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Still unable to add local library using MacOS

  • 22 June 2024
  • 8 replies
  • 260 views

My local library, hosted on MacOS, remains unusable since the update.

I’ve reviewed the newly updated guidance from Sonos on how to add a local library. But it is identical to the solution the community has been using for weeks. Unfortunately this does not work for me and several others I’ve conversed with here.

But for what must be the 15th time, I dutifully re-reviewed every step and followed them to the letter on my system, noting that it is *exactly* how I’ve been sharing my music library for Sonos for several years.

 

After 5-10 minutes of ‘indexing’ this now too familiar error message was displayed once again:

 

 

So, my library remains inaccessible via my S2 system. My configuration is *exactly* what Sonos and the community recommend. The only thing that has changed is the Sonos update. The error message provides no insight as to why my library cannot be indexed.

And I can’t call Sonos support because they do not operate at the weekend.

 

My configuration:

  • MacMini running MacOS Catalina 10.15. This is listed as supported by the Sonos app.
  • File sharing enabled, SMB v3.0.2 enabled, verified via MacOS terminal.
  • Windows file sharing enabled for the account.
  • The account has read/write access. Everyone else has read access.
  • Hostname/path: \\MacMini\Music (re-verified against the MacOS System Settings).

Issue:

  • Add the Library to Sonos S2. The path and user credentials are accepted, indexing starts.
  • After 5-10 minutes the above error message is displayed.
  • If I intentionally enter an incorrect path or invalid user credentials, the app immediately says they are invalid. So the fact that indexing begins strongly suggests that Sonos is happy with the path and credentials.

 

It is the same error I’ve been receiving ever since the update.

  • The device is most certainly powered on. The error message is literally displayed on it!
  • The path is correct and has not been changed.
  • The path is accessible via the hostname\path and user credentials from another Mac, an Apple TV and a Windows virtual machine. So this is not an issue with: my network, router, the host, the path, file sharing settings, SMB version, user credentials.
  • The only issue I have accessing this share is with Sonos.
  • My library only contains 20k items, and I have not added anything to it since the update.

 

Has anyone else encountered this issue using MacOS, and have you been able to resolve it?

8 replies

O
Userlevel 6
Badge +8

You haven’t mentioned you’ve ensured the firmware is up to date across the system. But I assume you have done that, in which case no idea what the issue could be here. But what I would probably try, if you have the time/patience, is to turn off all Sonos devices except your newest one. Then try to add the folder to the system (at this point the Sonos index will presumably only be getting created on a single device). If that works turn on each device one by one and see if that breaks the connection to the library. If it does, perhaps factory reset the device that triggers the issue. No idea if this will help though. It’s just something I would try. 

 

S
Userlevel 2
Badge

Thanks. I didn’t mention all the troubleshooting that I’ve tried, but it includes…

  1. Firmware’s up-to-date across the board (and verified via the My System menu).
  2. Factory Reset everything (the last resort when nothing else had worked).
  3. Set-up new system with one unit, wired (also tried wireless).
  4. Added Library to the single unit system, same error.

 

 

 

O
Userlevel 6
Badge +8

Hmm, no idea I’m afraid.

Out of curiosity, have you tried creating a network share on another device and adding that to your Sonos system? Doesn’t help you if you want your music folder to live on your Mac Mini, but am just curious if that worked.

O
Userlevel 6
Badge +8

@Superunknown have you by any chance tried with Windows file sharing disabled?

Mac file sharing settings > Options

Keep SMB enabled, but under Windows files sharing uncheck the user you will use to authenticate the connection from Sonos (which goes against Sonos instructions). I'm not exactly sure what Windows File Sharing achieves, but I wonder if it's enabling support for an older version of SMB, and this might be causing issues during indexing. I have encountered someone else who had indexing issues from a NAS share, which appears to have gone away after explicitly disabling SMB v1 on their NAS.

G

I am having the exact same issue and have tried all the official steps to no avail. We are certainly not the only ones either. Nothing changed on Mac except an update to the Sonos app which has broken the ability to easily access your local music library. Sonos need to sort it out and pronto.

S
Userlevel 2
Badge

@Gonk2000 

I was finally able to fix the issue - it was nothing to do with the file sharing setup and was actually caused by the volume of metadata in my library, despite it being unchanged since before the update when Sonos was quite happy to accept the same volume of metadata. I’ve detailed the fix here:

 

O
Userlevel 6
Badge +8

@Gonk2000

I was finally able to fix the issue - it was nothing to do with the file sharing setup and was actually caused by the volume of metadata in my library, despite it being unchanged since before the update when Sonos was quite happy to accept the same volume of metadata. I’ve detailed the fix here:

 

Glad to hear you got it working by renaming tracks. Before doing this, did you happen to try adding your library with Windows file sharing disabled as per my previous suggestion (a couple of posts up)?

You’ve interpreted what you’ve seen as cumulative length of metadata being the issue, but based on what you’ve described it seems to me its possible the indexer is getting tripped up by some mac special characters in your track names (which you got rid of by renaming) rather than the cumulative length of the indexed metadata. Mac special characters in pathnames can get translated to different characters by SMB and I’m wondering if the translation might be related to the windows file sharing option.

S
Userlevel 2
Badge

I was able to successfully add both halves of the split library without any renaming, but I could not add them both at the same time. I tried this before renaming incase there was an issue with special characters or UTF-8 (e.g. Hangul in some Korean artists’ track titles), however that wasn’t the issue.

None of the tracks I renamed contained special characters or any characters prohibited by Windows (verified via the metadata extract I created), and once renamed I was able to add both halves of the library at the same time.

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