Getting Started ​

Installation ​

Swing Music is available as precompiled binaries for both Windows and Linux.

Download the latest binary file from the download page and run it. That's all of it.

For Linux users, you need to make the file executable using chmod to run it.

Something like this.

chmod +x ./swingmusic

chmod +x ./swingmusic

Docker ​

Pull the official Docker image from Docker Hub and run it.

docker pull geoffrey45/swingmusic

docker pull geoffrey45/swingmusic

Replace /path/to/music with your music location and /path/to/config with the path you want the config to be created.

docker run --name swingmusic -p 1971:1970 \
-v /path/to/music:/music -v /path/to/config:/config \
--restart unless-stopped geoffrey45/swingmusic

docker run --name swingmusic -p 1971:1970 \
-v /path/to/music:/music -v /path/to/config:/config \
--restart unless-stopped geoffrey45/swingmusic

You can use multiple music folders by mounting them to /music.

-v /path/1:/music -v /path/2:/music

-v /path/1:/music -v /path/2:/music

You can pass Swing Music options at the end of the docker run command.

--restart unless-stopped geoffrey45/swingmusic --help # print help text

--restart unless-stopped geoffrey45/swingmusic --help # print help text

Options ​

Options are flags that can be passed when starting the app in the terminal to tweak runtime settings or perform tasks.

About Periodic Scans ​

The app periodically checks for new tracks and any changes to your library after 10 minutes. The following activities are performed:

1. Rescaning directories for new music
2. Extracting missing thumbnails
3. Downloading missing artist images
4. Extracting colors from the downloaded images
5. Downloading similar artist data for discovered artists (Note: some artists don't have similar artist data)

If your library grows rapidly over a short period, ie. by adding new tracks often, you should leave the periodic scans on. You can also modify the duration between periodic scans by using the -psi flag like this:

swingmusic -psi 10800 # 3hrs

swingmusic -psi 10800 # 3hrs

All the activities listed above are run on boot regardless of the -psi flag.

Watchdog ​

Swing Music watches for new music and file moves or deletes. The watcher does not work on mounted drives but works fine on the drive running the OS.

On Linux, you might have an inotify watch limit error:

Failed to start watchdog. [Errno 24] inotify instance limit reached

Failed to start watchdog. [Errno 24] inotify instance limit reached

You can fix it by increasing the watch limit. On Debian, Ubuntu, or similar:

echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p

echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p

On Arch Linux:

echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/40-max-user-watches.conf && sudo sysctl --system

echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/40-max-user-watches.conf && sudo sysctl --system

You can get more info on this StackOverflow thread.

Standalone client ​

In v1.3.0, PWA support was added for mobile use, though it can also be used with desktop. That means you can install the client as an app on your desktop or phone.

On mobile ​

The client is unusable as a mobile website due to the browser elements like the URL bar. Therefore, you need to install the client as an app.

If you don't get a prompt asking you to Add Swing Music to Home screen, click the 3 dots at the top right corner and select Add to Home screen.

On desktop ​

In Chrome or Edge browser, click the install button in the URL bar.

Firefox desktop does not support the installation of PWAs on localhost. So it's not documented here.

Remote access ​

To access your app from outside your local network, you need to set up a reverse proxy. Here are some tools I've tried:

1. Ngrok
2. localtunnel