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How to solve the Error 913 (Music Library) on a Mac

There is a reported bug fix coming mid-June 2024. If you can’t wait until then…

(I did this running Sonoma 14.4.1) And thanks to folks in a separate thread on the details - just tried to put them all in one place.

I made a video of the process if you prefer that way: https://youtu.be/kjhKhDuvgDY


Part 1 - Set up the share (System Settings/Preferences)

  1. Open System Settings (in earlier MacOS it’s called System Preferences).
    • Click on the apple in top left of your screen to find that option.
  2. Choose General
  3. Select **Sharing**.
  4. Enable **File Sharing**
  5. Click the "i" symbol
  6. Click the "+" symbol.
  7. Add a shared folder by choosing the folder where your music is stored and selecting Open
    • The name of the folder here will be the ShareName that you’ll use in Part 3.
  8. Under ‘users’, confirm that the list includes an ‘everyone’ option, and that you set ‘everyone’ to *Read Only* at a minimum (or “Read & Write”)
  9. Ensure the customer's account is set to **Read & Write**
    • I’m not 100% sure ‘customer’s account’, but I took it to mean the account I login with on the computer.
  10. Click the Options button
  11. Ensure that both SMB and the customer's account below are checked and choose Done. 

Part 2 - Find your computer’s name

  1. At the bottom (or sometimes top in earlier versions of macOS) of the Sharing page, you’ll see Local hostname. Everything before the .local is the hostname. Copy that down - that will be your MacName that you’ll need in Part 3.

 

Part 3 - Add the share to Sonos

  1. Open the Sonos app on your mac.
  2. Choose Manage > Music Library Settings
  3. Choose the + for your music folders.
  4. Instead of ‘another folder or drive’, choose Networked Device
  5. Type the network path name when prompted, and press Next. The format will be \\MacName\ShareName
    • Remember the ShareName and MacName you captured earlier? This is where you’ll use them. Make sure the \ are the right ones (not /, but \).
  6. Enter the Mac username and password. The password is the same as when you login opening your laptop.
    • If you’re not sure about the username, you can find it this way:
      • Open an app called ‘Terminal’ on your macbook. (Go into Launchpad and type ‘term’ and it’ll show up)
      • Type whoami and press enter. 
      • The result that shows is your username. (e.g. Perhaps my computer shows my login name as Salami Slices but my username technically is different (salamislices)). Copy and paste that into the username that Sonos is asking for.
  1. If that doesn’t work, someone had mentioned trying the following:
    • From System Settings, on left side, choose ‘users and groups’
    • Click on the ‘i’ next to Guest User
    • Enable “Allow guest users to connect to shared folders” and choose OK.
    • Now, from Sonos app, when get prompted for username and password, leave them blank and just choose enter.
      • The idea is it would treat it as a guest and since gave access to guests, will work.

 

227 replies

T
Userlevel 2

And boom! This worked. At least I think so.. it’s updating music library, so i’m very optimistic. Annoying we have to do this, but hey.. at least I can listen to my music again. Thank you so very much. Left some love over on YT. Going to re-post on reddit now

F
Userlevel 1

10-year Sonos user with many products...this solution worked for me, thank you for sharing. Sonos needs to pay you for doing their job!

 

UNBELIEVABLE how complicated this was! I NEVER would have tried this on my own. Come on Sonos - you’ve done this before, and done it again. STOP TRYING TO FIX THINGS THAT AREN’T BROKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P
Userlevel 1

I tried following the process for Mac users uploaded on YouTube and the author said sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t: no one seems to know why! It didn’t work for me. I emailed the Sonos CEO and got a reply about using the Desktop app - but it’s the Desktop app which doesn’t work! I finally got through on the phone helpline and was told they’re working on a fix which should be available “in June”. I asked why Sonos had disabled my system and was told they hadn’t as ‘services’ still worked. I had to laugh but that’s just adding insult to injury. As another post put it, I now have an extremely expensive Internet radio. The fact that Sonos has not publicly acknowledged this foul-up is the most scandalous aspect of the whole sorry business.

W
Userlevel 2

That works ! on Mac. BIG thanks man !! and total shame on SONOS not even able to guide on their page to the fix. For sure my last SONOS product ever.

 

Y
Userlevel 1

There is a reported bug fix coming mid-June 2024. If you can’t wait until then…

(I did this running Sonoma 14.4.1) And thanks to folks in a separate thread on the details - just tried to put them all in one place.

I made a video of the process if you prefer that way: https://youtu.be/kjhKhDuvgDY

 

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS. Tricking the system into thinking my external hard drive was a NAS drive is genius. It stopped me pulling out the remaining hairs on my head. 😂

M

Yah! Worked for me, I can use my speakers again. Thanks for sharing :-)

Utterly piss poor that Sonos can’t provide support like this.

Now I’ve just got to get used to the new (totally baffling) UI in the app.

Anyone know a good “Product Owner / Developer Testing for Beginners” book that I could recommend to Sonos? 

S
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FYI, I failed to get it to work on my MBP w Sonoma 14.5 so I bit the bullet and waited 62 min for Sonos.

The dude was very nice, spent about 40 min w me and basically followed what you had suggested multiple times and still got 913 and 1002 errors, check user name/PW, etc.

I can’t believe Sonos hasn’t jumped on a fix for this.

This has to be a move to get us all on their music sources; sad.

K
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

(Excellent work-around snipped - go near he start of this thread if you need it)

None of the workarounds described here seem to work with me. I’m running Ventura on an iMac and while the workaround worked the last time that there was an update, it’s not working for me now and I’m looking at a very expensive paperweight that can’t play my music library. Any new tips?

I lost everything with the firmware update, and had to repeat all of the steps to re-add my local library. I can’t access my playlists - they are there, but an “unable to browse” message comes up when I try to play them. However, I had saved a couple of them as Sonos playlists, and am able to play those. 

Music Library songs, artists, and albums are available, just not imported playlists.

OSX Sonoma.

Apple Music Library user
J
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

UPDATE: While I was able to get it working, I am now missing all my playlists. (Another huge pain point using Sonos with a local iTunes)

 

 Playlist is listed, I am sure whatever you had picked is lost. Sonos really released a half-baked beta app. I am just happy my music library is now accessible again. It was huge pain using the desktop app and picking the song, then stream it to my speaker linked to my Mac PC. Talk about a huge pain! 

J
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Tried every variation of mounting the USB using Network drive and \… Result it the same  And yes, the username and password are correct. 

 

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

Thank you salami slices for the detailed screenshots on adding a shared library to resolve 913.

 

I am running the latest version of Monterey and my General, etc. is very different than your screenshots.  However, I was able to navigate through nit with some trial and error.

 

It did not like Username and password as you mentioned.  So, I added a guest sharing to the file share and it still does not work for me.  Not sure what I am doing wrong.  I  get an error message, access denied even though it is set to Read/Write.

 

Any ideas on how to resolve?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Watch this, it’s step by step. 
 

 

M

Cannot thank you enough for posting this.  Itr’s been days of pain for us, trying in vain to get Sonos customer support to help us.  They’re just garbage.

Your fix managed to get Sonos to accept my music folder-- though I don’t have playlists, at least not yet.  Hoping for the best.

But YOU-- ARE the best!!!!

Thank you!

P
Userlevel 1

Thank you so much.  Was able to use PLEX and my NAS previously, but this takes me back to my state prior to this disaster.  Sonos should reward you-  how about a large credit?

S

Hi, a big thank you to salami slices for the sterling work. However, the solution isn’t working for me - after everything seemingly going smoothly and my music library indexing the process cuts out and I keep getting the following message:

‘//MacBook-Air-3.local/Music’ is no longer available. The device where the music files are stored may not be powered on, or the path may have changed. Go to Settings > System > Music Library > Music Library Setup to check the path

Of course there is nothing showing in Music Library Setup as the indexing process didn’t complete…

I’ve tried choosing another folder e.g. iTunes and get the same result

I was wondering if anyone else had received this message after following the instructions and if there is anything I’m doing wrong/anything else I can do?

 

 

 

 

J
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Reply to ed18002…. it doesn't work for Catalina os either... 

C

Eventually got this to work - desktop only so far - thank you! 

What helped was deleting the prior app completely before doing an update. This prompted the system ID and password screen, thankfully explained. I was able to run the script to get that. 

Now I just have to get the updated apps to recognize the library. My phone keeps saying “Something went wrong” in between the constantly animating headers, and on my iPad it’s not showing any icons after 2 hours of trying to load. 

The reliability of Sonos is nothing short of appalling. By far the worst of any product in my entire life - and I’ve owned two Ducatis!

They’re selling functionality that simply doesn’t exist for many of us. I bought my system precisely to play my library throughout my house. That’s not a bug, that’s fraud. 

 

 

J

All hail Salami Slices!

I have Big Sur 11.7 and managed to figure out the differences from your instructions for Catalina. It worked. Can’t thank you enough.

I just can’t believe Sonos just threw all of us under the bus and forced us to use such a thoughtless update.  Absolutely no consideration or thought given to its customers.

G
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

Joew19- and to boot, not a word from SONOS.  Not even an email as to when they plan on fixing this mess.

G

Thank you. This worked for me when I used the guest option. Also added the Sonos DMS to the user details in the shared folders section of Sharing. The indexing took some time, but I have lots of tracks. Fingers crossed that it hold up.

C

Confirming this worked on a MacBook Pro (2021) under Monterey 12.7.5. Reindexing the library took <30 minutes. Very, very grateful to Salami Slices for posting this!!!!

G
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I don’t understand why I can see all the playlists and songs but get message “Unable to browse music.”  It makes no sense.

 

I just ordered Apple HomePod to try it out.  IF it works, I may eliminate my SONOS products.  I cringe every time there is an update and most of the time, something goes wrong.  All I want is to play my music from my playlists.

D
Userlevel 1
Badge

I am another victim of the Sonos Controller for Mac Version 16.3 “update.” A couple months ago, I had successfully implemented Salami Slices’ workaround for adding a file share to Sonos in order to access my Mac Music library. With the update to Controller 16.3 my share disappeared. When I’ve re-added it today, I get the error, “Unable to browse music” when attempting to play any of my imported playlists. Fortunately, I’m able to play artists, albums, and songs, just not any of my saved playlists.

Note: after re-adding the file share, I was having more “Unable to browse music” errors. I unplugged my router and then reconnected it. Refreshing my Mac’s IP address seemed to fix the errors—except for my imported playlists.

T

Genius! Thank you so much for this.

An added tip: Having looked up my Mac User Name with ‘whoami’ (“chrisodell$”) I tried this three times unsuccessfully, but when I changed my User Name to the one I usually use to log in (“Chris Odell”), it worked!

It took a while to index my library, but everything is now there. The only oddity is under “Imported Playlists”, where I get a load of Playlists with titles of 30-odd characters with interspersed hyphens. I will see if this corrects itself overnight, and report back tomorrow.

But thanks again ‘salami slices’

(I have saved a copy of your instructions and link to YouTube so I can repeat the process after the next Sonos ‘update’)

O

 

Thanks for all this help, it seems that I may have gotten this all to work as expected again for my circumstances, fingers crossed, hope this makes someone else’s day like it just did mine!

  • MacOS Sonoma 14.6 recently updated on Mac Studio
  • Sonos Controller for Mac (desktop) 16.3 / S2 / Build 80155014 (latest version I believe)
  • Music app (not iTunes) for our playlists and all music files

 

I had to get the permissions right in the MacOS first as described here:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/share-your-macos-music-folder-with-sonos

  • Importantly - the path to your directory was not quite clearly described in that link above (it’s not just “\\Hostname\Folder Name\”), what worked for me is the full extended path--I don’t know the precise OS terms for each of these parts but the full path seems to work. Some screenshots below to help clarify. I think this would be a generic description
    • \\<Local Hostname>\<Computer Name>\Users\<user account>\Music
  • So my specific path all added up to be:
    • \\Astra.local\Astra HD\Users\alexisben\Music

So when adding the music library in Sonos, as described here:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/add-your-music-library-to-sonos

  • Under “Add your music library in the Sonos app / Sonos apps for macOS or Windows”
  • Used the Networked device (ex. NAS drive) option, not “My Music Folder” or “Another folder...”
    • Entered my specific full path…
      • \\Astra.local\Astra HD\Users\alexisben\Music
  • Enter the login credentials that I use to log into this computer

It took awhile for it to index everything, my music folders showed up first, and the playlists took about an hour (we have about 6,000 songs/600 albums/30 playlists with a few thousand songs total in all of the playlists, just for an example of scale). But it all worked and all of those updates also now show up on my iPhone so it looks like I have full control again both on the desktop and my phone… fingers crossed they don’t re-update everything and break this!

 

MacOS System Settings / General / Sharing / File Sharing (info button)

 

This is where I saw my specific Local Hostname, circled in red at bottom:

MacOS System Settings / General / Sharing

 

I navigated to my Music folder in the MacOS finder, this is the full path shown there (this is at the bottom of a finder window when you have “Show Path Bar” selected from the Finder / View menu)

 

Good luck all y’all!!

 

D
Userlevel 1
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Yes...I am having the same issue, which I posted above  I have found threads here and here that seem to reference the same issue...but I am not seeing any solutions anywhere unfortunately.

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