Local music library has never worked since the infamously bad app update

The steps are described in this Sonos support page and the links off it…

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

Also ensure your network profile is set to ‘private’ rather than public. You could perhaps even go onto try the ‘Everyone’ share method on the library folders, if all else fails. 

Edit: I would also perhaps use the Sonos ‘mobile’ App to setup/add the library share with Sonos, rather than the Desktop App.

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-and-music-services-229131/error-code-913-fixed-6897914

 This is an easier way.  Hopefully it works.

Yeah unfortunately I have tried every step mentioned on both of those links multiple times. Nothing works. To clarify, I don’t get any error when I add my music library to Sonos. It happily accepts it. But no music ever shows up. If I hit “Update Music Library Now” it immediately stops searching after less than a second and no music ever appears.

After doing some more googling I have found one thing that works (albeit not a solution). If I choose an individual track on my PC, right click in and then hit “Cast to device” the Sonos system will show up as an option. Clicking that will bring up a very old school looking Windows Media Player style interface (the really old one from Windows 7 I want to say) and after about 2 seconds it will play seemingly fine. I can’t seek, but changing volume works.

So I can get one file at a time to play but like I said, this is hardly a solution.

I don’t know if this is helpful at all, does it indicate that the sharing is set up properly and it’s the Sonos app just being a catastrophe?

@Ryan Graubner,

Are you using the Desktop Sonos Controller App to add your local library? - I ask because you mentioned this:“Update Music Library Now” - that’s not in the mobile App.

Anyhow if you are using the Desktop App, then just ensure you’re not using an HTTP share option for your library setup… those are the first two ‘library setup’ options in the Desktop Sonos App - neither of those two options support SMBv2.

If anything, setup the library link using the new Sonos ‘mobile’ App instead, as that will ensure that the share is using the SMBv2 (or higher) protocol. 

I’ve tried using both the Sonos app (on Android) as well as the desktop app. My most recent attempt was using the app. I promise I have followed every guide posted so far to the letter. 

Just out of interest why does casting a file work? Does it use a different protocol than SMBv2 or whatever? I consider myself quite tech savvy (I used to build PC’s for a living) but if someone of my ability is struggling I honestly don’t understand how Sonos expects their average consumer to even have a chance of getting this to work.

@Ryan Graubner 

Also perhaps keep the below in mind too, as these things may affect a shared SMBv2 (or higher) folder….

You obviously need to state either the PC netbios name, or its IP address, in the path to the library share from the new Sonos App. I would always recommend adding the shared folder via the (mobile) Sonos App, just so that there’s no mistake made in trying to (wrongly) setup an HTTP share, as those type of shares are no longer supported by Sonos aswell. A HTTP share is not possible via the new Sonos App.

Note a netbios name for the PC should not be longer than 15 characters and should not include:

period (.)
backslash (\)
forward slash (/)
colon (:)
asterisk (*)
question mark (?)
quotation mark (“)
less than sign (<)
greater than sign (>)
vertical bar (|)

Note too that PC Hostnames are used by DNS Servers for name resolution on the Internet and on the LAN and for that avoid using these characters in the PC Name too…

comma (,)
tilde (~)
colon (:)
exclamation point (!)
at sign (@)
number sign (#)
dollar sign ($)
percent (%)
caret (^)
ampersand (&)
apostrophe (‘)
period (.)
parentheses (())
braces ({})
underscore (_)
white space (blank)

So just to be sure things will work, I suggest the PC name does not include any of these characters, although some of the PC Hostname characters may work over the LAN as part of the Netbios name.

So a working example might be something like //MY-SERVER/MUSIC 

Where MUSIC is the name of the shared folder.

If using the IP address instead, like this (example only): //192.168.1.120/MUSIC …then I would make the IP address static (usually in the routers DHCP reservation table, but there are other methods to do that too).

The username and password assigned for access to the shared library folder needs to be a user on the PC that has read-only (ideally) permission on the MUSIC share - check the folder properties on the PC to see which user(s) and what permission they may have to access the share and its sub folders and files.

Edit: And don’t forget that the network profile for the PC needs to be set as ‘Private’, rather than ‘Public’, as mentioned earlier.

My PC name is simply “LAPTOP” with no spaces or weird things. So the network path is //LAPTOP/MUSIC. I hadn’t tried using an IP address before. Initially I couldn’t get it to add the library, said Access Denied, then I realised my phone had added a space and corrected it. Using an IP address instead of my PC name does allow the library to be added (when I got the IP in there correctly) but same issue as always.

So presumably adding the library itself isn’t the issue as I only see error messages when I’ve not typed it in right.

My network profile has always been set to private but I re-checked it, it’s definitely on private and not public.

On the share properties I currently have the following:

Everyone - Read

Guest - Read

Music - Read (this is the local account I created as suggested in the steps above)

Ryan Graubner (email of my Microsoft account) - Owner (this one is my main account that I use)

Sonos Wireless HiFi System - Read

On the Advanced Sharing options in Share Permissions I have all the same users, all of them have Full Control, Read and Write set to “Allow”.

If the PC has a firewall enabled, can you switch it off ‘temporarily’ just to see if that makes any difference?

Also, what user & credentials have you tried with the library setup? (Obviously do not give details of your passwords here).. but have you tried the Sonos share without any credentials in place for the ‘Everyone’ read-only share?

Have you considered trying setting up another separate shared folder (eg. MUSIC2) with just a few tracks only in it, to just see if that share works?  Just add a half dozen tracks to it.

My router has its own built in firewall so I actually have the Windows firewall disabled because I figure you don’t need two going. I’m not sure how to disable my router firewall and to be honest I don’t want to anyway, that feels very dodgy.

When I’m adding the music library in the app I am using the login credentials for the local account I created, although weirdly if I leave these blank it doesn’t give me any “Access Denied” errors, but no content shows up.

I’ll maybe try the second folder with one or two files in it tomorrow but I’m gonna get some sleep now. I think I’m just gonna give up for now, maybe I try using Plex and stream my music to my TV. Means I can’t play videogames and have music coming out of my Sonos speakers but I’m so sick and tired of troubleshooting this that maybe this will have to do.

I mean, there was a time when all of this worked flawlessly. The fact that Sonos doesn’t just roll back the firmware to when it did is boggling the mind. I tried to return my speakers to the merchant but of course they wouldn’t take it back. It’s somewhat fascinating from a consumer law perspective, like the consumer has seemingly zero options when a company just arbitrability decides to break advertised functionality on their product. Perhaps new consumer protections need to be set up so that if a company breaks someone’s product they are required by law to collect the now faulty item and refund the customer. Sadly all I can do is make sure to warn anyone who ever talks to me about buying speakers to steer well clear of anything Sonos related.

If the Sonos CEO really cared about rebuilding customers’ trust in the Sonos brand he would resign immediately.

Yeah there’s no need to disable your router firewall - it’s irrelevant for the things mentioned here. It was just a suggestion to disable the PC firewall ‘temporarily’ (if you were using one). As you’re not using one you can ignore that suggestion.

I’m only trying to help with these suggestions - it’s a matter for you if you want to try these things. My thoughts are that it will be interesting to see if a separate (new) shared folder, containing just a few tracks may work. Let me know how that goes when you get chance tomorrow. 

I can only say, as a Sonos user myself, I had no issues setting up a Windows shared library using SMBv2, but I only have Windows 10 PC here, but plenty of other users in the community have reported success with Windows 11.

My own ‘main’ shared library however is held on a NAS.

My personal thoughts are that the shared folder has perhaps got corrupted in some way for sharing purposes - but let’s see what perhaps happens when you try a new folder share with a few tracks. I hope you can get it sorted. 👍

From a Windows command prompt type:

net share

And post a screen shot of what you get. 

 Make sure the path you use is the one shown in the music folder share screen.  Right Click on the folder - Choose Properties / Sharing.  The path is listed under the Share button.  Copy it and paste it in the Sonos PC app where you add shares.  Use the 3rd option Network devices… .  The first two don’t work anymore.

 There is no need to use a Local User or Advanced Sharing.  Just share to Sonos and that’s it.

 Test this with a new folder on your desktop with just one album in that test folder.  Then follow above & the @zombiedropper link I posted.

Bug a copy of Sonopad. I use it exclusively. Well, I use that and I used the Windows controller software, which still works fine.

I hope that the windows version continues to work, and I hope that the sonos ios app will work by the time I need to run Trueplay again.

Did you find any solution to this problem?  It's basically the same for me.  Firmware update got through and meant I had to update my working system to latest version of all software. After many of the same problems reported elsewhere. I did a complete uninstall and reinstall.  PC works fine.  Android app get the "something went wrong.." when trying to access music library from mobile (Samsung A3 and Redmi Note Pro.  After 7 calls with Sonos support, they say "they're escalating to dev" we'll see.  I suppose other alternative is to "downgrade" everything to S1.  My Play at, sub and Play 1 are about a decade old.  Just not sure I trust the process.