First Run

Access to the Music Assistant User Interface (UI) requires a login and password.

What you see on first startup depends on how you installed MA and how you access it. If you installed the Music Assistant server as an App in Home Assistant and open the MA UI via HA Ingress (the sidebar), an administrator account is set up automatically and you go straight into the setup wizard below. In all other circumstances you will see an initial authentication setup dialog. The administrator username and password are the first to be set up: do not forget them, as there is no way to recover them later. If they are forgotten the MA server will need to be rebuilt (docker users can delete auth.db).

NOTE

Signing in with Home Assistant requires a pop up browser tab to be opened, so ensure your browser allows this (most notably Safari on iOS)

The initial authentication setup dialog will appear as follows

The setup wizard

The administrator setting the server up is taken through a setup wizard, which opens over the app and covers everything Music Assistant needs before it can play. You can move past any step, go back to any step from the list of steps, and nothing in it is final. The wizard uses the same dialogs as the settings, so whatever you leave you can do there later.

• Choose how you want to use Music Assistant. As my music hub brings your streaming services and local music together into one library. From the apps on my phone streams from Spotify, AirPlay and other apps to the speakers in your home. Your answer only changes the order of the steps that follow, and whether you can leave the music sources step for later. Everything stays available either way
• Add your music sources. Connect a streaming service or your local music files. Each source has its own page under Music Sources. A source that needs attention, for example because its login has expired, has a Reconfigure button right there
• Add your players. The players Music Assistant has already found are listed here. Switch off any you do not want to use, and rename them as you like. Finding them takes a moment once a player provider is set up. Add more players, or Add a player provider when there is none yet, opens the list of player providers rather than single speakers, so pick the one your speakers use
• Add plugins. Extras such as Party, Spotify Connect and an AirPlay receiver, described under Plugins. Skip it and add them whenever you like
• Check your server settings. The address the apps in your home use, and the address your players fetch the audio from. Both are worked out automatically and are normally right, and your browser checks whether it can reach them. This step is also where you switch on remote access, or say that you run your own reverse proxy. Only a more complicated network needs these addresses set by hand, under Show advanced settings
• Add users. Everyone in your home can have an account of their own. See user management
• Finish setup. A recap of what is set up and what is still to do, with a way back to each step you left, and the offer of a short tour of the app

Pausing the setup

The wizard does not have to be finished in one go. Close it with Pause setup, or go to another page, and the step on screen is saved first. A Setup paused message then offers to Resume on the same step. Dismiss the message and the setup stays paused: Run the setup wizard again at the bottom of the settings picks it up where you left off.

To go through it again, select Run the setup wizard again at the bottom of the settings. Nothing opens by itself for an administrator added later, so that is where they start the wizard too.

The first time a user signs in

Everyone but administrators, guests and the Home Assistant account gets a short welcome over the app instead of this wizard.

• Make yourself at home. Standard keeps the interface clean, Expert shows advanced options and extra details. It only sets a few defaults, and every setting stays theirs to change
• Your players. The players they can send music to
• What you can listen to. The music sources they can use
• Connect your own accounts. Only when their role lets them add music sources. They can add one there or move on and do it later
• You’re all set. A summary, and the offer of a short tour of the app

They can close the welcome at any point, and it does not open again by itself. It only opens on its own in the first week after the account is made, so someone who signs in later never sees it. Anyone who gets the welcome can go through it again from Show the welcome again at the bottom of the settings.