Any way to "see" QNAP music from iOS Music player?

[glenintenn]

I think the answer is no; Apple has their own Music-playing apps locked down to iTunes/iTunes cloud but wanted to check on creative ways or oversights on my part to simply download music from my QNAP to an iOS device (without resorting to QNAP Apps either-- that seems equally complicated based on my initial investigation into QMusic/Music Station)

From what I can see, the only software which can see the iTunes Server service is deskop iTunes installs on a Mac, PC.

Sorry, I'm just not iOS-savvy but looking at the options, it seems there's no easy way to download songs to an iOS device and then have the iOS player "see" those songs for playing when offline (like... when camping or out of cell service) without installing the massive malware service known as iTunes and manually syncing to that iOS device.

Am I missing any slick QNAP options?

[Briain]

Hello

Actually, I think the answer is yes!

Whilst I'm reasonably a reasonably technical chap in terms of networking and radio equipment (I could even deliver a talk on how the various mobile phone systems actually work) when it comes to the actual applications people can use on mobile phones, I'm a total and utter Luddite in the extreme (and I'm not exaggerating; I would have to ask a small person about such things) so what I'm about to suggest might not be the coolest way to do things, but I have just tried it and it seemed to work very well (and just like yourself, I do not use - nor wish to ever use - the dreaded iTunes).

Almost immediately after buying my iPad 3, I procured and have been using an iOS app called 'File Browser', mostly to occasionally access files residing on my Qnap, but with me being a tedious old Luddite, it's tended just been the odd image, PDF file or MS Word document (some of these I have also copied to the iPad, so that's what gave me the idea to try it with tunes) so I've just tried it with music and was surprised to find that it not only worked with a MP3, but - rather surprisingly - it also worked with a FLAC file (see note at end of post 'debating' that issue).

Within the File Browser app, the left side shows local locations (to which you can add folders) and remote locations (to which I have added my Qnaps and other devices with network shares). Below shows the screen where I have navigated to my multimedia share on 'rum' (a TS-453A NAS) and drilled down to a FLAC album (shown on the right side) and when clicking the three dots to the right of the track, you can see the pop-up menu from which you can select the 'copy' option.

FB_Remote.jpg

After doing so, you can then navigate to the 'my private files' on the left side (not shown on the above; it's off-screen in that shot) and if desired, either paste it there, or first create a folder (e.g. to test this I just created a new folder called 'music' and past it into that folder).

Once I'd done that with two test files (one a MP3 and the other a FLAC) I then put it into air-plane mode (to ensure it was not just a link to a networked file) then clicked on the first one and it started playing, with a media player insert showing in place of the menu shown in the first shot; see below image showing the two files in the local iPad folder (and note the media player even shows album artwork, which for all of my music comprises an image embedded into each and ever individual FLAC file and not folder.jpg images in each of the album folders):

FB_Local.jpg

It then played the FLAC followed by the MP3 and as you can see from the above, there's even an Airplay icon (which I also just tested via scooting it over to my Linn ADSM/3 music streamer).

Of course, as you know one of the good things about an iPad is its sandboxing feature so obviously, you'd not be able to find and play the files via Apple's supplied apps, but it seems all the required iPad features can be accessed by the File Browser app, so that would seem to fit your requirements pretty well.

Incidentally, though almost all my music is in FLAC format (so too big to sensibly copy to an iPad) as a test I just tried creating a NAS album folder containing 5 MP3 tunes and also a subdirectory containing an image and a PDF file (totalling about 60 MB) and by using the above technique, but this time copying the top level folder, I then successfully pasted it all into the File Browser 'my personal files' folder (and it copied the files and folder structure correctly) so it does seem to be a very capable app.

Briain

Note: As far as I remember, iPad's didn't used to play FLAC files, so ages ago I also downloaded a third party app for same (not that I've ever used it; it was just an experiment to see if that worked) so I wonder if File Browser is leveraging that app to play the files, or whether there's a media player bundled into File Browser (which does recognise FLAC files)?

PS I cannot recall whether the File Browser app is free, or free with adverts that you have to pay to remove, or whether it is simply a paid app (I suspect it is the latter, but it cannot have been excessively expensive or I'd not have bought it).

[glenintenn]

Thanks. this seems to be very much like QNAP's QFile app for iOS.

The only challenge is that when you download an entire music library, you don't have the nice "tablet style" controls and artwork you get with the embedded apps. The longer I look at it (also being a mobile neophyte... i use my phone for many things but I don't live there like some do) the more I see it as an absolute "by design/works as designed" behavior to completely lock out any other application from contributing to the intended must-have-iTunes-to-be-worthy music collection.

the acid test of your method would be to search for "MUSIC" (iOS11 or iOS12) in the native search tab, open it up and see if it "sees" either the MP3 or FLAC file you've pulled in. My guess is that it doesn't just like they don't see anything which QFile pulls off the media server. each application seems to have it's own private storage playground and only that which enters by the application as gatekeeper is recognized. Hopefully you find differently.

[Briain]

Hi

Being an iPad 3, I can only run iOS 9, so I cannot speak for what the modern iOS tweaks can do, but my assumption is that Apple have continued to place the strictness of app sandboxing above user convenience (which is very highly commendable, in my book) and thus likely it's not possible for even a native Apple app to jump into another (AKA third party) app's sandbox (in fact, being security minded, it would very much alarm me if it could)!

Bri

NB I sought out and installed File Browser before the Qnap iOS apps were built, but tomorrow, I'll have a look at the Qnap offerings to see what they do bring to the iOS party.

[scofficial]

Hey,
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