Documentation for controlling and preserving Bose SoundTouch devices
This guide walks you through running AfterTouch on your own computer or server. No programming knowledge required.
AfterTouch is software that runs on a computer in your home and takes over the role of Bose’s cloud servers. Your speakers talk to it instead of Bose.
For this to work, the computer running AfterTouch must be:
Good choices: a Raspberry Pi, a NAS (like Synology or QNAP), an always-on PC or Mac, or a small server. A laptop that you close and put away is not ideal.
Go to the AfterTouch releases page and download the latest release for your operating system:
| Your system | File to download |
|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi (64-bit) | soundtouch-service_linux_arm64.tar.gz |
| Raspberry Pi (32-bit) | soundtouch-service_linux_arm.tar.gz |
| Linux (64-bit PC) | soundtouch-service_linux_amd64.tar.gz |
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | soundtouch-service_darwin_arm64.tar.gz |
| macOS (Intel) | soundtouch-service_darwin_amd64.tar.gz |
| Windows | soundtouch-service_windows_amd64.zip |
Extract the archive. You will find a single file called soundtouch-service (or soundtouch-service.exe on Windows).
If you already use Docker, you can run AfterTouch as a container instead. See the Deployment Guide for Docker instructions.
Open a terminal (or Command Prompt on Windows), navigate to the folder where you extracted the file, and run:
./soundtouch-service
On Windows:
soundtouch-service.exe
You should see log output like:
Starting AfterTouch service on :8000
AfterTouch is now running on port 8000.
In a web browser on any device on your network, go to:
http://<your-server-ip>:8000
Replace <your-server-ip> with the actual IP address of the computer running AfterTouch. For example: http://192.168.1.100:8000.
If you are on the same computer that is running AfterTouch, you can use http://localhost:8000.
You should see the AfterTouch web interface with tabs: Overview, Settings, Devices, and so on.
This is the most important setting. Go to the Settings tab and set the Target Domain to the full address of your AfterTouch server — the same address you used to open the web interface:
http://192.168.1.100:8000
Use the IP address of your server, not localhost. Your speakers need to reach this address over the network, and they cannot resolve localhost.
Click Save Settings.
You are now ready to migrate your speakers. Follow the main Migration Guide for the remaining steps (discovering devices, syncing data, and redirecting your speakers to AfterTouch).
By default, AfterTouch stops when you close the terminal. To keep it running permanently:
Raspberry Pi / Linux: See the Raspberry Pi Guide for instructions on running AfterTouch as a background service using systemd.
NAS devices: Most NAS systems support Docker. Use the Docker instructions in the Deployment Guide.
macOS: You can use launchd to run AfterTouch at login. Creating a launchd plist is beyond this guide, but the Deployment Guide has a systemd example you can adapt.
Windows: You can use Task Scheduler to run AfterTouch at startup.
AfterTouch must always be reachable at the same address, because your speakers will be configured to point to it. If the IP changes, your speakers will stop working until you reconfigure them.
The easiest solution is to assign a static (fixed) IP address to the computer running AfterTouch in your router’s settings. Look for “DHCP reservation” or “static IP” in your router’s administration interface, and bind the server’s MAC address to a fixed IP.
AfterTouch’s web interface and management API have no login by default. On a typical home network this is fine, since only devices on your local network can reach it.
If you want to restrict access — for example, on a shared network — start the service with a username and password:
./soundtouch-service --mgmt-username admin --mgmt-password yourpassword
This protects the Settings tab (where your Spotify and Amazon credentials are stored) from being read or changed by others on the network.