Frequently Asked Questions

What is My Media for Alexa?

My Media for Alexa allows you to stream your home music library from your computer to an Amazon Alexa device, such as an Alexa Echo or Alexa Dot.

How do I add music to My Media? What is a Watch Folder?

Watch Folders monitor your music library for new and changed tracks. Add a Watch Folder for each music library you want to play with your Alexa device. My Media will scan each folder, index the media, and make it ready for Alexa. See Watch Folders for details.

What music formats does My Media support?

My Media supports MP3 and M4A music files natively. You can optionally enable support for FLAC, WMA, and OGG files in Settings, which requires installing FFmpeg.

What Alexa voice commands can I use?

Alexa doesn't recognise My Media as a skill

After installing the My Media server software on your computer, you also need to enable the My Media skill in the Alexa app for each device you want to use. Open the Alexa app, go to Skills & Games, search for "My Media", and enable it.

When I ask Alexa to play music, there is silence

Several things can cause this:

1. Network: Your Alexa device must be on the same network as the My Media server. If they are on different networks, configure external access in Settings.
2. Firewall: Inbound TCP connections on port 52050 must be allowed. The Windows installer creates this rule automatically. If you use a third-party firewall or host intrusion protection, you may need to add the rule manually.
3. IP address: If your computer has multiple network interfaces, check that My Media picked the correct IP address. You can override it in Settings.
4. Computer sleeping: My Media can only stream if your computer is on and awake.
5. Sonos One: The Sonos One does not support all the Audio Player API interfaces that My Media requires.

To test network access, open this URL from a browser on a different device on your network:
http://[your-server-ip]:52050/test
You should see "Connection test successful". If you get a timeout, check your firewall.

I can't locate my iTunes Library file

You need to enable iTunes XML sharing:

1. Open iTunes and choose iTunes → Preferences (macOS) or Edit → Preferences (Windows).
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Check "Share iTunes Library XML with other applications".
4. Click OK.

See iTunes & Apple Music for full details.

How often does My Media check for new music?

My Media rescans your Watch Folders and iTunes/Apple Music library every 6 hours automatically. To force an immediate rescan, click Trigger Rescan on the Watch Folders page.

Can My Media index M3U / PLS playlists?

Yes. My Media automatically indexes any M3U or PLS playlist files found within a Watch Folder. Add the folder containing your playlists as a Watch Folder. My Media will crawl the media files referenced in the playlist even if they are stored outside the Watch Folder itself. Discovered playlists appear on the Playlists page.

How does My Media index my music?

My Media reads the embedded ID3 tags in MP3 and M4A files to index track title, artist, album, genre, disc number, and track number. Alexa queries are then matched against this metadata.

Do my media files leave my network?

By default, My Media streams locally across your local network. Your Alexa device and My Media server must be on the same routable network. If they aren't, you can:

• Open port 52050 on your internet router to allow direct external streaming.
• Enable cloud proxy in Settings to route media through My Media's cloud servers.

Alexa doesn't recognise some albums or artists

1. Click Refresh on the Recent Alexa Play Requests widget on the Dashboard.
2. Check what Alexa actually heard in the "Heard" column.
3. If the heard text is wrong, try speaking more slowly or clearly.
4. If the heard text is correct but nothing was found, check the Albums or Artists pages to confirm that media is indexed under that name.
5. If there's a consistent mismatch, create an Override to teach My Media to substitute the spoken phrase with the correct library term.