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Music Library - albums and playlists completely random additions and subtractions

  • April 2, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 78 views
A
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I haven’t been using Sonos much after the May24 update, wiating for things to improve. Just uploaded my Mozart collection to the HD I keep my music library on, tho, so updated the library and started trying to play a few things. Disaster. Albums and playlists are now truncated and duplicated in random ways  - so a ten-track album might now appear as three albums, one with 2 tracks, one with 5 and one with 3 - or ten albums each with one track on. Same thing with playlists, which seem to be missing most of their original tracks. SO to play one album I need to play n album fragments. This is the case on both the PC version and the mobile app (Iphone).

I’ve checked back to the itunes and music folders and all is untroubled there, so this seems to be another Sonos problem. I’d normally remove all the music folders from the library and then reload them, but that took three months to resolve last time I tried (last May). Anybody else got this problem, or an idea for a simple solution?

Thanks

Best answer by Editor

Oh, and another thing, now I’ve had a chance to read your article a couple of times. You say here:

‘It sounds like the metadata of your Music Library files is not set correctly…..’

That is so infuriating. What you meant to say was:

‘It sounds like you didn’t notice (because we didn’t warn you) that we have changed our software so that you will now have to re-categorise pretty well all the album tracks you have on your folders, or they will be re-badged as new albums. Oh, and we did this because there is a 1 in 1,000 chance that more than, say, one of your 500 albums has the same name as another one. Gosh that would have been awful for you. Now go and change tha metadata on the the other 499.’

OK, I’m exaggerating, but don’t tell me that the settings i have been using since 2010 are ‘incorrect’ because you have CHANGED SOMETHING AND NOT TOLD ANYBODY, as seems to be the way ahead now for Sonos.

There. Much calmer now..

I totally agree with your summary and I feel the same frustration.

I wrote to the new ceo making a similar point and asking him to get the engineer / designer / developer to justify why on earth they would make all the media library users change tags on all their compilation albums ( and lose artist search capabilities by doing so) rather than deal with the handful of duplicate albums by just changing the tags on one of the dupes (if you really cared about it). 

I did not receive a reply.

 

such a blinkered design move , I’m guessing by someone who doesn’t own a media library.

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6 replies

Pools-3015
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  • Pools-3015
  • Prodigy I
  • April 2, 2025

There have been many updates since last May. There were recent updates that addressed the issues you are having. Have you done both the recent app and system updates?

A
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  • Andrew_77
  • Author
  • Avid Contributor I
  • April 2, 2025

Yep. I am a compliant sort. When 99% of my system disappeared in May, I made a point of supporting these software geniuses by setting everything to auto update, too.

Sotiris C.
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  • Sotiris C.
  • Sonos Staff
  • April 7, 2025

Hello ​@Andrew_77, welcome back!

It sounds like the metadata of your Music Library files is not set correctly.

More specifically the metadata tag “Album Artist" needs to be set as “Various Artists" or maybe “Mozart Collection" in every track of the album in order to not show multiple entries within the library.

Please have a look at our Community Article below:

I hope this helps.

Leaving a like and marking Best Answer might make someone's day. Who knows, that someone might be you.
Airgetlam
A
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  • Andrew_77
  • Author
  • Avid Contributor I
  • April 8, 2025

THanks for the reply. That might be the case for new albums recently added I guess (though it’s not an issue I’ve ever had before, I just upload to itunes, with itunes set to be picked up in the Music Library). But the issue affects albums I’ve had on SOnos for ten years or more without any issue, but which are now appearing eight times with one or two tracks in each album. Are you suggesting I need to go back to 5,000 tracks or so and change the metadata by hand in each?

Hope not, but thanks for your help,

EDIT: I’ve just read through the ‘community article, and FFS, that is exactly what you are suggesting! So I buy an album with ten different musicians on because I want to play that album, and Sonos have switched the software so that it now appears as ten albums ‘so that each artist has their own album’???? This is so so depressing. 

Now I have to find out what the merry hell a tag editor is, and spend a fortnight re-analysing all the albums I possess to get back to where I was with your aoftware before you decided on changing it without notice or option. What spinach.You people at Sonos are in the wrong trade.

Andrew

A
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  • Andrew_77
  • Author
  • Avid Contributor I
  • April 8, 2025

Oh, and another thing, now I’ve had a chance to read your article a couple of times. You say here:

‘It sounds like the metadata of your Music Library files is not set correctly…..’

That is so infuriating. What you meant to say was:

‘It sounds like you didn’t notice (because we didn’t warn you) that we have changed our software so that you will now have to re-categorise pretty well all the album tracks you have on your folders, or they will be re-badged as new albums. Oh, and we did this because there is a 1 in 1,000 chance that more than, say, one of your 500 albums has the same name as another one. Gosh that would have been awful for you. Now go and change tha metadata on the the other 499.’

OK, I’m exaggerating, but don’t tell me that the settings i have been using since 2010 are ‘incorrect’ because you have CHANGED SOMETHING AND NOT TOLD ANYBODY, as seems to be the way ahead now for Sonos.

There. Much calmer now..

E
Forum|alt.badge.img+6
  • Editor
  • Enthusiast II
  • Answer
  • April 9, 2025

Oh, and another thing, now I’ve had a chance to read your article a couple of times. You say here:

‘It sounds like the metadata of your Music Library files is not set correctly…..’

That is so infuriating. What you meant to say was:

‘It sounds like you didn’t notice (because we didn’t warn you) that we have changed our software so that you will now have to re-categorise pretty well all the album tracks you have on your folders, or they will be re-badged as new albums. Oh, and we did this because there is a 1 in 1,000 chance that more than, say, one of your 500 albums has the same name as another one. Gosh that would have been awful for you. Now go and change tha metadata on the the other 499.’

OK, I’m exaggerating, but don’t tell me that the settings i have been using since 2010 are ‘incorrect’ because you have CHANGED SOMETHING AND NOT TOLD ANYBODY, as seems to be the way ahead now for Sonos.

There. Much calmer now..

I totally agree with your summary and I feel the same frustration.

I wrote to the new ceo making a similar point and asking him to get the engineer / designer / developer to justify why on earth they would make all the media library users change tags on all their compilation albums ( and lose artist search capabilities by doing so) rather than deal with the handful of duplicate albums by just changing the tags on one of the dupes (if you really cared about it). 

I did not receive a reply.

 

such a blinkered design move , I’m guessing by someone who doesn’t own a media library.

A
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