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I’ve been having all manner of issues with Playlists created in iTunes and then imported into Sonos. 

Both Apple and Sonos seem to be updating their software without consideration of this integration feature. Every time the software asks to update form either company, I am worried it will break everything (again).

Now, I can get Sonos to read the XML playlists inside an iTunes library sitting on my NAS. I can see the playlist under External Playlists, and the individual song filenames (with MP3 extensions). However, when it tries to play the songs from the playlist, access is denied. When I instead Search for the individual song, I get the Song fine with all metadata. This kinda defeats the point of a playlist. Very annoying.

 

Hi @grushnik, thank you for reaching out to us, and welcome to the Sonos community. I appreciate your detailed post describing the issue as well as the steps that you did. Let me help you with this.

First, I'd like to ask a few questions and will give some suggestions on what you can follow.

  1. Is the sync turn on from your iOS devices?
    • On your iOS device, go to Settings > Music > Turn on Sync Library
  2. Do you see the same imported playlist on other mobile devices?
  3. Were you able to access the NAS drive from your computer? Did you get the same error message?
  4. Have you tried removing and re-adding your music library?
  5. To use a NAS drive with Sonos, the NAS must support the SMB(v1)/CIFS file-sharing protocol. Have you tried recreating the sharing permissions on the folder?
  6. Have you configured your computer firewall to work with Sonos? 
  7. If you have an antivirus installed on your Windows PC, you may check the firewall configuration settings to ensure that it's not blocking Sonos.

If you're still having the same issue after checking the steps above, I recommend contacting our phone support team to remotely connecting to your device to further assist you with this and to provide the best option for you. Our phone support team is closed on weekends. You may reach our Sonos Customer Care at 0800-026-1526. In the prompt, kindly select the technical department. The hours of operation are from 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday CET.

Please feel free to reach out in the future if you have any other questions.

You're always welcome here.


Thank you. Just some background, I have been a Sonos customer for >10 years, and the system was working for many years with no bugs on playlists until the updates in the last 3 years (Sonos and iTunes).

  1. Is the sync turn on from your iOS devices?
    • On your iOS device, go to Settings > Music > Turn on Sync Library

I use Android devices and the Windows App. I only use iTunes for managing the NAS music library.

Yes, they are synced.

  1. Do you see the same imported playlist on other mobile devices?

Yes

  1. Were you able to access the NAS drive from your computer? Did you get the same error message?

Yes, I can access the NAS folder from computer, from my android and my iPads. The error message only shows when trying to play a song from the imported playlist whatever app platform used.

  1. Have you tried removing and re-adding your music library?

Yes

  1. To use a NAS drive with Sonos, the NAS must support the SMB(v1)/CIFS file-sharing protocol. Have you tried recreating the sharing permissions on the folder?

Yes, as before. the NAS has worked in the past.

  1. Have you configured your computer firewall to work with Sonos? 

As before, this failure to play the song only applies when playing the song from the playlist. If I manually find the song from within the Sonos app and play the song, it works fine. It seems to be related to the import of the playlist XML.

  1. If you have an antivirus installed on your Windows PC, you may check the firewall configuration settings to ensure that it's not blocking Sonos.

Antivirus on the windows PC is not relevant since the library, playlist and songs are on the Linux NAS; while the Sonos app trying to play it is either PC, Android, iOS or OSX (all fail)

 


Hi @grushnik, thank you for your detailed reply and for answering the questions. 

I really appreciate the time and effort you've spent doing all the troubleshooting steps, and it would be best for you to continue working with us over the phone to expedite the process. 

Please contact our Sonos Customer Care support to perform in-depth troubleshooting and understand your full network setup. Our phone support has the tools to check what's going on in your system and to remotely access your device to address the issue. 

If you need help with any other information, please feel free to reach out. The Sonos community is always here to help.


Unfortunately, it always takes longer than the time I have to wait for a call handler on your phone line.

 

It would be nice if the company provides sufficient call handler capacity to match demand rather than to blame demand as every time I call it seems to be ‘busier than usual’.


Hi @grushnik, thanks for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry your experience didn’t match your expectations. Our team is working on it to provide assistance to our valued customers like you. 

We apologize for the inconvenience. We have phone support and chat support teams to help you out. Please be bear with us. You will be assisted as soon as the representative becomes available. 

You may reach our Sonos Customer Care at 0800-026-1526. In the prompt, kindly select the technical department. The hours of operation are from 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday CET.

Please feel free to reach out in the future if you have any other questions. You're always welcome here.


Did you ever figure this out?  I am having a similar problem in that I just got a new PC (installed latest Sonos s/w) and connected to my library (located on a Synology NAS) and I cannot get the playlists to work.  I can play the individual songs fine from my iPhone or the PC, but neither works for playlists.  It keeps saying the file cannot be found.  The playlists all list the songs with their track number before them, so they look odd to me.  It’s as if it’s seeking the wrong file name when searching, but again, in the library they appear and work fine.  Very frustrating!


​Hi @SLAMB0

Thanks for reaching out to the Sonos community and for letting us know about your concern. Your frustration is completely understandable.

To use a NAS drive with Sonos, the NAS must support the SMB(v1)/CIFS file-sharing protocol. Have you performed the steps recommended in this thread?

Let me share with you some community threads that might help you out with your Synology NAS that might help you out

https://en.community.sonos.com/music-services-and-sources-228994/synology-smbv1-docker-container-workaround-6849613
https://en.community.sonos.com/music-services-and-sources-228994/synology-ds218play-as-music-library-error-900-6848539

Hope this helps.  I would also recommend contacting our phone support to further assist you with this.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns, we'll be glad to assist you.


So I set up my Synology NAS for SMB (v1) and remapped/reinstalled my iTunes library (both in iTunes and in my Sonos app/software).  No change.  I can still play individual songs/artists/etc., but the Imported Playlists display the songs with a track number prefix and always return a ‘cannot be found’ error.  No time to call phone support this week… maybe next week :(

Why can I play the individual songs ok, but not the playlists???  It makes no sense to me!!!


 Hi @SLAMB0,

Thanks for your reply and for updating us.

If you have enabled the SMB protocol but still having an issue playing music from your playlist, I’d suggest the next steps for you to perform.

  1. Have you tried removing and re-adding your music library?
  2. Have you configured your computer firewall to work with Sonos? 
  3. If you have an antivirus installed on your Windows PC, you may check the firewall configuration settings to ensure that it's not blocking Sonos.

If none of this works, It would be best to contact our phone support team to help you out. Our phone support has the tools to check what's going on in your system and to remotely access your device to address the issue.

Let us know if you need help with any other information, we're here to answer any further questions you have.