Android Music App with SMB v2 support

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bender84

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Topic # 230730 10-Mar-2018 16:15

Been searching around without much luck...

Does anyone know of a decent music app for Android that can...
1. Access SMB v2 shares on my Windows 10 PC
2. Play a folder of music on Random
3. Allows creation of Play lists.

Seems most of the Apps on the Google Play store that claims to support SMB, only supports SMB v1. (i.e SAMBA Music Player, VLC Music Player, etc)

Currently using ES Explorer Pro version, which includes a fairly decent music player, but have found it's SMB v2 support a little bit glitchy... (There's an ongoing bug in ES Explorer Pro which causes it to struggle with larger folders that has more than approx 250+ songs where it doesn't find all of the music in those folders)

Also have Solid Explorer, which can access SMB v2 shares without any issue, but the included music player seems to only allow me to play one song at a time. While Solid Explorer gives me the option to select an external player, none of the players I've tried will play the selected song (nothing happens) or worst, the player simply crashes.

Any suggestions appreciated.

sbiddle

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Reply # 1972407 10-Mar-2018 16:37

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Why would you want to access SMB shares? What's wrong with a far simpler option such as a basic NPnP or DLNA server?

bender84

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Reply # 1972450 10-Mar-2018 17:21

It's a setup I was originally more familiar with and what had originally worked. If people believe there are better ways to achieve what I am after, I'm certainly more than happy to explore / research any suggestions thrown my way.

What is NPnP? (Google Shows up info about Cisco Network Plug and play)

I recall I had issues with DLNA between Android Apps and Windows (Namely Not all music was showing up) but none the less, I shall revisit setting up DLNA.

sbiddle

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Reply # 1972452 10-Mar-2018 17:24

Oops meant UPnP not NPnP

HcoNmeM

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Reply # 1972937 12-Mar-2018 08:41

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bender84: It's a setup I was originally more familiar with and what had originally worked. If people believe there are better ways to achieve what I am after, I'm certainly more than happy to explore / research any suggestions thrown my way.

What is NPnP? (Google Shows up info about Cisco Network Plug and play)

I recall I had issues with DLNA between Android Apps and Windows (Namely Not all music was showing up) but none the less, I shall revisit setting up DLNA.

Setup a UPnp server, there are some free ones that are good..

I'd look at Serviio to start with, it's pretty good for a local service..

I use Plex but that's more than just for music..

Oubadah

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Reply # 1978974 17-Mar-2018 11:08

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sbiddle:

Why would you want to access SMB shares? What's wrong with a far simpler option such as a basic NPnP or DLNA server?

I'd say the opposite is true: SMB is far simpler and more reliable than DLNA. There's no extra server software required, which only adds unnecessary complexity and potential issues. Maybe the DLNA server stops running, or stops updating its database, mangles album art. This kind of stuff has made me hate DLNA.

That said, I was never able to find an acceptable SMB-compatible music app. I reluctantly settled on Serviio DLNA server (folder view, reliable automatic updating of library, runs as service, minimal bloat, simple UI with permission controls) + the Foobar2000 app (gapless playback, ReplayGain normalization support, broad format support). I've been happy with that system for streaming FLAC from my Windows server.

Foobar2000 lets you build playlists from DLNA music (just tested one I compiled a month ago and it still works, though I suspect it would break if I ever rebuilt the Serviio database). It has a Random mode. If you set up Serviio to only display folder mode, then the browsing experience is essentially the same as SMB. This wasn't exactly what you (OP) wanted, but it's the best suggestion I have. I used to use ES+SMB like you. I stopped because there was something iffy about the ES dev, but my new system results in a much better experience anyway. For me, the gapless playback and RG justifies the inconvenience (and one time cost) of the DLNA server.

bender84

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Reply # 1998024 17-Apr-2018 19:23

Thanks for everyone's replies

Just a very delayed / tardy update. (Apologies, Been travelling overseas a bit for the last month).

At this stage, (to be upfront) can't quite say just yet that I've warmed to using DLNA though still intending to make the time to test drive it a bit more. Have set up DLNA (MS's implementation) on my Windows 10 Box and had tried a few apps including MediaMonkey and BubbleUPnP. In My own experiences, It could be with the particular setup I've chosen, and it could be the apps I selected, overall it has felt a little bit less robust than SMB (Occasional unexplained lost connections), and with the two apps tested, the interface feels a bit more cumbersome to navigate and to use than over and above simply using say an SMB capable File Explorer app.

As mentioned, will need to find some more time to may be try a few things out (including trying out Serviio), but have to admit, have recently found myself going down the "convenience" route and using my Spotify subscription included with my Spark Mobile plan more and more. (though it doesn't have a lot of music that currently exists in my own collection)

Oubadah

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Reply # 1998050 17-Apr-2018 19:47

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bender84: but have to admit, have recently found myself going down the "convenience" route and using my Spotify subscription included with my Spark Mobile plan more and more. (though it doesn't have a lot of music that currently exists in my own collection)

If you’re happy with cloud services, don’t forget that you can “upload” all of your personal music to Google Play for free. Most of it probably won’t actually be uploaded, because if they think they already have the album on their servers, they’ll just give you access to that. The benefit is that you won’t have to wait for a ton of data to upload. The downside is that they often screw up the matching and you end up with different versions of tracks (censored, etc.). More irritating to me is when I have a superior master and they match it to whatever compressed “loudness wars” 2000’s remaster they have, but most people would not notice this. You can override the match and force it to actually upload the tracks from your PC, but I think you can only do this on a track-by-track basis or something stupid. I wrote Google Play off for that reason, but it would work great for most. The limit is 50,000 songs, does not count towards Google Drive storage.

Another option if you’re a Microsoft OneDrive/Office 365 user is Microsoft Groove, which can play MP3 music you upload to OneDrive. There's no “matching” nonsense in that case, but it counts towards your OneDrive storage. The app was buggy to the point of being unusable the two times I tried it, but they could have improved it.

Both of these support cloud syncing playlists (again, Groove had bugs with this). Neither support gapless playback, or normalisation (which is a must for anyone who builds playlists in my opinion).