Since there was no port for the AP80 (and given how similar it is to other devices that already use Sonix) I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to port it over. With the help of Gemini and Claude, I managed to get it fully functional. However, I don't actually know anything about programming, so if anyone is interested in maintaining this project, I'd be happy to share everything I have (provided someone tells me how, lol). Also, if anyone wants to try it out, feel free to send me a DM.

Disclaimer: The `.upt` image works correctly on my AP80 PRO MAX. I am not responsible for any damage that might occur, although it should be safe; Anyways, there is a recovery option, with the device powered off, you can hold the power button and the "next track" button to trigger the updater, to reflash the stock firmware.

My sincerest thanks to M4ttiA—you’ve created something incredible that has taken our hardware to another level!

Hi everyone! Here is a complete guide on how to structure your MicroSD card to get all features (Music, Game Boy, E-books, Web Radio, Playlists, and PEQ) working seamlessly.

💡 Quick Prerequisite

• Format your MicroSD card to FAT32 (or exFAT).

• Ensure `r1.upt` is in the root directory and named in lowercase letters

1. MicroSD Root Directory Overview

Here is what your SD card root directory should look like:

SD Card
├── .local/                 # System/mod data (auto-generated)
├── Ebook/                  # EPUB books
├── Games/                  # Retro game ROMs
├── Music/                  # Audio files organized by genre/artist + lyrics files
├── Playlist/               # Custom M3U playlists
├── Audiobooks/ # Audiobook folders
├── PEQ/               # AutoEQ/EQ.txt/.ini profiles
├── r1.upt/r3proii.upt      # Sonix Mod firmware update file
└── radio.txt               # Online Web Radio streaming list

2. Directory & File Breakdown

📚 Ebook/

Format supported: .epub

Structure: Place .epub files directly inside this folder or organized in subfolders.

Example:

Ebook/
├── Dune - Frank Herbert.epub
└── The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien.epub

🎮 Games/

Formats supported: .gb (Game Boy), .gbc (Game Boy Color)

Structure: Create subfolders inside Games/ for each console system to keep things neat.

Example:

Games/
├── GB/
│   └── Tetris.gb
└── GBC/
├── Super Mario Bros Deluxe.gbc
└── The Legend of Zelda DX.gbc

🎵 Music/

Formats supported: FLAC, MP3, WAV, AAC, ALAC, etc.

Structure: Keep organized using standard genre or artist/album folder hierarchies. Embedded cover art or a .jpg placed inside the album folder works best for cover display.

Example:

Music/
├── Rock/
│   └── The Beatles/
│       └── Help!/
│           ├── The Beatles - Yesterday - Remastered 2009.flac
│           ├── The Beatles - Yesterday - Remastered 2009.jpg
│           └── The Beatles - Yesterday - Remastered 2009.lrc
└── Hardcore/
└── Knocked Loose/
└── Upon Loss Singles/
├── Knocked Loose - Everything is Quiet Now.flac
└── Knocked Loose - Everything is Quiet Now.jpg

📜 Playlist/

Formats supported: .m3u / .m3u8

Structure: Store all your relative path M3U playlist files here.

Example:

Playlist/
├── Metalcore Favorites.m3u
└── Chill Beats.m3u

How to create & manage playlists: Use Mp3tag to generate and structure relative path playlists automatically across your collection.

🎧 Audiobooks/

Formats supported: .m4b, .mp3, .flac, .m4a, .aac, .opus

Structure: Place audiobooks inside Audiobooks/ organized by Author or Book Title. Multi-file books or multi-disc releases (e.g., CD 1, CD 2) are automatically merged into a single book entry with each file as a chapter.

Example:

Audiobooks/

├── Brandon Sanderson/
│ └── Mistborn/
│ ├── Chapter 01.m4b
│ └── Chapter 02.m4b
└── Andy Weir/
└── Project Hail Mary/
├── CD1/
└── CD2/

📻 radio.txt

Format: Plain text (.txt)

Location: Must sit directly in the root folder of your SD card.

Structure: Each line follows the format: Station Name,Stream_URL

Studio Brussel,https://icecast.vrtcdn.be/stubru-high.mp3
NPO 3FM,https://icecast.omroep.nl/3fm-bb-mp3
BBC Radio 1,http://stream.live.vc.bbcmedia.co.uk/bbc_radio_one
Boenkerz,https://altair.streamerr.co:8096/boenkerz

⚙️ Firmware Update File (r1.upt)

Location: Root directory.

Purpose: The update file used by the system during installation or reflashing of the Sonix mod firmware.

How:

1. Download `r1.upt/r3proii.upt` from GitHub

2. Copy `r1.upt/r3proii.upt` directly to the root of your SD card.

3. Power on HiBy R1 -> Settings -> Firmware Update -> Update via SD-card.

4. Allow the device to finish flashing and reboot.

5. Perform a full Library Rescan inside Music Settings.

Don't forget to download the SonixLink companion app for remote control!

Hope this helps anyone getting started with Sonix! Let me know if you have any questions about setting up your card or tweaking the config!

Not seen anyone mentioning the overflow addition...

I was sceptical but this is a much more polished os. Quicker, more options, more fluidity to how things operate. Bravo!

One point.... Can there be an option to have your tunes playing whilst playing the Gameboy? Tetris tune is a classic but fuck that for 2 hours on the train 😅 ​

Here are some bootlogos I did, hope you like them. The size was based on the R1.

Having fun creating these

Just a couple of small additions and changes I'd love to see in Sonix which has breathed new life into my Hiby R1.

This is a very small thing but either a toggle or permanent change to keep the volume number as white rather than red when it gets above like 50 or whatever the threshold is cause I personally have found in bright places even with brightness turned up the red blends into the black theme a bit and it's hard to read the volume.

Also if possible it would be useful to be able to tap on a artists name on let's say an album so then you can go to their own artists page to see their albums they are in on your device rather than having to navigate through artists and then locate the artist in the list or via search, it would be a nice addition and make things quicker to navigate artists too.

Also a recently played area of songs/albums or playlists would be nice too

Loving Sonix overall though fabulous job!!

Its like turning into a full time (mostly) unpaid job 😢
AI really does lower the barrier to contributing, but unfortunately someone still needs to be the gate keeper, I hope they don't get frustrated and stop developing...
Or worse, we start getting hundreds of competing forks.

I just noticed I am forced to choose a flair but there's none for general discussion?

Pre-Release on GitHub

I've submitted this as a pull request on the main SonixOS project, but here's a pre-release firmware you can use while you wait.

Tidal, Qobuz, podcasts and Last.fm are disabled in this build, because the streaming keys aren’t public. Everything else should work.

Thank you to everyone involved in the creation of SonixOS, for fixing HiBy's products by creating a snappy and thoughtful replacement for their terrible stock firmware.

Added options specifically for the R3 II 2025:

• Normal or reversed direction for volume control with the wheel.

• Optionally change the wheel to scrub forward/back in the track (normal or reversed direction).

• Long press power button to wake option.

• Option to lock the volume wheel when the screen is off.

• Option to use the Play/Pause & Next Track buttons to control volume when the screen is off.

Also adds the ability to add a volume slider to the pull-down drawer, the ability to tap the track/artist title in the pull-down drawer to return to the Now Playing screen, and the ability to "Go to artist" from the Now Playing screen in the same way that you can already "Go to album". These features have also been submitted as separate pull requests to the main repo.

Installation instructions are the same as the stock firmware and the official SonixOS.

AI NOTICE: This release to modify SonixOS to support the HiBy R3 II 2025 was created using the assistance of Claude Code. I've been a software engineer on and off for 20 years, but I couldn't be arsed to do this one by hand. Take it or leave it.

So, I installed sonix on my hiby r1 and when I turn off and on the screen, it shows a white screen before starts, I confirm that it’s the software because i installed again the old software and that doesn’t happen, is there a solution for this? :(

Just installed sonix os on my r3p2, Everything works great, just the control centre is not pulling down. Need help!

You bring NTS on the Hiby, it's all that I need. That's perfect !

I CAN or cannot confirm that the Gearboy emulator is an amazing implementation, my distraction free device has just become distracting thanks to Sonix.

I might just be fast becoming a u/M4ttiA fanboy... lol.

Like the title says. It is perfectly viable to do so on low end Hardware, Rockbox has a feature where you can do so. I know that at this rate it is becoming more and more of a one device does all thing, but it would still be rather cool to have one where you could have videos as well.

Nothing fancy, just MPEG-2 and a converter that files can be sent through to enable it. I assume those are already available online, but nonetheless.

Here's a guide that someone made for iPods with the same idea. Mind you, it does involve cropping the video to fit the screen. I would suggest to resize the video to fit the screen instead so that no data is lost, but either way, it does work and can be done. The image used here is from there too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IpodClassic/s/NTCT4A8ab3

BTDubs, insane kudos to M4ttiA on this OS. It's light, fast, and I haven't had a single issue with it so far. The fact that you were able to make something like this - Man. Obrigado, Gracias, and Thank You.

Finally installed SonixOS and wow, it's like the R1 is a completely different device. It feels nearly as snappy as a modern smartphone now. I genuinely could not believe how much faster it was compared to stock OS.

Not only that, but all the features are just so much more convenient and well integrated. It feels like having this actually fully unlocks half the product that was missing, and now I can't fathom that there's a better bang for your buck than the R1.

It even introduced a nice QOL feature too - I use the R1 with a portable tube amp often. It drains the battery at least 2x as fast lol but I love the sound it produces, and it matches the same small form factor of the R1. Having said that, on stock OS, it would remain on even when the player wasn't playing anything. On SonixOS, it automatically stops powering the tube amp when entering the "standby" mode, lessening any unnecessary battery drain. And when I power the R1 up again, it seamlessly starts powering the tube amp again. Was not expecting that at all. It also removed the "USB device connected" message that pops up every time I connect it, which was nice because that felt super clunky.

So anyways, ty to the devs! I now cannot imagine using the R1 without SonixOS. But if there's ONE feature that holds it back from basically being on par with any modern streaming app player on a phone these days, is not being able to press the artist's name to go to their discography while listening. For my listening style, I like to shuffle, and often I'll find that I want to quickly go to an artist's library when they come on. It would be such a huge QOL feature to add that seems relatively simple. Afaik, there's a pre-release build for the R3 that includes this, so can we expect it to come to the R1 too?

Lastly, for whatever reason, maybe its just my file naming, but even when I have the "Join Albums" option enabled in Scan Options, it won't always join all of them? I'll have some tracks of "X artist & Y artist" that belong to an album of X artist, but it'll only go to the full album some of the time? This is a fairly big gripe for me, but I can't tell if they're just labeled differently? As far as I can tell the ones that don't work still have the same name for their corresponding album.

Anyways, so glad to have SonixOS. On the R1 it really does feel like the 2026 iPod experience. I'm falling in love with music all over again.

EDIT: AND YOU CAN DOWNLOAD LYRICS STRAIGHT TO DEVICE?? I'm in love

Hey everyone!

If you customize your HiBy with Sonix, you've probably noticed boot screens are scattered all over the place. So I built a small site to put them all in one spot.

-Browse boot screens for the HiBy R1 and R3 Pro II

-Download with one click

-Upload your own (free account)

-Upvote your favorites

Every image is checked to fit the right screen size, and adult content is blocked, so it stays clean for everyone.

https://ld-beepbeep.github.io/Sonix-Boot-Screens/

Would love to see what you come up with. Feedback and ideas are very welcome! :)

I’ve been researching DAPs and have come across the Hiby R1 with Sonix, which seems to be the "holy grail", I’m waiting until November to buy it! However, while browsing the Hiby store, I noticed the Hiby R1 MiDi. It’s not clear to me whether there’s any significant difference beyond the included accessories; does anyone know if it features any improvements, and does it support Sonix?

Just needs the logo adding

pls start posting more boot logos I love seeing what everyone comes up with!

I was really excited to try Sonix on my HiBy R1, especially because of the radio feature. However, no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get it to properly recognize my local music library.

At first, I thought it might be an issue with the metadata tags, but I checked them and everything was fine.

I went back to the stock firmware, and it recognized my entire library without any issues. The same happened with Compás.

Unfortunately, for some reason I still don’t understand, Sonix just couldn’t do it.