Is there a way to limit SMB connections the Music Library? Each speaker has >15 connections to my NAS which results in denied connections after a while.

Hi, I recently added a new pair of Sonos SLs to my system that had just one pair, and noticed I was getting time outs from my NAS when trying to play music from my Music Library on the NAS. The playlist would skip about 10 or 20 songs and then finally play one. I’ve traced this problem to the elected sonos speaker in each pair opening up a large amount of SMB connections to my NAS (more than 15 each). On some older NASs, there is a max connections limit (mine is just 50 per share), and over time considering other stations may connect as well, it exceeds that limit.

Why does Sonos need to open up 20 or so connections for each speaker that is playing music from the local NAS Music Library just to play a single song, and is there any way to limit it? I can’t see that it would need 20 connections from a performance perspective.

Here’s an example of what I see on the NAS server coming from the lead speaker in each pair:

root@ix4-300d:/usr/local/samba/bin# ./smbstatus

Samba version 4.9.3
PID     Username     Group        Machine                                   Protocol Version  Encryption           Signing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22476   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:42294)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15328   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40940)  SMB3_02           -                    -
19581   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:58156)  SMB3_02           -                    -
18170   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57604)  SMB3_02           -                    -
17497   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57426)  SMB3_02           -                    -
19558   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:58134)  SMB3_02           -                    -
22482   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:42306)  SMB3_02           -                    -
17511   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:41730)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15526   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:41094)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15324   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40932)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15344   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40956)  SMB3_02           -                    -
18220   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57670)  SMB3_02           -                    -
18177   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57616)  SMB3_02           -                    -
16401   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:41458)  SMB3_02           -                    -
19583   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:58160)  SMB3_02           -                    -
18218   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57666)  SMB3_02           -                    -
18168   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57600)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15320   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40924)  SMB3_02           -                    -
17486   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57422)  SMB3_02           -                    -
18166   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57596)  SMB3_02           -                    -
17460   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:41692)  SMB3_02           -                    -
18222   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57674)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15373   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40986)  SMB3_02           -                    -
22478   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:42298)  SMB3_02           -                    -
16334   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:41410)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15326   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40936)  SMB3_02           -                    -
19451   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:58016)  SMB3_02           -                    -
19542   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:58112)  SMB3_02           -                    -
17475   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:41712)  SMB3_02           -                    -
19579   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:58152)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15322   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40928)  SMB3_02           -                    -
19577   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:58148)  SMB3_02           -                    -
18172   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57608)  SMB3_02           -                    -
22484   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:42310)  SMB3_02           -                    -
17553   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57480)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15334   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40948)  SMB3_02           -                    -
19417   nobody       users        192.168.1.139 (ipv4:192.168.1.139:57978)  SMB3_02           -                    -
15330   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:40944)  SMB3_02           -                    -
22480   nobody       users        192.168.1.183 (ipv4:192.168.1.183:42302)  SMB3_02           -                    -


Service      pid     Machine       Connected at                     Encryption   Signing
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music        22484   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 08:20:29 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15324   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:43 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15334   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:45 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15318   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:42 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15320   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:42 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15328   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:44 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        19577   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:52:01 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        17553   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:32:27 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        19542   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:51:57 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        14975   192.168.1.21  Sat Dec 25 07:19:21 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        18222   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:39:33 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15373   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:51 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        17460   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:32:12 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        19417   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:51:36 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        19558   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:52:00 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15330   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:45 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        17475   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:32:15 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        16334   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:25:53 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        18220   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:39:32 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        17486   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:32:17 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        16401   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:26:01 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        17497   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:32:18 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        22478   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 08:20:27 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15344   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:46 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        18166   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:39:24 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        17511   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:32:19 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        22480   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 08:20:28 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        19581   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:52:02 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        19583   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:52:03 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15526   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:23:15 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15326   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:44 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        18168   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:39:24 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        18172   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:39:25 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        18218   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:39:32 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        19451   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:51:42 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        18170   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:39:25 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        22476   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 08:20:26 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        18177   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:39:27 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        19579   192.168.1.139 Sat Dec 25 07:52:02 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        22482   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 08:20:28 PM 2021 EST  -            -
Music        15322   192.168.1.183 Sat Dec 25 07:22:43 PM 2021 EST  -            -

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Sonos fetches album art as required, via the controller's Associated Product. If you were scrolling through content on your controller it could explain the multiple accesses.

Thanks. Scrolling through the playlist did not incur more connections but going back to the main play screen and looking at the music library brought up 10 new ones. Sonos should perhaps figure a way to throttle connections. Nothing should need 50 connections to play music. I’m not sure most owners of NAS devices know that there is a max connection limit on some of them. The failure mode in the app is non-obvious (songs skip, music library scans take foreever or never finish). I have an older model but maybe the newer Qnaps and Synlogys don’t limit. Limiting something to less than 40 connections seems reasonable. For the time being I figured out how to increase max connections and lower the global deadtime parameter to help clean up. Not sure if this is a recent problem or something older that was exacerbated by my adding to the system….

Scrolling through the playlist did not incur more connections but going back to the main play screen and looking at the music library brought up 10 new ones.

This would be logical, as the tracks in the playlist would probably have had recent artwork cached in the controller.

I’ve used Sonos with local network storage for 14+ years and confess I’ve not been aware of hitting any kind of connection limit on the storage itself. (At one time I was accessing the storage through a poorly equipped router and hit a NAT table limit, but that’s a different matter.)

My NAS is a very old ix4-300d, and lenovo decided to set every share to max connections = 50, and that is not a user modifiable parameter (unless you mess with the internals). There is no error on the NAS either when it hits the limit, so it fails silently on my server and just causes all strange behavior in the Sonos app. I never had a problem since I’ve been using Sonos until now, but unfortunately I added a new speaker pair and upgraded the FW (was forced to), so it is hard to tell it something changed in the FW or if it has always been that way and adding the new speaker set just brought it to light.

Maybe a way to work around the old NAS limit?

If you set up a computer as an SMB gateway to the old NAS the multiple connections would go to the gateway and be aggregated into the single connection to the old NAS. You could use SMB or any other supported protocol for the gateway to NAS link.

I made a gateway here using a Raspberry Pi but the instructions should be pretty close for any SMB enabled computer.

SMB v1 Gateway

Yes thanks that would work too. I did find a way to mess with the internals and increased the max connections to 100 and set deadtime to 3 days. I just thought it unusual for sonos to open that many connections to the NAS, and thought there might be some way to limit the number of connections or worker threads that are creating the connection, at the sonos end…. Seems like 40 or so connections is a bit much for what it needs to do :-)

In light of

I would remove the “Answered” flag from this thread.

Sonos fetches album art as required, via the controller's Associated Product. If you were scrolling through content on your controller it could explain the multiple accesses.

I’ve noticed that even if you remove the music library from the Sonos app, if you have any playlists that include music from the NAS, the associated product will make calls to the NAS to retrieve artwork for the songs in the playlist. I’ve also noticed that these calls will use SMB1 and fail if you have SMB1 disabled on your NAS. The connection will fall back to SMB3 which seems backwards to me. The sonos system should be attempting SMB3 first (more secure) and then falling back to SMB1.

I just stumbled on this thread. I am having issues with SONOS Playlist not working correctly on my iPhones and iPads. The SONOS Playlist will randomly appear and disappear form the iPhones and iPads. SONOS technical support was able to determine that is being caused by timeouts on the SONOSO browse request,

I have technical case open with them and we are working through the issues.

I am using the SYNOLOGY DS1821+ NAS with the latest released version of DSM. Currently SONOS is using SMB3 to connect to the NAS.

Does anyone know the maximum number of SMB connections that are allowed on a SYNOLOGY NAS?

Does anyone know how to determine how many active connections are being utilized on the SYNOLOGY NAS?

Connect your speakers to the LAN (not wifi) to rule out wifi disconnects.

smbstatus command shows connected clients.

The max connection limit is the the “max connections” parameter of smb.conf PER SHARE. Synology may have a web ui for it.

Connect your speakers to the LAN (not wifi) to rule out wifi disconnects.

smbstatus command shows connected clients.

The max connection limit is the the “max connections” parameter of smb.conf PER SHARE. Synology may have a web ui for it.

Where do I run this command on the SYNOLOGY NAS?

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