UPDATE: Thank you guys for all the suggestions! I got Navidrome installed on my NAS in a matter of minutes, got to test like a half dozen Subsonic compatible apps (both FOSS and Play Store), and it looks like Symfonium + Navidrome meets my needs. I’ll keep testing before my free trial for Symfonium ends, but I really appreciate the nudge to try a new music server!

I’m self-hosting my music collection (synology NAS), and while I’ve liked Poweramp, it only reads local music files, which means I have to copy many GB of music to my phone, even if I’m not particularly listening to it.

The Synology DS Audio app actually does what I want: it caches music locally as you’re streaming it, but it reads directly from the NAS.

The only problem with DS Audio is that it sucks as an actual music player.

Are there any Android music players, preferably FOSS or at least privacy-friendly, that will read from the NAS and cache in an intelligent way but also works well as an actual music player?

I did try Symfonium, but couldn’t get it to work with Webdav or SMB, plus the dev comes off as a real asshole, so I’d rather not give them money.

EDIT: To clarify what I’m looking for:

  • The app must be able to connect to my NAS music collection (through my local network is fine).
  • Most importantly, the app must be able to cache my music either as I’m streaming it, or in advance when I’m running through a playlist… then future plays of the song should be from the cache.
  • I do NOT want to have to manually download or sync files, which is how I’ve been doing, and I don’t like this at all.

If you’ve used the Synology DS Audio app, then you’ll know exactly the behaviour I’m looking for. It really is a shame that DS Audio sucks as a music player, or else it would be exactly what I’m looking for.

  • bulwark@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Not FOSS but I use Symfonium to stream music from my Navidrome instance on my NAS while I’m out of the house.

    Edit, saw your last comment. What couldn’t you get working?

  • infeeeee@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    My offline android music workflow:

    • Server: Navidrome but any music server supporting Subsonic API would work here. Navidrome has a nice UI, and reads MusicBrainz IDs, and can scrobble to ListenBrainz, that’s why I settled with this.
    • Mobile app: Ultrasonic, on Fdroid. There are a lot of ways you can set up caching. I set up that it should automatically download everything from my “Now playing” playlist, at home on wifi I just add a bunch of albums and playlists to the “Now playing” list, it takes a while but it transcodes and downloads everything in a couple of minutes. It has very good Android Auto support, and a widget. Due to an annoying bug I had to downgrade to version 4.7.1, but otherwise I love it.
  • butter@midwest.socialEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    As other’s have said Navidrome is the way to go. Not the most featureful, but it’s so much faster than every other solution that you make it work. It’s also very close to a huge update to support plugins and stuff.

    I use the DSub app. Free from fdroid. Configured to download 10 songs in advance, for when I’m driving with spotty service, and download my favorites.

    It also let’s you set different internal and external IP addresses, if you need that. I think most people do unless you run a DNS server.