Pre-release status

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pre-release status#

Aether has no stable release yet. Until it does, any new version may change the configuration file or the database, with no migration from what an older version left behind:

Configuration. Options can be renamed, moved or removed. After an upgrade, compare your config with the packaged config of the new version.
Database. A new version may not work with an older version’s database. The way out is an empty data directory and a fresh scan.
Scans. Keeping your database across an upgrade can call for one Full Catalog Scan, see After an upgrade.

Your files are the source of truth#

Aether is built so that losing its database costs you a rescan, not your collection. What it knows about your music comes from the files — tags, embedded and folder covers — and the metadata editor writes its changes back into them. A scan reads all of it again.

Known limitations

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Known limitations#

What Aether does not do yet, or does with a catch, and what to do about it. Most entries link to the page with the details. A few things it leaves out on purpose are under Not planned.

Apps#

JSON only. Apps that understand only the original Subsonic XML responses, such as DSub, cannot connect yet.
No transcoding, ratings, artist information, lyrics, podcasts or jukebox mode, among other app features. The full list, and what an app does without them, is under What apps cannot do yet.
Some apps’ plays count twice: Aether records an app’s “now playing” report as a play too.
Plays stay in Aether. Nothing is passed on to Last.fm or ListenBrainz.
No DLNA or UPnP. TVs, receivers and other network players cannot browse Aether on their own.

Web player#

It plays what your browser plays. There is no transcoding: FLAC, MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus and WAV play in most browsers, WMA in none, and AIFF and Apple Lossless only in some.
Radio stations are left out of the synced play queue. Another browser picking up your queue does not get them, and they upset the sync: with a station queued before the track that is playing, the other browser resumes at the wrong track or the queue is not saved at all, and a queue of nothing but stations clears the saved one. Keep stations out of a queue you want to carry on elsewhere.
Lyrics are not shown, even when your files carry them.

Your files#

The details are in Scanning and under Scan folders.

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