Streaming from Volumio to other devices (iPhone)

Volumio Development Suggest a feature
#1

I did find another thread on this, but it’s 6 years old so I thought I’d start a new one.

I’ve found the times I can play music on my stereo is limited to when my whole family wants to listen to music. For anywhere in the other 23.75 hours of the day I’d love to listen to my library on my phone. I have discovered the SMBA feature and apps like Evermusic and HitByMusic, but you’re limited to looking through directories and finding files one at a time. You lose all of the great interface features of Volumio.

Here’s my ask. An option in the interface to listen locally, from the web browser you’re using instead of from your speakers.

If this already exists in some form I’d love to know about it.

1 Like
#2

You’re not going to be able to stream from your Volumio Player to other devices, Volumio doesn’t work that way. However, Look into the Openmediavault NAS set-up. That would do what you’re asking, and there are plenty of videos that can show you how to set that up, and for an iPhone, look-up “Time Machine”. I built an Openmediavault NAS to store and back-up all of my music files, and it works great. I just recently figured out how to access my NAS music files from my Android phone and play the music files from that device, and it’s pretty cool, a little challenging to get it working but it get’s the job done when you figure it out.

#3

I’ve got quite an interesting configuration (if you like that sort of thing) where I have a 2TB HDD connected to an RPi3 running Volumio with touchscreen, and use a QNAP media server which has the ability to add external mounts.

I’ve got a set-up which syncs everything that’s on the Volumio drive to the media server, and then I can use Plex to access the music anywhere I want. I only have to keep one collection neat and tidy with any metadata or library changes, and the QNAP performs a one-way sync, so everything is the same everywhere (currently also pushing it to another Raspberry-Pi based music player in a different room).

#4

Interesting. Is this an easy thing to add to a volumio install? I’m a little rusty at the linux command line, but could probably figure it out if it’s as easy as a git command.

I assume this would degrade performance on my little pi zero, but I doubt I’ll often use both at the same time.

#5

That QNAP is kind of pricy, but it is very cool. I’m just using a 2 bay Sabrent running off a Raspi 4 with Openmediavault that has 2 500 gig SSD’s, 1 SSD is for back-up. My set-up is dedicated for my Volumio music library, and its also running Pihole. However, the Openmediavault will do a push-pull and now you got me thinking about trying to push it to another Raspi into another room just because I can :slight_smile: So yeah, your set-up does sound interesting indeed.

#6

For what you’re trying to accomplish, that Pi Zero may be your weakest link Matt. If you were to use Openmediavault which is free, and you know how to SSH into a Pi 3 or 4, all of the scripts are in these “how to” videos. I used PcMac’s videos and he will help you if you get stuck :slight_smile:

#7

The hardest thing was adding the Samba share to the Volumio - everything else is done via the QNAP so I didn’t have to modify anything else on the Volumio.

I assigned reserved IP addresses with my modem so there wasn’t a possibility of disconnecting during the sync, and I don’t seem to notice any degradation in the Volumio’s playback when the sync is happening (though do get the under voltage alert and the touchscreen is less responsive, but the browser interaction and playback seems as seamless).

#8

I got the QNAP as an upgraded Plex media server a few years back - I’d had a Drobo but it was horribly unreliable. It’s only been the last few months that I’ve been tinkering with all the other things it can do - the Hybrid Sync and Hybrid Mount software seems really powerful.

I’ve got mine doing this:

Volumio --> QNAP -> Plex) -> Phoniebox

Then I’ve got a scheduled sync of the QNAP version to Dropbox (which can be added as a remote mount)

So any changes I make to Volumio end up with multiple ways of playing on multiple devices (Plexamp is pretty powerful) with a Dropbox backup of everything, but the only time I need to make any changes to the entire music library is on the Volumio itself, which I have SMB access to.

I’ve spent too many years trying to keep multiple music libraries in check on various devices, and feel like I’ve finally gotten it sorted out!

#9

To be clear, are you saying I should have a separate device running Openmediavault? Looking at their documentation, they seem to also be set up as a complete OS. I don’t mind upgrading to a Pi 4, but less interested in running two devices.

#10

Your Volumio player is not a streaming device nor will it ever be. I suggested the Openmediavault NAS because if you wanted to listen to your music library on say for example your phone, you could while the rest of your family listens to your Volumio player on your home stereo.

#11

Try look for the volusonic plugin in volumio its a Subsonic Plugin For Volumio
and it does what you are asking :slight_smile: but a LOT simpler than seting up a seperate server for music streaming and u can even stream outside your wifi to the internet so to speak…
and there are lots of aps for android and ios…

#12

ROON does that. But it’s too expensive.

I use two alternatives to Roon for that, VOX and also have my music on OneDrive.

Both are streaming my highres music directly to my iPhone and iPad, I just use a portable DAC, Dragonfly Red, and use headphones. Or connect a 3.5mm to RCA cable.

For the music I have on OneDrive I use CloudBeats, it indexes the music, and sorts it by artists, album, genre, it’s a LOT faster than Volumio and has a radio button, so it’s play your entire library in shuffle mode and creates a queue, something that Volumio can’t even do on a RPi reliably or at all.

I only have a use for Volumio for my main analog stereo, and it does sounds great! But it’s very limited as a player. When I get enough money I’ll get ROON.