Frieve EffeTune
Documentation

How to Use Music Library

Music Library indexes selected music folders so you can browse your local collection by tracks, albums, artists, genres, subfolders, folders, recently added tracks, or playlists. Playback still goes through the current EffeTune effect pipeline, so you can listen with the same effects used for normal music file playback.

Music Library stores its catalog, artwork cache, and playlists inside the app. It does not edit, rename, move, or delete your audio files.

Availability

  • Desktop app: Uses the full folder scanner and can keep selected folders available between launches. Desktop builds can also show a track in its folder.
  • PC Chromium browsers with File System Access: Can keep access to selected folders after a reload. The browser may ask for permission again.
  • Mobile browsers, Safari, Firefox, and other browsers without File System Access: Keep access to selected files only for the current page session. The catalog remains stored, but select the folder or files again after every reload so EffeTune can reconnect them.

Music Library indexes common media file extensions such as MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, Opus, M4A, AAC, WebM, and MP4. It can also use an external CUE sheet to divide a WAV or FLAC album file in the same folder into individual tracks. For MP4 files, EffeTune plays only the audio track and does not display video. Actual playback support, including the audio codec inside an MP4 file, still depends on the browser or OS decoder.

Opening Music Library

  • PC layout: Click the Music Library button in the header.
  • Mobile layout: Open the Library tab in the bottom navigation.
  • Desktop app: You can also use View > Music Library or Ctrl+L (Command+L on macOS).

To return to effect editing, click the Effect Pipeline button in the PC layout, switch back to the Effects tab in the mobile layout, or use View > Effect Pipeline or Ctrl+E (Command+E on macOS) in the desktop app.

You can also make Music Library the first view shown at startup: open Settings > Config…, then set Startup view: to Music Library. Use the list beside Music Library to choose whether Tracks, Albums, Artists, Genres, Subfolders, Folders, or Playlists appears first.

Adding Music Folders

  1. Open Music Library.
  2. Select Add Music Folder.
  3. Choose the folder that contains your music. On mobile or fallback browsers, the picker may ask you to choose folder contents instead of granting persistent folder access.
  4. Wait for the scan to finish. The status line shows the number of tracks and albums, and scan progress while indexing.

If you add a folder that is already inside an existing library folder, EffeTune warns you instead of indexing duplicate content. If you add a parent folder that contains already indexed folders, EffeTune can merge them into the new folder.

Browsing and Searching

Use the navigation tabs to browse the catalog:

  • Tracks - All indexed tracks. PC layout shows a sortable table; mobile layout shows a compact list.
  • Albums - Albums grouped from metadata.
  • Artists - Artists and album artists from metadata.
  • Genres - Genre groups from metadata.
  • Subfolders - Tracks grouped by the direct parent subfolder path relative to each indexed music folder.
  • Folders - Registered music folder roots, their scan status, and their physical directory trees.
  • Recently Added - Recently indexed tracks.
  • Playlists - Playlists created or imported inside Music Library.

An Album Artist value separated with semicolons, such as Artist A; Artist B, is indexed under each artist while the full credit remains displayed. &, /, and feat. are not treated as separators.

Open a root in Folders to browse it in Tree view. Subfolders appear above the track list; select one to descend into it, and use the breadcrumb path or Previous to move back up. The track list contains only tracks stored directly at the current level. Flat view instead shows every indexed track from the registered root, including tracks in all of its subfolders. Switching views keeps the current breadcrumb location so you can return to the same place in Tree view. Search library remains a library-wide search, so the subfolder list is hidden while a search is active.

When a folder contains no tracks directly and has exactly one subfolder, Tree view combines consecutive levels of that kind into one row, such as Artist / Album. Select the row to go directly to the deepest folder; the count shown for the row is also based on that folder. You can use the breadcrumb to open any intermediate level, while Previous on desktop moves back one level at a time. On mobile, Previous returns to the view you were on before, so it can skip past the intermediate levels of a combined chain in a single step.

The Folders tree follows exact physical relative paths and includes every discovered catalog track entry, even while metadata is being analyzed or when analysis fails. Its folder count includes track entries in that folder and all descendants. CUE tracks count individually, so several logical tracks that share one WAV or FLAC source count as several tracks, not as one physical audio file. Subfolders is different: it is a metadata-derived grouping of successfully analyzed tracks by normalized direct-parent identity, so case or Unicode-normalization variants can be combined there.

For example, Artist/Album/01 Song.flac appears in the Artist/Album subfolder group and under Artist then Album in the physical Folders tree. Identical relative paths in different indexed roots remain separate. Files stored directly in a root do not create a subfolder group; they remain available in Tracks and in that root’s direct track list in Folders.

Use Search library to search across tracks, albums, artists, and playlists. In the PC layout, track table headers sort by Title, Artist, Album, Genre, or Time. Album, artist, genre, subfolder, and playlist views provide a Sort list backed by the catalog. Depending on the view, it can order by name, artist, year, path, track count, total duration, updated time, or created time, in either direction. Each view keeps its own selection.

For tracks, search terms of three or more characters match anywhere in the title, artist, album, genre, file name, or path. One- or two-character terms match only the beginning of a word. Enter at least three characters when you need a match in the middle of a word.

In both the PC and mobile layouts, track search results, tracks shown directly at the current folder level in Tree view, and tracks in an album, artist, genre, subfolder, or playlist detail are all selected by default when the result contains 300 tracks or fewer. Results with 301 tracks or more are not selected automatically. Use the row checkboxes, Select All, or Deselect All to change the selection.

Mobile starts with the normal title list and does not show artist or duration columns. Only long-pressing a track enters selection mode; checkboxes, Select All, and Deselect All then appear while the usual row actions remain available. Automatic selection and later selection changes—including Select All, Deselect All, and individual checkboxes—change only the selection state; they do not enter or leave selection mode.

If metadata is missing or unreadable, EffeTune falls back to the file name and folder information. Track properties show the file path, format, sample rate, bit depth, bitrate, and main metadata fields. For a CUE track, they also show that it is a CUE track, the CUE path, the source audio path, and the track’s region within that source.

CUE Album Files

Place an external .cue file beside the WAV or FLAC files it names, then add or rescan that folder. Each valid TRACK ... AUDIO entry appears as an individual Music Library track. CUE title, performer, date, genre, and track numbering are used where available, while technical audio details come from the source WAV or FLAC file.

For tracks added to Music Library, EffeTune uses artwork embedded in the source audio first. If none is available, it looks beside the CUE file for cover.jpg, cover.png, front.jpg, front.png, then a JPEG or PNG named after the source audio file, with or without its audio extension. Direct desktop playback automatically uses the same neighboring image candidates; this playback path does not extract embedded artwork from the source audio. Direct browser playback uses a matching image available through the selected files or registered folder.

You can also play a CUE album directly with Open music files, or Open Music on mobile. In the desktop app, File > Open music file… is also available; select the .cue file by itself. In a PC Chromium browser, first add the album’s folder to Music Library and allow folder access. You can then select the .cue file by itself, and EffeTune opens the referenced WAV or FLAC files and matching cover from that registered folder without adding the selection to the catalog. Browsers without File System Access must still receive the .cue file together with all and only the WAV or FLAC files it names, plus any matching cover image. A valid selection replaces the current playback queue. If validation fails, the current queue is left unchanged.

If a CUE sheet is invalid or cannot safely identify its source files, EffeTune explains the problem and imports the WAV or FLAC files as ordinary whole-file tracks instead. Correct the CUE sheet or its file names, then rescan the folder to try again.

Playing from the Library

Select a track, album, artist, genre, subfolder, folder, search result, or playlist, then use:

  • Play to replace the current player queue and start playback.
  • Shuffle to play the selected group in random order.
  • Play Next to insert the selected tracks after the current track.
  • Add to Queue to append the selected tracks.
  • Add to Playlist to save selected tracks into a Music Library playlist.

On PC, you can double-click a track row to play from that point and use right-click or the More menu for track actions. On mobile, tap a track in the normal list to play it; long-press enters selection mode as described above.

The normal music player controls and repeat/shuffle settings still apply. On devices with a keyboard, the usual player shortcuts also work. If a library track cannot be opened because the folder is offline, reconnect or re-import the folder.

Folder Maintenance

Use Rescan after you add, remove, rename, or retag files in your music folders. Rescanning updates changed tracks, removes files no longer found, and tries to resolve playlist items that were previously unavailable.

Folder statuses in the Folders view indicate whether a folder is ready:

  • OK - The folder is available.
  • Not scanned - The folder has not been indexed yet.
  • Missing - The folder or stored path is no longer available.
  • Reconnect - EffeTune needs permission again.

When a folder shows Reconnect, select Reconnect and grant access to the same folder. Choosing Remove only removes the folder from the Music Library catalog; files on disk are not deleted.

Playlists

Music Library playlists are stored inside EffeTune and can contain tracks from your indexed folders.

You can:

  • Create a playlist from selected library tracks.
  • Save the current player queue as a playlist.
  • Use Rename, Duplicate, Delete, and Reorder for playlists.
  • Drag tracks inside a playlist to change order, or use Move Up and Move Down where drag is not convenient.
  • Use Import Playlist for M3U, M3U8, PLS, and XSPF playlist files.
  • Open an individual playlist and export it with Export M3U8 or Export XSPF.

Recently Played and Favorites

EffeTune shows two special playlists alongside your regular playlists in the same card grid. They are created only when needed: Recently Played when an indexed library track starts playing, and Favorites when you first mark a track with the star button.

  • Recently Played keeps the latest 100 distinct tracks, with the newest at the top. Playing a track again moves it back to the top.
  • Favorites contains the tracks you mark with ☆. On PC, use the star beside a track; on mobile, open the track’s More menu. The same menu is also available by right-clicking a track on PC.

These playlist names are fixed and appear in the current UI language, so they cannot be renamed. You can duplicate, export, or delete them like other playlists. If you delete one, it is recreated empty the next time playback or a favorite action needs it. Their cards show a clock or star in the artwork area; the Play button at the lower right of Favorites starts it immediately. Special playlists are not included in regular playlist search results.

Folder scans automatically import supported playlist files after their tracks are indexed. An unchanged file is skipped. When the content at the same folder and relative path changes, EffeTune atomically replaces the items in its automatically imported playlist; this also replaces item edits made to that playlist in EffeTune. A failed or canceled import is retried on the next rescan. Deleting or renaming the source file leaves the existing playlist in place, and a renamed source is imported as a new playlist.

When importing, EffeTune previews how many playlist entries match tracks in the current library. Unmatched entries are kept as unresolved items when possible, so they can be resolved later after adding or reconnecting the matching folder.

When exporting, choosing Relative paths writes paths relative to the export location when possible. Use this when you want the playlist to move together with the music folder. M3U8 and XSPF cannot preserve a CUE track’s region within an album file, so EffeTune leaves CUE tracks out of these exports and reports how many were omitted. It never substitutes the physical album-file path for an omitted CUE track.

Safety and Storage

  • Music Library reads audio files and metadata but does not write changes to audio files.
  • Artwork caching and playlists are app data, not embedded file changes.
  • Browser storage can be cleared by the browser or user settings. Export important playlists if you need a portable copy.
  • In browsers with File System Access, permission controls whether folder access remains available after a reload. In other browsers, select the files again after every reload.

Large Libraries

EffeTune loads large collections in stages instead of holding the entire library in memory. Scan time and practical limits depend on storage speed, available memory, metadata, artwork, and browser or OS limits.

Nearby tracks load as you scroll. An exceptionally fast jump can briefly show blank rows until the requested tracks load, especially on slow storage.

Use Music Library in one EffeTune window at a time.

OpenHome Remote Control (Desktop App)

On supported desktop builds, EffeTune can appear as an OpenHome player to controller apps on the same local network. Open Settings > Config…, enable Allow OpenHome controllers on this network, and wait until the status says that EffeTune is available. The default player name is EffeTune (computer name); use Player name to give each computer a recognizable name such as EffeTune Living Room. The setting is off by default.

OpenHome does not require a sign-in. While this setting is enabled, other devices on the local network can view playback metadata, replace or edit the Player queue, and control playback. If Windows Firewall asks for permission, allow EffeTune only on Private networks, not Public networks. Turn the setting off when remote control is not needed.

Supported packages are Windows x64, macOS on Intel or Apple silicon, and Linux x64. This feature is not available in the web app or mobile browsers. Basic queue and playback operation has been verified with BubbleUPnP on Android; other OpenHome controllers can differ in how they display services and unsupported controls. EffeTune is an OpenHome Playlist source, not a UPnP AV MediaRenderer, and no compatibility or certification claim is made.

Controllers can add HTTP or HTTPS audio, manage one remote queue, play, pause, stop, skip, seek, repeat, and shuffle. Remote audio still passes through the current EffeTune effect pipeline. OpenHome control does not provide EffeTune effect editing, local file-path access, master volume, Radio, Songcast, or synchronized multi-room playback. Gapless playback is not guaranteed, and technical metadata can remain unknown until the source provides it. Sleep, wake, VPN, or network-interface changes can make the player disappear briefly while it reconnects.

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