FAQ

Is Orchard official?

No. Orchard is an unofficial, open-source client. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by YouTube or Google.

Do I need YouTube Music Premium?

Orchard uses your account, so whatever your account can do, Orchard can do. Without Premium you get whatever the free tier allows, subject to the same restrictions.

Do I need to sign in?

No, though you get much less. Search and a good deal of browsing work signed out. Your library, likes, playlists, personalized recommendations, and age-restricted content all require an account.

Does Orchard have my Google password?

No. Sign-in happens in an embedded browser session on Google’s own pages. Orchard keeps the resulting session cookies locally and never sees your password. See Privacy and Data.

Why do songs with “fuck” in the title fail in other clients but work in Orchard?

Those songs are usually age-restricted, and age-restricted playback needs an authenticated request to YouTube’s player API that most clients cannot make. Orchard adapted yt-dlp’s approach to do it. Full explanation in Explicit and Age-Restricted Tracks.

Does the “E” explicit badge affect playback or quality?

No. The explicit flag is a lyrics advisory and Orchard never routes or downgrades a stream based on it. Age restriction is a separate decision made by YouTube, and only a real age gate changes how a track is fetched. Orchard shipped a fix specifically to stop conflating the two, because doing so was quietly costing stream quality on ordinary explicit tracks.

Can Orchard download music for offline listening?

There is a Song Cache that keeps recently played audio on disk for instant replays, which is not the same thing as a downloads library. It is a cache with a size limit and eviction, and it is not organized for offline browsing.

Why is Orchard AGPL when it used to be MIT?

Beat-matched transitions use Rubber Band, which is GPL-2.0-or-later, and linking it requires copyleft. Versions up to 3.x remain MIT because that grant is irrevocable. AGPL rather than GPL so code can move between desktop and mobile. Full explanation in License and Legal.

Why are the Windows and macOS builds unsigned?

Code-signing certificates cost money on an ongoing basis. Your operating system will warn on first launch. Verify the published checksum and follow the steps in Installation.

What is Smart Crossfade actually doing?

Analyzing both tracks ahead of time, deciding how ambitious a transition the evidence supports, and where it can, rendering a beat-matched, phrase-aligned overlap offline before scheduling it. Full detail in Smart Crossfade.

Why do some transitions sound like ordinary fades?

Because Orchard graded them that way on purpose. Low beat confidence, a tempo pair too far apart to stretch transparently, or a tempo reading outside 40 to 220 BPM all degrade the transition rather than forcing a beat match on unreliable data. See Troubleshooting.

Is Best Mix the same as Smart Crossfade?

No. Best Mix chooses which tracks sit next to each other. Smart Crossfade decides how to join two given tracks. They share analysis data and work well together, and either works alone.

Where does BPM and key data come from?

Two places: Orchard’s own on-device analysis, and catalog metadata from GetSongBPM through Orchard’s BPM worker. Catalog tempo merges in at zero beat confidence, so it informs sorting but can never authorize beat-matching.

Does Orchard send my listening data anywhere?

By default it updates your YouTube account history, which is switchable. Discord Rich Presence is on by default and shows your current track to whoever can see your Discord status. Last.fm scrobbling is off unless you authorize it. Replay statistics never leave your machine. Full breakdown in Privacy and Data.

Is Orchard Mobile just a remote control?

No. Orchard Mobile is a standalone player with its own library, sign-in, cache, and on-device analysis. It can pair with a desktop through Orchard Connect, and it works fine without one.

Can I control Orchard from my phone or browser?

Yes, through Orchard Connect on the local network, after approving the device on the desktop.

Is Orchard Connect safe to leave enabled?

It listens on your LAN by design. Pairing requires explicit approval on the desktop, device tokens are stored only as hashes, and devices are individually revocable. On an untrusted network, leave it off.

Can I run my own backend?

Yes. All nine Cloudflare Workers are in the repository with provisioning instructions. See Cloudflare Workers.

A feature stopped working out of nowhere

Orchard depends on external services that change without notice. Check Settings → Diagnostics for reachability, then Troubleshooting, then Issues.

How do I get on beta builds?

Settings → Application → Beta channel. See Releases and Updates.

How do I move Orchard to a new machine?

Settings → Backup → Export data, install Orchard on the new machine, then Restore data. You will need to sign in again.

Can I make my own artist page?

Yes. Artist packs are documented with their full schema in Artist Packs.

How do I report a bug privately?

Use Orchard’s in-app Support System. It creates a conversation you can follow inside the app, with optional diagnostics and screenshots. Note that the report description is mirrored into a public-safe GitHub issue, so do not put anything private in it.