Question

macOS Catalina + Sonos

  • 12 October 2019
  • 23 replies
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I've read a number of posts on this forum regarding Sonos no longer recognizing Apple Music (formerly iTunes) playlists. I've tried the suggested fixes, but still cannot see my music library or playlists from within the Sonos apps.

Has Sonos made any official statement regarding the apparent incompatibility of macOS Catalina with Sonos? Just wondering whether Sonos has officially acknowledged the problem and has committed to fix it, or whether we are "on our own" regarding a fix.

Thanks

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23 replies

My Macbook updated to Catalina automaticaly around six weeks ago. Since then I have not been able to attach any music folder to Sonos since. I repeatedly get a message stating: “This compuer “?????” refused to allow Sonos to connect to it”. I’ve scoured this forum high and low for a solution and also contacted the Sonos help team. They returned my question with this:

“Hey,
Thank you for contacting Sonos Customer Care.
My name is Angel and I’ll will be assisting you today. Subsequent to the release of Mac OS 10.15 Catalina and the Music application replacing iTunes, customers are no longer able to index new and updated podcasts within the Music library feature on Sonos.  Mac OS 10.15 Catalina replaced iTunes with three separate Apps, Music, Podcasts & TV.
One side effect of this, is that podcasts are no longer available within the Music App and are now in their own "Podcasts" app. This means that any new episodes or new podcast subscriptions will no longer show under the music library within Sonos”.

What I deduced from this reply was that Catalina is incompatable with Sonos.

From this I decided to reinstall Mojave on a newly created volume that I could boot into to see what happened.

Then by booting into Mojave I installed Sonos and connected a new music library connected without a hitch. I’ve therefore decided to continue to use Mojave as my main OS and transfer all my apps over.

I’ve had numerous problems with Catalina and won’t be moving back until they’ve sorted it.

 

Hope this helps

Posted info in the other Sonos/Catalina thread that may help.

here

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Yes, I understand. At this point, I’m more interested in “if” there will be a fix, not “when” there will be a fix. Nothing to do but wait and see, I guess.

Hello:

From suggestions on this site, I have gotten my music and playlists to work with MacOS Catalina.

However, I am unable to play the podcasts I have downloaded (now) to the Podcast App. Based on other posts, I have found where they exist on my drive, but that is not helpful by itself.

Sonos Team, I need to be able to play my podcasts on my Sonos Play:1 speakers. (Thus, AirPlay is not an option.)

 

Thank you.

I’m still not able to get my playlists to work.  Could you share with suggestions worked for you?

Ramblin:

 

I res elected my music folder. I believe the xml file left behind by the previous OS is currently doing the job. In the meantime, my TuneIn stations quit on me. I factory reset my Play:1s and started over.

I fear I have no good advice for you.

 

Geof

I don’t happen to use Apple Music playlists, but I do use iTunes/Music to rip my CDs. Sonos still plays all my tracks. 

it is a wise decision to stay with Mojave for the time being; however macOS users will have to deal with the fact that Apple is moving towards streaming services rather than people buying and downloading music on their local devices

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I found I needed to keep re-installing the SONOS app on my I mac to re connect to the legacy music files left behind by iTunes after Catalina install.  Disabling the automatic updates to the play list seems to have stopped that.  

 

This only fixes part of the problem, we still can't upload new music on Catalina and play it through SONOS Play 1 speakers.  Its even more frustrating that there is no official notification of this fault and SONOS Play 1’s ares till being marketed and sold as being fully compatible with Apple OSx.

 

Noting anyone buying a new iMac may get Catalina.  Could this be the basis of an anti trust case against Apple or Sonos or both?

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Could this be the basis of an anti trust case against Apple or Sonos or both

Really, where’s the anti trust😳

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Well, the systems we have purchased no longer perform as advertised and in my case like many others the companies have failed to maintain them and we are now left with no alternative.  In the case of Apple they have introduced a unique system to replace what had become a universal system.  That is not a level playing field.

 

 

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This is the Apple response-

 

If you subscribe to Apple Music, you can turn on Sync Library to access your music library and music that you've downloaded from Apple Music on all of your devices.

So:
Apple stopped Sonos from being able to play directly from iTunes playlists, forcing Sonos customers to subscribe to Apple music.


Tell me that is not an anti trust issue.  It’s my music I paid for it, why should I now have to pay again to access it. 

 

 

 

here
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This is the Apple response-

 

If you subscribe to Apple Music, you can turn on Sync Library to access your music library and music that you've downloaded from Apple Music on all of your devices.

So:
Apple stopped Sonos from being able to play directly from iTunes playlists, forcing Sonos customers to subscribe to Apple music.


Tell me that is not an anti trust issue.  It’s my music I paid for it, why should I now have to pay again to access it. 

 

 

 

Why Sonos?  I have a Yamaha receiver in another location and my Catalina OS plays through AirPlay to it.  I think Sonos dropped the ball.

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Hello:

From suggestions on this site, I have gotten my music and playlists to work with MacOS Catalina.

However, I am unable to play the podcasts I have downloaded (now) to the Podcast App. Based on other posts, I have found where they exist on my drive, but that is not helpful by itself.

Sonos Team, I need to be able to play my podcasts on my Sonos Play:1 speakers. (Thus, AirPlay is not an option.)

 

Thank you.

I’m still not able to get my playlists to work.  Could you share with suggestions worked for you?

In another thread, someone indicated that if you exported your playlists as a file into the location where the music is stored, it worked for them. I believe exporting saves it as an .xml file, which Sonos already reads. I believe the new Apple Music playlist file storage is not .xml.

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In another thread, someone indicated that if you exported your playlists as a file into the location where the music is stored, it worked for them. I believe exporting saves it as an .xml file, which Sonos already reads. I believe the new Apple Music playlist file storage is not .xml.

Thanks for the note.  

 

I have tried that but maybe I’m doing something wrong.  You have to import individual playlist in XML, correct?  I don’t see a way to have one file export all playlists.  I put that XML in the folder that Sonos is pointed to for my music, updated my music library, and nothing happens.  I still do not see any playlists.  

As I said, I saw something in another thread. I don’t use Apple playlists, so I haven’t done any testing of this myself.

 


Tell me that is not an anti trust issue.  It’s my music I paid for it, why should I now have to pay again to access it. 

 

 

You do not have to pay again to access your music.  You can add it as a share on your PC, an NAS, or a thumb drive connected to your router, or upload it to a free Google Play Music account.  None of which involves paying an Apple Music subscription.  

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Thx. I did not realize some of the thread participants are Sonos staff. I still hope, though, that they make some sort of more formal announcement about this.
You're welcome.

Any Sonos staff is required by the company to have that noted on their account. Ryan S seems to be the most talkative, but you'll see a bunch of others here that have "Sonos Staff" next to their names. These are all Sonos Community Moderators, I don't beleive that Sonos allows their engineers to post publically. I know I never liked it when I managed communities. Engineers tend to think logically, forum posters not so much :)

And I suspect that in that thread, you've got as much "formal" announcement as you're going to get, until it gets resolved. i.e. they tend not to talk about stuff that's being worked on in the pipeline, since there's no guraranty as to when it is done/tested/released, just like in any other software. Announced schedules are great, but I've never had a engineering team that was willing to commit to something until they actually knew what the real issue was. And even then, the estimates that they would give me could be wrong. I'm sure Sonos is working on it, when they're done, they'll be done, and we'll all find out about it when they release it. I don't expect them to tell us in advance.

Well, given that I’m pretty sure they won’t say anything, I will.

I’ve got a feeling that they’re working on it, and a little behind the eight ball for reasons I just don’t know. I suspect we’ll see it when we see it.

I don’t think it will never be fixed, I just think it’s a matter of time.

Hi,

 

I’m not a Mac OS user, but the algorithmically curated playlists that Apple Music generates – Favourites / Chill etc – have vanished from the For You section of the Apple Music part of the Sonos app. Is this issue related to the one you’re talking about here? I miss my Favourites especially.

 

Thanks.

 


Tell me that is not an anti trust issue.  It’s my music I paid for it, why should I now have to pay again to access it. 

 

 

You do not have to pay again to access your music.  You can add it as a share on your PC, an NAS, or a thumb drive connected to your router, or upload it to a free Google Play Music account.  None of which involves paying an Apple Music subscription.  


while SONOS still can read the library, all playlists to enjoy your locally stored tracks are lost

Hello:

From suggestions on this site, I have gotten my music and playlists to work with MacOS Catalina.

However, I am unable to play the podcasts I have downloaded (now) to the Podcast App. Based on other posts, I have found where they exist on my drive, but that is not helpful by itself.

Sonos Team, I need to be able to play my podcasts on my Sonos Play:1 speakers. (Thus, AirPlay is not an option.)

 

Thank you.