Frequently Asked Questions

The FAQ did not help me, what do I do now? First of all make sure you have the latest version of both the server and the app. Since I try to fix bugs as soon as possible when I find out about them your problem might have already been fixed. Still having problems? Send a bugreport including a log file by doing the following Restart the app

Do the thing that fails

If your problem is related to signing in, tap on use demo server

Go to the main screen of the app

Tap the three dots at the top right

Tap "Send Log"

Enter a description of the problem and then send it to me, I will get back to you as soon as I can. Another great resource for getting help with Booksonic is to go to the Booksonic Reddit and ask the question there. You can find it at https://reddit.com/r/booksonic

I can't connect to the server outside of my network Make sure that you have portforwarded the port you are using in your router. The default port is 4040. Also make sure that you are specifying the port when you try to go to the server. It should look something like this http(s)://example.com:4040

I can connect to the server when I am not at home or on dataplan but not over Wi-Fi. Depending on your network configuration it might not be possible to connect to your external IP from inside your network. If so you need to configure the app to use a local IP address instead when you are connected to your Wi-Fi. You can do that from your server settings inside the app. Remember that you also need to configure what SSID should be considered home, if you get <UNKNOWN SSID> when trying to configure it see the point for this further down on this page.

I can connect to the server in the browser but not in the app Make sure that you enter http:// or https:// at the beginning of the adress and :4040 at the end. If you are using docker or tomcat, make sure to also include /booksonic at the end.

The app keeps crashing when I do X, please help To be able to help you I need to see the log file. See the list at the top of this page for instructions on how to send me one.

The server sais "Folder not found" when I try to use a network location This is due to how windows handles permissions. I have posted instructions on how to fix it at https://popeen.com/2016/05/27/using-a-network-shared-folder-in-booksonic/

Casting to Chromecast fails This will happen if you use a self signed certificate as Chromecast does not support those. There is a workaround for it in the app that you can enable. Go to Settings -> Playback and enable Use device as a proxy, this should fix your problem.

When I try to reset my password it says reCaptcha v1 is shut down, can I still reset it? If you update to server 1.2+ this will no longer happen however if for some reason you need to stay on an older version of Booksonic you can do the following to reset your password Log on to the machine hosting the server

Stop the server, verify that you can't reach it in the browser

use notepad to open c:\booksonic\db\booksonic.script, make sure that you set notepad to Any file or you won't see it.

Press CTRL + F and search for INSERT INTO USER VALUES

After your username you will see enc:lots of numbers

Replace all the numbers that are before the ' sign with 626f6f6b736f6e6963

Save the file and close notepad

Start the server You can now sign in with the password booksonic, make sure the first thing you do is change your password. If you are running the server on a Linux machine the file is probably located at /var/booksonic/db/booksonic.script

I am getting the message <UNKNOWN SSID> when I try to enter SSID in server settings There was a change in a recent version of Android that requires apps to have location permission before they can see the name of the SSID you are connected to. In the future Booksonic will ask for this permission but for now you have to give it manually from your phone's settings menu. The settings menu can look a bit different depending on your phone but it should be something like this, settings -> apps -> Booksonic -> permissions. Then enable the location permission. Go back one step and force close Booksonic. Now reopen Booksonic and you should be able to get the SSID.

My bookmarks keep getting reset/changed on the demo server This is because by default the app will connect to a shared demo account. When someone else changes a bookmark it will change for you too. You can register your own personal demo account here then head into settings -> servers -> demo and change the username and password to your personal ones

Do you plan to release an iOS version of Booksonic or would you consider it? Most likely yes, but currently there is no plan as to when that will happen. In the meantime you can use any iOS app that was created for Subsonic to connect to your Booksonic server. Or you can use webapps like Jamstash or Aurial. These will work just fine for playback but you won't get any book descriptions or narrator info.

Can I run Booksonic in the cloud? Yes! You can't run Booksonic on Dropbox, Google Drive etc but you can rent a cheap server and run it there. I recommend renting a Contabo VPS and installing booksonic there. It starts as low as 3.99 euro for 300GB storage and 4GB ram.



Obs, if you click the contabo links and rent a server I will receive a small commision at no extra cost to you, this has not influenced my decision to recommend them in any way, they are what I use personally and what the Booksonic demo is hosted on.

Is Booksonic open-source? Yes! Booksonic is indeed open source. The server is a fork of the Subsonic server and the Android app is a fork of the DSub app.

You can find the source code for Booksonic at https://github.com/popeen

I have a great idea for a feature, how do I contact you about it? You can send it to my email at support@booksonic.org, open an issue on GitHub or post it on the Booksonic SubReddit While I might sometimes be a bit inactive in posting on GitHub or Reddit I always keep up to date with what is posted. If you know how to code and want to implement the feature yourself, go for it. Once you are done, send me a pull request on GitHub and as long as the feature doesn't break compatibility with regular Subsonic servers I will most likely accept it.