Importing Music
Homecrate plays music from your personal collection. Before you can listen, you need to import your tracks. This page covers all the ways to get music in.
Opening the Import Flow
Tap the ＋ button in the top-right corner of the Library screen.
[SCREENSHOT: Plus button in Library header]
The Import Preview modal opens. It scans for audio files and shows you what it found before adding anything to your library.
[SCREENSHOT: Import Preview modal — showing scanned file list with track count]
Importing Files from Your Device
When the document picker opens, navigate to any audio file on your device. You can import from:
- Files app — any folder, including Downloads, iCloud Drive, On My iPhone/iPad
- USB drives / external storage — appears in Files when connected
- Other apps’ shared folders — any app that exposes its documents to Files
Supported Formats
Homecrate imports any audio format that iOS can open via its audio framework, including:
| Format | Common extensions |
|---|---|
| FLAC | .flac |
| Apple Lossless | .m4a, .alac |
| AAC | .m4a, .aac |
| MP3 | .mp3 |
| WAV / AIFF | .wav, .aiff, .aif |
| Opus, OGG | .opus, .ogg |
The most common situation is dragging a folder of MP3s from your computer to iCloud Drive, then importing from there. Any audio file your iPhone can play can be imported.
What Happens During Import
- Homecrate reads the embedded metadata tags (title, artist, album, artwork, etc.)
- It creates a database entry for each track
- The audio file is copied into Homecrate’s private storage
- Album art is extracted and stored separately for fast display
You’ll see a summary: “N tracks added” when the import completes.
Importing a ZIP Archive
If someone sends you a ZIP file of music (via AirDrop, Messages, or Files), Homecrate detects it automatically.
Two ways this can trigger:
- Opening a ZIP from another app — tap Share → Homecrate in any app. The import preview opens immediately.
- Dropping a ZIP into Homecrate’s Files folder — the app detects it on next launch and offers to import.
The ZIP is extracted, audio files are scanned, and the Import Preview modal appears. Non-audio files inside the ZIP are ignored.
This is the fastest way to share a batch of tracks from a computer. Zip your music folder on your Mac, AirDrop it to your iPhone, and tap “Open with Homecrate”.
The Import Preview Modal
Before anything is added to your library, Homecrate shows you a preview of what it found.
[SCREENSHOT: Import Preview modal showing track list with metadata]
The preview shows:
- Each detected audio file with its parsed title, artist, and album
- Any metadata warnings (e.g. missing artist tag)
- Total track count
Tap Import to confirm. Tap the ✕ to cancel without adding anything.
Metadata and Tag Reading
Homecrate reads standard ID3 (MP3), Vorbis Comment (FLAC/OGG), and iTunes/MP4 tags. The following fields are imported when present:
- Title, Artist, Album Artist, Album
- Track Number, Disc Number
- Year, Genre
- Embedded album art (JPEG or PNG)
- Lyrics (plain text and LRC synced format)
- ISRC, Comment
- Bit depth and sample rate (for quality badge)
If a track is missing a title tag, Homecrate uses the filename. If it’s missing an artist tag, it appears under “Unknown Artist”.
After Importing
Once tracks are imported, they appear immediately in your library. Go to:
- Artists tab to browse by artist
- Albums tab to browse by album
- All tab to see every track in a flat list
Imported tracks play from Homecrate’s private storage, so they’re always available even when the original source (USB drive, iCloud) is disconnected.
Re-importing and Duplicates
Homecrate does not automatically deduplicate imports. If you import the same file twice, two entries will appear in the library. To remove a duplicate, swipe left on any track in the All Tracks view and tap Delete.
Deleting Tracks
To remove a track from your library:
- All Tracks view: swipe left on any track row → tap Delete
- Album card: long-press → Delete Album (removes all tracks in the album)
- Artist card: long-press → Delete (removes all tracks by that artist)
Deletion removes the track from the database and from Homecrate’s private storage. The original file (if it was in iCloud or another location) is not affected.