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Topic: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000) (Read 7434 times) previous topic - next topic
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MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Hello everyone, I hope this one will be fast to close  :

I Have a Xiaomi K20 (Redmi Note Pro 128Go) which I enjoy quite much, and foobar2000 v1.3.0 installed
However, none of my mpc files would be played.
If I browse the music folder from the internal browser app : none of my mpc files are shown
But if I connect my phone to my computer with USB cable and browse through it from my PC, I can see all my musepack files.

What am I missing ?
I don't wan't to transcode all my albums to mp3 just to enjoy them on my smartphone.

Thanks in advance.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #1 –
APE and WavPack files don't appear either.

I raised the issue with Google and crickets so far:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/222338438

I'm the author of APE and friends with the author of WavPack.  I also help with an Android media player at my job.  It just doesn't see the files any longer!

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #2 –
OK, thanks for the quick response, that fits what I experience.

And BTW... wowowow ! The author of APE format replied me ? love you <3
Used ape for a while back in (i think that was around 2003-2004) before falling back to my favorite trio years later : foobar2000 + Musepack & Flac

Thanks for the great job !

EDIT : using 3rd party app Cs File Explorer, I can see my musepack files and launch them, it just sucks to not have foobar2000 be able to just mass scan the folders indicated...

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #3 –
I was halfway through my reply when Matt posted, but yes, I will be very interested in the answer to this too.

Been using Foobar2000 mobile for years on both Android and ios (iPod Touch). But last week went to install it on my wife's new Moto (Android 11) and the MP3 files index fine but the WavPack files are invisible to Foobar. The problem seems to be that Android is not recognizing them as "media files" and I can't grant Foobar access to "all files" in the permissions settings.

I didn't have much time because my wife was leaving on a trip (which I why I was doing this), but one thing I did try was changing the WavPack file's extensions to MP3. Foobar could see them then, but still not play them.

I searched everywhere and found lots of developer details on why Android is doing this, and also read about MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, but that seems like a non-starter, at least for the Play Store. But obviously some people on Android 11+ don't have this issue, right? It seems like it might be phone-specific.

BTW, maybe this thread belongs in the Foobar2000 forum, event though it affects other media players too.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #4 –
You're right that setting MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE makes the files appear.  The problem is that applications are really tough to get approved when they set that.  So it's been a non-starter for JRiver.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #5 –
I guess a more direct question to ask would be is anyone out there playing MusePack / WavPack / MonkeyPack on Foobar2000 mobile (or any other media player) under Android 11 or later?

And if so, how did you do it?

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #6 –
Android filesystem is a giant pain in the ***.

I spent countless dev hours on this, comparable only to Windows Phone nonsense. It's like they've been learning from Windows Phone, only making things even lamer.

I can only recommend using 'foobar2000 music folder' for all your media, which resides in foobar2000 profile (which means, gets deleted with removal of foobar2000 and cannot be managed with other apps). It's free of all these annoyances and doesn't require ridiculously complex Java code on my end to access.
Microsoft Windows: We can't script here, this is bat country.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #7 –
My phone is v 7.1 planning to upgrade. 

Reading this thread and the age of the android bug, It don't look too good.


 

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #8 –
I can play mpc files on Android 11 from an SD card. I haven't tried WavPack or Monkeys. I had to select the SD card from within the Media Library and allow it scan. It took a while as there is about 170GB of music on the card. This was caused by a recent Android security update, I think, as previously the SD card showed up as External storage in Foobar. It no longer does but I was able to include the files as indicated above.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #9 –
And the SD card is likely FAT(/EXFAT?) formatted, avoiding the Android file system quirks altogether - and that circumvents the entire Googlbotage?

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #10 –
exFAT. I'll test .wv and .ape shortly, but I'm sure they'll be OK.

Yep, .wv and .ape play as expected. I guess the quick answer then is to use a microSD card. ;)

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #11 –
The problem these days is that many of the latest Samsung phones these days doesn't have the option to use a microSD card any longer and that sux big time. It was a very shitty move from Samsung to remove that possibility to extend the storage space that way.

Don't know if other manufacturers have made the same move with their flagship phones etc.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #12 –
Quote from: NetRanger on
very shitty move

Don't know if other manufacturers have made the same move with their flagship phones etc.

All but Sony? (Big edit #2, this database didn't flush queries)
Checked a local database for $1000 or more phones with Android 11/12 and such a slot, and in addition to the Sony phones, I only found the Honeywell rugged "handheld computers".

... iPhone is the king of "very shitty move", obviously, but the disease is spreading.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #13 –
The other thing is you can use infinite number of sdcards, whether
on this new trend only 1 internal storage whatever its size is available..
Insane.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #14 –
Okay, thanks everyone for the responses. Knowing that I can use ‘foobar2000 music folder’ as a last resort is comforting. The only downside for me with that is I assume it must reside on internal storage, but even that’s not that bad because 50 albums would probably be plenty (and I don't put DSD on a phone, although I did make sure it worked!).

@john33  I’m not sure how you’re able to access those files on the SD Card (that’s what Matt and I have been trying). What model of phone is that? My guess is that different manufacturers may include different security options in their Android builds.

And @Peter , thanks for the work you’ve put into Foobar200 mobile. My iPod Touch (may it never die) gets used every day!

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #15 –
@bryant, David, it's a Motorola 5 5G, 2-3 years old on Android 11. I seem to recall that Motorola provide a fairly 'plain vanilla' version of Android, unlike many of the others.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #16 –
I still don't understand. If the problem is only since android 11, Then its
the OS . SDcard, foobar folder are all kludges . ?

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #17 –
Warning: layman's speculations:

Quote from: shadowking on
I still don't understand. If the problem is only since android 11, Then its
the OS
Yep, it is the OS. The OS doesn't want to let media players access files that aren't media files (and Google doesn't know Monkey's, WavPack nor Musepack). Security reasons I guess. Apparently, read-only access is too much ...

But with apparent exceptions that may be utilized:

Quote from: shadowking on
SDcard
It seems that Google has realized that people will be pissed off if they cannot access their SD cards.

Quote from: shadowking on
foobar folder
The application's own folder seems to be an exception. Not a bad idea to let an application read and write to its own folder.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #18 –
This is getting worse with each thought. There doesn't seem to be
a way out (non-kludge). If your not a member of their 'club' (MAC, WV , mpc)
you are blocked as a 'security risk'. Soo typical today.  The hardware too is under
attack (less sdcard models). What about a non-phone traditional player  ? That
too is becoming extinct in favour of phones / tablets .

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #19 –
Quote from: shadowking on
If your not a member of their 'club' (MAC, WV , mpc)
you are blocked as a 'security risk'.
Recall how a certain major operating system took ages to accept FLAC as audio ... did that happen about when they broke losslessness in their own codec?

And Google has discontinued their Don't be Steve Ballmer evil slogan.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #20 –
Yeah,  MS accepted flac but it doesn't mean all that much IMO
as they have usually excellent backwards and forward compatibility. You can
see winamp 2 or foobar 9.x & plugins will work on win 10 / 11. Most win32 apps
will work. This is 25years.  Almost certainly anything from last 10-15 years will
work 99%. Even on 32bit win 10, you can use 32bit drivers and dos / win 3 software.
I don't know what they broke in wma.

Google the great 'opensource friend' its just words, they don't even measure to MS IMO.
Won't accept WV which is fully opensource. There is a request bug report going way back. Full
of elitist opinions . They simply won't even bother. At least I expect the OS to have backwards
compatibility for 3rd party apps in this case android 11 doesn't. Part of this they think they already have a lossless
codec; flac.  But the main reason for even having flac is to transcode to a gazillion of lossy codecs
they have officially accepted and the big area of interest there is telephone-streaming
bitrates like 16 ~ 64 k.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #21 –
Quote from: bryant on
I guess a more direct question to ask would be is anyone out there playing MusePack / WavPack / MonkeyPack on Foobar2000 mobile (or any other media player) under Android 11 or later?

And if so, how did you do it?
On my Android phone (LineageOS equivalent of Android 12), foobar2000 plays MPC files just fine.
Didn't need to do any extra steps.

However, it is really concerning/troubling to hear your experiences. Very stupid decision by Google if that's what they did, arbitrarily limit file access by type.
And... does it actually verify each file content? Or is it based on file name extension? If the latter, maybe it could be worked around (if the player doesn't care about file name extension)?
a fan of AutoEq + Meier Crossfeed

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #22 –
Quote from: john33 on
@bryant, David, it's a Motorola 5 5G, 2-3 years old on Android 11. I seem to recall that Motorola provide a fairly 'plain vanilla' version of Android, unlike many of the others.
Okay, thanks. My wife's phone is also a Motorola (G Power), but newer than yours. And yes, I have been happy that Moto's phones are not bloated with anything extraneous, but this is obviously not a welcome change.
 

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #23 –
Quote from: magicgoose on
However, it is really concerning/troubling to hear your experiences. Very stupid decision by Google if that's what they did, arbitrarily limit file access by type.
And... does it actually verify each file content? Or is it based on file name extension? If the latter, maybe it could be worked around (if the player doesn't care about file name extension)?
I only had an hour to try different things as we needed to leave for the airport, but one thing I did try was renaming a folder full of WavPack files to .mp3 and trying to copy those using Foobar2000's ftp server. That worked (unlike the WavPack files), but they wouldn't play. I would be a little surprised if their security mechanism would be that easily circumvented, but I did just verify that Foobar2000 mobile will not accept files that it ordinarily handles if they have the wrong extension (unlike most Linux software that doesn't seem to know what extensions are).

Another thing I may try is embedding some WavPack files in Matroska. That container is supported by both Foobar and Android, so we'll see if Android is parsing for the actual codec used. What would be funny is if all Android media apps could play WavPack in Matroska, but since they're not using FFmpeg that's probably not likely.

Re: MusePack support on Android (foobar2000)

Reply #24 –
Quote from: bryant on
I did just verify that Foobar2000 mobile will not accept files that it ordinarily handles if they have the wrong extension (unlike most Linux software that doesn't seem to know what extensions are)

Honestly, that's kinda bad.

Extensions are an unreliable method of determining file formats, as you very clearly demonstrate yourself - all it takes to break it is a simple manual file rename. POSIX-oriented operating systems (Android included) instead rely on magic numbers for determining file formats.

It's a weird decision by Foobar2000 mobile devs to override this and make their app dumber in the process.