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Artwork Now Playing Not Updating in App, S1 Works, S2 Doesn't

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I have had this issue for a long time playing music from my music library from the S2 app on any ios device (iphone, ipad) the artwork doesn’t show in the now playing box while playing from one song to the next.  If I press pause the artwork immediately shows.

S1 app works fine with no issues (I downgraded one of my speakers to test) as well as desktop app, but the ios with the S2 app has this issue.

Is this a bug with the app?  Is there anything I can do to fix?  It works with S1, but I read that S1 is using SMB1 whereas S2 can use SMB2 or higher? 

It’s so annoying not to see the artwork of the song that is playing, any help or insight on what would be causing this would be great. I also read several other similar problems on here, but I don’t see any definitive fix. 

Router = Netgear Nighthawk with Attached storage via USB to the router.

Thanks

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Best answer by Corry P 21 July 2023, 09:55

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12 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @stoutlyric 

Thanks for your post!

This is an unusual report - I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it before. Clearly the artwork is being found and loaded, so it is strange that it only shows when you pause playback.

Other than rebooting all devices (speakers, router, iPhone), I’m really not sure what would help - I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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I found other users having similar problems with links below.  One thread says it’s a bug, another says the UPNP event stream is not right, there appears to be no good answer or fix.  For me using S1 works, but S2 does not. 

Sonos no longer recognizing folder.jpg for cover art

Artwork Now Playing Not Updating In App

Album Art Erratic Display On Android App

Album Art Display Erratically In Android App

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @stoutlyric 

Thanks!

There are two ways of getting artwork to display - one is to have it embedded within each audio file, and the other is to place an image file in the same folder as the album.

I was able to find the following pointers:

Album Art Requirements

  • Artwork embedded into the music files must be in one of the following formats: JPG, BMP, GIF or PNG.

  • Maximum resolution for embedded artwork is 1024 x 1024.

  • iOS devices support album artwork up to 320kb in size with no resolution limit.

  • If album artwork is saved in the album folder instead of embedded in the files, it must be in JPG or GIF format and named folder.xxx (e.g., folder.jpg or folder.gif).

    • Each album should be in its own folder and contain a single image file.

And the following instructions for embedding the artwork in the files:

If you are unable to see album art in the Sonos app but it is visible in iTunes or other applications, the artwork is likely not embedded in the audio files. This Card will show you how to embed album artwork in audio files using iTunes for macOS or Windows.

If you’re using macOS 10.15 and above, you can follow these same steps in the Music app instead of iTunes.

 

Step 1 - Locate the album art image online

  1. Find and download the missing album art image from the Internet. Save the image as a JPG, BMP, GIF or PNG. 

Step 2 - Use iTunes or the Music app to add artwork

  1. Open iTunes or the Music app.

  2. Find the tracks with missing album art and select them in the list.

  3. Right click on one of the selected songs and select Get Info

  4. Select the Artwork tab and click Add Artwork.

  5. Browse to the location of the image you've saved and click Open. The album art will now appear in the Artwork tab.

  6. Click Okay to apply your changes. The artwork is now embedded into the music files.

Step 3 - Update the music library

  1. Update the music library in the Sonos app to apply these changes: Settings » System » Music Library » Update Music Index Now

  2. The album art should now appear in the Sonos app.

It is somewhat strange that S1 works without issue for you while S2 does not - that certainly suggests that SMB2/3 is responsible. If these steps do not help you resolve the issue, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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I’ve tried all of the above with no luck.

If you read the last couple pages of this thread: Sonos no longer recognizing folder.jpg for cover art

The issue appears when using a local NAS and is due to SMB 2 or SMB 3 and IOS app or android app.  If you downgrade your NAS (Which I don’t have the option to do) to SMB 1 then it will start working again.  The app on windows seems to work much better.

It’s stated that support is aware of this bug but the priority must be low to fix compared to streaming bugs or it would have been fixed already.

 

Can anyone confirm or give more details?  I’ll reference this discussion in the other thread as well.

Thanks

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @stoutlyric 

Thanks for investigating! I personally am unable to reproduce the issue on my own system (I have embedded artwork), but I’ll ask someone to look into it. Could you please re-index your library, browse it a little, then submit a support diagnostic and reply here with the number given? Thanks.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Corry P,

I actually have a case number where I worked with Level 1 support and got it escalated to level 2, but have not had time to keep troubleshooting it from there.

I’ll message you the case number so you can take a look at my case.  I really appreciate your help with this and review of my case.

Thanks again

buzz

My experience has been that the players and controllers are impatient. If the network or drive responds too slowly, the player will abandon the current artwork or track fetch. I can imagine, but have no proof, that if the drive is executing some sort of maintenance, its response might slow.

Are you Grouping players? 

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

I saw the slow drive response problems here, switching to an SSD for the music library did the trick. Possibly any other silicon storage option would work as well but I have a pile of old, obsolete small SSDs so it only cost $10 for an SSD to USB cable to try.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @stoutlyric 

Our EU and US departments tend not to interact with each other much, and we don’t do anything with each other’s support cases. I think the best thing you could do to move forward with this issue would be to organise a time for the US Level 2 technicians to assist you directly.

Apologies I couldn’t be of more help.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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I saw the slow drive response problems here, switching to an SSD for the music library did the trick. Possibly any other silicon storage option would work as well but I have a pile of old, obsolete small SSDs so it only cost $10 for an SSD to USB cable to try.

I already have an SSD and my speed is good with the Sonos network tests.  I think the stream just will not let it play audio and get the artwork at the same time on S2 only for these mobile apps.

S
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Hi @stoutlyric 

Our EU and US departments tend not to interact with each other much, and we don’t do anything with each other’s support cases. I think the best thing you could do to move forward with this issue would be to organise a time for the US Level 2 technicians to assist you directly.

Apologies I couldn’t be of more help.

No worries, I have a call scheduled with level 2 support so hopefully they will be able to figure out what is going on.  If they find a solution why S2 is not working when S1 is fine, I’ll report back for anyone else that might have the issue.

Thanks for your help

S
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My experience has been that the players and controllers are impatient. If the network or drive responds too slowly, the player will abandon the current artwork or track fetch. I can imagine, but have no proof, that if the drive is executing some sort of maintenance, its response might slow.

Are you Grouping players? 

Yes, I do have a beam grouped with two satellites.  The behavior is consistent, S1 works all the time and S2 has the issue all the time.  It’s not intermittent.  Does the grouping cause problems?

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