Discrete for Mac — Native Jellyfin Music Player

Introduction

Discrete is a native Jellyfin music player for macOS, made for people who care about their music collection and how it feels to use it.

Browse albums in a spacious library window. Keep the player beside your work, pin it above other windows, or reach for your music from the menu bar. Follow an artist, shape the queue, read the lyrics, and download something worth keeping close. Familiar Mac controls connect it all: keyboard shortcuts, back and forward navigation, right-click menus, trackpad actions and multiple library windows.

Your music lives on your Jellyfin server. Discrete gives it a considered home on your desktop.

Download Discrete on the Mac App Store

Requires macOS 15 or later and access to a Jellyfin server with a music library. Everyday listening is free. Discrete Pro is an optional purchase that helps fund development and unlocks a few extras.

A library worth exploring

Move between albums, artists, playlists and tracks without losing your place. Sort albums by artist or year, narrow a collection to favorites or downloads, and follow a song back to its album or any of its artists. Home brings together suggestions, new releases, recent additions and music you have barely played.

A player that fits your desktop

Use the player inside the library, open its own window, or keep playback a click away in the menu bar. Pin the player when you want it in view. Choose whether Discrete opens the browser, the player, both, or neither when you launch it.

More control over what comes next

Insert a song next, append an album, rearrange upcoming tracks, revisit the history of your current queue, or save what is coming up to a playlist. Similar Tracks and Jellyfin stations give you two ways to keep exploring your own collection.

Your collection, even without the connection

Download individual songs, albums and playlists, with artwork and library information. Use original files or choose a smaller download format. Discrete can fall back to available local content when your server is unreachable, and a dedicated offline switch lets you make that choice yourself.

Details that make it feel at home

App volume independent of your Mac’s system volume. An audio-output menu behind the AirPlay button. Media-key support, Dock controls, synced lyrics and a sleep timer. Appearance and energy settings that let you decide how much moves on screen while you work.

Getting started

Discrete connects to music you already have on Jellyfin. You need a server address and a Jellyfin user account with access to its music library. There is no separate Discrete account to create.

  1. Install and open Discrete.
  2. Enter your Jellyfin server address. Select HTTPS or HTTP to match your server. Include a port or base path if your installation uses one.
  3. Enter your Jellyfin username and password. If that Jellyfin user has no password, leave the password field empty.
  4. Check the device name. It starts with your Mac’s name, and you can change how this installation identifies itself to Jellyfin.
  5. Confirm the form and let your library load.

You can paste a server address with its http:// or https:// prefix; Discrete recognizes the scheme. Use the full address you normally use to reach that server, rather than a link to an individual album or Jellyfin’s web interface.

An internet connection is not inherently required for streaming: a reachable Jellyfin server on your local network is enough. Away from that network, use a server address you can reach remotely or listen to music you downloaded beforehand.

Once connected, click an album, artist or playlist to open it. Double-click a track in a library list to start playback. Play and Shuffle buttons let you start a whole album or list directly.

Windows and navigation

Browser windows

The browser is your main library window. Its sidebar contains:

Area What you will find
Home Suggestions, new releases, recent additions and discovery sections.
Playlists Playlists available to the selected Jellyfin account.
Albums Your album collection, with sorting and filters.
Artists Artists and their album and track pages.
Tracks The selected account’s track library.
History Recently played tracks reported by Jellyfin.
Favorites Favorite tracks. Favorite albums, artists and playlists have filters in their own collections.
Downloaded Music saved locally. This shortcut appears when downloaded content is available.
Downloading Transfer activity. This entry appears while downloads are active.

The account area at the bottom opens account switching, Add Account, Settings and Log Out. Optional artwork and playback controls can also appear in the sidebar.

Press Cmd–N to open another browser window. Each window lets you browse independently while controlling the same playback session. For example, keep an artist page open in one window and build a playlist in another.

Back, forward and returning to a section

Use the toolbar’s back and forward buttons, Cmd–[ and Cmd–], or a mouse’s back and forward side buttons. Each sidebar section keeps its own navigation path, so changing sections does not require starting over.

Cmd–Shift–H returns to the root of the current section. From an album opened inside Albums, for example, it returns to the Albums collection.

Player window

Press Cmd–P to open the dedicated Player window. It brings together artwork, track information, playback controls and a panel for the queue or lyrics. Resize it to fit your workspace or use macOS full screen; its arrangement adapts to the available space.

The pin control keeps the Player above ordinary windows. You can also toggle this with Cmd–Shift–P or Settings → Behavior → Sticky Player.

Player and queue inside the browser

The browser’s inspector holds a compact player and the queue, including the current queue’s playback history. Click the toolbar’s queue button or press Cmd–Shift–S to show or hide it.

For controls in the sidebar as well, enable Settings → Behavior → Sidebar Playback Controls. Hover over the artwork to reveal its controls; right-click it for actions on the current track.

Choose what opens

Under Settings → Behavior → Default Window, choose Browser, Player, Both or None. This applies at startup and when you reopen Discrete from the Dock with no other windows open. Browser and Player windows remain available through their shortcuts.

Library

Home and music discovery

Home gives you several starting points within your own Jellyfin library:

  • Suggestions presents tracks suggested by Jellyfin.
  • New Releases highlights albums using their release information.
  • Recently Added shows albums recently added to your server.
  • Try This Out draws attention to music with little or no recorded playback.
  • New Artists shows recently added artists.

Click an album or artist to explore it, or double-click a suggested track to listen. Sections with a more button open a fuller list. Album cards also offer quick actions on hover and a right-click menu.

Suggestions and stations use your Jellyfin collection; Discrete does not add a separate streaming catalogue. What appears depends on the music, metadata and activity available from your server.

When working offline, Home uses available downloaded albums and local tracks. Fresh server recommendations and recently added server content require a connection.

Albums, artists and tracks

Albums

Open an album to see its artwork, title, artists, release year, genres and description when Jellyfin supplies them. Longer descriptions can be expanded. The track list includes track numbers and durations, and albums with multiple discs are grouped by disc. The footer shows the track count, total duration and release date when available.

Use the page’s Play or Shuffle control for the album, the heart to favorite it, and its menu for playlist, queue and download actions. An artist’s name in an item’s navigation menu takes you to that artist.

Double-click a track to start from that point. Whether earlier album tracks remain accessible in the queue is controlled by Keep Index, described under queue preferences.

Artists

An artist page can show an image, biography, genres, album and track counts, and total music duration. It includes a track preview with access to the full track list, the artist’s albums, and Appears On albums where the artist contributes.

Use the heart on the artist page to favorite the artist. Artist cards open with a click; album and track actions are available on the items inside the page.

Artist information depends on Jellyfin’s metadata. Offline artist pages are assembled from available downloaded music, so they can contain fewer albums, tracks or details than the online page.

Tracks

Tracks provides a library-wide song list for the selected account. Track lists elsewhere keep their context: an album’s order, a playlist’s order, or the artist or discovery list you opened.

Rows show the relevant title, artist, album artwork or track number, duration and playback or download state, depending on the list. Right-click a track or use its ellipsis menu to work with it without starting playback.

Sorting, filters and refresh

Open a collection’s Options… menu to change its sort and filters.

Collection Sort choices Filters
Albums Name, Recent, Artist, Year Favorites, Downloaded
Artists Name, Recent Favorites
Playlists Name, Recent Favorites, Downloaded, Hide System

Where applicable, choose ascending or descending order. Recent shows newer additions first. Album collections already scoped to one artist do not need the Artist sort.

Discrete remembers collection preferences. Show Section Headers controls the headings used to organize a collection. Reset in the filters restores that collection’s default filters.

For an indexed collection, Opt–Shift–letter jumps to a matching section. Which sections exist depends on the current sort and collection.

Missing a playlist?

Hide System Playlists is enabled by default. Turn off Hide System in the Playlists filter menu if a server-provided or file-based playlist you expect to see is missing. The default can be changed in Settings → Behavior.

Refreshing and cached information

Discrete saves library information locally so previously loaded collections can appear quickly. A saved view may therefore precede the latest changes on your server. Press Cmd–R or use the page’s refresh action when you want to fetch current information.

Library screens can show cached-content information and errors when a refresh cannot complete. You can continue using the available view and retry the refresh when the server is reachable.

A cached listing is not a download. Seeing an album or track in a saved library view does not mean its audio is available offline. Download the music explicitly before relying on it without your server.

Click the search control or press Cmd–F. Search can return tracks, albums, artists and playlists from the account selected in that browser window. Open a result to explore it, or double-click a track to play it. Press Escape to leave active search.

Search works within the selected server and account. With Pro, switching accounts changes the library being searched; it does not combine every server into one search.

Offline search looks through downloaded tracks, albums and playlists. It can match saved titles and relevant artist, album, description and genre information. Separate artist search results need the server, although you can still follow an artist link from downloaded music to the local artist view.

Playback

Playing music

Start, pause and move between tracks

  • Double-click a library track to start playback from that item.
  • Use a page’s Play or Shuffle button to start its contents.
  • Press Space to play or pause when you are not entering text.
  • Use Cmd–Right Arrow for the next track and Cmd–Left Arrow for the previous track.

Previous restarts the current track after more than three seconds of playback. Near the beginning of a track, it goes to the previous item instead.

When you start a new selection, Discrete can bring up the Player so playback is immediately accessible. If the browser’s player inspector is already open, your controls are available there.

Position and time

Click or drag the progress bar to seek. The player shows elapsed and remaining time, and hovering over the bar previews the target time.

When the stream provides the information, the player also displays audio details such as format, bit depth, sampling rate and channel count. These describe the current audio, which may differ from the original library file when transcoding is enabled.

Volume

Click the player’s speaker button to show its volume slider, or use Cmd–Up Arrow and Cmd–Down Arrow. This adjusts Discrete’s own playback volume, independently of the system volume, and is remembered between launches.

Artwork, titles and quick actions

With Cover Tap enabled in Behavior settings, clicking the player artwork toggles play and pause. Turn it off if you prefer artwork clicks to have no playback effect.

Click the title or subtitle area to open navigation to the current album and artists. The heart changes the track’s favorite state. The ellipsis menu provides further track actions, including Similar Tracks, Add to Playlist and downloading or removing its local audio.

Subtitle Mode lets you show Album, Artists, Album · Artists or Artists · Album beneath the track title.

Discrete remembers the playback queue, selected position, shuffle and repeat state, and saves playback progress so you can return to your listening after reopening the app.

Queue and playback history

The queue is shared by the Player, browser inspector and menu bar player. A change in one place is reflected in the others.

Add music without interrupting

Right-click a track, album or playlist, or open its item menu:

Action Result
Insert into Queue Puts the selected music immediately after the current track.
Append to Queue Adds it after the existing upcoming tracks.
Play Now Starts the selection by replacing the playback queue.

These actions let you add one song, a whole album or a playlist. For adding music while a track is playing, Insert and Append preserve the current playback.

Upcoming music and the current queue’s history

The queue list starts around the upcoming tracks. Scroll upward to see tracks before the Now Playing divider: this is the history within the current playback sequence. The header changes between Queue and History and shows the duration of the corresponding group.

Click an upcoming row once to jump forward to it, or a history row once to return to that point. This differs from the double-click used to start library tracks. Click the Now Playing divider to return to the start of the upcoming list.

Drag upcoming rows to rearrange them. Right-click a queue or history entry for its track actions and Delete, which removes that entry from the playback sequence. Removing an entry here does not delete a song from Jellyfin or edit a saved playlist.

On supported Mac trackpads, the transition between queue and history also provides alignment feedback as you scroll.

Save or clear the queue

The queue’s ellipsis menu contains:

  • Add to Playlist… to save the upcoming tracks to a Jellyfin playlist. The current track and earlier history are not included in this action.
  • Clear to remove upcoming tracks while keeping the current track and preceding history.
  • Clear and Stop to stop playback and remove the entire current playback sequence.

The History sidebar shortcut

The sidebar’s History page is a separate view. It asks Jellyfin for up to 200 recently played tracks, rather than displaying only the sequence currently loaded in Discrete’s player. It can therefore help you return to listening recorded by your server beyond the current queue.

Playback activity is reported to Jellyfin when the server is reachable. Do not rely on the server’s History page as a complete record of listening done without a connection.

Shuffle, repeat and queue preferences

Shuffle

Toggle Shuffle in the player or queue header. It changes the remaining playback order while keeping the current song in place. A page’s Shuffle button starts that page’s music in shuffled order.

Repeat

The Repeat control cycles through off → repeat one → repeat all → off. The single-track state uses the 1 repeat symbol; the highlighted regular repeat symbol indicates repeat all.

Choose how a new selection replaces the queue

Open Settings → Behavior:

Setting What it changes
Keep Index When starting from a track inside an album or list, keeps the whole list and begins at your selected track. Earlier tracks remain before it in the playback sequence. With this off, the selection starts with the chosen track and omits the earlier items.
Keep Shuffled Preserves the current shuffle mode when you start playback from a track row. Explicit Play and Shuffle buttons still request their own mode.
Show Confirmation Asks before a new selection replaces the current queue, including the currently playing track.

Show Confirmation is off by default on Mac. Enable it if you would like protection against accidentally replacing a carefully arranged queue.

Favorites

Use a heart button or Favorite in an item menu to mark a track, album, artist or playlist. Unfavorite removes that mark. These changes belong to the Jellyfin account associated with the item.

The sidebar’s Favorites shortcut shows favorite tracks. To browse other favorites, open Albums, Artists or Playlists and enable that collection’s Favorites filter.

Favorite the playing song from the player’s heart, an appropriate current-track menu or the Dock menu. Favorite an artist from the heart on its artist page.

Downloaded metadata can retain favorite information for local browsing. Changing favorites on the server requires a connection; offline views can reflect the state saved when their information was last retrieved.

Creating and editing playlists

Playlists are stored on Jellyfin, so changes are available to other clients using the same server and account. Creation and editing require a reachable server and the necessary Jellyfin permissions.

Create a playlist

  1. Open Playlists in the sidebar.
  2. Click +.
  3. Enter a name.
  4. Choose whether to enable Visible to All.
  5. Click Save.

Visible to All controls the playlist’s public visibility on the Jellyfin server. It does not publish a playlist to a separate Discrete service.

Add songs or an album

Choose Add to Playlist… from a track or album menu, from the current track’s menu, or from the queue’s menu for its upcoming tracks. Pick the destination playlist. The picker also lets you create a playlist before choosing it.

The destination belongs to the music’s account and server. This action adds references to existing Jellyfin tracks; it does not copy audio between servers.

Reorder and remove entries

Open a playlist and drag track rows to change their order. Use the row’s menu or available trackpad action to delete an entry from the playlist. Removing a playlist entry leaves the underlying song in your server’s music library.

Rename, change visibility or delete

Right-click the playlist card or open the playlist’s menu and choose Edit…. Change its name or Visible to All setting, then click Update.

Delete on the playlist removes the playlist from Jellyfin. This is a different action from removing its download, and it does not delete the music files that the playlist referenced.

Keep a playlist offline

Download the playlist to save its current contents for local listening. After you change it on the server, choose Update from its download actions to refresh its saved information and fetch songs that are not already downloaded. See Downloads for the exact update and removal behavior.

Similar tracks and stations

Similar Tracks opens a browsable list of Jellyfin’s related tracks for a song. Use it from a track menu or the current song’s ellipsis menu when you want to inspect the suggestions and choose what to play or queue.

Play Station starts Jellyfin’s Instant Mix from an eligible track, album or playlist. It creates a new playback selection based on that source. Use it when you want to let your collection lead you onward rather than add the exact source contents to the queue.

Both features depend on the server and its library information. A station is generated from music available through Jellyfin; it is not an internet-radio directory.

Lyrics

Open the Player’s lyrics panel with its lyrics button or Cmd–Shift–L.

Discrete displays the lyrics supplied by Jellyfin:

  • Synced lyrics highlight the current line and follow the music automatically. Click another line to seek to it. You can scroll away to read ahead; click the current line to return to it.
  • Plain lyrics appear as a scrollable text view when timing information is unavailable.

If the server has no lyrics for a song, the panel says so. Add or correct lyrics through your Jellyfin library setup; Discrete’s panel is a viewer, not a lyrics editor.

Lyrics are retrieved separately from audio downloads. Downloading a song does not guarantee its lyrics will be available without the server.

Sleep timer

Open the sleep-timer control in the player and choose 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or 4 hours.

While a timer is running, Add extends its end time by another preset interval. Clear cancels the timer. When time runs out, playback pauses and your queue remains in place.

Downloads & offline

Downloads

Download music before a flight, keep favorite albums ready when your server is asleep, or reduce the need to stream the same files repeatedly.

What you can save

Use Download in a track, album or playlist menu. Album and playlist cards also expose a download action on hover.

Selection What is saved
Track Its audio, with associated album information and artwork where available.
Album Album information, track listing, artwork and its songs.
Playlist Playlist information, track listing, artwork and its songs, along with associated album information and covers where available.

Existing saved audio is reused when the same song appears in several places. Downloading one track can save its album information without downloading the rest of that album. For a complete offline album, explicitly download the album and let its transfers finish.

Follow progress and handle failures

Open Downloading to inspect transfers. Activity is grouped into metadata, images and audio, with status and progress for individual items. You can cancel an individual transfer, retry a failed one, use Cancel All, or use Retry Failed.

Continue browsing or listening while transfers run. Discrete recovers interrupted download tasks when it starts again; completion still depends on your Mac, available network access and the server.

Under Settings → Downloads → Retry Limit, choose automatic retries or a specific limit. Auto uses three retries. The explicit choices are 0, 1, 3, 5 or 10; zero disables automatic retrying.

Find downloaded music

Use the sidebar’s Downloaded shortcut, or enable Downloaded in the Albums or Playlists collection filters. Local availability is also indicated alongside tracks and in playback views.

Downloaded collections retain a saved view of their contents. A listed track can become unavailable locally if you later remove its audio through another album or track action. Check that the music you need has finished downloading before disconnecting.

Update an album or playlist download

For a saved album or playlist, choose Update from its menu. This refreshes its saved information and artwork and fetches missing audio. It is useful after adding songs to a playlist or correcting library information.

Update does not replace audio that is already downloaded, does not automatically remove old local songs, and does not re-encode existing downloads when you change your quality setting. Playlist changes on Jellyfin are not an automatic download subscription: run Update when you want the local copy brought up to date.

Remove downloads

Local removal actions leave the original music on Jellyfin intact. Their scope differs:

Action What it removes from your Mac
Remove a track download That song’s local audio. Other downloaded collections containing the same song may then need the server to play it.
Remove an album download The saved album information, its cover and local audio for the album’s tracks. This can also affect those songs inside downloaded playlists.
Remove a playlist download The saved playlist information and its cover. Downloaded song audio is retained and can still appear in Downloaded.
Remove All in the Downloaded page’s menu All Discrete downloads on this Mac, including saved audio, artwork and downloaded collection information. This applies across accounts and servers and cancels active downloads.

To reclaim a playlist’s song storage as well, remove the relevant track or album downloads, or use Remove All if you intend to clear every download.

Offline listening

Discrete automatically presents available local content when a server or network request fails. Downloads provide the audio; saved metadata and library caches help you browse.

You can also deliberately enter offline mode:

  • Press Cmd–Shift–O or choose Force Offline from the View menu.
  • Enable Settings → Downloads → Force Enabled.
  • Use the Force Offline switch in the browser sidebar when it is shown.

The Show at Home setting controls the offline shortcut’s visibility: When On, Always or Never. On Mac, the switch is available in the sidebar. Choosing Always makes it easy to enter offline mode without opening Settings.

What works offline

You can play downloaded audio, use the player and queue, seek, shuffle, repeat, set a sleep timer, browse available local album and playlist information, search downloaded music, and open artist views based on saved music.

Fresh recommendations, server-wide search, stations, server History, unsaved artwork or lyrics, and changes to server favorites or playlists need the server. A cached full-library listing can contain music whose audio was never downloaded.

Force Offline lets you browse the available offline view deliberately. Turn it off when you want to reconnect, then refresh a page if you need current server content.

Audio

Audio quality and transcoding

Discrete lets you choose streaming and download quality independently. Start with original files when your connection and storage allow it, or ask Jellyfin to send a smaller version.

Streaming

Open Settings → Audio → Wi-Fi or Ethernet:

Transcoding mode Behavior
Off Requests the original file without server transcoding. This is the default for Wi-Fi and Ethernet.
Auto Requests an AAC stream with automatic encoding parameters.
Custom Exposes codec, bitrate, sampling and adaptive-streaming controls.

Custom streaming supports AAC and MP3. Bitrate choices are Auto, Variable, or a requested fixed rate of 64, 128, 160, 192, 256, 320, 384 or 512 kbps. Sampling choices are Auto, 8, 16, 24, 32, 44.1 or 48 kHz.

Adaptive lets the server vary the streaming bitrate to help with an unstable connection. Variable bitrate lets encoding use more data where the audio needs it. These are separate controls.

The settings express what Discrete requests. Actual encoding and accepted limits depend on your Jellyfin server and its transcoder; every displayed bitrate is not a guarantee that every server will produce it.

Download quality

Open Settings → Downloads → Quality. You can keep original files with Transcoding Off, use Auto, or customize AAC download encoding with bitrate and sampling choices. Adaptive streaming is not a download setting, and MP3 is not selectable for download encoding.

Original files are the default for downloads. Choosing a smaller encoded copy can save storage, while originals preserve the server file’s original audio quality.

Already downloaded a song?

Discrete prefers its downloaded audio when it is available, including while you are online. Changing streaming quality therefore does not replace a local copy, and changing download quality applies to future downloads.

To obtain a different-quality local copy, remove the relevant track or album download and download it again. Removing only the playlist download will not do this, because playlist removal retains its songs’ local audio.

Formats and lossless audio

Original playback can retain a lossless source such as FLAC when the format is supported by the playback system. Server transcoding offers another route when an original format is unsuitable for your connection or playback setup.

Original-file playback describes the audio requested from Jellyfin. Your Mac’s output device and system audio configuration still determine the final output format.

AirPlay and audio outputs

Click the AirPlay button to open the native route picker and choose an available destination. Which routes appear depends on macOS, your network and connected devices.

Right-click the AirPlay control to open Discrete’s audio-output device menu. It lists the Mac’s available output devices and marks the selected one. Use it to direct Discrete to a connected interface, DAC, headphones or another available output without first opening system settings.

This device choice applies to Discrete’s player. The app’s own volume control remains separate from the system volume.

Settings & controls

The menu bar item keeps your music accessible while you work in another app. It can show an icon, the current title and artist, or both. The icon reflects playback or loading state, and longer text can scroll.

Click it to open the playback popover with artwork, controls and the queue. Under Settings → Interface → Status Bar, choose:

  • Item Layout: Icon, Text, Icon · Text or Disabled.
  • Popover Layout: Vertical or Horizontal for a tall or wide player arrangement.

To remove the menu bar item entirely, set Item Layout → Disabled. On a battery-powered Mac, Energy settings also let you control the scrolling label’s activity.

Dock controls

Right-click Discrete’s Dock icon for Like/Unlike, Play/Pause, Next and Previous, according to the current playback state. It is a quick way to favorite a song or change tracks without finding a window.

System playback controls

Discrete supplies the current song’s information to macOS Now Playing and responds to system playback commands, including supported media keys. You can use the Mac’s playback controls for play, pause, next, previous and seeking where the system surface provides them.

Accounts and servers

Your first Jellyfin account is included in the free app. Discrete Pro adds multiple accounts and servers, useful for a personal server, a shared collection or separate Jellyfin users.

Click the account area in the browser sidebar to add an account, choose a saved account, open Settings or log out. Account entries identify the username and server so similarly named users are easier to distinguish.

Each browser window has its own selected account. With Pro, you can explore different accounts in separate windows. Browse, search and playlist actions stay associated with the relevant account; the libraries are not merged into a single catalogue.

The player is shared across windows. A playback queue can contain tracks associated with different connected accounts, while each item retains its own server connection. Adding to a Jellyfin playlist still uses that playlist’s account and server; it is not a cross-server music transfer.

Logging out ends that account’s authenticated session. It is not a command to clear downloads. Sign back into the same server and user to reconnect the account with its retained local information. To remove saved music, use the download-removal actions.

Right-click menus and trackpad actions

Discrete places actions beside the music they affect. Use a right-click, a trackpad’s secondary click, or an item’s ellipsis menu where provided. The exact menu adapts to the item, current page, available metadata and download state.

Where Available actions
Library track row Album and artist navigation where relevant; Favorite/Unfavorite; Add to Playlist; Similar Tracks; Insert into Queue; Append to Queue; Play Now; Play Station; Download or remove local audio.
Track inside a playlist Track actions, plus Delete to remove that entry from the playlist.
Album card Artist navigation; Favorite/Unfavorite; Add to Playlist; queue actions; Play Station; Download, Update or remove the album download.
Album page menu Album actions, with its favorite state also available through the page’s heart.
Playlist card or page menu Favorite where provided, Edit, queue actions, Play Station, download actions and Delete for the server playlist. The page also has a separate heart.
Upcoming or history row in the player Current-track-style actions such as album/artist navigation, Similar Tracks, Add to Playlist and downloads; Delete removes the entry from the playback sequence.
Player title and subtitle Navigation to the current album and artists.
Player ellipsis Similar Tracks, Add to Playlist and local download actions; favorite controls appear as a heart or menu item according to the layout.
Sidebar artwork player or inspector mini-player A right-click menu for the current track, including navigation and further track actions.
AirPlay control Available macOS audio-output devices.
Dock icon Like/Unlike, Play/Pause, Next and Previous.

Artist cards open the artist page with a click. Use that page’s heart to favorite the artist, and its albums and tracks for their own menus.

Album and playlist cards also reveal direct Play, Favorite and Download controls on hover, as appropriate to the item’s state.

Trackpad row actions

Native row actions provide another route to common commands. Supported library track rows expose Insert and Append actions; editable playlist rows expose entry deletion; upcoming queue rows expose removal. Use the contextual menu for the fuller action list.

Dragging has a specific purpose: rearrange tracks in an editable playlist or in the upcoming queue. Queue edits affect your current listening session; playlist edits change the playlist on Jellyfin.

Settings reference

Open Settings with Cmd–Comma or through the account menu. Settings apply to the Mac app’s playback and interface rather than an individual browser page.

Audio

Streaming → Wi-Fi or Ethernet controls original, automatic or custom streaming quality. Custom mode includes codec, adaptive bitrate, bitrate and sampling options. See Audio quality and transcoding.

Energy

This tab appears on Macs with a battery. It controls:

  • Whether animations run in unfocused windows.
  • Whether the menu bar’s text label scrolls.

Choose Auto, Always, Never or When Charging as appropriate. Configurable policies can also Respect Low Power Mode. These settings let you keep the interface lively when you want it and reduce background animation when conserving power.

Interface

Setting Purpose
App Icon Choose an alternate running Dock icon with Pro.
Color Scheme Follow the system with Auto, or choose Light or Dark.
Adaptive Background Use the playing item’s artwork as a background layer in the player.
Track Changes Control track-change animations.
Elapsed & Remaining Time Control animations of the displayed playback times.
Item Layout Choose what appears in the menu bar, or disable the item.
Popover Layout Choose the menu bar player’s vertical or horizontal arrangement.

Alternate icon designs include Default, Original, Server / Simple, Server / Disc, Sound Bars, Folder and Folder Pro. On macOS, the selected icon is used in the Dock while Discrete is running. Finder and the Dock icon shown when the app is closed keep the installed application icon. Your choice is applied again when Discrete starts.

Behavior

Group Settings
Windows Sticky Player; Default Window.
Queueing Keep Index; Keep Shuffled; Show Confirmation before queue replacement.
Defaults Subtitle Mode; Cover Tap; Sidebar Playback Controls; Hide System Playlists.

Subtitle Mode chooses the album and artist information beneath the song title. Cover Tap controls artwork-based play/pause. Sidebar Playback Controls adds the artwork player to the browser sidebar. Hide System Playlists sets the default visibility of playlists classified as system playlists.

Download settings

Setting Purpose
Retry Limit Automatic retry policy for failed transfers. Auto means three retries; explicit limits are 0, 1, 3, 5 or 10.
Force Enabled Force offline behavior.
Show at Home Show the offline shortcut When On, Always or Never; the Mac uses the sidebar for this switch.
Quality Original, automatic or customized download encoding.

Advanced

When Pro is not active, Advanced presents the optional Pro purchase choices and purchase restoration. Core listening does not require purchasing Pro.

About

Find support and community links, a shortcut to leave an App Store review, and app information. The app also provides access to its privacy information and terms.

Keyboard shortcuts

These shortcuts work in the relevant Discrete window. Playback shortcuts are app shortcuts; system media keys remain useful when another app is active. Text fields and modal forms can take keyboard focus.

Shortcut Action
Cmd–N Open a new browser window.
Cmd–P Open the Player window.
Cmd–Shift–P Toggle the Player’s pinned state.
Cmd–Comma Open Settings.
Cmd–F Open or focus search.
Escape Cancel active search; cancel supported forms.
Cmd–R Refresh the current page.
Cmd–[ Go back.
Cmd–] Go forward.
Cmd–Shift–H Return to the current section’s root.
Cmd–Shift–S Toggle the browser’s player and queue inspector; in the Player, toggle the queue panel.
Cmd–Shift–L Toggle lyrics in the Player.
Cmd–Shift–O Toggle Force Offline.
Space Play or pause.
Cmd–Right Arrow Next track.
Cmd–Left Arrow Previous track, or restart the current track after its opening seconds.
Cmd–Up Arrow Increase Discrete’s volume.
Cmd–Down Arrow Decrease Discrete’s volume.
Opt–Shift–letter Jump to a matching section in an indexed collection.
Return Confirm supported sign-in and playlist forms when ready.

Discrete Pro

Discrete is built to be useful before you pay. Streaming, offline downloads, playlists, favorites, lyrics, queue controls, the dedicated Player and menu bar playback are part of the everyday app.

Choosing Pro helps fund Discrete’s continued development. On Mac it adds:

  • Multiple accounts and servers, with account switching and independent browsing in separate windows.
  • Alternate running Dock icons to make Discrete feel a little more yours.
  • A Pro badge in the account interface.

Monthly, yearly and lifetime options are presented in the app, with current App Store pricing. Choose the one that suits how you would like to contribute.

If you already purchased Pro, use Restore in the Pro purchase screen while signed into the Apple Account used for that purchase.

To donate directly, visit the donation page. You can also share Discrete with someone who keeps their music on Jellyfin. A thoughtful review helps people find the app too.

Help & FAQ

Questions and troubleshooting

Do I need a paid Jellyfin service or another Discrete account?

You need access to a Jellyfin server and its music library. Discrete signs into that server with your Jellyfin account. It does not sell a music catalogue or require a separate Discrete login. The first server account and core listening features are available without Pro.

Can I use Discrete as a local-folder music player?

Discrete is a Jellyfin client. Add and organize your music through Jellyfin, then browse or download it in Discrete. It does not provide a separate Finder-folder import library.

Does it connect to Navidrome, Emby, Apple Music or Spotify?

The Mac app described here connects to Jellyfin. A subscription or library from another music service does not become a Discrete music source.

Why does a single click not play a library track?

Library track rows use a double-click to start playback. Queue and current-queue history rows use a single click to jump within the already loaded playback sequence. Album, artist and playlist cards open with a single click.

My server address works in a browser, but sign-in fails

Check the selected HTTP or HTTPS scheme, any required port and base path, your credentials, and whether this Mac can reach the server on its current network. A link to Jellyfin’s web interface is not necessarily the server’s base address. If the server is only accessible at home, connect to that network or your existing remote-access setup.

Why is newly added music missing?

Refresh the relevant page with Cmd–R. Check the selected account, current collection filters and Force Offline state. Discrete can show a previously saved library view before fetching current server information. If Jellyfin itself has not scanned the new music yet, update the server library first.

Why is an album visible but not playable offline?

A cached listing or saved album description does not imply every song is downloaded. Download the full album, check the transfer activity and confirm its audio has completed. Removing one of its tracks—or another local collection containing shared audio—can also change what is available offline.

Why can I still find songs after removing a playlist download?

Removing that download removes its saved playlist information and cover. Its audio is retained so those tracks can remain available elsewhere. Remove the relevant track or album downloads to remove the audio too.

I changed quality, but a song still sounds or reports the same

Check whether it is already downloaded: saved audio takes precedence over streaming. A new quality choice does not re-encode existing files. Remove the relevant track or album download and download it again to request a new local version.

Why does the artist page or album look incomplete?

Artwork, biographies, genres, release information, disc numbers and lyrics depend on the metadata Jellyfin supplies. Correct that information on your server and refresh the page. Offline views can show a smaller subset based on downloaded music.

Does original playback mean exclusive or bit-perfect DAC output?

It means Discrete requests the original file without server transcoding. The app does not offer an exclusive-output mode or automatic DAC sampling-rate switching. The output device and macOS audio configuration still apply.

Are gapless playback, crossfade, an equalizer or ReplayGain settings available?

This version does not expose dedicated controls or guarantees for those features. Its audio settings cover streaming and download encoding, app volume and output selection.

Can I edit playlists or favorites while offline and sync later?

Server changes need a connection. Offline listening and saved library information are available, but Discrete does not provide a general pending-edit workflow for syncing playlist or favorite changes later.

Are lyrics included in downloads?

Audio, artwork and saved collection information are downloaded. Lyrics are fetched separately from Jellyfin, so do not assume a downloaded track includes offline lyrics.

Can I control another Jellyfin player or sync playback between devices?

This guide covers playback on your Mac and its available audio routes. Discrete does not provide a remote-control interface for another Jellyfin client or a synchronized multi-device playback session.

Why does the alternate icon appear only when the app is open?

That is how alternate icons work in Discrete on Mac: they change the running app’s Dock icon. The installed icon used by Finder and by the Dock when the app is closed remains unchanged.

Why is there no Energy tab on my desktop Mac?

The Energy tab is shown when Discrete detects a battery. Its controls are intended for choosing how background animation behaves on battery-powered Macs.

Which languages does the interface support?

The interface is localized in English, German, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Luxembourgish, Russian and Serbian, with both Cyrillic and Latin Serbian localizations.

How should I report a problem?

Include your Discrete version and build, macOS version, Jellyfin version, what you were doing, and whether the issue happens with streaming, downloaded audio or both. For audio problems, the file format, selected quality mode and output device are useful. For display or navigation issues, a screenshot and the steps to reach that screen help reproduce them.

Help and further information

Download Discrete for Mac and give your Jellyfin collection a place on the desktop.

Discrete

Ultimate Jellyfin music player. Available on iPhone, iPad and macOS.

Download it from AppStore.

Play your Jellyfin music on macOS with Discrete. Explore offline downloads, playlists, lyrics, a dedicated player, menu bar controls and the complete Mac user guide.

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