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LRC Lyrics Setup Guide
This guide will show you how to add synchronized lyrics in LRC format to your music library on Navidrome.
An LRC file is a text file that contains song lyrics with synchronized timestamps, allowing the player to display lyrics in real-time during playback.
- Navidrome installed and running
- Access to your music library folder
- Basic knowledge of how to navigate your server's filesystem
LRCLIB is the recommended free and open-source database for downloading LRC files.
- Open your browser and go to https://lrclib.net/
- In the search bar, enter the song title and artist
- Click on the correct song from the results
- Click the "Download" button or copy the LRC file text
- If you copied the text, create a new text file and paste it
- Save the file with the
.lrcextension
IMPORTANT: The LRC file must have exactly the same name as the audio file (only the extension changes).
| Audio File | LRC File |
|---|---|
01 - Bohemian Rhapsody.mp3 |
01 - Bohemian Rhapsody.lrc |
Song Name.flac |
Song Name.lrc |
Track 05.m4a |
Track 05.lrc |
- Respect uppercase and lowercase letters
- Copy exactly spaces, hyphens, and special characters
- Only the extension should be different (
.lrcinstead of.mp3,.flac, etc.)
The LRC file must be in the same folder as the corresponding audio file.
/path/to/music/library/
├── Queen/
│ ├── A Night at the Opera/
│ │ ├── 01 - Bohemian Rhapsody.mp3
│ │ ├── 01 - Bohemian Rhapsody.lrc ← LRC file here
│ │ ├── 02 - You're My Best Friend.mp3
│ │ └── 02 - You're My Best Friend.lrc
If Navidrome is on your local computer:
- Open your file manager
- Navigate to the song's folder
- Copy/move the
.lrcfile to the same folder
If Navidrome is on a remote server:
- Use an SFTP/SCP client (like FileZilla, WinSCP, or
scpfrom terminal) - Connect to the server
- Navigate to the music library folder
- Upload the
.lrcfile to the correct folder
Example with SCP (Linux/Mac):
scp "Bohemian Rhapsody.lrc" user@server:/path/to/library/Queen/A\ Night\ at\ the\ Opera/After adding LRC files, you need to tell Navidrome to rescan your library:
- Access Navidrome from your browser
- Go to Settings (gear icon in the top right)
- Click on Library in the sidebar
- Click the "Full Scan" button
- Wait for the scan to complete (may take a few minutes)
- Go to your music library
- Find and play the song you added lyrics to
- Click on the lyrics icon (usually at the top or bottom of the player)
- The lyrics should appear synchronized with the music
✅ Check that:
- The LRC filename is identical to the audio file (character by character)
- The LRC file is in the same folder as the audio file
- You performed a full library scan
- The LRC file is encoded in UTF-8 (open with a text editor and save as UTF-8)
- The timestamps in the LRC file might not be accurate
- Try downloading the lyrics from another source
- Or manually edit the timestamps in the LRC file
- Open the
.lrcfile with a text editor (Notepad++, VSCode, Nano, etc.) - Edit the timestamps in the format
[MM:SS.xx]Line of lyrics - Save and rescan your library
If you have many songs, consider using automated scripts or tools that:
- Automatically download LRC files from LRCLIB
- Rename and place them correctly
- Process entire folders in batch
- LRCLIB: https://lrclib.net/
- Navidrome Documentation: https://www.navidrome.org/docs/
- LRC Format: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRC_(file_format)
Final tip: Start by adding lyrics to one or two songs to familiarize yourself with the process, then proceed with the rest of your library.
This guide is part of the Musly project to enhance your music experience.