๐Ÿ“ฒ Prefer to read this offline or print it out? A beautifully designed PDF version of this entire guide is attached below โ€” color-coded, print-ready, and identical in content. Just click the file to download it. Otherwise, keep scrolling and follow along right here.

๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ Setting up on a UGREEN NAS instead of a Mac? Skip ahead โ†’ PART 5 ยท Navidrome on a UGREEN NAS (with Tailscale)

Navidrome Setup Guide.pdf


What is Navidrome?

Navidrome turns your Mac into a personal music streaming server โ€” like Spotify, but entirely yours. Your music files stay on your computer, and you can stream them to your iPhone from anywhere: at home, at work, traveling internationally.

๐Ÿ’ก All commands below are typed or pasted into the Terminal app. Find it via Spotlight: press โŒ˜ Space, type Terminal, hit Enter.


PART 1 ยท Install Navidrome on Your Mac

Step 1 โ€” Install Homebrew

Homebrew is a free tool that makes installing software on Mac easy. If you already have it, skip to Step 2.

Paste this entire line as one command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh>)"

โ†ณ Follow the on-screen prompts. It may ask for your Mac password.

Step 2 โ€” Install ffmpeg and Navidrome

ffmpeg handles audio conversion. Both are required. Run these ONE AT A TIME โ€” paste one, press Enter, then paste the next.

brew install ffmpeg
brew install navidrome

โš ๏ธ Run each line separately โ€” paste one at a time and press Enter before the next.

Step 3 โ€” Create Your Music Folder