Settings

Open Settings from the sidebar or press Ctrl+,. Type in “Find a setting” above the section list to jump to a setting by name. Every change saves at once.

Some settings depend on your platform or build. Where a platform can’t back a setting, Sona keeps its row and says why instead of hiding the reason. The tables below name those cases with Linux, macOS and Windows.

General

Setting	What it does	Platform
Language	Sets the language of Sona. Automatic follows your Apple Music account and your system. Shown only when other languages are on offer.
Start Sona when you log in	Adds Sona to your desktop’s startup applications.	Needs Sona.app on macOS, not a source build. Not on Windows yet.
Start in the tray	Starts Sona without a window at login, ready to play from the tray or your media keys. Shown when Start Sona when you log in is on.	Needs a tray icon
Open on	Chooses the page Sona shows when it starts: the page you were last on, or a fixed page. Your queue is always kept.
Open Apple Music links in Sona	Makes Sona the app that opens music:// and itms:// links. Links that start with https:// stay with your browser.	Needs Sona.app on macOS; needs Sona’s desktop entry on Linux, so not a source build, Flatpak or AppImage that isn’t integrated. Not on Windows yet.
First-run setup	Runs “Set up Sona again”: the steps of first-run setup.
When the window is closed	Keeps playing in the background or quits Sona. In the background, Sona stays in the system tray.	Without a tray icon Sona quits.
Title bar	Chooses Automatic, Sona’s title bar with or without window buttons, or the desktop’s. Applies the next time Sona starts.	Linux Windows
Window size	Shows the size Sona opens at. Reset size puts it back to the default.
Track notifications	Shows the song and artist, with artwork and a Next button, when a track starts. Not shown while Sona’s window is in front.	macOS shows the song and artist only, and needs Sona.app. Linux needs a notification service. Not on Windows yet.
Stay awake while playing	Stops the computer from suspending on its own while music plays. The screen can still lock and turn off.	Not on Windows yet. On Linux needs logind or the desktop portal.

Updates

Setting	What it does	Platform
Check for updates when Sona starts	Asks GitHub for the newest release once the window has opened. Nothing about you or your library is sent.
Test versions	Also offers release candidates and other test versions.	Only where Sona can update itself

This group also shows whether you’re up to date, with View release, Install and restart and Check now. It doesn’t check development builds. See Install for how updating works.

Playback

On a platform with no playback engine this section says so, and only Lyrics remains. Browsing Apple Music and your library works as usual.

Sound

Setting	What it does	Platform
Widevine	Shows the state of the Widevine download that plays Apple Music’s protected songs, with Try again if it failed. Sona keeps it up to date by itself.
Audio quality	Chooses High (256 kbps AAC) or Data saver (64 kbps). Applies from the next song.
Output	Chooses where Sona plays. Switching moves the music without a pause.	Where the engine can pick a device
Sound Check	Plays every song at about the same loudness.	Where the engine supports it
Equaliser	Opens the ten-band equaliser.	Where the engine supports it
Crossfade and Crossfade length	Fades each song into the next. Songs that follow each other on an album always play without a gap.	Where the engine supports it

See Playback for the equaliser and the output in use.

Listening

Setting	What it does	Platform
Private listening	Keeps plays out of your Apple Music history and recommendations, scrobbling, Discord and History. The same as the button in the player bar. See Private listening.	Where Sona sends the play reports itself
Replacing your queue	Chooses “Replace, offer Undo” or “Ask first” when you play an album, playlist or station while more than three songs you added are waiting.

Lyrics

Setting	What it does
Lyrics sources	Turns Apple Music, Musixmatch, LRCLIB and NetEase Cloud Music on or off and orders them. A source higher in the list wins a tie.
Prefer word-by-word lyrics	Lets lyrics timed word by word win over line-by-line lyrics from a source higher in the list.
Lyrics translation	Shows a translation under each line where a source has one.

Advanced

Setting	What it does
Free memory when idle	Stops the playback host after 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes with nothing queued. The next song then takes a few seconds longer to start.

Appearance

Setting	What it does
Mode	Chooses System, Light or Dark. A theme with one variant keeps its look and disables this.
Theme	Chooses the colours of the whole window from Sona’s own, community palettes and your themes. See Themes.
Accent	Chooses the colour that marks what plays. Each theme keeps its own by default.
Your own themes	Opens the folder where your theme files go.
Reduce effects	Uses solid surfaces instead of artwork colour washes and turns animation off. Smoother on software rendering.
Motion artwork	Plays the looping covers some albums and playlists have. Off while Reduce effects is on. Pauses on battery power where Sona can read the power state.

Connections

Setting	What it does	Platform
Last.fm	Connects your account and adds each song you play to your profile. Builds without a Last.fm key can’t connect.
ListenBrainz	Connects with your user token and adds each song to your public history.
Discord status	Shows the song you’re playing as your Discord activity. Builds without a Discord application ID don’t have it.	Not on Windows yet.

A song counts as scrobbled once you’ve played half of it or four minutes. Nothing is scrobbled or shown on Discord while private listening is on. See Scrobbling and Discord.

Shortcuts

Lists every shortcut by group. Select one to record new keys, with a warning when another action already uses them. Use “Filter by action or key” to find one, the reset button beside a shortcut to restore it, and Reset all to restore them all. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Storage

Setting	What it does	Platform
On this computer	Shows the size of the artwork cache, the catalogue cache and the library database.
Artwork cache	Limits the covers and backdrops kept on this computer. Above the limit, the artwork shown least recently is removed first.
Catalogue cache	Clear caches removes the Apple Music pages and the artwork cache. Your library and settings stay.
Library database	Compact now gives free space back to the disk. Sona also optimises it when it is idle and nothing is playing.
Settings file	Exports your settings to a file and imports one from another computer. The window size, audio output, rendering fixes and connected accounts stay with this computer.	Needs a file chooser: not on Windows yet.

Diagnostics

Runs checks of the playback host, database and keyring when you open it, and reports problems and warnings. Check again repeats them, Copy diagnostics copies a report with tokens and your email address removed, and Open log folder opens the logs. See Troubleshooting.

Group	What it shows
Playback	The playback host, the Widevine module, the sandbox, the audio priority and the stream format.
Motion artwork	The video decoders, the power state and the last video and download. Shown where Sona can check them.
Credentials	Where Sona stores your tokens: the system keyring or an unencrypted file.
Library database	The file, its size, schema, contents, last full sync and the artwork cache.
Sona	The version, platform, start-up time and the paths of the log, settings, data and cache.
Updates	Previous version, with Restore… to go back to the version from your last update. Shown only when one is kept.
Developer tools	Open the inspector. Available only in development builds started with SONA_INSPECTOR=1.