Guide

Please read this before you start.

Check the battery

A phone that has not been used for a long time may have a worn-out battery. Check the following before use, and from time to time while you use it.

• The back cover or screen is lifting, or there is a gap
• The phone wobbles on a table, or the body looks swollen
• The phone gets too hot to hold while charging or playing
• The battery drains quickly, the charge level jumps suddenly, or the phone turns off without warning

reTONE cannot check how worn the battery is or what condition it is in. Please check the condition of the phone yourself.

If you notice swelling or unusual heat

Do the following, in this order.

1. Stop using and charging the phone at once.
2. Unplug the charger.
3. Put the phone somewhere away from anything flammable.
4. Contact a repair shop or the store where you bought it.

Do not press, bend, or puncture the phone.

When you charge

• Use a charger and cable that fit the phone (in Japan, ones with the PSE mark).
• Do not charge the phone on bedding or near anything flammable.
• When you charge a phone for the first time in a long while, keep it where you can see it.
• Keeping the phone plugged in for long periods may wear out the battery faster.
• Do not leave the phone in hot places, such as a car in summer.

When you dispose of a phone

Do not throw away a phone with a battery in the regular trash. Follow your local rules, or use a collection program at a mobile phone store.

When you connect to Wi-Fi or another network

Older versions of Android, and phones whose manufacturer has ended updates, still have known security vulnerabilities that won’t be fixed (you can check under "Android security patch level" in Settings). reTONE does not need a connection for playback. Once the phone is on Wi-Fi or another network, apps other than reTONE can use the internet too.

If you connect, we recommend using the phone like this:

• Connect only to Wi-Fi you trust, such as at home
• Turn Wi-Fi on only when you need it, and off again when you're done
• Use your everyday phone for browsing and email (Chrome no longer receives updates on versions earlier than Android 10)
• Install only apps from trusted sources
• Don't sign in to your everyday accounts or store personal information (reTONE works fully without signing in or creating an account)

Connecting is at your own discretion and risk. The developer is not responsible for any damage arising from vulnerabilities in the phone. While "Network features" is off in Settings (the default), reTONE does not use the network.

We recommend that you download the APK (the file used to distribute Android apps) on a computer and copy it to the phone over USB.

1. Put the APK on the phone

reTONE is distributed as an APK. There are two ways to put it on the phone. For phones running Android 9 or earlier, we recommend Method A (see "When you connect to Wi-Fi or another network" for why).

Method A: Download on a computer and copy over USB (recommended)

You need a computer and a USB cable to connect the phone to it. The phone also needs a file manager app.

1. On your computer, open the Releases page of this site.
2. Click "Download APK" and save the APK to your computer.
3. Connect the phone to your computer with the USB cable.
4. When a USB notification appears on the phone, choose "File transfer (MTP)". This is the connection mode that lets the computer read and write files on the phone.
5. On your computer, copy the APK to the phone's "Download" folder. If you use a Mac, see "If you use a Mac" below.
6. On the phone, open the "Download" folder in the file manager app.
7. Tap the APK.

The install screen or an Android prompt appears. Continue with "2. Allow the installation".

• If the phone has no file manager app, you can install directly from your computer with adb (a tool from Google for controlling Android phones from a computer). See "Use adb" on this page for the steps.
• On Android 10 and later, you can also use Method B.

Method B: Download in the phone's browser (Android 10 and later)

The phone must run Android 10 or later and be able to open this site in its browser. On earlier versions, the Chrome browser no longer receives updates, so we recommend Method A.

1. In the phone's browser, open the Releases page of this site.
2. Tap "Download APK".
3. When the notification says "Download complete", tap the notification.

The install screen or an Android prompt appears. Continue with "2. Allow the installation".

2. Allow the installation

Android asks for permission once before you install an app from outside Google Play. Do one of the following, depending on the screen you see.

Android 7 and earlier

If you see "Install blocked" when you open the APK, do the following.

1. Open "Settings" › "Security".
2. Turn on "Unknown sources".

   

3. Open the APK again.

The install screen appears.

Android 8 and later

If, when you open the APK, a screen asks you to allow "Install unknown apps" for the app that opened it (a browser or a file manager app), do the following.

1. Tap "Settings".

   

2. Turn on "Allow from this source".

   

3. Press the Back button to return to the previous screen.

The install screen appears.

If a Google Play Protect warning appears

If you see a warning such as "Unverified developer", do the following.

1. Tap "More details".
2. Tap "Install anyway".

The installation continues.

3. Install

1. Tap "Install".
2. When the installation is done, tap "Open".

reTONE starts. The reTONE icon is also added to your app list.

4. First launch

The first time you start reTONE, the following screens appear in order. Some may not appear, depending on the phone's Android version.

Storage permission (Android 6 and later)

On Android 6 and later, if a screen asks for access to storage, tap "Allow".

The songs on the phone appear in the library. If you do not allow access, no songs appear.

"Older version" notice (some phones on Android 14 and later)

On some phones running Android 14 and later, if you see the notice "This app was built for an older version of Android", tap "OK". This notice appears once for each Android version.

The next screen appears.

Choose how to use this device

The first time you start reTONE, the "How this phone is used" screen appears. You can change this later at the top of Settings.

• Dedicated music player: When you turn on the phone or press the HOME button, the reTONE playback screen appears instead of the Android home screen. You can open other apps and Android settings from inside reTONE. Notification and ringtone volumes are set to 0. This is called Silent DAP mode (a DAP is a dedicated music player), and you can turn it off in Settings.
• Music app: Your default home app does not change. You open reTONE from its icon, like any other app.

1. Tap either "Dedicated music player" or "Music app".

   

If you chose "Dedicated music player", continue with "Make reTONE your home screen". If you chose "Music app", you are done.

Make reTONE your home screen (if you chose the dedicated music player)

If you chose "Dedicated music player", do the following.

1. Press the HOME button.
2. When Android asks which app to use, choose reTONE from the list.
3. Tap "Always".

Now the reTONE playback screen appears when you press the HOME button.

On Android 10 and later, a screen asking whether to make reTONE your home app appears right after you choose "Use as a dedicated music player". Choose "reTONE", then tap "Set as default". You don’t need the HOME button steps above.

Return to your original home screen

If the phone is set to "Dedicated music player" and you want your original home screen back, do the following.

1. In reTONE's Settings, tap "How this phone is used".
2. Choose "Music app".
3. If a screen asks you to pick an app, choose your original home app.
4. Tap "Always".

reTONE is removed from the HOME button choices, and pressing HOME shows your original home screen.

Copy from a computer

You need a computer and a USB cable to connect the phone to it.

1. Connect the phone to your computer with the USB cable.
2. In the phone's notification, choose "File transfer (MTP)". On older phones, the computer may see the phone as soon as you connect it.
3. On your computer, open the phone's storage. On Windows, it appears under "This PC". On a Mac, open it the same way as described in "If you use a Mac" in "Install".
4. Open the phone's "Music" folder.
5. Copy your music files into the "Music" folder.

The copied songs appear in the reTONE library. If they do not, see "If songs do not appear" below.

• You can organize folders any way you like.
• You can also put music on an SD card.

If songs do not appear

If you copied songs but they do not appear in the library, do the following.

1. Tap the library menu (⋮).
2. Tap "Refresh library".

   

You are done when reTONE shows how many songs it added, such as "12 tracks added".

Playback screen

Library

Buttons

Lock screen (when using the reTONE lock screen)

While a streaming app is playing, the screen switches to one that shows only the service name and playback controls.

Stream and Sound

"Stream" shows your NAS and your music streaming apps.

Use "Add a NAS" to register a NAS on the same Wi-Fi, or another reTONE that is sharing its music. Tracks on a registered NAS appear in your library. Turn on "Network features" in Settings first (see Play music from a NAS).

The streaming apps installed on the phone are listed below. Tap one to open it. To add an app that is not listed, use "Add an app".

"Sound" opens the phone maker's sound settings screen.

How this phone is used

The same choice appears the first time you start reTONE. You can switch later at the top of Settings.

Sound

The items on the "Volume" screen are as follows.

Display

Controls (experimental)

On some phones, these settings can’t block them completely.

Apps and device

Items that vary by device

With a USB DAC (an external D/A converter connected by USB, which turns digital audio data into analog audio), reTONE can send songs to the DAC without changing their sample rate, if the DAC supports that rate.

What you need

• A phone with USB host support (OTG). USB host is the feature that lets the phone act as the host and run USB devices. It is also called OTG.
• An OTG cable or adapter. With a regular cable for connecting to a computer, the phone will not recognize the DAC. If the phone has a micro USB port, use a micro USB OTG adapter. For combinations, see "Choosing a cable" below.
• Power for the DAC. Older phones can supply only a small current to external devices, so whether a DAC works depends on how it is powered. Use the table below as a guide when choosing one.

Connect

Have the phone, cable, and DAC from "What you need" ready, then follow these steps.

1. Connect the USB DAC to the phone.
2. When Android asks whether to open reTONE, check "Use by default for this USB device" (on newer Android: "Always open reTONE when … is connected") and tap OK. You won’t be asked again, and the permission is kept. The exact wording depends on the Android version and the phone. If you are asked every time you plug in the DAC, make sure this box is checked.
3. For a DAC you are connecting for the first time, "How the DAC's volume is set" appears. Choose the option that fits your DAC.

   • A DAC with a knob or buttons on the unit: choose "On the DAC". reTONE sends audio at full volume.
   • Any other DAC, or if you are not sure: choose "With the phone's volume keys" or "Not sure (phone's volume keys)". Adjust the volume with the phone's volume keys.
4. If you chose "On the DAC", turn down the volume on the DAC.
5. Tap "Continue".
6. Play a song.

You are done when the bottom line of the playback screen shows something like "USB AUDIO • 96 kHz DIRECT".

• DIRECT means reTONE is sending the song to the DAC without changing its sample rate. For songs at a rate the DAC does not support, reTONE converts them before sending, and DIRECT is not shown.
• With a DAC that supports native DSD and lets its volume be controlled over USB, DSD songs show something like "DSD64 → USB AUDIO • DSD64 DIRECT".
• Your choice in "How the DAC's volume is set" is remembered for each DAC model. You can change it with "DAC volume" in Settings.

Check the phone and cable

Choosing a cable

USB cables have a "host" direction. Choose a combination where the phone is the host and the DAC is the device. Only USB-C to USB-C cables have identical ends and work either way (the devices decide which one is the host).

While you use it

• When you unplug the DAC, playback pauses.
• With a DAC whose volume can be controlled over USB, the volume keys change the DAC's own volume. With a DAC set to "On the DAC", pressing the volume keys does not change the volume.

While connected, all of reTONE on the phone in your hand controls the other phone: Now Playing, the library, Up next and the queue, even the volume keys.

First time: pair the phones

1. On the phone being controlled (the one playing the music), open Android’s Bluetooth settings and make it visible to other devices. On some Android versions, tap the device name at the top of the screen to make it visible for a few minutes.
2. On the phone in your hand, select the phone being controlled in Bluetooth settings and pair.

Connect

1. On the phone being controlled, turn on "Remote control" in reTONE’s Settings.
2. On the phone in your hand, tap "Control another reTONE" in reTONE’s Settings.
3. Pick the phone being controlled under "Phone to control". The list shows "Last connected" first, then "Controlled before", then "Paired". Headphones, cars and the like are hidden; tap "Show other Bluetooth devices" to see them.

You’re connected when reTONE turns into the other phone’s controls, with its name and battery level at the top right. The first connection can take a while as the library comes across; after that it’s quick.

To stop

On the phone in your hand, tap "End remote control" in reTONE’s Settings. You’re back in your own reTONE, along with whatever you were playing before.

If it doesn’t work

NAS songs load onto the phone as they play (temporary storage). Anything already loaded keeps playing even when the NAS is out of reach. Everything else about reTONE’s playback, such as unconverted output and USB DAC direct output, works as usual.

Add a NAS

1. Turn on "Network features" in reTONE’s Settings and tap "Turn on" to confirm. If you’re not on Wi-Fi, tap "Open Wi-Fi settings" and connect in Android’s Wi-Fi settings.
2. Tap "Stream" in the bottom menu, then "Add a NAS" under "NAS".
3. Tap "Add" next to your NAS under "NAS found on this Wi-Fi". reTONE starts loading the song list.

Done when the NAS songs appear in your library. NAS songs and albums carry a "NAS" tag; albums only partly on the NAS say "Partly NAS". Tap a song and it plays while loading, with "NAS •" at the bottom of Now Playing, and "Copying" while it loads.

Manage

If it doesn’t work

On the listening phone, the shared songs show up in the library just like NAS songs, and play while loading. Over tethering, traffic stays between the two phones and uses no mobile data.

Connect

1. On the sharing phone (the one with the music), turn on "Network features" in reTONE’s Settings, then turn on "Share this phone’s music". The first time, tap "Share" to confirm.
2. On the listening phone, tap "Add a NAS" in reTONE’s Stream.
3. Under "NAS found on this Wi-Fi", tap "Add" next to "reTONE on (the sharing phone’s name)".
4. The first time you pair these two, the listening phone shows a six-digit code, and the sharing phone shows "Allow a connection" with the same code (from a notification, if reTONE isn’t open).
5. Check the codes match and tap "Allow" on the sharing phone.

Done when the sharing phone’s music appears in the listening phone’s library. Next time, just turn on sharing on the sharing phone.

Use it over tethering

1. Turn on Wi-Fi tethering on the sharing phone.
2. Connect the listening phone to the sharing phone’s tethering Wi-Fi.
3. Turn on "Share this phone’s music" in reTONE on the sharing phone. Starting tethering stops sharing, so turn it on after tethering is up.
4. On the listening phone, tap the sharing phone in the NAS section of Stream, then "Refresh the list".

• While tethering, the "Wi-Fi" row in reTONE on the sharing phone reads "Tethering (this phone is the hotspot)".
• On some phones, tethering turns itself off after a few minutes of no use. That setting lives in Android.

If it doesn’t work

1. Turn on USB debugging on the phone

The location and names of these items vary slightly by Android version and phone maker.

1. Open "Settings" › "About phone" (it may be called "About device").
2. Tap "Build number" 7 times in a row. "Developer options" is added to Settings.

   

3. Open "Settings" › "Developer options".
4. Turn on "USB debugging".

   

You are done when "USB debugging" is on in "Developer options".

2. Install adb on your computer

You need a Windows or Mac computer.

1. Download Google's "SDK Platform-Tools" (for Windows or Mac). The link goes to the official Android developer site.
2. Extract the downloaded file.

You are done when adb is in the "platform-tools" folder.

On a Mac, you can also install it with Homebrew (brew install android-platform-tools).

3. Connect the phone

1. Connect the phone to your computer with a USB cable.
2. When the phone shows "Allow USB debugging?", tap "OK".

   

In "4. Install reTONE", you will check that the phone appears when you run adb devices.

4. Install reTONE

First, download the APK to your computer.

1. Put the downloaded APK in the "platform-tools" folder.
2. Open Terminal on a Mac, or Command Prompt or PowerShell on Windows.
3. Go to the "platform-tools" folder (type cd and a space, drag the folder into the window, then press Enter). On a Mac, type ./adb instead of adb in the commands below (for example, ./adb devices); in Windows PowerShell, type .\adb.
4. Run adb devices.
5. Check that a serial number followed by "device" appears.
6. Run the command with the name of the file you downloaded, for example adb install reTONE-0.86.0.apk. In Windows PowerShell, type it as .\adb install reTONE-0.86.0.apk. To update an earlier version, add -r (for example, adb install -r reTONE-0.86.0.apk).

   

You are done when "Success" appears.

5. Add music

Complete "3. Connect the phone" first.

1. Open Terminal on a Mac, or Command Prompt or PowerShell on Windows, and go to the "platform-tools" folder.
2. Run adb devices and check that the phone's ID and "device" appear.
3. Run the command with your music folder, for example adb push "music folder" /sdcard/Music/. The whole folder is copied into the phone's "Music" folder. In Windows PowerShell, type it as .\adb push "music folder" /sdcard/Music/.
4. On the phone, open reTONE and tap "Refresh library" in the library menu (⋮).

You are done when reTONE shows a message such as "12 tracks added".

• If the folder name contains spaces, put it in double quotes ("). If you drag the folder into Terminal, its location is typed in for you.
• To copy to an SD card, change the destination to the SD card's location. The location varies by phone.

Troubleshooting

• If nothing appears in adb devices: check that the USB cable supports data, then try another cable or port. On Windows, you may need the phone maker's USB driver.
• If "unauthorized" appears: unlock the phone, reconnect it, and tap "OK" in the permission dialog.
• If "INSTALL_FAILED_VERIFICATION_FAILURE" appears: newer versions of Android may ask for permission to install on the phone's screen. Turn on the screen, answer the prompt, and run the command again.

reTONE has two features that change the phone's settings. Before you uninstall, undo them in this order.

1. In reTONE's Settings, turn off "Silent DAP mode".
2. In reTONE's Settings, under "How this phone is used", choose "Music app". reTONE is no longer the default home app.
3. Uninstall reTONE from "Apps" in Android settings.

reTONE is uninstalled.