Setting up
Listening to Aurral From Your Phone
Aurral exposes a Subsonic-compatible API, so most music apps can connect to it directly. The connection takes an app password rather than your account password, and that distinction explains most failures.
Creating an app password
Open the user menu, or More on a phone, and choose Connect an app. Name the device, check the server address, and create the app password. The password appears exactly once.
Copy it before navigating away. That one-time display is deliberate, because Aurral stores only a hash and cannot show it again.
Scanning instead of typing
The generated QR code contains the server URL, username and token as a single connect string. Your player scans it and fills everything in.
Aurral generates that QR code in your own browser and sends no credentials to any QR service, which is worth knowing given how these things are usually implemented.
- aurral://connect?server=...&user=...&token=...
- Generated locally in your browser.
- No third-party QR service is involved.
Which apps work
Any Subsonic-compatible client. The major Android and iOS players support it, as do desktop and web clients, because Aurral implements the protocol rather than integrating with each app.
Favourites set in a client work everywhere else too, since they belong to your account rather than to the app.
When it will not connect
Almost every failure is an address. The app is on your phone, so the address it needs is one your phone can reach, not one your browser happens to use. On the same Wi-Fi that is often the LAN address rather than the hostname.
Check the port too. If you mapped 3001 to something else on the host, the app needs the host port, not the container port.
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Cannot connect at all | Wrong address or port for the phone's network | Use the LAN address and mapped port |
| Connects then fails to authenticate | Account password used instead of an app password | Create an app password |
| Works at home, not away | LAN address is not reachable externally | Set a public URL or use a tunnel |
| Works then stops after revocation | Device was revoked | Create a new app password for that device |
Revoking a device
Connect an app lists every device with its creation and last-used dates. Revoking one kills its app password, any sessions exchanged from it and any playback tokens, immediately. Other devices keep working.
Admins can show all users' devices and revoke another user's device, which matters when someone loses a phone that still has access to your server.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just use my account password in a player?
Use an app password. It is hashed separately, can be revoked per device, and creating it never changes your account password.
Why does the app work on my desktop but not my phone?
Different network reachability. Your desktop may resolve a hostname the phone cannot, or may be on the same network as the container while the phone is not.
Does starring in a player affect my library?
Favourites sync everywhere. Starring a Flow track also adds it to the library, which you can turn off under settings, System, Subsonic.
Ready to set it up
One container and one media path is genuinely all it takes. Everything else in this page is something you add when the need appears.