Getting started

Sonarche is signed but not notarised: that part needs a paid Apple developer account. So macOS and Windows both show a warning the first time you open it, and only the first time. Here is the whole path, from the download to your first library.

Picking the right file

Everything is on the releases page, and there is exactly one file to take per machine. The .tar.gz and .sig sitting beside it are the updater's plumbing. You do not need them.

• Mac, Apple Silicon (M1–M4): Sonarche_x.y.z_aarch64.dmg
• Mac, Intel: Sonarche_x.y.z_x64.dmg
• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit: Sonarche_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe

Not sure which Mac you have? Apple menu → About This Mac: a line saying Chip means Apple Silicon. From a terminal, uname -m answers arm64 or x86_64. Windows on ARM runs the x64 build under emulation.

Getting past the warning on macOS

On first launch macOS says it could not verify the app. Do not click the blue button: it offers to move it to the Trash.

1. Open Sonarche. At the dialog, click Done.
2. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll to the bottom, to the Security section. A line about Sonarche is waiting there.
3. Click Open Anyway, authenticate, then confirm with Open.

That line expires about an hour after the refused launch. If it is not there, open the app again and go back to Settings. You will not see this screen twice: later updates are written by the app's own updater, which does not mark files as quarantined.

Getting past the warning on Windows

SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”, for the same reason: the installer is not signed by a paid certificate. Click More info, then Run anyway. The install is per-user, so nothing asks you to elevate, not at install, not at update.

The first run

The app opens on a short walkthrough that builds its environment: it unpacks the Python it carries, installs yt-dlp and beets into a virtual environment of its own, and asks you for an AcoustID key. Give it about fifteen seconds. No network access is needed: the packages travel inside the bundle.

Your system Python is never touched, and nothing is installed outside the folder the app owns.

The AcoustID key, and why to bother

It is free, it takes a minute to request, and it is optional, but without it your tracks are tagged from whatever hints are available instead of being identified by their sound. That is the whole difference between a guessed name and a recognised one, and the journal has the long version.

Once entered, the key is kept in the OS keychain, never in a config file, and it never shows up in the interface again.

Where to go next

From here there are two ways in: point the app at folders you already own, or add tracks one at a time. Both run through the same chain (fingerprint, identify, tag, file) and end in the same tree of files.