Feature Request - music library integration

Hey ​@Stanley_4, welcome back!

I’ve marked this thread as a feature request and forwarded it to the appropriate teams for consideration.

Thank you for the post!

Please let it happen, I dread one more "my library won't connect" topic that I am minimal help with.

Maybe ask the tech support folks to ask for this too? It would sure make their lives easier.

Dunno…it may be a case of ‘what percentage of users are trying to do this’, and their attention is dragged to something more impactful. Combined with some aspect of ‘how hard would this be’. 

That "how hard" is what got me thinking on this, I was working on a non-Sonos project using a USB connected drive and Samba (the SMB file sharing) and the ease of adding a share to my existing client device was interesting.

Edit to make this more explicit, this would plug into the Sonos USB port.

- Connecting the device, no progamming - just add driver to the existing kernel.

- Connecting the disk - use the existing mount/fstab code, just add a single config line. 

- Sharing the files - Samba is already loaded so all that is needed is adding the share configuration to smb.conf as you do for any other NAS.

Supporting a single, known, device minimizes the effort. There are many options, maybe even get some manufacturer to stamp Sonos on the case. A single example and at this price point, $12,  Sonos could build in a nice profit for minimal effort. Might even just add an SD port to the existing Combo Adapter?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0F1G1TNDS

I think you have much more knowledge in this area than I do. My understanding (perhaps misunderstanding?) is that not all devices provide SMB…certain routers, for instance. It’s fine if it’s connected to a desktop machine, those all have SMB loaded, but what happens with a drive connected to a USB port on a router that doesn’t have SMB?

And while I’m still one of those people who listen mostly to local music, what percentage of Sonos users do so? Is it worth investing the time/effort in supporting this for a handful (pick your number, Sonos probably knows, I certainly don’t) of users, when they could be applying that effort to larger, more widely impactful features? It would be a boon for you and me, and reduce the threads we need to seemingly constantly address, but is it worthwhile for Sonos?

I don’t know. It’s a great request, I’d like it, but given that it hasn’t happened so far, I’m not holding my breath. 

Since even thumb drives are getting more and more storage space it would be nice if the 65k limit could also be taken away.

I suspect that ties in, in some way, with ​@AjTrek1 ’s  desire to address more than 32 devices. It would certainly make me happy as well. But I suspect a ton of work. It would be an interesting discussion with a programmer….and what percentage of users even get close to that. 

I'm not sure why you are mentioning routers they have nothing to do with my suggestion, they and other NAS options with their difficulties is exactly why I proposed this. Did you miss the key point that the device would plug into tne Sonos USB port? I will go back and edit to make that more explicit.

The number of users might initially prove small as folks either avoid the music library due to lack of interest or frustrations with the current aggravations. However a plug and play music library option might see more users interested in it. It could also become a selling point for Sonos compared to the current implementation that based on the customer frustrations here and elsewhere probably costs sales. Add in the tech support cost savings as a bonus.

The 65 k limit could certainly be relaxed but that would be a bit more difficult project needing some programming effort where my proposal is pretty much editing a few config files.

Making room for more than  65 k tracks would be no problem as large SD cards are available. A 128 gb is about $50 and a 512 gb around $100.

Hi ​@Stanley_4 

I’m with you on this - in fact, I have been suggesting it since the USB-C ports started doing more than just charging. I’m glad to finally have a customer suggest it so we can forward it on through the normal channels.