Most of the questions are common for both MMRemote4 and MMRemote5. Those that aren't are marked either with [MMRemote4] or [MMRemote5], and may be filtered by clicking the buttons below.
Erlend Dahl made the server, the Android app and the web page, and Ørjan Nygård Pettersen made most of the graphics used in the app.
MMRemote4 can remote control MediaMonkey 4, while MMRemote5 can remote control the newer MediaMonkey 5. Because of the huge changes from MediaMonkey 4 to MediaMonkey 5, the new version of the remote had to be almost completely rewritten. The user interfaces for MMRemote4 and MMRemote5 are almost identical, but the insides — especially all the parts that communicate with MediaMonkey — are very different.
MMRemote4 itself is completely free for personal use, and will always remain so.
There are some bonus features, which are rewarded to everyone making a donation to the project. You can donate from the settings menu in the app, and pay as much as you’d like. Read more about the bonus features here.
If you are a business or other commercial entity that wants to use the remote, please contact me at erlend.dahl@gmail.com.
Development takes time. Lots of time. Since the MMRemote4 model (with bonus features and donations) requires a lot of extra work for me, I had to try something else for MMRemote5 to cover my expenses. I tried to set the price after the Big Mac index, but slightly lower, and hope that people are willing to support the development with a cost equaling one cheap meal.
You may thank me by sending me an e-mail, writing a post in my forums, leaving a rating or comment on my Google Play page, or by making a donation (which will also reward you with the bonus features).
Yep! Unfortunately, since it is time consuming to make apps, it’s going a bit slow, but I’m always working on an update!
If your have been talking to me about testing a new release, you’ve probably gotten a link to the test client, and/or a link to the test server:
Installing the server: If it is an installation, just run it as usual. If it is a zip file, just unpack it anywhere you want. If you’re not replacing your current version, please make sure that you are in fact running the test version, and not the old version you had installed.
Installing the client: Open the given client url on your phone, and the usual app installer will pop up. Note: Some Android users needs to allow app installs from ‘Unknown sources’ (outside of Google Play, that is) in order to install the test version. To do this, you need to find the ‘Unknown sources’ setting, and check it. It is usually located in Android Settings => Application Settings => Unknown Sources, or in Android Settings => Security => Unknown Sources, or in Android Settings => Developer => Unknown Sources. Or something similar; Google ”[your device] unknown sources” for more help.
When testing new versions, please note that you may experience bugs I haven’t discovered yet. If so, please tell me about it, so that I can fix it before releasing the update to everyone.
No, it only works over Wi-Fi.
Yes. That’s what it does, actually.
Right now, only Android devices (phones, tabs, etc) are supported. I may expand to iOS at a later time.
The app allows you to remote control your music player (MediaMonkey) from your Android device. It does not stream or transfer your music in any way. See the screenshots on the main page for some hints.
In order to activate bonus features from PayPal donations, do the following:
The bonus features should now be activated. If they are not, feel free to contact me for help.
No. MMRemote5 is a paid app, and includes all features, also those that were “bonus features” in MMRemote4.
Since donations were pretty rare, and I’m actually losing money on this project, I decided to implement some specific features users were asking for as a kind of ‘thank you very much indeed’ to the people deciding to make donations. As with the normal donations, you may choose what you want to pay for the bonus features yourself. NOTE: No features that has been free will ever be changed to bonus features. The bonus features will not be essential for the use of the remote, and are there only as an incentive to support the development.
The bonus features will be stuff I don’t think is essential for the remote itself, but still makes it a better product overall. The following bonus features are implemented, and will be a part of the next update for the remote:
There will be more features in future updates, both free features and bonus features (once you’ve bought the bonus features, you’ll receive every future bonus feature too).
Did you donate using Google Play or PayPal?
Nope! Google Play should automatically transfer the donation to your new phone. If it does not, please try the steps listed in this question and this question.
The server supports Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11, but will work on all systems where it is possible to install MediaMonkey and the .Net Framework (4.0 or newer).
Note that controlling the system volume does not work on XP machines.
Absolutely not. I hate that kind of stuff.
If the server window is hidden, you can check that the server is running by looking for the server icon in your system tray.
Do you have the .Net Framework (4.0 or newer) installed? If you are unsure, run this installer. It will install the .Net Framework if you don’t have it.
If you know that the .Net Framework is installed, please see the Windows Event Log, and send me any exceptions related to the server. You should also send me the server log.
Note: Older versions of the server doesn’t open a window, it just adds an icon to the system tray. See: How do I make sure the server is running?.
Open the server window, choose the ‘About’ tab, and look right below the header.
If the server window is hidden, you can click its icon in the system tray to open it again.
The server application needs to be installed on your computer to act as a bridge between the app and MediaMonkey, as they wouldn’t know how to talk with each other without it.
First of all, please make sure your server is up-to-date. If you were using an older version, that will very likely solve the issues you’re having anyway.
In newer versions of the remote, simply click the ‘Advanced’ link in the bottom left corner of the server window (on your computer), and then ‘Show log’. For MMRemote5 pick the files with todays date (both the debug and error files if both exists). For MMRemote4, click ‘Export log to file’ to get an actual file, and send this to me.
If the server isn’t running (for example if it crashes), you can find the log by locating the log file manually:
If the server doesn’t start, or you experience strange errors that cannot be debugged using the regular server log, Windows’ event log is the answer. I recommend that you start the server and provoke the error right before opening the event log, so that the exception comes to the top of the log, and is easy to find. The quickest way of opening the event log is shown below. If you can’t make that work, try to Google ”[your Windows version] open event log” for more help.
How to open the event log viewer:
The server can be updated either by clicking the ‘Check for updates’ button in the About section of the server, or by manually downloading and installing the newest server from the main page.
The two important connection information items are the computer’s IP and the port number the server listens at. Both these can be found on the main tab of the server, as shown in the picture. Note that the computer may have multiple IPs (if it has multiple network cards). In that case, they are displayed by holding the mouse over the blue link, and you have to try them one at a time.
First of all, please note that people outside of your network cannot control your music (unless you have spesifically opened the ports in your router, and given them your external IP). However, if you want to make sure that people connected to the same wireless local area network cannot control your music, you can change their permissions in the ‘Remotes’ tab.
If you get this error it is usually because MediaMonkey has not been able to register its API on your computer. This is necessary for the MMRemote Server to communicate with MediaMonkey.
It is usually resolved by one or more of the following steps:
Lyrics are fetched either from lyrics.wikia.com, or from the MiniLyrics plugin (needs to be installed on your server). If you use the MiniLyrics plugin, it has to be configured in one of two ways:
A: Save lyrics in the song’s directory, or B: Save lyrics in a central directory.
You have to select ‘As the same name as the song’ regardless of which option you choose, or MediaMonkey Remote wont be able to find your lyrics file.
If you choose alternative B, make sure you tell MediaMonkey Remote where the lyrics are stored, as shown in the picture.
Google Play (previously Android Market) automatically updates the app when a new update is launched. Please note that there may be a delay of several hours (or even days in some cases) from I upload the update to Google Play starts distributing it.
Press the menu button, choose ‘Settings’, choose ‘Help’, and look at the ‘About’ section.
If you don’t know what this means, you can just skip this question. Nothing important here! You can send intents to the app by starting it with custom ‘Extras’. Supply an extra named ‘ACTION’. The following actions are supported:
As of version 2.5, passwords are replaced by the new permission system. So if you get this message, please update both the app and the server!
New remotes that connect to your server are given a default set of permissions, which does not include potentially dangerous permissions such as shutting down or restarting the computer. To give yourself (or others) new permissions, you need to open the server window (on your computer), go to the tab “Remotes”, find your remote, and give it the permissions you want to. You can also change the default permissions if you want.
If you have Windows Vista or newer, there is a built-in firewall in your system. You need to tell this firewall to let the MMRemote server through, or it won’t work.
Sometimes, the Windows Firewall may have blocked the server even though you allowed it through earlier. Look at this question for more information about that: Why won’t the Windows Firewall allow the server to communicate?
Yes, but you need to open the required port (by default 12511) in your router, and find your external IP. I am unable to provide support for this because of the wide range of different routers. Please see your router’s instruction book.
There are currently four different ways of connecting to the server:
Click any of the options in the list above to read more about them.
From the main screen, click the logo in the upper left corner, and choose ‘Server list’.
In the server list, click the ‘Autodetect’ button (), and the app will look for servers on your network.
Hold your mouse over ‘Hold for QR code’ in the server’s main tab, and use any QR code reader on your phone to read it. When the QR reader has read it, make sure you open the url with MMRemote. The server will then be added to your server list.
From the main screen, click the logo in the upper left corner, and choose ‘Server list’.
In the server list, click the ‘Add server’ button (), and choose ‘Connection string’.
Then enter the connection string found on your server’s main window into the popup box, and click ‘Ok’.
The server will now be added to your server list, and the app will immediately connect.
From the main screen, click the logo in the upper left corner, and choose ‘Server list’.
In the server list, click the ‘Add server’ button (), and choose ‘Manual’.
Then enter the connection information in the fields as explained here:
If you don’t know how to find the information you need to enter, see this FAQ entry.
The Windows Firewall may have set network dependent rules on your server even if you allowed it through on the first run.
This problem can often be resolved by simply opening Network Adapters, and disable and re-enable the Local Area Connection adapter. Upon reconnect, make sure to allow the remote through again, and everything should be well.
Some users have reported getting this error message when attempting to install the remote server. The error message is usually caused by anti-virus programs being too aggressive, and blocking the installation altogether.
Bryan J. reported that with Avast, “hardened mode” and “gaming/silenced mode” needs to be disabled.
A general solution is usually to temporarily disable your anti-virus software (on your own responsibility!) while installing the server. Remember to re-activate it afterwards!
This is a false positive, which sometimes happens with all anti-virus programs.
I promise that there are no viruses, so if my word is enough, you can solve this by either adding the server to some kind of white list in your anti-virus program, or temporarily deactivating it while installing the server (remember to reactivate it afterwards!).
Essentially, you have two options:
Some users have reported missing or duplicate items in their libraries. These problems are usually solved by rescanning their library in MediaMonkey.
If you have a problem you want me to solve, I need all the information you can give me. This includes:
This may be a problem with your encoding. You can try activating UTF-8 encoding in the MediaMonkey settings:
The app buffers library data to make browsing faster. To make sure it fetches up-to-date information, click your menu key and choose ‘Refresh’ while the library tab is selected.
First of all, make sure you have actually installed the server. You need to have both MediaMonkey (the media player itself), AND the MediaMonkey Remote Server for this to work. Go to www.mmremote.net to download it.
Next, make sure you have allowed the server to communicate through any firewalls you have installed. This is usually done in the firewall’s security settings. Note that most newer Windows systems have an integrated firewall (Windows Firewall). Look at this question for a description of how to make the Windows Firewall allow the MMRemote server to communicate: How do I configure the Windows Firewall?
If you have the Windows Firewall, it may have blocked the server even though you allowed it through. Look at this question for more information about that: Why won’t the Windows Firewall allow the server to communicate?
If you are sure you have let the server through all firewalls, you need to make sure the client and server are configured correctly. Take a look at this question for more information: How do I connect to the server?
This is usually because of album art using too much memory. You could try deactivating album art by unchecking ‘Send album art’ in the server’s ‘General settings’.
If your server version is older than 2.6, please update it. That will probably solve the issues you’re having anyway.
If the server crashes immediately after starting it, or doesn’t start at all, it’s probably the settings file that has been corrupted. You need to delete it, and then start the server again:
There are usually two things that can make the app lag: album art and background images. You can try deactivating either;
If your experience a delay when you use the remote, or if you often get a network error, your can try one or more of the following options:
The MediaMonkey API is sometimes a little slow, so the server has to spend some time waiting for MediaMonkey to send the updated playlist. This often makes the playlist tab in the app a little delayed.
The ‘Now playing’ list is downloaded ‘on demand’, which means that only the tracks shown on the screen will be downloaded. This saves bandwidth and memory on your phone, as well as making the first load a lot quicker. Nevertheless, a long list will take more time to initialize than a short list. That’s just how it is. Everything is optimized, and a list of around 1000 tracks should take at most a few seconds to initialize. After that, tracks will be loaded as you scroll, with a little or no delay.
If you have a lot of album art embedded in the music files, that might slow down the loading. If so, it is recommended to export the art (save it in image files instead), or deactivate album art (checkbox in server settings) if you need very responsive long lists.
I always recommend taking a backup of your MediaMonkey database before using my remote to do anything. Even though it has been tested thoroughly for many years now, without issues, I can never guarantee complete safety.
To take a backup of your database, navigate to %APPDATA%\MediaMonkey (you can enter that directly in Windows Explorer, or navigate to something like C:\Users\AppData\MediaMonkey). This folder contains all MediaMonkey settings. The “MM.DB” file is the database, but you can backup the entire folder too.
MediaMonkey have more details in their knowledge base.
No. I have no affiliation with the people behind MediaMonkey.
Contact the MediaMonkey team, or ask in their forums.