I’ve been using this set up for a while but it’s optimal (especially for playlists) so wondering fi someone has figured out a “better” to do it.
I have 3 Sonos speakers (2 old “5’s” and more modern “1”)
Still using Sonos S1 controller on my Mac and iPhone
Macbook Air (recent) running Big Sur 10.6.5
Old WdMyCloud NAS
Sonos Library points to wdmycloud/public/sharedmusic/ and within that i have all my music folders copied from the iTunes music library.
I buy music from ITunes/Apple Music or Rip Cds, and store them on my local Music folders on my Macbook.
Then I usually copy the folders correspondent to the new albums over to the /sharedmusic/folder on my wedmycloud that Sonos points to.
My “issues” are:
I wonder if ther’s an easier way to automatically copy new music that goes intio my local Music folders to the NAS (I always see some “automatically copy shortcut” in the iTunes folder but don’t understand it
more importantly, my playlists from Music don’t get imported to Sonos and I”m not sure how. I understand they are in an XML file but not sure how to make that file go into Sonos so when i make playlists on my Macbook, Sonos can use them too (or at least copy them over).
Why do I keep the music on my Macbook? I think 1) to have a backup (i.e. I have cloud backup overnight so my music gets a 3rd backup in the cloud) and 2) so i have it if I leave home.
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@GaryMF, You just need some type of folder-sync software for your library copying tasks. Try a Google search for ‘MAC folder sync software’ and see if that provides an answer to your copying/syncing issue.
I use an App called ‘secondcopy’, which would achieve all your needs, but unfortunately I think it’s a Windows App only.
Anyhow to get your MAC iTunes playlists into Sonos see this support document:
I will just also add that the .xml file can be opened in a text editor and if it becomes necessary, you can change any track ‘paths’ in that document to point to those in the library on your NAS using a simple find/replace option, which most good text editors should have readily available to batch-edit the file.
If your Mac or NAS support the rsync command it might be just what you need. Intelligent file and directory synchronization with minimized data transfer. Set it to run in the background an hour before your Music Library update and pretty much forget about it.
Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday use.
@GaryMF, You just need some type of folder-sync software for your library copying tasks. Try a Google search for ‘MAC folder sync software’ and see if that provides an answer to your copying/syncing issue.
I use an App called ‘secondcopy’, which would achieve all your needs, but unfortunately I think it’s a Windows App only.
Anyhow to get your MAC iTunes playlists into Sonos see this support document:
Thanks. This actually worked except for one thing: my iTunes Music Library.xml” file says it wasn’t updated since April 2020. So it looks it worked and I have playlists now in Sonos Playlists but they are old ones. Not ones i created this year etc.
Maybe it has something to do with the migration from iTunes to Apple Music in the new operating system? Where do I find the new version of the XML file or whever the playlists are now stored in Apple Music (vs. Itunes)?
In iTunes, you should be able to use File > Library > Export Library to create a new .xml file
If your Mac or NAS support the rsync command it might be just what you need. Intelligent file and directory synchronization with minimized data transfer. Set it to run in the background an hour before your Music Library update and pretty much forget about it.
Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday use.
Thank you. I”m researching how to use rsync and I’m trying to figure out which folder and which files need to go to the SharedMusic folder on my NAS (right now I just manually copy individual album folders over).
My questions would be: based on the screen shot, which folder is the one that needs to go over to the NAS? It’s so confusing now that the Macbook uses the “MUSIC” app but there are both iTunes folders and Music folders.
Also confusing is this “Music Library” Files and one of them looks current but another one is from 2020. I wonder if htis is the file that needs to go over to make the playlists show up (per my question below).
once i figure the above out, then i’ll need to figure out how to make this happen automatically :)
In iTunes, you should be able to use File > Library > Export Library to create a new .xml file
Thank you. I just did that, and created a Library.xml file. I put that in the shared music folder on NAS, but now I have 2 xml files, one called Library.xml and one called iTunesLibrary.xml .
I don’t think it is reading the newer ones (Library.xml) cuz even after re-indexing Sonos library, it has a bunch of older playists but not the one I made yesterday.
Also, where should these playlists appear i Sonos music sources panel? In Sonos Playlists or Imported Playists within Music Library?
Perhaps remove/rename the old .xml file and rename the new .xml file …and re index.
