WiiM Home App on Windows and MAC

[Fredio]

I've just tried the Windows version on a laptop, independent of my main Android setup.

It works fine. I thought it wasn't going to work, because I couldn't see any progress while it looked for my "Home Music Library" ,but left unattended for a while it found my music . .
The only disappointment so far is while there are the same "artist" and "album" listings as the Android version ,"folders" listing is missing in the tree for picking out music. In my use case for more than a decade across different audio software ,"folders" are my go to method for cataloging a large media library. Looking forward to folder view being implemented in the Windows beta !

And I don't see any ability to check adding missing metadata. Are there menus for that ?

 

[Patrix2h]

I've downloaded the Mac OS Beta (still the only version available) to a late 2014 Mac Mini with Monterey 12.6.6. It works, still bare bones, though. Cannot access my presets (lots of online radio stations). It accessed my iTunes catalog with ease. I have access to more music I've saved to an external online drive, too. Would like to access the device controls, too, but I don't see those, either. Is there a more fleshed-out and complete version in the pipe?

 

[jimc]

Hi Team,

We have some great news about our WiiM Home App on Windows and MAC. The new Beta App (with version 0.1.3) supports browsing and searching your music library by track, genre, album, and artist. It can also auto-fill your missing metadata in case your music library misses any metadata information. You can download it here by tapping on the "Download for MacOS" or "Download for Windows". Please try and let us know your thoughts.

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[jimc]

I am relatively new to streaming and purchased a WiiM Pro last month to go along with a Qobuz studio subscription for a year. I chose Qobuz because the app works with my FiiO M9, which is my primary mode of listening to music. For some reason my wife does not like listening my taste in music. I wanted to stream to my home stereo which I use when I can. I thought I would be able to listen to Qobuz 24/96 files on my home stereo using the WiiM Pro streamer.

I usually surf the internet using a MacBook Air, and downloaded the MacOS beta app. In the set up process last month (my download was May 9th), I may have missed the part where I was supposed to enable Chromecast. Is that something I can do with the MacOS software. I realize now that the MacOS software may only be primarily to stream music files on my MacBook, but that is not my interest in a WiiM Pro.

As I said, I am new to streaming, and had never used Airplay before purchasing the WiiM Pro. I have been using streaming Qobuz through the WiiM Pro, and most of the Qobuz files I stream are not 24/96. I have been streaming things like the Bert Jansch BBC set and the Ronnie Lane box that came out a few years ago. I would, however, like the option of streaming in 24/96. I tried deleting the MacOS app and reinstalling it, to see if the option to enable Chromecast would come up, but it doesn't.

I used my wife's IPad and downloaded the WiiM Pro app for IPad yesterday, and see that Qobuz is integrated in that app, where it isn't integrated in the MacOS beta software. I enabled Chromecast in that app, and see that it was playing 24/96, but haven't been able to do much listening. I have to wait for an opportunity. I only use an IPhone for work, so my preference to stream would be to use software on my MacBook Air.

Is there a way to enable Chromecast on the MacOS, after the initial set up? I missed the boat on that for my initial set up. On my Qobuz app, where I can stream through Chromecast is grayed out. I see in the iPad app that there are options to enable and disable Chromecast after the initial set up, but those options don't exist on the MacOS app. Thanks.

 

[Mr Ee]

I think that once chromecast has been enabled on the wiim then that's it - it not something you enable again per device you use.
So I'm sorry, I don't know why the Qobuz app on your mac can't see the wiim as a chromecast device - hopefully someone else can help!

 

[Griff]

Hi @jimc I use Windows but from a quick look, it seems that sometimes on a mac it does not like being connected on 5ghz for chromecast Have a look at this article https://www.cleverfiles.com/howto/c...re the Chromecast is,instead of 5GHZ or mixed.

 

[Fredio]

" It can also auto-fill your missing metadata in case your music library misses any metadata information." Great ! Where is this setting located?

 

[Mr Ee]

Hi @jimc I use Windows but from a quick look, it seems that sometimes on a mac it does not like being connected on 5ghz for chromecast Have a look at this article https://www.cleverfiles.com/howto/chromecast-mac.html#:~:text=Make sure the Chromecast is,instead of 5GHZ or mixed.

Worth a shot, but I suspect that's more to do with the older chromecasts only supporting 2.4ghz.

 

[Fredio]

Taking it's time scanning. Getting no program icon on my taskbar, just a blank sheet icon. Windows says it needs and app.ico file

Same here.

 

[geickmei]

Hi Team,

We have some great news about our WiiM Home App on Windows and MAC. The new Beta App (with version 0.1.3) supports browsing and searching your music library by track, genre, album, and artist. It can also auto-fill your missing metadata in case your music library misses any metadata information. You can download it here by tapping on the "Download for MacOS" or "Download for Windows". Please try and let us know your thoughts.

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I do wish I knew what you folks are talking about. I make my own recordings, and I am still trying to figure out where to put them on my computer so that the WiiM could see them. These recordings do not have metadata on them - just file names and the name of the band or orchestra and a date. Sometimes WiiM can find them, sometimes not. Please tell me what it wants to be able to find my tracks.

 

[Brantome]

Without knowing any details about how the WiiM Windows app “auto-fills” metadata on music files it finds, I’d suggest that as a first step you need to organise your music files into some sort of structure as outlined below, which I use for my local files.

Under your Windows Music folder which you can find either on the left hand pane when you open a file explorer window, or by typing %userprofile%\Music into the address bar on a file explorer window, create a folder for each artist, then under each of those folders create a folder for each of their albums and finally in those album folders, copy the relevant music files. You may also want to name the music files something like track number - track name - artist e.g. 01 - Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen. I guess your music files will be either in mp3 or flac format.

That gives you the basic structure that WiiM may be able to infer the track metadata, but as we don’t exactly know how they infer that, it might not - but at least your recorded tracks will have some structure.

Ideally, you should also use a program like MP3Tag to store the relevant metadata like artist, album and track name (and possible track number) in the file itself which makes them more amenable to searching either with Windows Media Player or another DLNA/UPNP compliant app. Note that you can’t tag WAV files (the last I checked) so you may need to convert them to flac ideally.

 

[Fredio]

I think I will probably abandon th Windows Beta software.The functionality is too limited, and there seems to be no progress on integrating features available on Android.
I wish it was better.

 

[Speardam]

I would like to know how the album art is managed by the windows application ?
Does the application is retrieving it from a "cover.jpg" file or from the album art embedded in music files ?

 

[D1N0]

I already run a Plex server on my PC, that can cast to the WIIM. It is much faster than the WIIM Windows app and does have more possibilities.

 

[kwolter]

I already run a Plex server on my PC, that can cast to the WIIM. It is much faster than the WIIM Windows app and does have more possibilities.

I use Logitech media server for music on the same machine where I have Plex where my movies are. Even though I don’t use Plex for the music, having Plex scan the music library makes it accessible by the WiiMs. Works well.

 

[Indio77]

Hi,

I just bought a new thinkpad with win 11. I downloaded the new WiiM Pro application but I admit I lost myself trying to play music from thinkpad via WiiM Pro. It is pretty different from android device where in the application I can acces all music services like Tidal, Spotify ,Deezer and so on.
On thinkpad all those music streaming programs are not visible or I cannot make them visible and accesibile. Can you help me?

 

[Brantome]

Hi,

I just bought a new thinkpad with win 11. I downloaded the new WiiM Pro application but I admit I lost myself trying to play music from thinkpad via WiiM Pro. It is pretty different from android device where in the application I can acces all music services like Tidal, Spotify ,Deezer and so on.
On thinkpad all those music streaming programs are not visible or I cannot make them visible and accesibile. Can you help me?

The WiiM Windows app is only a skeletal beta and in my opinion is no substitute for the android or iOS apps. Try installing the android app under the Windows Subsystem for Android although you may have to install the Aurora App Store in order to find the WiiM Home app

 

[Indio77]

The WiiM Windows app is only a skeletal beta and in my opinion is no substitute for the android or iOS apps. Try installing the android app under the Windows Subsystem for Android although you may have to install the Aurora App Store in order to find the WiiM Home app

So far I managed to play music directly from Tidal or Spotify selecting my WiimPro music streamer. In this case I do not actually need WiimPro application! I think that is good and enough.

 

[Brantome]

So far I managed to play music directly from Tidal or Spotify selecting my WiimPro music streamer. In this case I do not actually need WiimPro application! I think that is good and enough.

Yeah, using Tidal Connect and Spotify Connect (and AlexaCast for that matter for amazon music) can obviate the need for the Wiim home app to play a stream of music.

 

[waldo]

Resurrecting this thread, I have to admit it's not convenient to have to juggle through WHA on two separate devices simply to change/select different outputs. Even if we can't have everything in the PC version that is now standard in the iPad or Android apps, I would still like to see a few of the WiiM audio settings (switching inputs/outputs) accessible from the PC app. Is that not possible?

EDIT: An additional gripe about this is, after changing the output from my iPad, I still end up having to restart the PC WHA so that it will recognize the change and start playing my selection. Another, smaller gripe is the GUI: on my PC, it doesn't highlight the tune that's playing or, as others have mentioned, use icons to help distinguish folders from files. Just visually a rough finish that I would like to see polished.