title) (2) and you have basic playback controls (3).
By pressing on the track information, you will navigate to the main screen.
Notification
The application also provides media control notification.
LockScreen
You also have a lock screen media control, so you don't even need to unlock your device to change a track.
Lyrics
On the Lyrics screen you can see the lyrics of the playing track. The lyrics are loaded automatically when the track changes. You can scroll to view all the lyrics.
