FAQ

Sure: Just type in what you are looking for, or press the „Search“ button on the top right of the screen. A search window will open automatically. Just select one of the results that appear. You can search for tracks, artists, albums, genres, basically anything. Even partial matches will be found.

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How do I select multiple tracks?

You can right-click tracks, albums and artists to select them.

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What does the „Playback Mode“ button do exactly?

With this button you can change how the music|mode „auto pilot“ will continue playing music when the current track has ended. There are different modes available. Some modes will always play a complete album, others will switch on each single track. The default and recommended mode is „Albums by Genre“, where the auto pilot will select a different album from your library once the current album has finished, taking into account the current album’s genres. An album that has similar genre(s) will be more likely selected than one that only has a single similar genre. The order of genres also influences this, the first genre is more important than the second genre. If no similar albums are found, a random album is selected. Your music will never stop unless you pick „Single Album“.

Each time you manually play a track from your library, this track will be used as a new starting point for the auto pilot, so from now on albums or tracks similar to the selected one will be played.

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What is the easiest way to create and edit a playlist?

Select an album, artist or one or more tracks that you want to start with, by right-clicking them. Then press the „Playlist“ button „(+)“ on the bottom right of the app bar. This will allow you to create a new playlist, to add the items to the current selected playlist (if a playlist is already opened), or select another already existing playlist.

Use drag+drop to add more tracks or even complete albums, artists or genres to the playlist.

Use drag+drop to re-order tracks inside the playlist.

To remove a track from a playlist, either drag it to the left and „drop it out of the playlist“, or right-click it and press the „Remove“ button.

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Can I import my existing playlist files?

Yes: Press „Playlists“ on the start screen. Right-click to open the app bar. Press „Import“.

Supported playlist formats are: m3u, m3u8 and pls.

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How can I manually change my music collection, e.g. change names, covers and genres on albums?

There are various ways of changing your music library. The most important ones are listed below.

Many of these actions involve „drag+drop“. This means to drag UI elements on the screen onto a destination element. If you are using a mouse, press the left mouse button on element, keep the mouse button pressed, „drag“ the element to the destination, and finally release the mouse button to „drop“ the element on the drop target. On a touch device, tap+hold the element, then drag it to the destination and release the finger.

Other actions can be performed by selecting one or more elements. With a mouse, you select elements by using the right mouse button. On a touch device, you can select an element by pressing and holding the finger on the element, after a while it will be selected. A faster way to select an element on a touch device is „swipe select“: Tap on the element and drag it a bit to the right, and it will also be selected.

Changing albums and artists:

The selected album has an „edit“ button. Press it to reveal text boxes where you can change the album name, the artist name, release date, and a button to change the cover image.

You can „merge“ artists (if they are the same but written differently), by dropping one artist onto the other, or by selecting them both (right-click) and then pressing the „Merge“ button from the app bar. You can rename an artist by selecting it and pressing „Rename“.

You can shift albums from one artist to another artist using drag+drop.

Even albums can be merged, e.g. if they are CD1 and CD2 of a multi-disc album and this has not automatically been detected by music|mode. Just drop the second disc on the first disc.

Changing genres:

To rename a genre, right-click it (tap-hold on touch) and select „Rename“.

You can „merge“ genres (if they are the same but written differently), by dropping one genre onto the other, or by selecting them (right-click) and then pressing the „Merge“ button on the app bar.

If you are in the „Genres“ view, dropping an album on a genre will remove all existing genres from that album and put the target genre on it instead. If you instead drop a genre onto an album, that genre will be added to the album, in addition to what was there already. You can drag genre from either the genre list, or from the genres that show up on the selected album.

You can also re-order genres on the selected album using drag+drop. The order of genres on an album will influence what will be selected by the auto pilot when the current album or track is finished.

You can remove a genre by right-clicking it (tap-hold on touch), and pressing the „Remove“ button.

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Is it possible to ignore „The“ at the beginning of artist names, so „The Doors“ show up at letter „D“?

In the Artists view, right-click to open the lower app bar. Press the „Sorting“ button. Select „Sort Name“. Unlike the other sort options, this one will be remembered and used each time you open the artists list.

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I do not see all artists in the artists list. Why is that?

The current „Artists“ view is a view that shows albums per artist. So artists that do not have an album because they only appear in a „various artists“ album or in a loose collection will not show up here. Albums that have different artists will be listed at „Various Artists“ (or sometimes at „Unknown Artist“).

A „real“ artists view that will even show these artists will be added at a later point.

You can search for an artist that does not have an album by just typing in the name. When selecting him from the search results, you will be taken to the first album where he appears.

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I added new music to my music folder. How can I make music|mode see it?

Right-click, the press the „Refresh“ button. This will also be automatically done on each startup, unless the automatic library update is disabled in the settings.

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How do I add a new folder to the music library?

There is a function to include new folders into your music library: Open the app settings (open „charms“ bar on the right, press „Settings“). Click „Add new music folder“. Select the folder. Press „Ok“.

This function is intended for folders that are permanently connected to your PC, or that are connected at least most of the time. For example this can be used to include music form a SD card that will be inserted most of the time, to include music from a second harddisk, or to include music form a network drive that will be available most of the time.

Please note that updating network drives is slow due to technical reasons. You can add network drives into your library, but be aware that updating them will take longer.

This function will NOT copy the music into your collection. You need to use a file manager for that, at least for now. New files will be picked up by music|mode on next startup, or when opening the lower app bar (right-click) and pressing „Refresh“.

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How do I add a network folder to the music library?

Adding network folders from a different Windows PC in your network works just like adding a normal folder (see above).

But if you try to add a folder from a different device (e.g. NAS), windows might show an error („This network location cannot be included, because it is not indexed.“). In that case, you need to use a tool to include the folder into the library.

Please follow this guide to get your network folder working:
http://zornsoftware.codenature.info/blog/win7-library-tool.html

On some NAS folders, new music is not found correctly. If that is the case with you, please try the following: Open the App Settings, Music Folders, find your NAS folder and set the folder type to „SD Card“. Now restart the app. On next startup, your new music should be found correctly.

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How do I remove a folder from the music library?

It is currently not possible to remove music folders directly from within the app. However, it is possible to do this in Windows Explorer.

If you are using Windows 8.1, you must first enable libraries by clicking the „Navigation Pane“ button in the „View“ tab, and checking „Show libraries“. Now you will see the libraries on the left panel of Windows Explorer. In Windows 8.0 they are always visible. Expand the „Music“ library. Now you see which folders are currently contained. When you right-click a folder, there is a context menu entry to remove the folder from the library. The app will pick up the change on next app startup. Now you can hide the libraries again if you want (on Windows 8.1).

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Can I control the player using keyboard shortcuts?

The player natively supports the standard media keys. If your keyboard has buttons for Play/Pause, Next track, Previous track, then these keys should work by default. If you have a laptop and the keys do not work, you might need to install a driver from your device manufacturer. Please search the driver website for your device or contact the manufacturer. Additionally, pressing „F5“ will search for new msuic files.

Special hotkeys:
The Pro Version of the app supports additional hotkeys on the F button row:

  • F3 – Volume down
  • F4 – Volume up
  • F7 – Seek backward
  • F8 – Seek forward
  • F9 – Previous track
  • F10 – Play/Pause
  • F11 – Next track
  • F12 – Play random track
  • Alt+F9 – Tempo down (*)
  • Alt+F10 – Reset tempo (*)
  • Alt+F11 – Tempo up (*)
  • Alt+A – Loop A-B (**)

(*) The temo function is experimental and might result in distorted audio when the tempo is changed considerably.
(**) The Loop A-B function allows you to loop a specific section of a song endlessly. Press the shortcut once at the start location, press it again at the end location. Now the player will loop from start to end. Press the shortcut again (or select a different track) to stop the loop function.

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The app does not start – what can I do?

The first thing you can do is to check for app updates. To search for app updates you need to open the Windows Store, open the settings from the „charms“ bar on the right, press „App updates“, then search for updates. If no update is available and the problem persists, please let me know via the support form.

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Which audio formats are supported?

Currently supported audio formats for playback:

  • MP3
  • WMA
  • WAV
  • FLAC (Pro Version, free for 30 days)
  • AC3 (Pro Version, free for 30 days)
  • M4A / MP4 / AAC / ALAC / Apple Lossless (Pro Version, free for 30 days)

A lot more formats can be read and will be shown in the player. But they cannot be played currently.

More formats will be added at some point. Please let me know if you miss a specific one.

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An error message appears when I try to play a music file.

These are a few typical error messages that you can look out for, and what you can do about them.

Format not supported:

The file format is not supported by the app. If you think that this format would be a valuable addition to the app, please let me know via the support form.

FileNotFound, AccessDenied:

The file cannot be accessed by the app. This can happen if you music folder has been moved or deleted, if a removable device such as the SD card containing the music has been removed, or if a network drive containing the music is not accessible. Use the „Music Folders“ settings area to check which folders are used by the app. Make sure that your music folders are available and accessible, by opening them in Windows Explorer.

MF_MEDIA_ENGINE_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED:

This error message can be caused by different error situations. First, it can happen when your audio device is disabled. Please check your audio device status by right-clicking on the speaker icon in the Windows Taskbar, and opening the „Playback devices“ area. If the correct device is selected and enabled, then this can be a codec configuration issue. Running the Microsoft „apps troublshooter“ can resolve the issue. If this also does not help, you can try to uninstall and re-install the app. If you have created playlists, you should save each playlist into a file before uninstalling (right-click the playlist, press „Save“), and import it after the app was re-installed (wait until all albums have been scanned in completely, open the „Playlists“ view, right-click anywhere, press „Load“).

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The playback stops or has long gaps when my display is off.

There is a rare Windows bug that prevents the app from playing music in the background. The solution is simple: Just reboot your device once, and the problem should be solved. There have only been a few reports of this problem, and it seems like the problem does not re-appear after the reboot.

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I tried to upgrade to the Pro Version, but it did not work. What can I do?

Usually this means that there is a temporary problem with the Windows Store servers. Please try again later. If you still cannot get it to work, or you are worried about your payment, please contact the Microsoft Support. Their support is usually good and fast. Please note that the whole payment process is handled by Microsoft. As an app developer I don’t get any details on purchases. So if anything goes wrong with the payment, you need contact Microsoft on that.

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Why can’t I see all languages in the app settings?

When you install an app from the Windows Store, only those resources are downloaded and installed, which match the languages that are defined for your Windows user profile. This is done to reduce bandwidth and hard disk space.

So for example, if you use the English version of Windows, but want to select your native language in music|mode, it might not be available in the app settings, because it was not installed. To add more languages, you need to open the PC Settings (the „modern“ Windows settings), open Time and Region, Region and Language, and add the desired language(s) there. Your primary language will stay the same, but you can add additional secondary languages. When you now re-install the app, or install an app update, all language resources that match one of your Windows languages will be installed, and are selectable in the app settings.

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How can I stream music to another device?

It is possible to stream music to other devices using the „PlayTo“ functionality built into Windows. To activate streaming, you need to be actively playing a track. Now either click the volume speaker button, or open the „Charms“ bar on the right and press Devices -> Play To. All available target devices will be listed. Clicking on one of the devices will start the streaming.

Note for Windows 10 users: The only way to open the „PlayTo“ window on Windows 10 is by clicking on the speaker icon in the app. This can be difficult on touch devices. I will release an updated version for Windows 10 at some point, which will make this more accessible.

Please note that many devices do not allow you to control the volume during playback. It is recommended to use the target device’s volume control instead of the one in the app.

Usually, only devices are listed which are PlayTo certified. But if you are using Windows 8.1, it is easily possible to stream to most other DLNA devices, using a trick described here. This works for many of the newer „Smart TVs“, home cinema receivers, and more.

You can also stream music to a different PC in your home network: Start „Windows Media Player“ on the target PC, press the „Stream“ button on the top. Check „Allow remote control of my Player“. Now that PC should show up as a target device when opening the PlayTo window!

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Why is the volume of my music different on my Windows device?

By default, Windows will install and enable a „dynamic range compression“ filter on most audio devices, which will reduce the volume of loud passages and increase the volume of silent passages. While this might make sense for movies, it is usually undesirable for music.

So if you feel that your music’s dynamic range is somewhat limited/modified, or sounds different compared to playing the same track on a different device, ther you should check this:

Right-click on the speaker icon in the status area of the Windows Taskbar, press „Playback devices“. Now select your audio device and press „Properties“. Open the tab called „Enhancements“ which lists the audio processing filters that are provided by Windows and/or the audio driver. If you want untampered music experience, I would recommend you to just check „Disable all Enhancements“. You can also disable the enhancement filters individually. The volume filter is usually called „Loudness Equalization“ (sometimes also „Dynamic Range Compression“). If you want to watch a movie at night and you do not want to annoy your neighbors, you should consider re-enabling this setting temporarily.

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