MacOS Catalina - Import Playlists from Apple Music (f/k/a iTunes)

Hi, @MikeL35. Welcome to the community. So if I’m following correctly, your playlists are displayed, but not the most recent changes made to them. Is that right? There’s two possibilities that come to mind at the moment. 

1) I am more leaning towards this one: a problem with your .xml file. The way Apple provides the information regarding playlists to third party apps and services is via an Apple proprietary file. This is known as an .xml file. Sometimes the integrity of this file can be compromised during an OS update. Try to locate this file and determine whether it is in the same folder that Sonos is “pointing at” for your music library. It has to be in order to ensure proper the proper functioning and displaying of your playlists. It also needs to be up-to-date: It should be timestamped with the same time and date of the last time you closed iTunes. if it isn’t, you will need to consolidate your music library. According to Apple’s own website, this is how you’d go about that.

2) The other possibility is that during this migration to the new OS, your sharing settings may have been changed (for the worst, where Sonos is concerned). In this case, you’d go to your shared folders on the Mac itself, in system preferences, to add the file containing your music library (and contained, corresponding .xml file) manually. For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is the case. Otherwise you’d probably not see any playlists at all. 

I hope this makes sense and is helpful. Let us know how you get on. 

Hello Edward.  

Thank you for the response.  It was helpful but the bigger issue seems to be that the newest version of Catalina no longer creates .xml files from Apple Music.  Does Sonos have the ability to still read playlists created in the newly updated Apple Music (f/k/a iTunes)?  If so, how do I make that happen?

Thank you in advance. 

Mike

@MikeL35 Hi Mike, the Sonos system will create that file if it’s missing, but you may need to create a new folder on your Mac. Inside your Mac’s Music folder, create a folder called iTunes. Then, remove the music share in Sonos and add it back. You should be able to get access to your playlists again. Let me know if that doesn’t work.

Hello Jeff,

My music folder already contains a folder labeled iTunes (which holds all of my .mp3 files).  Are you suggesting I create a second iTunes folder?

Thank you.

Mike

That’s where the folder should be. In some cases that folder is not created by iTunes on Catalina. If you remove and then add your library back, it should create an index file for your playlists. If this does not happen, there is likely a different issue with your music library share. In this case it would be best to reach out to our phone team who can take over troubleshooting from here. Our phone number and hours can be found on this page.

Thanks Jeff.  I did this and reached out to the phone team when it didn't work (ticket no. 01420176). The phone team explained that Sonos cannot import playlists from computers running Catalina.  This is very disappointing news as I almost exclusively use Sonos to listen to playlists created in Apple Music (f/k/a iTunes).  I feel really stuck here... please let me know if there are any other solutions. I think I have hit a dead end with the phone support (although they were very kind and wanted to help). 

Mike

I would recommend replying to the email you received from your case, letting them know the issue remains, it should reopen the case.

Following issue this as I understood the issue of losing access to playlists when upgrading from Mojave to Catalina has been addressed by Sonos in 10.6. Please confirm if this is the case.

As yet, I have not upgraded to Catalina until I know the issue has been fixed.

Please do not suggest I use Apple Music streaming service (a less than useful suggestion already received from Sonos) as I have > 11,000 tracks on my Mac and want to continue being able to use the playlists I created for playing them in a meaningful way…..

Hi Steve, yes Sonos version 10.6 has a solution for the playlist issue with Catalina updates. The main thread on the issue is here, with some suggestions for fix any problems that might come up. 

Bit the bullet and afternoon checking sonos up to date, upgraded Mac to Catalina. Pleasantly surprised that after upgrade sonos worked perfectly and still had access to all my playlists on the Mac. 

Message for Steve Turner:

Did you have any problems with Album Artwork or Sonos permissions in Catalina when you updated or did everything work normally as it should? Thanks. I am still waiting to update.

MikeL35,

have you resolved your playlist issue?  I have a new Mac, Catalina, and since migrating my music files and implementing Sonos, my playlists no longer appear; all my music does successfully work.