Docs
Bòcan is meant to be obvious. If you're reading this, it probably wasn't obvious enough. Sorry. We'll fix that.
Getting started
- Drag Bòcan into
/Applications. - Open it.
- Choose Library → Add Folder… and point at your music.
- Wait while it scans, fingerprints, and reads tags. Watch the spectrum analyser bounce.
- Listen.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space | Play / Pause |
| → | Next track |
| ← | Previous track |
| ↑ / ↓ | Volume up / down |
| ⌘F | Search library |
| ⌘L | Toggle lyrics pane |
| ⌘M | Toggle mini-player |
| ⌘I | Get info / tag editor |
| ⌘, | Preferences |
| ⌘⌥S | Sleep timer |
Supported formats
FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, MP3, AAC/M4A, OGG Vorbis, Opus, WavPack, Monkey's Audio (APE), Musepack, DSD (DSF/DFF). Bit-perfect output up to 32-bit / 384 kHz. DSD via DoP.
Smart playlists
Smart playlists support nested groups, all standard fields (artist, album, year, BPM, rating, play count, last played, date added, key, …), and a "limit by" clause. Shuffle is reproducible per session — no "shuffle" that mysteriously plays the same five tracks.
Command-line
Bòcan ships with a tiny URL handler:
open "bocan://play/track/<uuid>". Useful for scripting,
Stream Deck, Alfred workflows, and so on.
Troubleshooting
Audio drops out for half a second
Almost always a sample-rate mismatch with the output device. Open Audio MIDI Setup and set the device to a fixed rate that matches most of your library (often 48 kHz or 96 kHz). Bòcan resamples on the fly when it has to, but switching rates on the device is what causes the gap.
"Bòcan can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software"
You probably downloaded an unsigned development build, or Gatekeeper's cache is stale. Right-click the app and choose Open; confirm once. After that it'll launch normally.
Library scan is slow on a NAS
Mount with SMB3 over a wired connection where possible. The first scan fingerprints every file, which means reading every byte. Subsequent scans only look at modified files.
It crashed
Logs land in ~/Library/Logs/Bocan/. Open one and zip it.
File an issue on
GitHub with
the zip attached, and a description of what you were doing.
More
For the full architecture, build instructions, and how to contribute, see the README and CONTRIBUTING.md.