iTunes playlists not being imported into music library on PC Sonos app

Hi @bayoughozt.

Thanks for reaching out, let me check it for you.

Sonos imports your playlists from playlist files in your shared music folder. If some or all of your Imported Playlists are missing, it means Sonos wasn’t able to find or read your playlist files. The attached article contains suggestions that will help you find and add your playlist.

If the above advice was followed and the issue persists, please submit a diagnostic report, and reply with the confirmation number, I'd start by reviewing your system and see if there’s anything causing this issue.

Let me know how that goes.

Hi,

I have read all of the materials on this.  I have added my music folder (including iTunes folder) and my separate external library folder.   There are no playlists.  

I will submit a diagnostic report.  Thanks.

ps.  All playlists are missing.  They are all generated from iTunes.  

Hi there @bayoughozt.

Thanks for your response and update.

Kindly reply with the confirmation number of the diagnostic report, so I can review the result and see if there’s anything on the system that possibly cause this issue.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Diagnostics:  922486899

Thanks!

Annazel and bayoughotz

I'm experiencing the same issues with Playlist issue and have tried some of the proposed fixes with no positive results.  If you discover something Annazel, please post here.

Hi folks, thanks for your patience on this. For some reason, the diagnostic report that was submitted by @bayoughozt doesn’t contain complete data, there was somewhat of an error when it was triggered.

At this point, it would be best to reach out to Sonos Support, as we can take a closer look and discuss it with all of you individually in real-time. You can give us a call and work with a technician live, they'll start by checking your system health and go from there. They have resources available for advanced troubleshooting, and the tools our agents can use would be very useful in this case, there can be an advantage if they need to remote into the controller to see what's going on.

When calling, you can help us by also having a Mac or Windows computer available so we have the option to perform any hands-on troubleshooting and testing as needed

If you have any questions,  feel free to reach out.

Thanks, I will do that. 

@Annazel S can you please confirm that Sonos PC app should be able to read the playlist data in the iTunes XML file?  I note that there are no separate ‘.m3u’ files in the music folder.  

Hi @bayoughozt.

Thanks for your response.

Sonos can import playlists from the Music app on macOS as well as the iTunes app on macOS and Windows by reading the app’s music library XML file. Additionally, Sonos supports M3U, WPL, and PLS playlist files created with software like WinAmp and Windows Media Player. You can get information about a track in iTunes, by right-clicking and selecting "Get info".

• If your playlist is saved in another format, Sonos cannot import it into your music library.
• Verify that the Playlist file name does not begin or end with "_" (underscore).

I found this relevant thread that you may check, it contains helpful suggestions that you can try, here is the link:

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/sonos-not-syncing-with-itunes-6821945

If you have any questions,  feel free to reach out.

I have new diagnostics, completed immediately after re-indexing my library.   1028310133

Does this provide any new info?  Thanks!

Hi there @bayoughozt.

Thanks for your response and effort in submitting the diagnostic. I was able to review the diagnostic report and there are transport errors detected. This condition is most likely a file format issue but I can be wrong.

At this point, it would be best to reach out to Sonos Support, so we can take a closer look at this in real-time and expedite the process.

I suggest our phone team for they have more resources available on their system for advanced troubleshooting, and the tools our agents can use would be very useful in this case, there can be an advantage if they need to remote into the computer/controller to see what's going on.

When calling, you can help us by also having a Mac or Windows computer available so we have the option to perform any hands-on troubleshooting and testing as needed.

​If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know.

I have wasted hours if not days of my life on the playlists in my iTunes/Windows/NAS/Sonos system, and had almost given up on it ever working consistently

I recently exported all of my 700 playlists in m3u format and ditched the xml file. And when I alter a playlist, I just export the playlist to a new m3u file

Time consuming but it works. No longer dependent on the flaky iTunes/Sonos interface

Hi Ray, How do I do that with my playlists within iTunes?  Can you please provide a step by step guide?  Thank you!

It’s very simple 

On Windows, in iTunes

File > Library > Export Playlists

My playlist (M3U) files are in one folder which I point Sonos at, and the music is all in a sub-folder of that folder

When you alter a playlist just export the new one, and add (or replace) in that folder

Now it looks like you may have got it working - in which case, great. But I have lost count of the number of false dawns I have had, when it worked and then it stopped working, so I am leaving this post for anyone to follow

Exporting playlists is tedious but is so easy that you can do it while watching a film or two out of the corner of your eye - that’s what I did. And I’ve had no problems since

One extra note, in addition to Ray James’ solution. After exporting the .xml files from iTunes, you’ll need to go into the Sonos client and update the music library, so it picks up the changes in the .xml files.