Skip to main content
tbaker08550
Contributor I
September 3, 2018

Imported playlists with special characters - why can't Sonos read them correctly?

  • September 3, 2018
  • 16 replies
  • 1763 views
In my music library (on a Synology network server) I have many folder and file names with special foreign language characters. When Sonos scans my music library it reads and displays all the characters just fine on any Sonos controller.

However, when I create and export playlists for this library (via MediaMonkey), the playlist files look fine in Windows Notepad but Sonos can't display them correctly, and the playlists don't work, since (I assume) the playlist entries don't match with what Sonos knows the file names to be.

I have tried exporting the playlists in various encodings (ANSI, UTF-8, and Unicode) and while they all look fine in Notepad, none of them work. I should make it clear that for playlists referring to music files WITHOUT any special characters, Sonos work with both my ANSI and UTF-8 just fine - these work the way they are supposed to. But Sonos chokes on special characters in imported playlists no matter how I encode them.

Is there a way around this besides eliminating all the special characters from my folder and file names?
    This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

    16 replies

    controlav
    controlav
    Lead Maestro
    September 3, 2018
    Can you play the offending files directly (ie not via a playlist)? I'm guessing the Synology samba code might be confused by non ascii file paths.
    Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
    Stanley_4
    Stanley_4
    Grand Maestro
    September 3, 2018
    I never found a way around the problem and ended up editing every problem music file. Different NAS though, a WD Live Drive so it likely isn't just yours acting strange.
    tbaker08550Author
    Contributor I
    September 3, 2018
    Responding to controlav: The music files themselves can be played perfectly well in Sonos when accessed not via a playlist. All the foreign characters appear perfectly well. AND all the playlists that don't have foreign characters in them display and work just fine. It seems to be a bug in the way Sonos reads imported playlists with foreign characters - and I've tried saving the playlists in ANSI, UTF-8, and Unicode. They all display wrong in Sonos, although they are wrong in different ways, and none of them will play the relevant files.
      controlav
      controlav
      Lead Maestro
      September 5, 2018
      Use UTF8 and post a screenshot of a sample of what it should be and what it is.
      Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
        dpurcell
        Contributor I
        November 3, 2018
        I have the same problem, though not on a Synology server (just reading files from my Windows desktop). I'm exporting playlists from MusicBee. The songs play fine if I'm playing the album that they're on -- if I try to play them from an imported playlist, I get a "file not found" error.
        DavidSonos
        Contributor I
        December 25, 2018
        Hi,
        I have the same problem. Have you encountered the solution?
        Maybe Sonos have earn sufficient money now to fix this type of issue ?
        Thank you
        Avatiach
        Lyricist I
        January 5, 2019
        Exact same problem here - Sonos skips any song that has special chars in an imported playlist and only plays the other songs. It does play the problematic songs without a problem when selected directly and not via a playlist. Is there a way to open a bug or alert Sonos support to this issue to get a formal response?

        Many thanks!
        Pandabite
        Lyricist I
        April 20, 2019
        I have this problem, too. It would be nice too know if Sonos plans to fix this, otherwise playlists aren't very useful for me.
        Airgetlam
        Airgetlam
        April 20, 2019
        I wouldn't expect it to be very high on their priority list of things to work on, unfortunately. I have that same issue, but have learned to live with it.
        Bruce
        Goofball
        Lyricist I
        November 8, 2019

        Here is a workaround.  I’m having the same issue with a Qnap, Sonos Controller for PC Ver 10.5

         

        If you add the imported playlist to a Sonos playlist or  favorite it works perfectly.  

         

        Go to Music Library/Imported Playlists  Click Down Triangle  click add to Sonos Favorite or Playlist. 

         

        Yeah, one extra step, but simple fix.  Now, why is the native music manager in the controller so weak?

         

        Show more replies
        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement