Customize Macdio: Settings Worth Changing on Every Device

In Macdio’s Settings you can change the appearance, the app icon, the iPhone’s tab bar, the Library layout and what Pause does on live radio, and on the Mac whether Macdio lives in the Dock, the menu bar or both. Settings is under the More tab on iPhone, a tab on iPad and Apple TV, and a window on the Mac (press ⌘, or click the gear button in the main window).

To change the look on iPhone or iPad:

1. Open Settings. On iPhone, tap More first.
2. In the “Appearance” section, choose “System”, “Light” or “Dark”.
3. Tap “App Icon” and pick one of the 13 icons.
4. On iPhone, use “Tab Bar” to put Settings, Recordings or Tracks in the tab bar.

Row	Choices	Default
“Appearance”	System, Light, Dark	System
“App Icon”	13 icons, among them “Violet Pool”, “Ocean”, “Sunset”, “Emerald” and “Pride”	“Default · Dark Glass”
“Tab Bar” (iPhone only)	Tracks, Recordings or Settings in the third tab	Tracks

The iPhone tab bar shows Library, Discover, the tab you picked, Podcasts and More, and the other two wait under More. The iPad shows every tab. More in Macdio on iPhone and iPad.

The “Sections” button in the Library toolbar (the up and down arrows) opens a sheet on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Drag My Lists, My Stations, Favorites, Recently Played and Popular Near You into the order you like, tap the eye to hide one, and set how many rows each shows: 5, 10, 20, 50 or all. The default order is the one above, with every row shown for the first three and 10 rows for the last two.

Two more places decide what you see:

• On iPhone and iPad, the “Library” section in Settings sets how many songs the Tracks lists show: “Saved Songs” (3 to 50, default 5) and “Recently Heard” (3 to 50, default 10). On the Mac these are “Saved tracks” (default 20) and “Recently Heard tracks” (default 8) in the “Appearance” tab.
• “Swipe Actions” in iPhone and iPad Settings chooses what a swipe on a station row shows. By default a right swipe offers Share and Edit, a left swipe Remove, Favorite and Add to List. This choice stays on the device.

All of these are in the “Playback” section on iPhone and iPad, and in the “General” tab, “Playback” section, on the Mac.

Setting	What it does	Default
“Live Pause”	Pause holds your place and Play continues where you stopped. Tap the time in the LIVE badge to go back live. With it off, pause mutes and Play returns to live.	Off
“Safety Buffer”	Plays a few seconds behind live so network drops shorter than that go unheard. iPhone offers 2, 5, 10 or 15 seconds, the Mac a slider up to 15.	Off
“Adaptive Buffering”	Adds buffer after the stream stalls: 2, 5 or 9 seconds after 1, 2 to 3, or 4 or more stalls, up to 20 seconds. It starts over with each station.	On
“Auto-Play on Launch”	Resumes your last station when Macdio opens.	Off
“Auto Shazam”	Names songs on stations that do not send titles. See Song ID and Auto Shazam.	Off

“Love Songs in Apple Music” (off by default) has its own “Apple Music” section, in Settings on iPhone and in the “General” tab on the Mac. With it on, a song you heart in Macdio is also loved in Apple Music. On iPhone, Macdio asks for Apple Music access when you switch it on. The game controller rows are explained in the game controller guide.

• New podcast episodes: “New Episode Notifications” on iPhone and iPad, “New episode notifications” on the Mac, both in the Podcasts settings and on by default. On iPhone the note under it says: “Macdio’s server checks the shows you follow so new episodes arrive even when the app is closed. It keeps only this device’s notification address and the list of shows.”
• Song changes, Mac only: “Track Change Notifications” in the “General” tab shows a notification on each new song. It is on by default, and Macdio asks for notification permission when it starts. The iPhone has no song-change notifications.

All in the Settings window, “General” tab:

Row	What it does	Default
“Show Macdio in”	“Dock & Menu Bar”, “Menu Bar Only” or “Dock Only”	Dock & Menu Bar
“Open at Login”	Starts Macdio when you log in	Off until you turn it on
“Dynamic Dock Artwork”	Shows the album art as the Dock icon while playing	On
“Dock Icon”	One of the same 13 designs as the iPhone icons	“Default · Dark Glass”

“Dock Icon” changes the icon in the Dock while Macdio runs; the icon in Finder stays the default. With “Dynamic Dock Artwork” on, the album art covers your chosen icon during playback.

The menu bar player shows what is playing, the controls, your Favorites, volume, a “Sleep Timer”, “Compact Mode”, “Settings ⌘,” and “Quit Macdio”. Right-clicking the Dock icon gives Play or Pause, Stop and the current song. ⇧⌘M is “Toggle Compact Mode”, and if you quit in compact mode, Macdio opens in compact mode again. See Macdio on Mac for the rest.

On Apple TV, Settings is a tab with cards. The “Audio” card has “Live Pause”, “Safety Buffer”, “Auto Identify Songs”, “Lyrics Scroll Sync”, “Love Songs in Apple Music” and “Auto-Play on Launch”. The “Display” card sets how many rows the TV shows: “Recent Stations” (20), “Recent Tracks” (10), “Favorites” (10), “My Stations” (10) and “My Lists” (5), plus “Ambient Mode” (off). See Macdio on Apple TV.

On iPhone and iPad, the “Language” section has “App Language”, which opens Macdio’s page in iOS Settings where you choose the language. On the Mac, the “General” tab has “Open Language & Region Settings”, which opens the system’s language settings.

A few do, through iCloud: “Appearance”, “Safety Buffer”, “Adaptive Buffering”, “Live Pause”, the Library’s section layout, and on the Mac “Show Macdio in”, “Track Change Notifications” and “Dynamic Dock Artwork”. Most other switches stay on the device where you set them, such as “App Icon”, “Tab Bar”, “Auto-Play on Launch” and every podcast playback setting. What your library syncs (favorites, your own stations, lists) is explained in favorites, lists and sync.

Under the More tab. If you want it in the tab bar itself, open Settings once and choose Settings in the “Tab Bar” row of the “Appearance” section.

Open Settings and set “Appearance” to “Dark”. On iPhone and iPad it is in the “Appearance” section, on the Mac in the “Appearance” tab of the Settings window. The default follows the system.

In the Settings window, “General” tab, set “Show Macdio in” to “Menu Bar Only”. Macdio then lives in the menu bar.

Turn off “Dynamic Dock Artwork” in the Settings window, “General” tab, “Notifications & Dock” section.

Yes. Turn on “Auto-Play on Launch” and Macdio resumes your last station when it opens. It is off by default and exists on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch.

Get Macdio on the App Store. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch, with no subscription.