How can I access bliss from other devices such as my phone or tablet?

bliss is designed as a server-side app, with a Web based interface. That is: it is capable of running the background, waiting for a Web browser to connect to it.

bliss is designed this way so it's always available to assess and fix new music you might want to add. By 'listening' for files being added to your library, bliss is able to assess and (potentially, depending on your settings) fix issues automatically.

A secondary advantage of this, however, is that it's also possible to access bliss from other devices whenever you need to check your music library. For example, you might be in your lounge, listening to music, and you notice a metadata error you want to correct. It's possible to access bliss using the browser on the tablet or phone you might have to hand.

Finding the IP address for bliss

First, you need to know the address of the computer running bliss. The easiest way of finding this depends on your operating system. Normally it's in the form of an IP address but you can also use a name if your network is correctly configured.

Note that you need your computer's home network IP address, not the external IP address you might find from services like whatsmyipaddress.com.

And to re-iterate: these steps should be taken on the computer where bliss is running, not the device from which you are trying to access bliss.

Windows

To find your IP address on Windows 11, click Start > Settings > Network & internet and then choose the network you're connected to - either Wi-Fi or Ethernet. You should see your IP address under Properties.

On Windows 10, click the network icon on the task bar at the bottom-right of the screen. Then click Properties. Your IP address will be labelled IPv4 address.

On all versions of Windows, a more general way is to:

1. Open the Command Prompt app (you can search for it, or find it under the Start menu).
2. Type ipconfig and press Return.

You should get something like:

C:\Users\gravelld>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : home
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:8b0:295:2d65:8b0:e542:658e:a3f1
   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2001:8b0:295:2d65:d091:55e3:95d1:4309
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::8b0:e542:658e:a3f1%10
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.10
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::8e59:73ff:fe73:27de%10
                                       192.168.0.1

Again, IPv4 Address marks the IP address you need. In this case, 192.168.0.10.

Mac

The IP address can be found on the Menu bar:

1. Click the Apple logo at the top-left of the Menu bar.
2. Click System Preferences.
3. Click Network.
4. Select the network you're connected to on the left-hand-side.

The IP address should be shown on the right-hand side.

Linux

The most general approach on Linux is to use ifconfig. Open a Terminal and type:

$ ifconfig
eth0: flags=4163  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.0.9  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.0.255
        inet6 2001:8b0:295:2d65:1d2c:6795:8e36:e350  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0
        inet6 fe80::f66d:4ff:fead:3f41  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20
        inet6 2001:8b0:295:2d65:f66d:4ff:fead:3f41  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0
        ether f4:6d:04:ad:3f:41  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 271394  bytes 358740182 (358.7 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 144567  bytes 17017704 (17.0 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

If you're using a wired connection, look for eth0. The IP address is shown next to inet - in this case 192.168.0.9. If you're using wireless, instead of eth0 look for wlan0. The inet entry should be there, if you're connected.

Synology, QNAP

Synology and QNAP offer their own ways of accessing apps remotely. You should be able to log into the device as normal, and open up bliss from within the main menu.

Connecting to bliss

Now you have the IP address, it should be a simple matter of typing this into the browser on the device you are trying to access bliss from.

If the IP address is 192.168.0.3, you should enter this, with the suffix :3220. So, in a browser URL field, type:

http://192.168.0.3:3220

If all goes well the bliss UI should be shown and you can use bliss as before: