Settings reference

Settings has five categories on the left: Plugins, Music folders, Playback, Visualizations and About. Their controls are on the right. Back closes a page opened inside a category, such as audio priority, a plugin's details, an install review or a folder editor, and then leaves Settings; selecting the category again also returns to its first page. Pickers open as a side panel that Back closes, with the default for your device marked.

Plugins

Item	What it does
Audio	The order every track tries the audio providers, and which providers play only their own tracks. Set audio priority
Video	The plugin that supplies videos, or None
Installed	Each plugin with its capabilities (metadata, audio, video) and version. Select one for its details: account, sign-in (with Download MicroG-RE-TV for a Google-account plugin while signed out, in the GitHub build), play reporting, playlist indexing and Remove. A retired plugin's details say so and offer Add YouTube until YouTube is installed
Update plugins automatically	On by default: checks at start and every 6 hours and installs updates; updates asking for new permissions wait for review
Update all plugins	Checks and installs updates now. An update that needs a newer Milkbeat waits; in the GitHub build its row opens About to update the app. Updates that need a newer Milkbeat
Add a plugin	A three-digit code or plugin URL. Install a plugin

There is no Metadata option: each catalog you can use has its own music tab.

Music folders

Item	What it does
Choose local folder	Milkbeat's D-pad browser for the TV's storage and USB drives. Storage access is asked for only here
Use Android folder picker	The system picker, granting access to one folder only
Add SMB share / WebDAV server / SFTP server / NFS export	A network source; each has Test access and Save
Local library → Rescan library	Scans every source now; the index otherwise updates when sources change and at start when older than six hours
Saved sources	Each source with its type. Select one to edit it or Remove folder

See Local and network folders for every field and server requirement.

Playback

Setting	What it does
Background Play	Keep playing when Milkbeat is in the background. On by default
Autoplay related videos	Play a suggested video when nothing is queued
Subtitles	Show subtitles on videos by default
Skip Silence	Skip parts with no audio
Stable Voice	Normalize audio volume for more consistent playback
Ambient mode	A soft glow of the video's colours around it
Show audio quality	Name the source, codec, bitrate and sample rate of the playing music in the player controls. Off by default; saved on this device only. See Audio quality
Debug playback logging	Write local actions, resolution, request timings and playback output events to Android logcat. Off by default; saved on this device only

Video quality and codec are picked automatically for your TV and the available streams, and SponsorBlock is always on for supported videos; neither has a setting.

Visualizations

The ProjectM TV engine's settings, applied to Milkbeat's own visualizer. Changes apply the next time now playing shows the visualizer. The visualizer page explains what each one does, with links to ProjectM TV's in-depth guide.

Presets

Setting	What it does	Default
Enable visualizations	projectM visuals behind now playing	On with about 2 GB of RAM or more
Change presets automatically	Move on after the preset duration; Left and Right always switch	On
Preset duration	10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60 or 90 s	30 s
Preset mood	All, or the beta Chill, Normal and Intense collections	All
Cut on loud beats	A loud beat can switch to the next preset early	Off
Skip blank presets	Leave presets that stay black, often because a texture is missing	On
Skip slow presets	Leave presets far below the frame rate even at the lowest resolution	On
Reset skipped presets	Shows how many presets were skipped; select to bring them back	—

Transitions and picture quality

Setting	What it does	Default
Transition length	Instant to 10 s; two presets render during a blend	7 s (2 s on low-RAM devices)
Transition style	Auto blends at a lower, adaptive resolution; Lightweight cuts and fades the old preset out on top; Classic is a full-resolution blend and costs the most	Auto
Native trails	Standard keeps authored feedback; Medium and High add trail detail above 1330p at extra GPU cost	Standard
Frame rate	The display rate divided by 1, 2 or 4, at least 24 fps. A lower rate leaves room for a sharper picture	30 fps
Detail	Warp mesh from Minimal to Ultra: finer warps and zooms for more processor time	By device (Medium here)
Show diagnostics	Frame rate, render size, transition, audio level and preset in the playback controls	Off

Resolution is always automatic: it follows the frame-rate target and live memory headroom up to the screen's native size, including 4K. Previously saved fixed resolutions and memory toggles no longer apply.

Visualizer timing

Timing offset moves the visuals against the sound. The choices are −100, −50, −25, +0, +25, +50, +75, +100, +150 and +200 ms. Raise it if the visuals come after the beat you hear, lower it if they come before.

Troubleshooting

Check Last exit when the visualizer closes unexpectedly. Background compilation and shader binary caching run automatically; their former troubleshooting switches have been removed, and saved Off choices are ignored.

Setting	What it does	Default
Last exit	The latest saved native crash or relevant Android exit, with how long ago. Select it for the exit report; Android exit records need Android 11, saved native reports do not	—

Recent exits, the exit report, starts with the device, its Android version, the GPU (once the visualizer has shown since Milkbeat started) and native capture status. Then come up to five recent exits of Milkbeat, newest first. Each shows how long ago it was and why it ended, as Android recorded it: for example crashed (native code), killed by signal 11 (SIGSEGV) or killed for low memory. It also shows whether Milkbeat was on screen, playing in the background or only in the background, Android's description and the memory in use when Android provides them. For a process that showed the visualizer, the report preserves any recorded switch states and adds what the engine was last doing: the render line (loading, blending into or showing a preset) and the prewarm line (compiling a preset in the background, or idle), each with the seconds before the exit. Android 10 and older keep no Android exit records; the report can still show the last engine activity and saved native crashes.

Saved native crash cards follow the Android records and show the captured signal, module-relative native backtrace and available build IDs. Long reports continue across cards for D-pad scrolling. Capture starts when the visualizer engine initializes; the status reports whether capture is ready, unavailable or has not started. An empty report list means no native report was saved, not that capture has been tested.

The engine trail and up to five native crash reports stay in Milkbeat's private storage, excluded from backups, with no automatic upload. The private crash files can include raw registers and stack memory containing fragments of app data. Those memory sections are omitted from the displayed report. Take a photo of the report when you report a crash. Steps are in Troubleshooting.

Whether now playing shows the visualizer, the music video or the artwork is chosen in the player with its view button, not here.

About

Item	What it does
Version	The installed Milkbeat version and build number
Automatic updates	GitHub build only, on by default: looks for a new Milkbeat at start and every 6 hours, downloads it and offers to install it
Update status	Milkbeat is up to date, or the available update; select to check again
Changelog	What's new in Milkbeat
Contact and credits	GitHub source and issues, the creator, Flow, projectM and the licence

The FOSS build has no updater. App updates and plugin updates are separate. Installing a signed release over the existing app keeps its data; uninstalling first does not.