FAQ

That’s because it supports audio input (and probably has a microphone) and macOS has selected it as the default audio input device. The audio playback quality drops because currently, two-way communication is only possible at a significantly lower audio quality via the Bluetooth protocol.

To mitigate this, you need to open System Preferences (or System Settings) > Sound > Input and select an audio device that is different from your wireless headphones / speaker.

The quickest way to remedy such a scenario is to remove Colibri with the free AppCleaner app and then re-download it from the Mac AppStore.

More often than not, it is either caused by a yet undiscovered bug, a Sandbox problem or an invalid device setting. To do a manual settings reset, follow the below steps:

Manual fix – Ventura, Sonoma:

1. Close Colibri if it is running and Open Finder
2. Press CMD + Shift + G (or click on “Go -> Go to Folder” in the menu)
3. Enter the following: ~/Library/Containers/gaborhargitai.colibri/Data/Documents/
4. Delete the file: colibriSandboxBookmarks.json
5. Make sure to empty the Trash
6. Open Colibri

Manual fix – Big Sur, Monterey:

1. Close Colibri if it is running and Open Finder
2. Press CMD + Shift + G (or click on “Go -> Go to Folder” in the menu)
3. Enter the following: ~/Library/Containers/Colibri/Data/Library/Preferences
4. Delete the file: gaborhargitai.colibri.plist
5. Make sure to empty the Trash
6. Without opening Colibri please restart your Mac

Manual fix – Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina:

1. Close Colibri if it is running and Open Finder
2. Press CMD + Shift + G (or click on “Go -> Go to Folder” in the menu)
3. Enter the following: ~/Library/Containers
4. Delete the folder there named: gaborhargitai.colibri
5. Make sure to empty the Trash
6. Without opening Colibri please restart your Mac

If Colibri is stuck resolving Sandbox Bookmarks, please wait for it to finish and then open Sandbox > Sandbox Manager from the top menu and remove any invalid/redundant bookmarks, preferably with the Smart Cleanup option.

An alternative solution could be:

1. Empty your Playlist
2. Click on Colibri at the top menu bar on the screen and select Clear Sandbox Security Cache
3. Quit and restart Colibri and load your songs again

No, I didn't abandon Colibri and never will - it is my passion project which I still love to this very day! It is also something that I can only work on during my scarce free time, so progress isn't as fast as I'd like it to be. Rest assured, progress is being made - albeit at modest rate. I also don't wish to annoy the users with frequent updates - if there isn't anything show-stopping, then I'd rather collect a few fixes and enhancements, test it as much as I can and then release it as one update.

You can always check the Devblog for the changelogs and some related bit and pieces of info, along with the Changes page to see all the updates since version 1.6.

Apple has a strict and user-friendly policy on AppStore purchase refunds – please log in to your iCloud account and visit your recent purchase history, from where you can initiate the refund process.

For a more detailed (and up to date) writeup, please refer to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084

It is very likely that your Sandbox bookmarks got invalidated by macOS. You should try the following:

• Open Colibri
• Click on Sandbox > Sandbox Manager at the top menu
• Use the '+' sign to add the top level folder of your music collection
• If the Smart Cleanup button is available in bottom-right corner, press it
• Close the Sandbox Manager and try loading your files

It can also help if you grant Full Disk Access to Colibri within System Settings > Privacy.

You can manually remove the bookmarks using Finder:

• make sure Colibri is not running
• open Finder
• press CMD + Shift + G (shortcut for 'Go to Folder')
• paste in this path:
  
  ~/Library/Containers/Colibri/Data/Documents
  
  
• here please delete these two files:
  
  colibriSandboxBookmarks.json
  colibriPlaylist.json
  
  
• empty the Trash
• start Colibri

This will cause Colibri to start with an empty playlist with no sandbox bookmarks (these are needed for file reading under macOS).

I'd also advise to continue like so:

• with Colibri still open, press CTRL + CMD + S (shortcut for Sandbox > Sandbox Manager)
• click on the '+' button in the bottom of the screen
• select the top level folder where your music collection is (like 'Music' or somewhere else)
• press Open

You should now see the path of the folder you just selected in the list - close Sandbox Manager and enjoy!

This has been discussed many times, but even so I'm still getting this asked on a regular basis, so here's a longer explanation: at some point Colibri will be considered feature complete and will only need fixes and support for upcoming macOS versions so that it keeps operating smoothly - there are only so many things an audio player should do before it is considered bloated.

Paying me money periodically to keep supporting Colibri after it is considered 'finished' sounds nice, but it would also mean that a significant portion of subscribers wanted new features to justify keeping their subscription going. Weighing the available options I personally found that I'd rather take a one-time payment and not be under pressure / at risk of bloating Colibri due to subscriptions.

Want to support me further? Thank you, I do really appreciate it! Write a review of Colibri over at the App Store, tell a friend about it, consider trying Colibri on other platforms when they become available - or even check out my other apps!

Yes, they will use the same audio core. iOS, iPadOS and tvOS versions are in the works, watchOS and visionOS versions are being considered.

Yes, starting from version 2.1.0 - Colibri has native AirPlay 2 support with multi-room audio.

No, Colibri is a sender application - it pushes audio data through the AirPlay 2 protocol to the devices you select.

Yes, it does as long as the devices have separate names and device driver identifiers.

Go to Settings – BS2B, move the Cut-off and Crossfeed sliders to your hearts content and then press Save as New.

Go to Settings – BS2B, select the desired Profile or move the Cut-off and Crossfeed sliders as needed and then press Save value for output device.

That’s expected behavior – they are write protected to give a point of reference. You can create your own profiles by pressing Save as New.

Go to Settings – BS2B and check the status info at the top of the window.

In essence, it aims to reduce stereo fatigue when using headphones for extended periods of time. For more, please read this section.

Yes, if a song has the same profile set as the one you are deleting, then all of those songs will have their BS2B reset to ‘Off’.

You are free to modify the factory default BS2B profiles (Default, Chu Moy, Jan Meier) but when you delete them, Colibri will re-add them upon reading your saved BS2B profiles if they are missing. This behavior is for the sake of the BS2B library to be fully operational. 

Why aren’t you set those values to zero then? – some may ask. The answer is simple: to conserve memory and CPU time! Colibri preloads the base library and properly initializes it with acceptable values while not enabling the effect chain. The other reason is that these three profiles provide some initial values you can use as reference to build your profiles upon.

No - at least, not yet.

Chromecast in it's current state does not support data streaming from one device to another by default. The way it currently works is that the Sender sends the URL of the media to be played to the Receiver (which then starts to stream it) and then you can send control commands the Receiver from the Sender device (which would Colibri be in this scenario).

Colibri operates with your files locally (or on a network share) and feeding such data is not currently supported by the Chromecast SDK - thus, a somewhat custom implementation is necessary to handle pushing the audio data from Colibri (the Sender) over the network to the Receiver.

I do plan on experimenting with this in the future, but I can't give an estimate on when (or if at all) will it be available.

The quickest way to remedy such a scenario is to remove Colibri with the free AppCleaner app and then re-download it from the Mac AppStore.

More often than not, it is either caused by a yet undiscovered bug, a Sandbox problem or an invalid device setting. To do a manual settings reset, follow the below steps:

Manual fix – Ventura, Sonoma:

1. Close Colibri if it is running and Open Finder
2. Press CMD + Shift + G (or click on “Go -> Go to Folder” in the menu)
3. Enter the following: ~/Library/Containers/gaborhargitai.colibri/Data/Documents/
4. Delete the file: colibriSandboxBookmarks.json
5. Make sure to empty the Trash
6. Open Colibri

Manual fix – Big Sur, Monterey:

1. Close Colibri if it is running and Open Finder
2. Press CMD + Shift + G (or click on “Go -> Go to Folder” in the menu)
3. Enter the following: ~/Library/Containers/Colibri/Data/Library/Preferences
4. Delete the file: gaborhargitai.colibri.plist
5. Make sure to empty the Trash
6. Without opening Colibri please restart your Mac

Manual fix – Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina:

1. Close Colibri if it is running and Open Finder
2. Press CMD + Shift + G (or click on “Go -> Go to Folder” in the menu)
3. Enter the following: ~/Library/Containers
4. Delete the folder there named: gaborhargitai.colibri
5. Make sure to empty the Trash
6. Without opening Colibri please restart your Mac

Try this set of options together, at once:

• Disable EQ if it is enabled
• Enable/Disable Exclusive / Hog mode
• Try a different DSD mode: PCM, DoP or DoPA
• Select a different DSD Fallback strategy

Please note that the BASS audio engine does not support DST encoded DSD files, meaning that those DSD files that are encoded with DST will not play with Colibri.

Open Settings -> Output and check the DSD signal output section.

If you are not using an external DAC then it is recommended that the PCM option be the selected option here as silence/garbled audio means that your DAC does not support the currently selected method.

Additionally, Colibri does not support any other mode than ‘PCM’ for the ‘Built-in Output’ of your Mac, which is normal and your DSD file should be playing back as expected – given that you are using the internal Audio DSP of your Mac.

For and external DAC, feel free to experiment with the data sending methods - remember that DoP / DoPA modes require your DAC to support said data sending modes and more often than not, one of the two options will result in low volume hissing sound to be played.

DoP and DoPA are DSD-over-PCM data sending modes that allow Colibri to circumvent a limitation of CoreAudio that disallows any macOS app to send raw audio data directly to an audio device. Using PCM frames and special markers (DoP: 0x05/0xFA, DoPA: 0xAA) to encapsulate DSD data, we can provide a lossless way to send the DSD data to the DAC even through CoreAudio.

Your DAC most likely supports either the DoP or DoPA sending mode, try both with a DSD64 file. For more info on this topic, please read the DSD page.

Not in the near future as those are heavily license-bound.

I’ve contacted the DSD license holders and they refused to help me at this time, stating that “it is not possible to respond” to my query. I did ask for a re-evaluation and the answer was negatory. I do not wish to get in legal trouble by reverse-engineering anything or use a third-party solution that essentially does the same.

If and when the licensing situation changes, I am willing to reconsider – but until then, DST and SACD / SACD-ISO support will not be added, and yes, I am fully aware that other players support these formats just fine and some of them even have the source code available for it.

In the meantime, please consider converting your SACD / DST files to a compatible format using the awesome free XLD app!

Yes.

Open the Equalizer using the icon that looks like three sliders at the top-right corner of Colibri’s main window. Experiment with the different band settings by moving the sliders and the press the Save as New button. Be sure to give your new profile a unique name!

Go to Settings – EQ and press the ‘Re-add Default EQ Profiles‘ button at the bottom right of the Settings window.

That’s expected behavior as it is needed by Colibri, it acts as an ‘Off’ button for the Equalizer.

The name you are trying to give to your new profile already exists, please give it a unique name.

If it is grayed out then either you have ‘Off / Reset to Zero’ selected – in which case please select an other profile – or the band sliders of the EQ are in sync and completely match the values of the currently selected profile, try moving one of the sliders and the Update button should light up!

Yes, this is my passion project and I'm the sole developer. I do have friends testing the occasional builds I send them, but that's about it.

No and it will probably never will as there already are free and commercial products that offer disc burning for the Mac.

No. I’d advise You to use native macOS software that is specifically crafted to handle such tasks  – like the industry-standard, awesome and free XLD.

No, Colibri is not designed to search around the Internet for “third party” content – be it lyrics, album art or metadata in general and it is highly unlikely that this behaviour will change. Like everything mentioned here before – if it is requested then it might be considered.

No, and this behaviour is not likely to change as the core concept of Colibri is that it does not modify files. If the demand is high enough then I will of course consider, but honestly there are metadata editor applications that serve this very purpose and do so with high efficiency.

As of version 1.8 it can! Please use File -> Open Network Stream (or use the hotkey: CMD + K) to add your network URL to Colibri. This has been tested with various M3U and PLS based streams that use the MP3/AAC codec for transmission - though almost any other format should work which Colibri can play locally.

This happens on the rare occasion of Sandbox deciding to invalidate Colibri’s access to its’ own stored data – in order to resolve this, we have to help Colibri re-negotiate the credentials with the system by removing the leftover files (as Colibri can no longer touch them).

You are kindly requested to follow these steps:

1. Start Colibri
2. Click on the Menu -> Colibri -> Clear Sandbox Security Cache
3. Quit Colibri
4. Open Finder
5. Press CMD + Shift + G (or click on “Go -> Go to Folder” in the menu)
6. Enter the following: ~/Library/Containers
7. Delete the folder there named: gaborhargitai.colibri
8. Restart your Mac using the Apple Menu -> Restart

At the time of looking around for a suitable audio engine I found a forum post that mentioned BASS as a really great ‘award-winning’ audio library that also drives XMPlay (which I love) – hence I decided to try it out as well. I never fact-checked this and having read a forum post asking about it, I decided to look it up. As I couldn’t find a single mention about BASS winning an award anywhere I took that part out of the intro text as I am not a fan of ‘marketing gas’. If someone does find a mention of it, please let me know!

No, I didn't abandon Colibri and never will - it is my passion project which I still love to this very day! It is also something that I can only work on during my scarce free time, so progress isn't as fast as I'd like it to be. Rest assured, progress is being made - albeit at modest rate. I also don't wish to annoy the users with frequent updates - if there isn't anything show-stopping, then I'd rather collect a few fixes and enhancements, test it as much as I can and then release it as one update.

You can always check the Devblog for the changelogs and some related bit and pieces of info, along with the Changes page to see all the updates since version 1.6.

I wish! These are legitimate questions - well, except for this one, of course.

No.

No, Colibri does not have a media library like iTunes / Music.app does, nor is it currently possible to organise / group the songs in any way.

Colibri's operation regarding the Playlist is a simple one – the main idea is that you already have your music collection the way you want it to be and just need a hassle-free player to play them. Like a jukebox that plays many records you wish to listen to in a session. You can save the playlist to a file and then load it back later, but it isn't the same as having a proper Library.

Colibri does not modify your files, nor does it keep track of them in a database. It does remember your playlist contents (if you do not disable it in Settings) but those are not part of a media library: they are merely a collection of Sandbox permission links that macOS had given Colibri so that it can play those files.

While it is technically possible to add thousands of songs to Colibri, it isn't a pleasant experience in my opinion to navigate such a gigantic playlist - although you can use CMD + F to invoke Search & Filtering to zone-in on what you wish to listen to.

There are plans to add proper Library support to Colibri at a later point in time as many people have requested this feature - I can't give an estimate on it though, as it needs a considerable amount of work.

If this is a show-stopper for you or if you are looking for a drop-in replacement for iTunes / Music.app, then I'd advise against purchasing Colibri - or alternatively, take Colibri for a spin and if you don't like it, request a refund using Apple's strong money back policy mentioned above.

No.

Unfortunately I do not have means of offering a demo version as I’m against adding DRM (Digital Rights Management) to Colibri besides the default Gatekeeper service Apple provides for all App Store apps automatically.

Any added layer of cryptographic protection would also mean computing power usage overhead – something that is contrary to the core concept of Colibri’s existence! I’d rather spend time developing Colibri than deal with in-app purchase verification.

However, there is the Colibri DAC/DSD Test application free from the Mac AppStore with which you can test out how your audio setup would sound with Colibri (it uses the same audio core). It is also great if you are wondering whether your DAC would work with Colibri.

For a list of tested devices, please check the DSD page here.

Yes.

Colibri does a round of handshakes and negotiations with CoreAudio and your DAC before sending any audio signal out – and only switches frequency when it is really needed.

All devices are queried for supported frequencies and before the start of each song the frequencies are matched and if need be, the DAC / DSP is re-initialized with the supported output frequency. This is also true for preloaded songs. You can also turn this off on a per-device basis by setting a forced frequency.

Currently, Colibri does not support Last.fm scrobbling.

I do have plans about adding Last.fm support into Colibri later on, so it is on the TO-DO list, but other tasks are higher. All in all, it is on the roadmap and will likely be added in the future – no ETA on it at the moment though as support has to be implemented from scratch.

Yes.

Colibri preloads the next song a few seconds before the currently played song ends and appends it to the end of the current song for a seamless transition. The preload trigger seconds can be adjusted in Settings.

It’s fairly easy! To reorder them, just click and hold the title of the column header (eg.: Title, Artist, Album) and start moving it either to the left or to the right. If you would like to resize them, you just have to grab onto the edge of said header – at this moment the mouse cursor will change, notifying you about the resizing possibility. If it is still not happening, here is a video tutorial of it in action:

Colibri does not phone home or collect any statistics/analytics – this includes your audio hardware. I do not think an audio player should be collecting user info, although I do admit that sometimes it could be useful.

The process looks like this: thankfully, most of the time when a problem arises then the ones who report them are kind enough to let me know what their audio setup is. We then work together to find the bug / solve the problem and if everything goes according to plan, the issue is solved and I add their audio hardware to the list of devices that are known to be working.

It also happens sometimes that I receive emails from users who explicitly want to let me know that their hardware is working and should be listed as such, which is always a joy to hear and am really happy to keep the list up to date. I’m also aware that this isn’t the fastest way of populating the list of supported devices – but then again, this way the user privacy is never compromised and in all honesty, I’m perfectly fine with this slower kind of feedback.

Feel free to drop me a line via email using this address: gabor@barefootwebdesign.co.nz.

Sorry to hear it, I personally really like it and find it fitting so it stays.

Glad to hear it, you can download the high-res versions here: Colibri logo (black) and Colibri logo (white).

No and it probably never will be. You might be able to play MQA encoded files in Colibri to some extent, depending on the file format - but it isn't supported and Colibri has no dedicated MQA decoding capabilities.

Yes, it follows the device selected as the default audio output in macOS.

Network streams are continuous in the sense that they do not have and end timestamp that Colibri could extract from the metadata.

That’s because iTunes / Music.app is the default application that responds to media key events.

To modify this we have to manually disable this behavior – please see my step-by-step guide in this post over at my blog. Be advised, that starting from macOS Sierra 10.12.4 (16E195) disabling this behavior is significantly harder and requires additional steps.

As of Big Sur, media key support should work significantly better - mainly due to Now Playable integration.

That is due to the fact that macOS is trying to conserve power and halts the animation cycles of inactive windows a bit. Colibri does its’ best to fight it: it labels itself as an important ‘user intiated’ application and also it declares itself as an app ‘incapable of sleeping’ – but sometimes it is forced to take a nap for a few CPU cycles.

I’m periodically looking at implementing my own seek bar, but the performance trade-off between such a solution and the built-in slider by Apple currently is in favour of leaving it like it is for the time being.

Will require extensive investigation and sadly it is not currently on the to-do list.

Spotify is an on-demand audio streaming service that, while it does indeed have and offline mode (and cache), it does not support exporting said audio files to other apps, such as Colibri.

This means that dragging a song from Spotify to Colibri will not work. Those songs are encrypted and you would need a third-party program to decrypt them first – which is something Colibri will never do.

It is a random playback mode that ensures that all songs on the playlist are played in an equal number of times - a balanced way to play songs randomly.

Each song is played once in a random order - which is called one 'round'. When all songs have been played in the current round, then another round is started and the order of songs is randomised once again.

Check out the Devblog for news and updates.

Colibri adjusts its’ output to match the audio format it currently plays – meaning this is done automatically every time a song starts to play.

Since version 2.1.0, you can set a per-device force frequency in Settings > Output.

Colibri has Custom Theme support along with a Dark and a Light color tone switcher. Check out the Themes page for more!

Colibri was born out of frustration and as a result of me not being able to enjoy my lossless music collection on macOS as I would have wanted to. There were some inconveniences that constantly hindered my playback experience, so I ended up opening Xcode, hit New Project and wrote my own audio player that behaves exactly as I would expect it to – it was also the perfect excuse to try out and begin learning the Swift programming language.

No. I did reach out to them to talk about the possibility of having Colibri available and the response was "unfortunately, the consensus is that it’s not a fit for Setapp at this time" - so no, Colibri will not be available through Setapp.

Yes, it is on the roadmap for the future and I'm actively exploring ideas on how to make it as seamless and secure as possible.

Yes, they will use the same audio core. iOS, iPadOS and tvOS versions are in the works, watchOS and visionOS versions are being considered.

Yes, it will come with a future update.

No and no. Colibri is a passion project which means I do it as a hobby. I am not selling it and I intend to develop and keep it running indefinitely. I also use it on a daily basis, so it isn’t a cash-grab of sorts that would turn into abandonware - remember, I wrote Colibri for myself initially and am also using it every day!

Open Settings -> MIDI and check whether you have an a working SoundFont and make sure it is selected as Default. If that doesn’t work please try adding an other SoundFont.

If all else fails you can try removing all the SoundFonts - at which point Colibri will re-add the default SoundFont. Should that also fail, please remove Colibri and re-download it from the Mac App Store.

No and there will never be such a thing!

Colibri is a one-time purchase - you own the copy you have bought and all future upgrades are delivered free of charge for a lifetime. This will never change, I personally guarantee it.

No. Colibri is a one-time purchase with free lifetime updates. This will never change, I personally guarantee it.

No and there will never be such a thing.

Apple has a strict and user-friendly policy on AppStore purchase refunds – please log in to your iCloud account and visit your recent purchase history, from where you can initiate the refund process.

For a more detailed (and up to date) writeup, please refer to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084

No and no.

No and it will probably stay that way. I did look into using all of the popular Merchant of Record services and the surprising result (after all the quotes had arrived) that currently, Apple is by far the best option when it comes to services provided for the fee asked. While it is true that the base interest percentage is lower, there are additional costs involved such as transaction fees and conversion costs. I might investigate the possibilities in the future, but currently the App Store is the only place where you can legally purchase Colibri.

This has been discussed many times, but even so I'm still getting this asked on a regular basis, so here's a longer explanation: at some point Colibri will be considered feature complete and will only need fixes and support for upcoming macOS versions so that it keeps operating smoothly - there are only so many things an audio player should do before it is considered bloated.

Paying me money periodically to keep supporting Colibri after it is considered 'finished' sounds nice, but it would also mean that a significant portion of subscribers wanted new features to justify keeping their subscription going. Weighing the available options I personally found that I'd rather take a one-time payment and not be under pressure / at risk of bloating Colibri due to subscriptions.

Want to support me further? Thank you, I do really appreciate it! Write a review of Colibri over at the App Store, tell a friend about it, consider trying Colibri on other platforms when they become available - or even check out my other apps!

You are welcome to use any media playback software you like – that’s the beauty of it!

Colibri plays back popular lossless audio files in a truly gapless way with or without cue sheets, while using the least amount of power possible. What really makes Colibri stand out is the sanitising method it uses to process .cue sheets; many of you could have experienced how malformed/corrupt/disorganised these files can be and editing them by hand is not really an option.

An other main difference that distances Colibri from other available options is being completely native to Apple’s ecosystem and doing true gapless playback of lossless files with proper sample rate switching and fine-grained control for DSD processing with fallback strategies.

No. I did reach out to them to talk about the possibility of having Colibri available and the response was "unfortunately, the consensus is that it’s not a fit for Setapp at this time" - so no, Colibri will not be available through Setapp.

No.

No.
I am aware that it is a recurring theme nowadays to promise a "Lifetime" or "One-time" purchase that in reality only means that you will only get updates for that specific major version of said piece of software.

As stated elsewhere: I hate subscriptions with a burning passion.

Colibri was, is and will forever be a Lifetime purchase - buy once, own it forever - and no, I won't be putting out different major versions in an attempt to rake in cash again from users who have already paid. It is really sad that this has been such a trend that it has to be said this many times.

No, never.

They already have and it is completely fine, I’m honestly happy that people find Colibri useful and enjoy using it, simple as that. If you enjoy using Colibri and can afford to buy it through the Mac App Store later, then that's even better.

I must point out though, that - as you’ll soon see in the questions regarding Sandboxing – there is a reason why applications are strictly verified by Apple in the Mac App Store; it is most likely safe to assume that apps downloaded from the Mac App Store are thoroughly inspected and are highly unlikely to contain any piece of malicious code – when you upload an app to the App Store, there are automatic checks beside human reviews that are supposed to catch such malicious behavior.

If you decide to pirate Colibri then consider using verified, trusted sources as some mirror sites / repackers tend to inject malware into their .dmg or .pkg installers.

Sure, ask away! Drop me a line via gabor@barefootwebdesign.co.nz.

Please do bear in mind that in some occasions crashes and weird behavior might be related to the macOS Gatekeeper whacking the patched software distribution signature that is present in said pirated versions. Also, please verify your sources as much as possible as some repackers tend to inject malware into the app bundles.

Thank you but no. I am fully aware of the consequences caused by Colibri being DRM-free and I like it how it is – also, this will never change. I like to believe that if people like Colibri enough to pirate it then they will consider supporting the development later on by buying it when they can afford it, simple as that. I won’t issue DMCA’s, Cease & Desist letters or anything else of that sort. If someone does that under my name then please contact me immediately.

Please don't contact me with such a topic. DRM is anti-consumer and excessively bad for software preservation.

Yes.

Please go to open Settings – Behavior and disable, then re-enable the option ‘Enable ReplayGain‘. If this does not fix your problem then please try removing and re-adding your song(s) while ReplayGain is enabled in the Settings as per above.

Absolutely not, go ahead! Colibri has three separate effect channels: one for ReplayGain, one for the Pre Amp and the third one for the Equalizer bands exclusively. They all affect the sound sent to the audio output, per se, but their settings do no interfere with each other.

When Colibri launches it needs to hand over all known Sandbox bookmarks to macOS for validation so that it can read your files. This is part of the Sandbox Protection procedure which all Mac App Store apps have to adhere to.

It is highly advisable to wait until the loading finishes and then grant permission to the the top-level folder of your music collection by clicking on the top menu bar Sandbox > Sandbox Manager and adding it via the '+' button, if you haven't done it beforehand.

If you have invalid or redundant Sandbox bookmarks, they will be listed here in red and grey colours, respectively - in such a scenario, please use the Smart Cleanup button to remove said bookmarks.

When you Open a song (or drag it to Colibri’s playlist from the Finder) it is done via an action that originates from the user which means the user explicitly declares that he/she gives the app access to the specific file he/she drags/opens.

However, .cue sheets are technically nothing more than detailed playlists telling Colibri where can it find the accompanying albums’ songs. Although the user drags the cue sheet to Colibri it does not grant further access to the files written within the Cue Sheet – access to those files must be asked for separately. This is the reason why the Sandbox pops up if you haven’t granted permission to that folder beforehand (or the folder containing said folder).

I'd suggest opening Sandbox Manager and adding the top-level folder of your music collection to Colibri so that it can load all files within without interruption.

It is very likely that your Sandbox bookmarks got invalidated by macOS. You should try the following:

• Open Colibri
• Click on Sandbox > Sandbox Manager at the top menu
• Use the '+' sign to add the top level folder of your music collection
• If the Smart Cleanup button is available in bottom-right corner, press it
• Close the Sandbox Manager and try loading your files

It can also help if you grant Full Disk Access to Colibri within System Settings > Privacy.

You can manually remove the bookmarks using Finder:

• make sure Colibri is not running
• open Finder
• press CMD + Shift + G (shortcut for 'Go to Folder')
• paste in this path:
  
  ~/Library/Containers/Colibri/Data/Documents
  
  
• here please delete these two files:
  
  colibriSandboxBookmarks.json
  colibriPlaylist.json
  
  
• empty the Trash
• start Colibri

This will cause Colibri to start with an empty playlist with no sandbox bookmarks (these are needed for file reading under macOS).

I'd also advise to continue like so:

• with Colibri still open, press CTRL + CMD + S (shortcut for Sandbox > Sandbox Manager)
• click on the '+' button in the bottom of the screen
• select the top level folder where your music collection is (like 'Music' or somewhere else)
• press Open

You should now see the path of the folder you just selected in the list - close Sandbox Manager and enjoy!

The following filenames with .jpg, .jpeg and .png extensions are looked for: “folder”, “albumart”, “front”, “cover” all in a case-insensitive way. If that fails, then Colibri will try and display the first readable image file in this order: .jpg, .jpeg and finally .png. Should this yield no result then Colibri falls back to displaying its’ wonderful logo.

Sandbox is Apple’s way of protecting the user (and the files) from any infection or ill intent that would originate from a downloaded app as regardless of programming with security in mind – all human-made software can be hacked/infected.

Sandbox is a macOS protection layer provided by Apple (and is turned on by default) which does not allow an application to freely peek around the users’ files. To access anything outside of the app’s tight-shut container an explicit user permission must be granted – this is why any Mac App Store app would pop-up dialogs to open anything.

Album art loading is only supported for files with FLAC / ID3 / iTunes artwork metadata (mainly for FLAC / ALAC / M4A and MP3 files). If you load up something else (or if the file does not have a recognizable embedded album image) then Colibri tries its’ best and looks around the song containing folder for a cover image.

Colibri does not have a way of modifying files – it only asks for read-only permissions from the system so what I advise you is to give Colibri permission to access the top level of your music collection more so because if you have Album Art display turned on then it will also need permission to read the cover art files.

This is a well known issue and although I did try to do all in my power to circumvent this, the BASSZXTUNE module simply overlaps with a few file formats and tries to load them. This is especially bothersome with a large amount of files. You should disable ZXTune when adding multiple files that are not of chiptune/mod origin.

ZXTune is available through the Rosetta emulation layer, if you are using an Apple Silicon Mac – right-click on Colibri in /Applications in Finder, select Get Info and enabled Rosetta in the small window that appears. For Intel Macs, it is available out of the box.

When running Colibri, visit Settings -> Behavior and you can toggle ZXTune there.

That’s because ZXTune is interfering with the built-in format support of BASS. You should disable ZXTune as per above if it hinders your listening experience.