Playlists overview

The Playlists page contains flows and imported playlists. Both types use the Aurral folder under aurral-weekly-flow.

Aurral does not write these files to your main music library.

Flows compared with static playlists

	Flows	Static playlists
Tracklist	Regenerates on a schedule	Fixed from import or export
Downloads	Can generate replacement picks	Keeps the exact imported tracks
Controls	Schedule, source mix, focus, deep dive	None of the flow controls
Worker	Shared download worker	Shared download worker

Flows refresh on a schedule and use your flow settings. Static playlists come from Spotify, JSON files, or exported flow tracklists.

Flow names and static playlist names must be unique across both types. Aurral uses the same bare name for Navidrome and Plex playlists.

If all download sources fail, the track stays in the failed state after an Aurral restart.

Select Re-search missing from the playlist menu to try the track again.

Import and Lidarr sync

Use Import playlist for Spotify (connect in-app) or a JSON tracklist. See Playlist imports.

Flows can expose a Lidarr import URL so Lidarr polls the current flow tracklist as a custom import list. See Lidarr: Import list feeds.

Where files go

Generated playlists go under your Downloads Folder path. Set this path in Settings > Download Clients. Usually, the path is:

/data/downloads/aurral/aurral-weekly-flow/<playlist-id>/

Navidrome scans that tree, then Aurral creates playlists through the Subsonic API. Plex can index the track folders and create playlists for Plexamp.

See Navidrome and Plex for playback setup.

See yt-dlp, slskd, and Usenet for download setup.

See Filesystem and mounts for storage setup.

Quality profile

Open Settings > Download Clients > Quality Profile to set the audio quality rules for flows and static playlists.

The profile is global. Only an administrator can change it.

The list order sets the quality rank. Move the best quality to the top. Select each tier that Aurral can accept. Select one enabled tier as the cutoff.

• An enabled tier at or above the cutoff is Preferred.
• An enabled tier below the cutoff is Upgrade.
• A disabled or unknown tier is Below floor.

The default profile accepts all tiers and uses FLAC standard as the cutoff.

Tier	Final-file rule
FLAC hi-res	More than 16 bits or more than 48 kHz
FLAC standard	Up to 16 bits and up to 48 kHz
MP3 128, 192, 256, or 320	Average bitrate, rounded to the nearest kbps
M4A 128, 192, 256, or 320	Average bitrate, rounded to the nearest kbps

Aurral can use search-result names and bitrate data to order candidates. Aurral does not trust that data for final admission. It reads the downloaded file and rejects it when the format, bitrate, sample rate, or bit depth does not match an enabled tier.

An unknown final quality is not valid. A quality rejection does not go to Activity > Review. Review stays for track identity and duration decisions.

The Quality column on the Playlists page shows the measured tier and its profile state. It labels a file reused from Lidarr as Lidarr.

Track upgrades

Aurral can upgrade files that it owns under the flow and static playlist folder. It does not change files from Lidarr or another external library.

Existing Aurral files stay available when they are below the new quality floor. Aurral replaces one only after it downloads and validates a better file. If more than one playlist uses the same file, Aurral updates all playlist references together.

To start upgrades manually:

• Select Search for upgrade on an eligible track.
• Select Search for upgrades from a flow or static playlist menu.

If an upgrade search is already in the queue for a track, Aurral reports that state instead of reporting that the track is not eligible.

A user who can open the playlist can start these searches. Manual searches work when automatic upgrades are off.

To schedule upgrades, enable Automatic upgrades in the Quality Profile. The default is off. Set the interval from 1 to 365 days. The default is 2 days for each track.

Upgrade jobs have a lower priority than missing-track downloads. Aurral uses slskd and Usenet for upgrades, in the configured source-priority order. It stops after the first source provides a valid, strictly better file. It waits for the next interval before it tries another automatic improvement for that track.

yt-dlp can supply an acceptable first file. Aurral does not use yt-dlp for upgrades.

Next steps

• Flows: schedule, source mix, focus, and generation behavior
• Playlist imports: Spotify connect, JSON formats, retries, and file reuse