Troubleshooting + help

Windows reports no app is currently registered as the SMTC owner. Simply start playing music in any app and the message will disappear within a second.

If music is playing and Now Playing still doesn’t see it:

• Firefox : open about:config, set media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled to true, restart Firefox.
• Chrome / Edge : check chrome://flags for Hardware Media Key Handling and set it to Enabled.
• Apple Music for Windows : can be inconsistent. Try pausing/resuming, or use a dedicated source instead.

By design. IKANDY queries the active app for which transport commands it actually exposes: some apps (single YouTube videos, podcasts) don’t advertise Next or Previous, so IKANDY locks those buttons.

Hover any greyed-out button to see the reason. For broader transport controls, connect a dedicated source such as Spotify, MusicBee, foobar2000, or VLC.

Windows treats system audio capture the same as microphone access for privacy purposes.

Fix: Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone → toggle Let desktop apps access your microphone on. Restart IKANDY.

If that doesn’t help, click 🎤 Reconnect Audio in Settings (⚙) → SOURCE tab.

Spotify only allows external playback control for Premium subscribers: this is a Spotify API restriction. Free accounts still get track info, album art, and synced lyrics.

Premium users: the dedicated source works whether you’re playing in Spotify desktop, web player, mobile, or a Spotify Connect speaker.

Most common cause: the Redirect URI in your Spotify Developer app doesn't exactly match the one IKANDY shows.

Open IKANDY's Spotify settings, copy the Redirect URI, then go to developer.spotify.com/dashboard → your app → Settings → paste it into Redirect URIs. Save, then retry Connect from IKANDY.

Also check: Client ID pasted with no leading/trailing spaces, Web API box is ticked.

Open http://localhost:8080 in a browser: you should see the VLC web UI password prompt. If you don't, the web interface isn't enabled.

Fix: VLC → Tools → Preferences → Show settings: All → Interface → Main interfaces → tick Web. Expand Lua below it and confirm a Lua HTTP password is set. Restart VLC.

In foobar2000 → File → Preferences → Tools → Beefweb Remote Control, confirm Enable HTTP server is ticked.

Test by visiting http://localhost:8880 in a browser. If you see the Beefweb player, the plugin is healthy. If you set a password, paste it exactly as configured in IKANDY's foobar2000 settings.

Confirm MusicBee is running and that MBXHub appears under Edit → Preferences → Plugins. The MBXHub bundle's mb_MBXHub.dll and MBXHub.exe should be in MusicBee's Plugins folder.

Test by visiting http://localhost:8080/docs in a browser. If the MBXHub API documentation loads, match IKANDY's host and port to the plugin configuration. The IKANDY defaults are 127.0.0.1 and 8080.

If the plugin does not load, confirm .NET Framework 4.8 and the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime are available, then check the official MBXHub requirements and installation notes.

Steam handles installing and updating IKANDY. If an install stalls or a launch fails after an update, use Steam's built-in repair: right-click IKANDY in your library, then Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files.

By default IKANDY captures the entire system audio mix: game sound effects, Discord calls, notification pings, and music all go in together. The visualizer reacts to whichever is loudest at any given moment, which is often the game.

Fix: use Per-Process Capture. Open Settings (⚙) → SOURCE tab → Per-Process Capture, click Scan, then click Capture next to Spotify or MusicBee. IKANDY will focus on that app's audio stream while the game keeps running normally.

Confirm the source is connected: the console bar's Now Playing zone should show the track name and source.

Visuals react to system audio regardless of which source you’ve picked for track info. If the visualizer is static while music plays, audio isn’t reaching IKANDY. Click 🎤 Reconnect Audio in Settings (⚙) → SOURCE tab, and check Windows microphone permissions.

IKANDY captures a stereo loopback stream. With 5.1/7.1 configured, Windows mixes most music into rear/centre/sub channels, leaving the front L/R that IKANDY captures very quiet.

Fix: set your default output to Stereo (2 channel):

1. Right-click speaker icon → Sounds → Playback tab.
2. Right-click your active output → Configure Speakers → choose Stereo.
3. Right-click again → Properties → Advanced → pick a 2-channel format from Default Format.
4. Apply, then in IKANDY hit 🎤 Reconnect Audio in Settings (⚙) → SOURCE tab.

Lyrics come from LRCLIB, which is community-maintained. Very new or obscure tracks may not have an entry. Search lrclib.net directly to confirm.

Also check: if your local files have incorrect artist/title tags, lyrics will look up the wrong song.

IKANDY is GPU-bound. If your GPU is busy with another task, frame rate will suffer.

Try: lower Reactivity in the master audio popover, drop the MilkDrop opacity in its settings popover, or step the Quality tier down; pick a simpler scene (Spectrum or Aurora instead of Starfield); or open the IMAGE tab and disable FX shaders to remove a full-frame post-process pass.

On laptops, make sure IKANDY is using the discrete GPU: Settings → System → Display → Graphics.

Try a clean reinstall: uninstall via Settings → Apps, delete %APPDATA%\IKANDY, then reinstall the latest build.

If it still crashes, email support@ikandy.app with your Windows version, GPU, and any error message shown.

IKANDY stores all user data in the Electron userData folder: %APPDATA%\IKANDY (paste into the Explorer address bar).

Files stored there include your Spotify tokens (encrypted via Windows DPAPI), source preferences, preset reactivity scores, favorites, hidden presets, and thumbnail cache.

Uninstall note: the standard NSIS uninstaller on Windows does not delete %APPDATA%\IKANDY. Your settings, favorites, and cached thumbnails survive an uninstall and are picked up automatically when you reinstall. To fully reset IKANDY, delete that folder manually after uninstalling.