Has anybody here managed to install Funkwhale using Portainer? I’ve already tried 3 times, first tried a template, but turns out the AIO container is deprecated, then tried modifying the default docker-compose and env files available on Funkwhale’s repo, didn’t work (couldn’t run the required commands to create a user). Then I spun up a brand new debian 12 LXC container on proxmox, ran their quick install script and failed (something related to snapd, even though it was installed).
Up until now I’ve been an avid Navidrome user, but since we’ve been cutting some costs, Spotify had to go. Too late I realised Navidrome has no library separation: Even though you can have multiple users, they all pull from the same library, making it a mess.
I’m just looking for a simple deployment I can use either within my LAN or via TailScale, just for me and a few family members.
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So, I posted this on a similar thread a few days ago, but plex and/or jellyfin do an amazing job of user/library seperation, music streaming, AND have apps for every relevant platform you’d remotely care about: phones, computers, browsers, widgets plugged into your tv, etc.
It’s a little odd nobody has bothered to do a really good multi user/library audio-only app, but plex+plexamp or jellyfin+finamp is a pretty great solution as it is.
To anyone reading this, unless you absolutely must have the federation abilities of Funkwhale above your own sanity, it’s not worth it. Funkwhale is an absolute bear to setup by comparison to every other music server. I have been bouncing through them all spinning up containers for the same library and putting them through their paces.
Spinning up 4 Navidrome containers with 4 different domains for my user’s library preferences was quicker and easier than setting up one Funkwhale server for 4 users. It’s beyond absurd how clunky it is. And worst of all, 4 Navidrome containers are extremely faster, less resource hungry, and easier to maintain.
None of the local library importing works in the UI unless you’re the admin account. That means going into users to create libraries then spinning up an API container with a command to import the local files. But then it doesn’t watch them unless you include that flag and leave the detached container running.
On top of that, so few people are running it that you cannot just search the web for issues. It’s their lacking documentation only. You know something is obscure when you cant even find their own website by searching Funkwhale without going through the top result that links to it.
Funkwhale is just not ready for prime time compared to the other servers.
I have used Airsonic and then Airsonic-advanced for years after briefly using Subsonic. But recently as my more and more of my library migrated to FLAC I had issues with transcoding. Sometimes all transcoding would just start failing and when it did Airsonic would peg every thread it had available. (Heresy I know but when I or my users are on a mobile network I don’t want to chew through data in a few day long outings.) So that’s what led me down this path. I tried Navidrome and loved it except for the lack of library separation. I tried Funkwhale, and I tried Gonic. Gonic is wonderful in its simplicity but it’s almost too basic. It supposedly had library separation and has transcoding but neither was working out of the box so I just said fuck it and went with 4 Navidrome containers because copy and pasting is easy and everything about Navidrome just works. Most importantly, Navidrome is lightning fast loading in an app which is the only way my users interact with the server. It fires up transcoding so fast you almost cannot tell the difference between loading the native file and transcoding in terms of response. I swear there was at least one more server I looked at but passed over and I cannot recall the name.
Edit: FYI Navidrome said that they are currently reworking the entire server backend, but after that it will be easier to implement multiple libraries.
I swear there was at least one more server I looked at but passed over and I cannot recall the name.
Maybe Jellyfin? It’s best at movies/shows but it also handles music (and more). The native music experience isn’t great but it works. For Windows/Linux/Mac you can use Feishin (I use and mostly recommend it, also you can use the web app version). Android has Symfonium I use and highly recommend it, also it works with FAR more than just Jellyfin). I don’t use iOS but I just looked for an iOS app and found AmpFin (not to be confused with Finamp).
You said your users have their own libraries. Jellyfin works great with this. Out each in its own folder, create a new library for each in Jellyfin (pointing to each folder), and you can choose which accounts can see which libraries (and optionally let them manage libraries too so they can delete songs or modify metadata for the libraries they have access to).
I’m a fan of Jellyfin if you couldn’t tell…
I gave up on funk whale about 6 months ago and was loving navidrome, but hadn’t realised the lack of library separation. Thankfully that doesn’t bother me too much. I’ll give this another go and see how I get on though if I can find some time over the weekend
Yea, after another hour today I’ve decided that my time is better spent elsewhere, so I’m just going to stick with Navidrome and not worry too much about losing out on the federated music idea for now.
