⚠️ Program Limitations

This document outlines the current technical constraints, functional limitations, and performance considerations of FastMediaSorter v2.

📱 System Requirements

Android Version: Android 8.0 (API 26) or newer is required for Standard / Lite / Photos. The Legacy flavor extends support down to Android 6.0 (API 23) or newer. XR / noLegal builds require supported headset hardware and the current OpenXR / sideload runtime path for your build.
Hardware: Performance may vary based on device CPU and RAM, especially for large collections (5000+ files).
Storage Access: Full functionality requires the “All Files Access” (MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) permission on newer Android versions.

SMB: Best performance on local Wi-Fi. Supports SMB v2/v3 (v1 is deprecated but may work in some configurations).
Cloud (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox): Files are streamed/cached on demand. There is no background sync for offline use.
Undo Operation: The “Undo” feature for move/delete operations is NOT available for network and cloud resources. Once deleted, they are gone (unless the server provides its own trash bin).

Local Files: Works completely offline.
Network/Cloud: Requires an active connection.
OCR/Translation: Requires a one-time internet connection to download language models (~15-50 MB depending on the language).

Lite flavor: The Streams feature is entirely absent - there is no screen and no entry point, so no protocol works there. Lite is a local-media build in general: no network sources (SMB, SFTP, FTP), no cloud storage, no documents or EPUB, no animations, and no background audio playback. Local video, images, and audio with lyrics do work.
Photos flavor: The Streams feature is entirely absent.
Live HLS/DASH: Only VOD (on-demand) HLS/DASH is supported in this release. Live-offset / live-edge HLS/DASH playback is deferred.
Playlist formats: Only .m3u playlist import and the curated FastMediaSorter catalog are supported. .pls, .xspf, and custom-JSON imports are deferred.
Playback position: Stream playback position is not saved or restored (dynamic source by nature).
DRM: No DRM-protected streams.
Closed platforms: YouTube, Twitch, and similar closed-platform URLs are not supported.
EPG / DVR / Timeshift: Not supported.

Images: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, WEBP, HEIC, HEIF, AVIF. RAW formats (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG, etc.) are NOT supported.
Videos: MP4, MKV, MOV, WMV, FLV, WEBM, TS, M2TS, VOB, OGV, DIVX, MTS and more. If a file uses an unsupported codec (e.g., HEVC on older devices), you may see a black screen. Solution: Use the “Open in External Player” option.
Text: Large text files (>100MB) may load slowly in the internal viewer.
EPUB: Supports DRM-free EPUB files only. Encrypted or DRM-protected books will not open.

Performance: Folders with 5000+ files may experience scrolling lag while thumbnails are generating.
Thumbnail Cache: Limited to 2GB by default (configurable in settings).

Local Only: Favorites are stored in a local database on your device. They are not synced to the actual files or across different devices.

Soft Delete: Local files are moved to a hidden .trash/ folder. This takes up space until you manually select “Empty Trash” in settings.

Limited Scope: The Wear OS companion app currently supports local media only. Network and cloud resources are not accessible from the watch.
Performance: Image and video processing on watches is significantly slower than on phones.

Standard and noLegal only: the Lite, Photos, Legacy and VR builds have no launcher mode at all. On a headset the home environment belongs to the system.
Android decides, not the app: turning the setting on cannot make the app your home screen by itself - Android shows its own chooser and you have to confirm there. Cancelling that chooser leaves the mode off.
Some devices forget the choice: a few cheap car radios and built-in Android boxes restore their factory home screen on every boot, whatever you picked. That is firmware overriding the choice, and no app can work around it.
Contact cells are snapshots: a pinned contact keeps the details as they were when you picked the person. Editing that contact later in your address book does not update the cell, because the app never reads your contacts again.

Hardware: Runs only on Meta Quest 2/3/Pro and Android XR headsets (arm64-v8a + OpenXR runtime). On a phone without an XR runtime, the app shows a fallback screen and does not start playback.
Distribution: Two channels - Meta Horizon Store / Google Play (vr flavor, Store-clean: no GPL extractors / no yt-dlp) and ADB sideload (noLegal flavor, all-inclusive: VR + Python + yt-dlp + GPL extractors, runtime-gated on non-XR devices).
No Wear OS Companion: headsets have no paired watch.
See VR Edition for the full constraint list.

Engines: The app uses a hybrid engine (ML Kit + Tesseract).
Latencies: Tesseract (for Cyrillic) initialization takes 1-2 seconds longer than ML Kit.
Accuracy: Recognition quality depends heavily on image clarity and lighting.

Last Update: 2026-06-05 Version: Current public docs set