# Cog (kode54) — user reviews > 13 indexed App Store user reviews of Cog (kode54) by Christopher Snowhill. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cog-kode54/id1630499622/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cog-kode54/id1630499622.md ## Is Cog (kode54) safe? Not enough ratings yet to assess Cog (kode54). ## Is Cog (kode54) legit? Cog (kode54) appears to be a legitimate app. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Cog (kode54) is 83 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Can’t handle a large music Library *2025-03-08* This app simply get’s bogged down with a large library (don’t know how well it works with a small one). It took over 5 hours to read all of my files and get all of the metadata. It finally finish when at bedtime so I turned off my external drive and when I fired it back up this morning Cog stated the whole process all over 🤯. I tied to scroll dow to play a music file and I got the spinning wheel of death. I’ve read online how this app is light weight and uses little resources, I’m not experiencing that at all. I have been using Strawberry and before that Clementine and those, while a bit primitive have worked flawlessly; (I would stay with Strawberry but they are no longer supporting Mac for free). I’d rather pay for an app that works well than struggle with one that doesn’t so I’ll have to find a paid app instead. I appreciate your effort, and thanks for the response but I ended up finding an open source app that fit my needs. With it I loaded my entire library in under 2 minutes and works flawlessly. **Developer response:** I have made some minor improvements with file loading recently, maybe try it again? It loads about 4500 files here in under three minutes, which, while not really that great, is also from a network share. Tag loading should also be considerably faster now that I've attempted to shortcut the weird tag encoding issues by trying UTF-8 first. ### 3/5 — Great *2026-04-17* Only missing thing is playlist management like creating smart playlists. There is currently no option to resume playing from last position when listening to spoken word books and lectures. ### 3/5 — Touch Bar Issues *2025-04-18* Just discovered this app and liking the simplicity. I did however notice that the app *DOES NOT* like when I seek a FLAC track using the Touch Bar and Lockes up 100% of the time necessitating a force quit. (16” 2019 Intel MBP) ### 4/5 — Want to Like It But It Needs Certain Things *2023-02-20* This is a very nice player and had it a few very important features I would throw Apple's Music application down the sewage drain where it rightfully belongs. Unless you have for some time tried some alternatives, you might not know just how lackluster Music actually is, and done on purpose. I certainly hoped that COG allowed for the creation of Smart File Lists, as my entire filing system is built around that. I have a very very large library, consisting of Public Domain files and audiobooks from Librovox. Apparently Apple doesn't like that since they can't extract money from you that way. Another issue is trying to Blutooth the signal to that pathetic Homepod mini. Bad enough you can only ask Siri to play tracks from a specific playlist that exists in your Apple monthly subscription. Something that at the time I purchased it, Apple didn't make clear - and yes they did catch heat for it,but as far as I know they never made and effort to make good on it. Perhaps its because they just don't care? They also didn't point out the alternative was to purchase an increased amount of iCloud storage which is monthly extortionism. I have thousands of files piling into the thousands of GBs. So, the amount of cloud space for that on a monthly subscription is out of the question. So there's that. I was really hoping that with COG, that at the very least, I would be able to bluetooth the siignal. Typically I have the signal running off the iMac in one room, and the signal also in another room where the Homepod is. I've not had any luck funneling that signal to the HomePod –– anywhere. But in all honesty, The Homepod is so fussy, It barely works, or stays working for long using its own native equipments. I live in a three room crate, so it isn't as if the distance has far to go. Just out the door from the room I'm sitting in right now and to the table ten feet further. That be all. I love the equalizer, its a modern affair with a ton of frequencies to use when cleaning up ancient 78's that are 100 years old. It's by far vastly superior to the simple toss at ya thingy Apple provides with Music. Like, could they have spared a little bit? Really? Again there are many great features to COG, but Smart Playlists and tethering it to Apples mistake for a whatever you wanna call that $100 black ball in the other room just was a deal breaker. But it is nice to know that if you spend some time looking about, you can find a good if not better replacement for Apple's prettty but otherwise useless basic applications . I really wanted to give this a five star, but for those two issues. I know I know, I'm no fool, I understand that Apple has taken the route of forcing its customers into not just one, but many monthly subscription "services". Nice, yeas, but that should be our own choise. It shouldn't be shoved down our pie holes by creating artificial barriers, etc., like moving audibooks from iTunes/Music to Apple Books then make Books unmovable from the harddrive. Audio are large files, and Apple knows this and that is why they did it. But there no different than any other sound file. They just used the move as one more means of forcing us into paying ungodly amounts of monthly fees for the rest of our lives. Like they don't make enough as it is. I remember the 90s. . . I was there. Too bad mr. Jobs isn't here now. **Developer response:** I had planned on implementing AirPlay 2 support eventually, and I guess now I'll try to get to it sooner rather than later. I also was supposed to have Smart Lists support, but I guess I need to fix that support. It may also require you to add your music folders to the sandbox paths separately, as I don't currently know of a way to enumerate the music file paths I need to add without the Sandbox already being granted access to the folders. Sorry I can't be more help with that one, but I can see what's broken and try to fix it. ### 5/5 — Really…really good *2026-05-14* My fav. Beats Foobar2000. ### 5/5 — Excellent Choice for NAS Music Collection *2026-04-24* As someone that keeps their music collection on a Network Attached Storage, so that I can use it with multiple OSs, Cog is totally excellent with this option. I also appreciate the consistent updates to this application! ### 5/5 — Please ADD last.fm support! *2026-03-11* This app is great, but we all need last.fm support. Please add this feature! I’d like even pay for it. ### 5/5 — Amazing app *2026-03-10* If you're looking for a simple, lightweight, but also feature-rich music app for macOS, this is it. It's like foobar2000 if it actually looked nice lol. The only thing I wish it had was an option to see the full album artwork in a sidebar or something, rather than having it pop up in a separate window. Also, it would be nice to have sidebar controls to change between different playlists and see only the songs in that selected playlist. But hey, it's free and it's amazing. Totally worth it for me. ### 5/5 — Thank you! *2025-04-07* I just wanted to say thank you! I don’t want a cloud, I don’t want internet, I just need a simple tool to practice my instrument and believe me or not, when I upload a file, I can use Cog to help me practice over it at ease. TY! Awesome little app! ### 5/5 — Amazing App Keeps Getting Better! *2024-11-24* Finally found the perfect music player for my Mac! Dev is very active still and keeps making this already amazing app even better! Thank you for making this! ## Most praised reviews (3 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great for live music collecting *2024-08-28* I collect concert recordings in lossless audio, which isn't handled by most mainstream music apps. Cog has always been my go-to for opening a folder of music files and playing without the hassle of converting formats. ### 5/5 — Wow, really great! *2024-06-03* I'm an old Winamp guy and recently got into macOS so I'm making the switch. I'm loving COG! Its a really great that has all the earmarks of a mature, full featured application. I think its free?!? I'd easily pay for this!!! -Ken ### 5/5 — Very NIce Player *2023-12-26* Been using this for a couple of months. Things I lke: Its simple, just list view. The playist style is awesome, I spend most of my time moving stuff around in it. Easy and fun do change on the go. The Equalizer is the best and easiest I have come across. Many codecs, important There are some nice options included, there is no bling (always a good thing). I've been using iTunes since the beginning, when it was decent until it's death with the arrival of Apple Music, which I won't speak about. I won't be gong back to that ever. I can live with Cog easily going ahead. I also use Linux, verion for that OS would do well over there. Maybe in your spare time? --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-24.*