Installing MinimServer 2 on Mac
Installing Java on Mac
Installing or updating MinimServer 2 on Mac
Uninstalling MinimServer 2 on Mac
Installing Java on Mac
MinimServer is written in Java and needs the Java runtime to be installed. For details of how to install Java on your Mac, see this page.
Installing or updating MinimServer 2 on Mac
[NEW] Important: macOS Sequoia has introduced a new permission to allow apps to access the local network. If this permisssion is not enabled, MinimServer will not be visible to other devices on your local network. For local network acess to work correctly, you need to be running MinimServer 2.2.r4 (or later) and you need to follow points 10 and 11 below to ensure local network permission is enabled.
To install MinimServer , follow the instructions below.
- Before installing MinimServer, install the Java runtime if it isn't already installed. For installation instructions, see the Installing Java on Mac section.
- If a previous version of MinimServer is installed, click Exit from the minim icon and drag the MinimServer application to the trash.
- On the MinimServer 2 Downloads page, find the macOS row in the table of MinimServer downloads and click the 'Intel and Apple Silicon' download link. This link selects a "universal" macOS download that can run on Intel-based Macs and also on Apple Silicon (M1, M2) Macs.
- Accept the license and download the installation package. The downloaded file is .
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Open your Downloads folder and double-click the file you have just downloaded.
This opens a window containing two files: LICENSE.txt and MinimServer.
Drag the file named MinimServer from this window into your Applications folder.
Note: The MinimServer file must be dragged into the Applications folder before you try to run it. If you try to run it from inside the .dmg window, it will not work correctly.
- Start MinimServer by double-clicking the MinimServer application in your Applications folder. You might see a message saying '"MinimServer" is an application downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?'. If you see this message, click Open to confirm that you want to run MinimServer.
- You might see a message saying 'Do you want the application "MinimServer" to accept incoming network connections?'. If you see this message, click Allow and then click Refresh from the minim icon on the menu bar (see below).
- You might see a pop-up saying that MinimServer wants access to control SystemUIServer. If you see this, click Allow.
- You might see a pop-up saying that MinimServer notifications may include alerts, sounds and icon badges. Click X to close this pop-up.
- [NEW] On macOS Sequoia or later, you might see a pop-up asking if you want to allow MinimServer to find devices on local networks. If you see this, click Allow.
- [NEW] If MinimServer does not have local network access permission, MinimServer will not be visible to other devices and apps on your local network. If you see this, select "Privacy & Security" from System Settings, scroll down to the Local Network section and check that local network access for MinimServer is enabled, then exit and relaunch MinimServer.
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The MinimServer icon (a musical minim note) will appear towards the right of the menu bar.
If you click on this, you will see a menu with various selections.
Note: You can't interact with MinimServer via normal menu bar selections such as Edit and View. Also, there isn't a MinimServer application icon in the Dock. Instead, you need to use menu selections from the minim icon in the menu bar.
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If this is a new MinimServer installation, the minim icon will be pale yellow and a
dialog will prompt you to select the initial content directory. This is the
top-level folder that contains your music files. Navigate to this folder,
then press the Select button. If you need to add additional content directories,
you can do this later.
Note: If your music files are on an external disk, you need to start by selecting 'Macintosh HD' from the directory list (below the "File:" entry field). Look for 'Volumes' in the list of files, and double-click this entry. You should now see all your disks, including external disks. Navigate to the external disk and folder containing your music files, and press Select.
- MinimServer will scan all your music files and complete its startup. This will take a bit longer than usual if it's the first time you've done this. If startup is successful, the minim icon in the menu bar will become transparent. If startup fails for any reason, the minim icon will change to red and you'll see a message describing the problem.
- It's a good idea to check the MinimServer log to see if there are any warning or error messages about problems found by MinimServer while scanning your music files. To do this, right-click on the minim icon and select 'Show log'. A warning in the log means that MinimServer has found something wrong with a file but has been able to read the file and make it available for browsing and playing. An error in the log means that MinimServer wasn't able to read the file. If you see a message you don't understand, you can get help by creating a new thread in the MinimServer support forum as described on the Support page.
- If MinimServer has started successfully, you can now use a UPnP control point to browse your music library and select and play music. You can also use the minim icon menu to configure and manage MinimServer. See the Controlling MinimServer using the minim icon section for details of the available menu selections.
- If you have updated from MinimServer 0.8 to MinimServer 2, some of your configuration properties in MinimWatch might be missing or greyed out. To restore any missing properties and enable all features previously available in MinimServer 0.8, select the License tab of the MinimServer configuration page and activate a trial license or full license as described in this section. You might also need to reinstall the MinimStreamer package (see the Installing MinimStreamer section).
- If this is a new MinimServer installation, it will be running as MinimServer 2 Starter Edition with limited functionality and some configuration settings disabled (see the Starter Edition page). To use all features and configuration settings of MinimServer 2, you need to activate a trial license or full license as described in this section.
Uninstalling MinimServer 2 on Mac
If you have activated a MinimServer 2 full license on your Mac, you should deactivate this license before uninstalling MinimServer 2. This frees up the license activation for use on any other devices you have. You don't need to do this if you intend to reinstall MinimServer 2 on the same Mac. You won't be able to do this deactivation after MinimServer 2 has been uninstalled.
To deactivate the license, open the MinimServer 2 configuration page by selecting Configure from the pop-up menu of the minim icon in your Mac menu bar. Select the License tab followed by Deactivate full license and follow the prompts. You need an active internet connection to deactivate the license.
Before uninstalling MinimServer, make sure MinimServer isn't running. If MinimServer is running, stop MinimServer by clicking the minim icon in your Mac menu bar and selecting Exit. You can now uninstall MinimServer by dragging the MinimServer application to the trash.
Uninstalling MinimServer doesn't delete your MinimServer configuration settings. This is useful if you want to reinstall MinimServer or move up to a newer version.