"Sonos was unable to add the music folder"

  • 12 August 2013
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57 replies

First, Sonos tech support was very responsive. However, I corrected the issue without their assistance. Which isn't to suggest that this issue is NOT an issue. It is a massive pain-in-the-ass issue that needs to be solved by Sonos.

Here's what I found in my trial and error ... 

Note: it's worth mentioning that I replaced my iMac with an MPB during this process. The issues began with the upgrade to Mac Yosemite on my iMac and continued with a brand new Macbook Pro. 
- I followed every single suggestion I could find on the Sonos forums and support message boards to correct the issue. None worked.
- Changing the computer name. Changing the WIN name in network settings. Did not work.
- I tried mapping the controller to an external drive. This worked. Then stopped working. 

What I found with the new Macbook Pro:
- I ported over Sonos and all the support files
- Sonos found both libraries - external and local folder
- but NONE of the songs mapped - which means that all the playlists I had created couldn't find either local folder because it was still looking for the old mac.
- I deleted both libraries in Sonos. Unplugged Bridge. Unplugged my router. Plugged back in the router. Plugged back in Bridge. 
- Relinked the music libraries.
--- With the new Mac Sonos found the local Music folder. (I turned off the external HD to prevent Sonos from finding the backup music folder.)
- Even after all of this, I found that all of my playlists were jacked up. Half of the library played without a problem and half of the library would throw an error looking for music on the old (iMac) computer. 
- This is when I realized that Sonos has a problem overwriting playlists (paths to the music folder). It doesn't automatically update the song pathing either. 

In the end, I went through the entire process (three times) of resetting bridge, resetting my cable modem, resetting my router, deleting and relinking the music library in Sonos, and then REBUILDING ALL of my playlists to get the bloody Sonos app to read my music library. 

And I have no idea where along the line any of these steps "corrected" the issues that the Sonos app has "seeing" the local computer or the music library. But the entire process had me angrier than I've been in a long time. Especially because the very first time I set up Sonos, it took five minutes.

I wasted days trying to correct this problem after the upgrade to Yosemite and subsequent set up on a new machine. 

Sonos. This is a problem that needs to be corrected. And while you're at it ... let's get Spotify playlists hooked up too, shall we?
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Look for Firewall rules that read like "Enable/Allow UPnP / DLNA". Assure you allow incoming as well as outgoing. This is often disabled by default as Torrent clients use UPnP to get through a firewall.

If you are attempting to add music files from a network share/drive assure NetBIOS ports are enabled as well.

For Mac users, if you installed Bonjour the ports should already be configured correctly.
Anyone know if there's a difference between "another location on my computer" and "networked device"?  They both appear to try to hit up \\hostname\iTunes for me.  Win7-64.

I wonder why if the library is on R:\iTunes it needs to know the hostname... and why it can't find it (I can navigate to both R:\iTunes as well as \\hostname\iTunes)
I am giving up. Sonos is just not serious about making their software work. It is simply ridiculous how difficult it is to get their stuff to work. Sonos, it you will give me my money back, I will gladly return your equipment.

Apple users, you are better off installing an apple TV and attaching a sound bar. I have had excellent luck with the Samsung sound bar. For about the same price as one Sonos Play 1 you can have a _stereo_ unit _with_ a sub-woofer and none of the problems of Sonos on a Mac.

Sonos, your stuff is just a joke. You should have fixed this long ago.
I'm having the same issue but I'm running OS X Yosemite as I'm beta testing it. Sonos may want to look into Yosemite as something in the new OS doesn't allow Sonos to share the Music folder I keep getting denied. I even tried manually.
not too sure what everybody problem is , i admit i had issues when i used Yosemite in the Beta version , but since the general release of the OS everything is working just fine , i have 2 mac on the network with their individual itunes library , adding them was a breeze , no problem at all .
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I also have had numerous issues with the system. Every time I want to use it when we have guests over it seems to not want to work. I have several rooms on several devices hooked up and am way too deep into this to back out. I may have found this issue as there was an apostrophe in my computers name which is said to cause issues. I corrected this last weekend and so far so good but with all the problems I have had over the years my hopes are rather low. One thing for sure is none of my friends will ever buy a Sonos after seeing my system on the blink time and time again. In fact my best friend just went out and bought a Denon Heos system.
Having similar problems with locating my iTunes Library on my MacbookPro (10.8.5). Sonos worked fine until the latest software update and about the same time I renewed my router. Numerous reboots, uninstalls, unplugging, just to get the system working again.
Streams internet music fine but try and add my iTunes music that is on the Mac and it doesn't want to know. On the other hand I can play the content on another device (iPad mini and iPhone 6 both work). Firewall is off.
From what was a problem free introduction to the Sonos system things are becoming frustrating. Thankfully have only invested in two Play1's and the Bridge was free.
May have to revert to good old hard wired technology and get a new amp for my hifi system and turn the Play1's into bookends...

Update
Having 'loaded' the "Queue" with tracks from my iPad mini and left the system playing for a couple of hours, I again tried to link my iTunes Library to the Sonos Controller on my MB. Blow me, it recognised the library and seems to be back on an even keel!

Odd......
Dear all,

apparently I solved this problem by following these steps:

- go to system preferences
- go to sharing
- enable file sharing
- then, go to options…
- enable share files and folders using SMB (windows)
- enable an account, you have to enter your password
- then click done, close sharing, close preferences

this worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you.
Hi All,

I've been wrestling with this for some hours now too. I'm completely new to Sonos, and was unable to set up my music for the first time. I'm running on an old Macbook with OSX 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). I tried disabling my firewall (didn't work) and set up the firewall following the Sonos instructions (didn't work). Tried Jero's advice above (didn't work), but then, returning to File Sharing, I right clicked the 'Music' folder (which I had added to the Shared Folders list), and clicked 'Apply Permissions to Enclosed Items'. After doing this, I've managed to get the Sonos working.

Not sure if this will be the end of my troubles, but thought I'd share in case it helps someone else..
I have enabled all of the sharing in the preferences and this still is not working on 10.10.1. Any news?
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Am also having problem with music library on Mini Mac running Yosemite 10.10.1. Suggestions ?
I had the same problem on a PC with Windows 7 64 bit. I solved it by sharing my Music folder manually (added Read permissions to Everyone and disabled password settings because in my local network I'm safe with such settings) and then entering full IP and path to it in Sonos Music Library Settings. It looks like this:
\\192.168.1.2\music
And it works.
It seems, for some reason in some specific occasions Sonos device cannot resolve Windows computer name to its IP address, that's why you might need it to enter it manually. This solution has some drawbacks: IP address might change if you happen to restart your home router and you'll have to readd your library again with new IP. But I think this should rarely happen. To be sure, you can configure your main media sharing computer to have static IP with your router, if you know how to do it.
didn't  work for me.
have you resolved this problem?  Same problem here.
Am also having problem with music library on Mini Mac running Yosemite 10.10.1. Suggestions ?


mate i havent figured it. play perfect flac from samsung phone. but cant add the folder from my yosemite mac. what a downer
Am also having problem with music library on Mini Mac running Yosemite 10.10.1. Suggestions ?


only got it to work slaving an old mac book not running yosemite. fyi
Thanks! My Sonos system freaked out yesterday and lost the music library. I tried pointing it to the mapped drive (NAS) under My Computer and it failed. Based on your suggestion I pointed to the NAS under Networks and it's loading instead of getting an error message.
Dear all,

apparently I solved this problem by following these steps:

- go to system preferences
- go to sharing
- enable file sharing
- then, go to options…
- enable share files and folders using SMB (windows)
- enable an account, you have to enter your password
- then click done, close sharing, close preferences

this worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you.


This worked for me!  Had the "icant find Mac" error when adding the library.  Once I did this it was OK!
Am also having problem with music library on Mini Mac running Yosemite 10.10.1. Suggestions ?


no sub folders.....
root only..... \\mydrive\music
Userlevel 1
I had this problem on my Mac, and here's how I fixed it:

System Prefs-->Security & Privacy.  Click the lock to make changes on your Firewall, go to Firewall Options.  Scroll down to "netbiosd" and make sure it is set to allow incoming connections.  If "netbiosd" isn't in the list, simply add it.

Try adding your library again.
I give up.

The controller on my Macbook Pro is now constantly losing the connection to my iTunes library. One minute it is there - next an error message. I can stream internet music all the time.
I don't have the will or inclination to try and make this POS work with my MB library anymore.

Use my iPhone or iPad as the source for the music and it works without a problem.

Fed up and out of here...
Hi Bob.  Sorry to hear of your problems, but have you tried submitting a diagnostic to Sonos Support?  Sonos isn't (IMHO) a POS.  If you don't seek the help that's freely offered how do expect to resolve an issue?  Is your Mac with iTunes connected wirelessly to your network?  If so then wireless interference may be the issue. But if you get Sonos support involved they will most likely resolve the issue.  I hope so.
The Controller is IMHO - not the hardware, the Play1's I have are nice little units. I have tried all the suggestions in this thread and elsewhere. Thought I'd cracked it a few posts back but it's being a right royal PITA again and refusing to even connect to my MacBook or to the Sonos 'players'.

I'm not alone in having issues with the Controller - these support pages are full of similar problems. My head is hurting from banging my head against this wall - just going to use my iOS devices to play music over the Sonos system. It seems to accept that route (in fact I'm listening to something now using my iPhone).

I recently replaced my hifi amp and will just use my MacBook plugged into it to play the contents of iTunes...
The Controller is IMHO - not the hardware, the Play1's I have are nice little units. I have tried all the suggestions in this thread and elsewhere. Thought I'd cracked it a few posts back but it's being a right royal PITA again and refusing to even connect to my MacBook or to the Sonos 'players'.

I'm not alone in having issues with the Controller - these support pages are full of similar problems. My head is hurting from banging my head against this wall - just going to use my iOS devices to play music over the Sonos system. It seems to accept that route (in fact I'm listening to something now using my iPhone).

I recently replaced my hifi amp and will just use my MacBook plugged into it to play the contents of iTunes...

Hi Bob.  I don't think the original point of my post is changed.  Why have you been banging your head against a wall trying to fix this instead of getting Sonos Support to look at what is going wrong with YOUR system.  Yes there are others on this forum with similar issues, but judging Sonos on that basis is like judging the health of a nation by the people in its hospitals.

And I suspect you are missing the point in blaming the Controller for Mac, although I don't have enough info to be sure.  It sounds like a problem in the way your MacBook is connecting to Sonos. 

The most robust solution, with many other advantages, is to have your iTunes library on a NAS drive anyway, but I doubt that you have to go down that route.

I urge you to call Sonos Support, and will now butt out.
The Controller is IMHO - not the hardware, the Play1's I have are nice little units. I have tried all the suggestions in this thread and elsewhere. Thought I'd cracked it a few posts back but it's being a right royal PITA again and refusing to even connect to my MacBook or to the Sonos 'players'.

I'm not alone in having issues with the Controller - these support pages are full of similar problems. My head is hurting from banging my head against this wall - just going to use my iOS devices to play music over the Sonos system. It seems to accept that route (in fact I'm listening to something now using my iPhone).

I recently replaced my hifi amp and will just use my MacBook plugged into it to play the contents of iTunes...

John,
I appreciate your input. When the dust has settled and I feel like tackling the issue again (once my blood pressure has dropped!) I'll send in diagnostics.
I'm frustrated with this small but important part of the Sonos system - if there is a conflict with my MacBook and or wifi network and Sonos then why does it work some of the time?
You'd expect it to refuse to 'play' completely yet I could go for days with no problems. And I've checked the 'usual suspects' and nothing has leapt out to say "It's me!!!"

So....

...as I wrote this, I thought, "let's give it one more go" (as I can't submit diagnostics if the Controller isn't working?). Lo and behold, after trying unsuccessfully for a good part of yesterday afternoon and evening to get the Controller to even find any components, let alone my Library, I opened the Controller and it has recognised the Sonos system and is now indexing my Library!!!


"This controller is now connected to your system"

And it is now playing the contents of my MacBook iTunes library...

I'll give it a chance to 'rebuild' any activity log for the diagnostics then will contact Support..

Thanks.