LocalAudio: support

LocalAudio is an app for Apple Watch that captures your ideas by voice, keeps them organized in folders, and plays them back along with audio you own. It runs on the watch alone: no iPhone, no account, no subscription.

Contact

Questions, problems and ideas: help@lukasyoder.dev

Setting up a backup computer

  1. On your laptop, install rclone from rclone.org and run rclone serve webdav /path/to/backup --addr :8080. To ask for a password, add --user and --pass with a name and password of your choice.
  2. Find the laptop's address. It is under System Settings, Wi-Fi, Details on a Mac, and under Settings, Network & Internet, Wi-Fi on Windows. On Linux, ip addr prints it.
  3. In LocalAudio, scroll to the end of the list and tap Transfers, then Add Computer. Enter a name and, under Address, http://, the laptop's address and :8080. Tap Connect.

A NAS or Nextcloud with WebDAV turned on works the same way. A computer that only lists a folder over HTTP can be copied from, but not backed up to. The app has these steps under Settings, Setting Up a Backup Computer.

Backing up what you record

A recording's menu has Send to Computer, and a playlist's menu has Back Up to Computer. The first time, LocalAudio asks which folder on the backup computer to use and remembers it for that computer.

Copying audio you own to the watch

Under Transfers, tap the backup computer, tap Browse, open the folder you want, and tap Copy to Watch. Choose the folder on the watch to keep it in, tap Save Here, and tap Copy to Watch.

If the watch cannot reach the computer

If your watch is paired with an iPhone, turn off Bluetooth on the watch (Settings, Bluetooth) before you add a backup computer or copy from one: near its iPhone the watch goes online through the phone and cannot reach a computer on your Wi-Fi. Turn Bluetooth back on afterwards for AirPods. Series 5 and older watches join 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only. The app says this under Settings, About, and when Connect cannot reach the computer.

Copying pauses when the watch goes back to the clock

watchOS lets an app copy over the network only while it is on screen or playing. For a long copy, put the watch on its charger, and in the Settings app on the watch set General, Return to Clock, LocalAudio to After 1 hour. Or play something that is already on the watch meanwhile. A paused copy continues the next time LocalAudio is in front.

Keeping LocalAudio on your wrist

If the watch returns to the clock while LocalAudio plays, set Settings, General, Return to Clock, LocalAudio to After 1 hour. To keep Apple's Now Playing from stepping in: Settings, Smart Stack, Live Activities, Media Apps, Auto-Launch, Off. LocalAudio lists these under Settings, Keep LocalAudio on Your Wrist.

Choosing the speaker or headphones

Bluetooth headphones are used when they are connected. To switch between the speaker and headphones, open Control Center and tap the AirPlay button. The Output row on the Player View's second page names the current output. The watch's speaker plays on Apple Watch Ultra 2 and 3, Series 10 and 11 and SE 3, and not while the watch is charging; on other watches, LocalAudio asks you to connect Bluetooth headphones.

What plays

Ogg Opus, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP3, AAC, ALAC, WAV and AIFF. Audio that does not play says why under Info (press and hold it, then Info). Ogg FLAC, Opus in MP4 and audio with more than two channels are not supported yet.

Recordings on a computer

Recordings are Ogg Opus files. On a computer they open in VLC, IINA, Firefox and Chrome; QuickTime Player does not play them.