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Clients overview

Trobar has three official clients — the Android app, the cross-platform Desktop app, and the Garmin watch app — plus the sync API itself, which any device targets.

Device tokens

Every device gets its own API token, which the client receives by redeeming a short pairing code: 8 characters, shown with a QR code, valid for 20 minutes and only once. The token itself is never shown.

  • A phone, tablet or watch: Devices → Add device, choose the type, then Generate pairing code. The app scans the QR code or takes the typed code, and creates its device. The Garmin watch can't scan: the server URL and code reach it as app settings, see Garmin → Pair.
  • A DAP, removable storage or a local folder: Add device, enter a name (and a limit if you want one), then Create device. The dialog shows the server URL and a code for the desktop app. The device keeps the name and limit you entered.
  • Pairing again (a reinstalled app, a reformatted card, another computer's copy): Re-pair in app on the device issues a new code for that same device. Its selections, settings and history stay, and whatever was paired before stops working once the code is redeemed.

Desktop builds that predate pairing codes read only a raw token. For those, the code dialog of a DAP, card or folder has Older desktop app? Get a config file instead, which issues a new token (the old one stops working immediately) and offers it as a QR code and a downloadable trobar-device.json.

The sync model

All clients follow the same server-driven model:

  1. The server computes what each device is missing.
  2. The client downloads the diff and acknowledges each track with the real byte count written.
  3. On every sync the client verifies the files the server believes are on the device still exist — with a re-download / leave-deleted choice when they don't.

Files are written atomically (a half-copied track never sits under its real name), and playlist selections arrive as .m3u8 files at the sync-folder root, listing only what's actually on the device.

Pick your client:

  • Android app — phones, tablets, watches, Android DAPs.
  • Desktop app — anything that mounts as storage (SD cards, USB drives) or a folder.
  • Garmin watch app — Garmin smartwatches with onboard music storage, played back through the watch's own native Music player.