Serento: The audiophile UPnP controller app for iOS/macOS

[simbun]

(19-09-2026 22:35)Peter StreamMagic Wrote:  You can see my settings in post 54

Post 54 only shows Advanced, but if you don't have anything in itemTags then you're likely not using the (album)artistsort tags.

If you've saved Eagles, The/Fabulous Thunderbirds, The in your albumartist/artist tags and that's what's displayed in indexes and track listings through the Lumin app, then it must be coming from Serento.

The primary reason I use MinimServer is because it gives me total control over how things are presented. I wouldn't want a control point to change that.

[Peter StreamMagic]

Post 54 only shows Advanced
I have edited this post

If you've saved Eagles, The/Fabulous Thunderbirds, The in your albumartist /artist tags and that's what's displayed in indexes and track listings through the Lumin app, then it must be coming from Serento.

Yes tagged as Eagels, The. I am not absolutely sure why I did this, but if I remember correctly it had to do with the alphabetic index disappearing using Kazoo.

The primary reason I use MinimServer is because it gives me total control over how things are presented. I wouldn't want a control point to change that.

Agreed, but you almost have to be an IT expert to set everything up. It’s even possible for iOS and Android apps from the same brand to behave differently. What are you supposed to do then?
It would be great if UPnP (OpenHome) systems were better aligned with one another.

[simbun]

(20-09-2026 11:51)Peter StreamMagic Wrote:  Agreed, but you almost have to be an IT expert to set everything up.

That's what the documentation and forum are for

Most users only need the basics, just how to change the index, sort and display so it's only a handful of options.

About 6 months ago I gave a colleague a MusicBrainz Picard profile tailored to MinimServer and a very basic set of MinimServer configuration instructions and, apart from a few exceptions, he managed it all himself.

The only configuration instructions I gave him were:

Quote:Each tag can have 3 attributes:

• .display This is the value that's displayed when viewing lists of albums/tracks and on the Now Playing screen
• .index The value displayed when viewing an index
• .sort This instructs MinimServer how to sort the index
  

You can apply a default sort to any tag by prefixing the tag with +(ascending)/-(descending) in indexTags or itemTags e.g. indexTags: -EncodingTime:Date Added

Configuring Indexes and media lists

Code:

┌──────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────​──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              │ to modify sort                       │ to modify index                       │ Scope                                             │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────​──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ 
│ n albums     │ album.sortTags={a,b,c}               │                                       │ Applies to all album listings                     │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────​──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ 
│ n items      │ items.sortTags={a,b,c}               │                                       │ Applies to all track listings except within album │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────​──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Date based   │ tag.(decade|yearmonth|yearonly).sort │ tag.(decade|yearmonth|yearonly).index │ Index                                             │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────​──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Other        │ tag.(value|ignore).sort={(a|"The")}  │ tag.(value|ignore).index={a|"The")}   │ Index                                             │
│              │ tag.(reverseName|lastName).sort      │ tag.(reverseName|lastName).index      │                                                   │
│              │                                      │ tag.indexFormat={$a$b$c}              │                                                   │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────​──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [folder view]│ folder.sortTags={a,b,c}              │                                       │ Tracks within folders                             │
└──────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────​──────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Non-index display

# Date based tags

• <tag>.(decade|yearmonth|yearonly).display
  

# Other

• <album|albumartist|artist|comment|discsubtitle|genre|group|label|title|rating>.displayFormat={$a$b$c}
• <tag>.(value|ignore).display={(a|"The")}
• <tag>.(reverseName|lastName).display
  

Configuration location

tagOptions: https://minimserver.com/ug-library.html#Tag%20options

• <tag>.(decade|yearmonth|yearonly)(.sort|.index|.display)
• <tag>.sortTags={a,b,c}
  

tagValue: https://minimserver.com/ug-library.html#Tag%20values

• <tag>.(value|ignore)(.sort|.index|.display)={(a|"The")}
• <tag>.(reverseName|lastName)(.sort|.index|.display)
  

tagFormat: https://minimserver.com/ug-library.html#...formatting

• <tag>.displayFormat={$a$b$c}
• <tag>.indexFormat={$a$b$c}
  

It obviously doesn't cover everything, but enough for him to begin to understand the syntax.

(20-09-2026 11:51)Peter StreamMagic Wrote:  It’s even possible for iOS and Android apps from the same brand to behave differently. What are you supposed to do then?

The WiiM Home app was guilty of that; the Android app took the first <upnp:artist> whilst the iOS took the last.

I use BubbleUPnP and will only purchase compatible streamers.

[serento]

Hi everyone,

A new version is out! Please run a sync on all your devices!

Version 1.1.0 gives artists who only appear on other people’s tracks a place of their own, understands every genre your tags use, and lays out classical albums the way the music is written.

NEW

Track artists. Turn on Detect track artists in Settings › Artist Settings and the artists credited only on tracks join Browse › Artists and the genres they play in. An artist’s page adds Appears On, the albums they only appear on. Hide track artists keeps them out of the Artists list when there are too many.

Decades. Every genre now has a Decades section.

Four new main genres, Experimental, New Age, Religious and Vocal, and Unclassified for albums with no genre tag.

Personalize your experience with the new display settings for albums, artists, tracks and genres, in Settings › Display: Album Settings, Artist Settings, Track Settings and Genre Settings.

Track Settings lets you choose, for each list, whether track rows show the format column, or switch every list at once. A hidden column gives the title and the artist more room.

Swipe a bookmark to delete it in the compact list.

IMPROVED

Artists are recognized more accurately. Names written together with no separator are split into the real artists, duos known to the music catalog stay together, and two spellings of one artist, such as Solar Stone and Solarstone, are one artist. Nobody is listed as a conductor without a known classical role, soloists and conductors come from the credits in the Serento Database, and soloists can also appear in Browse › Artists.

Artist photos reach more artists. When several artists share a name, the tracks you own now decide which one is yours, and no artist is skipped when the photo service is slow to answer.

Classical albums follow their works. Works are grouped exactly as in Works, a line joins each work’s movements, a work with a single track reads as a track, multi-disc albums show their CDs, and each disc numbers its tracks from 1 and shows its title when it has one. The groups in Works fold like CDs.

A far richer genre map. Every standard genre written by common tagging tools finds its main genre, Neo-Classical included. Genre pictures are artist photographs, a different artist for each genre, chosen among the artists who matter most in it.

Large libraries sync without stalling on Scanning, every step after the scan shows its name and progress, the library index included, and the screen stays on while a sync runs. Classical opens faster.

A server that does not answer Serento’s search but announces itself on the network is now found.

Album versions are recognized even when their artists are listed in a different order.

UI improvements.

FIXED

Artist pictures in indexArtwork are found when the name holds a character a file name cannot use, such as D:Ream.

After an Identify correction, the track titles update at once.

A folder album shows the right tracks when two servers use the same folder.

Many bug fixes and other small improvements.

[serento]

Hello everyone,

A new version is out!

Install 1.1.1 on every device you use Serento on, then sync with your server on each of them: Settings › your server › Sync Data › Sync now. Part of what this version brings is read from your server during a sync, and your devices now share more of the playback session with each other, so a device left on an older version or not synced will not have all of it.

Version 1.1.1 makes your devices and your streamer play as one session, and can place reissued albums in the decade they first came out.

NEW

Use original date for decades, in Settings › Display › Album Settings › Decades. A remastered or reissued album goes into the decade it was first released, when your files carry an original date. The screen shows the one setting MinimServer needs to send it. The year shown on each album stays the same.

Music started from another app. When another app plays on your streamer, Serento shows what is playing, and Play, Pause, Next, Previous and volume control it. Shuffle, repeat and queue editing stay off, because the queue belongs to that app.

IMPROVED

One session across your devices. Play, Pause, Next and Previous from any device act on the queue that is playing and never restart or replace it. Only a new album, track or station starts a new session. Queue edits reach every device, and turning shuffle off restores the original order on any device, also after the app restarts.

A device that was asleep for a while catches up with the music instead of falling behind.

Streamers that publish OpenHome as a separate device start playing at once, with no restart from the beginning and no error over music that is already playing, and the progress bar runs smoothly.

Streamers that offer only OpenHome now appear as outputs, with volume and mute.

When a streamer that speaks two control protocols refuses a command through one, Serento sends it through the other, so playback goes on.

Two players running on the same computer are told apart, so each one plays in its own room.

Repeat one holds on streamers that drop a connection at the wrong moment.

An album belongs to a genre when any of its versions carries that genre. Subgenre tiles appear only when they lead to albums, and the genre filters include the genres of every edition.

An artist shows the same number of albums and tracks everywhere in the app, and the sync screen explains what its Artists number includes.

A disc with a subtitle shows only its subtitle, on up to two lines on narrow screens.

FIXED

After a sync, album pages show the changes at once, without restarting the app.

In Now Playing, dragging the progress bar up or down no longer moves the screen.

A Previous that restarts the current track now shows on your other devices.

On streamers that refused the queue, an album could end up with only two tracks in the queue.

On some streamers, starting a track could show an error while the music played, and a track removed from the queue could still play after the current one.

A crash during Enrich Data on very large libraries.

Serento no longer runs two copies at once when it is opened a second time.

Many bug fixes and other small improvements.