Skip to main content
My Sonos app could not find the bridge or the Play 3 so I had to reset and when I added them again, all my music was gone. For the last 6 months I had been creating Sonos Playlists based on Spotify? Please help
Hi there Graham,



Unfortunately, the entire system was reset, then the Sonos Playlists have been erased. Sonos stored these playlists on each one of your Sonos players. If one player is reset, but another player is not, then when the first player rejoins the system is automatically syncs up and copies the playlists from the other player(s). However, if all players in the system are reset, then they will lose the Sonos Playlist data.



If you created any of the playlists within a Spotify app (or created them in Sonos under the Spotify Playlists menus) then you should be able to access them by adding your Spotify account to Sonos again.



Let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thanks.
Hi there Graham,



Unfortunately, the entire system was reset, then the Sonos Playlists have been erased. Sonos stored these playlists on each one of your Sonos players. If one player is reset, but another player is not, then when the first player rejoins the system is automatically syncs up and copies the playlists from the other player(s). However, if all players in the system are reset, then they will lose the Sonos Playlist data.



If you created any of the playlists within a Spotify app (or created them in Sonos under the Spotify Playlists menus) then you should be able to access them by adding your Spotify account to Sonos again.



Let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thanks.
Hi there Graham,



Unfortunately, the entire system was reset, then the Sonos Playlists have been erased. Sonos stored these playlists on each one of your Sonos players. If one player is reset, but another player is not, then when the first player rejoins the system is automatically syncs up and copies the playlists from the other player(s). However, if all players in the system are reset, then they will lose the Sonos Playlist data.



If you created any of the playlists within a Spotify app (or created them in Sonos under the Spotify Playlists menus) then you should be able to access them by adding your Spotify account to Sonos again.



Let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thanks.



Why would the app wipe out all the old Sonos playlists? That does not make sense. I have lost a lot of valuable playlist information if this is true.
Hi there Graham,



Unfortunately, the entire system was reset, then the Sonos Playlists have been erased. Sonos stored these playlists on each one of your Sonos players. If one player is reset, but another player is not, then when the first player rejoins the system is automatically syncs up and copies the playlists from the other player(s). However, if all players in the system are reset, then they will lose the Sonos Playlist data.



If you created any of the playlists within a Spotify app (or created them in Sonos under the Spotify Playlists menus) then you should be able to access them by adding your Spotify account to Sonos again.



Let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thanks.



Hi Antony, the Sonos app does not store the Sonos Playlists. These are stored on the Sonos players themselves. Resetting the app will not clear any Sonos Playlists, but factory resetting a Sonos player will.
Hi there Graham,



Unfortunately, the entire system was reset, then the Sonos Playlists have been erased. Sonos stored these playlists on each one of your Sonos players. If one player is reset, but another player is not, then when the first player rejoins the system is automatically syncs up and copies the playlists from the other player(s). However, if all players in the system are reset, then they will lose the Sonos Playlist data.



If you created any of the playlists within a Spotify app (or created them in Sonos under the Spotify Playlists menus) then you should be able to access them by adding your Spotify account to Sonos again.



Let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thanks.



Hi Ryan, I changed the component connected to the router but as a result had to set up all 4 Sonos components as if it was a new system, linking my Spotify etc all over. I then discovered all my previous Sonos playlists had been lost. Can I recover them somehow?
Hi there Graham,



Unfortunately, the entire system was reset, then the Sonos Playlists have been erased. Sonos stored these playlists on each one of your Sonos players. If one player is reset, but another player is not, then when the first player rejoins the system is automatically syncs up and copies the playlists from the other player(s). However, if all players in the system are reset, then they will lose the Sonos Playlist data.



If you created any of the playlists within a Spotify app (or created them in Sonos under the Spotify Playlists menus) then you should be able to access them by adding your Spotify account to Sonos again.



Let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thanks.



Hi Hamish, unfortunately they cannot be recovered in this case. The reason is that the playlists are stored on each Sonos player based on its household. When units are reset or joined to another household, they clear the information from the previous household. When the units were set up again, they detected new household information and cleared out the old info. Since all units are on the new household, they no longer have the Sonos Playlists from the previous household I'm afraid.
Hi there Graham,



Unfortunately, the entire system was reset, then the Sonos Playlists have been erased. Sonos stored these playlists on each one of your Sonos players. If one player is reset, but another player is not, then when the first player rejoins the system is automatically syncs up and copies the playlists from the other player(s). However, if all players in the system are reset, then they will lose the Sonos Playlist data.



If you created any of the playlists within a Spotify app (or created them in Sonos under the Spotify Playlists menus) then you should be able to access them by adding your Spotify account to Sonos again.



Let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thanks.



This is a crazy stupid setting. Sonos should have a way to keep or restore the playlists. Have you guys heard of the work back-up?? Perhaps that would be a great feature to add to you development list.
Hi there Graham,



Unfortunately, the entire system was reset, then the Sonos Playlists have been erased. Sonos stored these playlists on each one of your Sonos players. If one player is reset, but another player is not, then when the first player rejoins the system is automatically syncs up and copies the playlists from the other player(s). However, if all players in the system are reset, then they will lose the Sonos Playlist data.



If you created any of the playlists within a Spotify app (or created them in Sonos under the Spotify Playlists menus) then you should be able to access them by adding your Spotify account to Sonos again.



Let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thanks.



I've had Sonos for over a year now, and every time my iPhone wouldn't recognize the bridge, I'd reset the controller and all my playlists/music library would stay intact. This happened many,many times with no problem.  This time however, it erased everything. Pretty weird. 
Being able to backup all the settings of my system, including all 9 players and 4 controllers would be a big help. Especially when you have to re-enter paths, logins, usernames, passwords which were accumulated over the years. Very frustrating. I agree. Not acceptable.
How about Dropbox integration to store playlists and settings?
Ditto. I would expect more from a wireless sound system. Should be a no brainer to store the settings in the cloud or locally.
Seriously Sonos... I have just reset my system in order to remove the bridge and use my Sonos Play:1 as a standalone speaker, but in doing so I have lost my Sonos Playlists which I had been building over the summer. Where was the warning message to let me know that this would happen? Not a happy customer. Having seriously considered almost buying the Play:5 speaker, i am now reconsidering whether this is such a good idea.
I too had this problem when I decided to connect a different Sonos box to the internet. As a result I now create all my playlists in Spotify so this is no longer a problem. You can create Spotify playlists directly from Sonos so no harder than if you were creating them in Sonos but the beauty is that your playlist is now held in the cloud by Spotify so available on any device, anywhere, when you log into Spotify. The only downside is your Spotify playlists can only come from Spotify and not personal libraries as you could in Sonos.

I totally agree that a warning message would shave been nice though!

Sonos, perhaps a future service for you, playlists held in the cloud??
just tried to replace a router, and lost everything as well.  The startup screen should contain a simple warning, how hard is that to update?
just tried to replace a router, and lost everything as well.  The startup screen should contain a simple warning, how hard is that to update?

Same here, luckily I didn't have loads of playlists. An export option should be made.
just tried to replace a router, and lost everything as well.  The startup screen should contain a simple warning, how hard is that to update?

Hi Stuart.  I agree entirely that an option to export playlists is a desirable feature.  But replacing a router (if that is what you are saying you did from the comment you are cross-referencing) should not, in itself, lose playlists as there should be no need to factory reset all or indeed any Sonos components. 
Me too - lost all my play lists - Sonos sucks right now!! 
just tried to replace a router, and lost everything as well.  The startup screen should contain a simple warning, how hard is that to update?

I have every sympathy for you in losing your playlists.  But resetting a controller does not in itself lose playlists - only if in the process you choose to "set up new Sonos system" rather than to "add to existing system".  So maybe it's a little harsh to say that "Sonos sucks". 



It might have been better if you had come on here for advice before attempting this, rather than after you have made the mistake, to complain. 
just tried to replace a router, and lost everything as well.  The startup screen should contain a simple warning, how hard is that to update?

John b - personal accountability. Seriously. In this world.
just tried to replace a router, and lost everything as well.  The startup screen should contain a simple warning, how hard is that to update?

Sorry to hear about the lost playlists everyone. It does unfortunately happen when you setup a new Sonos system instead of connecting to an existing one. If you have playlists through a service, such as Spotify or Google Play Music, they'll re-populate into Sonos when you add the service back in. Sonos Playlists are stored on your players themselves, so factory resetting them, or creating a new system will delete them.



I'll pass on the feed back for a warning of some sort to the team for you all. In general, if you have any trouble with Sonos, feel free to come here and ask for help before resetting things, we may be able to get you all set quickly without need for resetting everything.



Just a note on replacing routers, you just need to make sure to reboot all of your Sonos components and they'll connect back automatically. If the players are wireless, you need to wire one in and configure the wireless network if it's changed.
The fact that Sonos playlists are lost in this way is idiotic, and a good reason for not continuing to use your products. Surely there should be a warning. Just had to reset my system due to new broadband provider, and have lost all of my playlists. Please design the capability for us to be able to store playlists somewhere other than Sonos devices which will inevitably have to be reset at some point, due to forces outside a user's control.
Just had to reset my system due to new broadband provider

Except for very rare fault conditions, the only reason to factory reset a unit is if it's moving from one Sonos system ("household") to another. On a change of broadband provider -- and hence presumably the router -- all that's required is for everything on the network (and not just Sonos) to be turned off and turned on again. The same procedure will resolve many common network problems.



In the 8 years I've owned Sonos kit I've needed to reset the entire system precisely zero times.
just tried to replace a router, and lost everything as well.  The startup screen should contain a simple warning, how hard is that to update?



Factory reset is a direct hardware intervention. Where would such a message be displayed?



As ratty suggests, factory rest is rarely needed and does not usually resolve any issues. It is best to seek expert advice before factory reset. Starting from scratch could result in loss of Sonos Playlists and music service registrations.



Unlike ratty, I did factory reset my system more than 10 years ago. I thought that the reset might solve my networking issue, but the reset solved nothing. The lesson learned? -- Factory reset was a bad idea.



---



I will agree that the add a new player, BRIDGE, or BOOST menu is rather confusing and could result in someone starting the system from scratch, rather than simply adding a unit.
I used to have a play:5 hardwired into my network for setting up my sonos. One day I realized I wanted to move my play:5 somewhere else so I plugged in a bridge as the hardwire anchor.



This turn out to be a nightmare, it erase everything I had for not just my playlist, but also music service that I have accumulated over the years. Now I have to go back and add them ONE at a time, why isn't there any warning? Why isn't there a way to 'export' setting? The source for all the music remaing the same isn't it? Weather that's Amazon's cloud, my NAS music library, pandora, etc. so I don't see why we can't have setting export as an XML and than re-import back in.
Just adding a bridge in that manner would NOT erase everything, all you had to do was add the bridge to the existing system and everything would have been fine, instead it appears you added the bridge as a NEW system and then moved the Play:5 to that system, in which case it will wipe everything because you've set up a NEW system. I've added three additional products to my Sonos system since I started, including a bridge and I've never lost anything, because I read the instructions, unlike just about everybody in this thread.
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings