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Problems adding music library on Synology NAS


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I’m trying to give my Android Pixel 6 phone access to my Synology 1522 music library. I believe the attached screenshot is where I do that. If so, I can’t get past inputting what I think is the required information. Hopefully one of you will know if that’s true. 

Regardless of whether what I’m entering is right or wrong, when I click OK, nothing happens. The only option is to click Cancel.

 

Suggestions?

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 25 July 2023, 17:51

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So, some clarity, on both sides. First, you’re not giving access to your Pixel phone, you’re giving access to the Sonos system, which runs on the speakers and not on your phone. The controller is merely a ’window’ to the Sonos system.

Next, it would be helpful to know if you’re running S1 or S2 on your Sonos system, and we can’t tell from your screenshot. S1 requires SMB v1, which is off by default on Synology. There are several threads about how to get around this, if you are running S1. If you’re running S2, it should recognize either SMB v2 or v3. 
 

As an aside, your screenshot shows a windows share in the first line, it should be a share in your NAS (not on /MyComputer), it may help you to read https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/use-a-nas-drive-with-sonos

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Thanks for the quick reply.

My Sonos are S2 and I have set SMB 2 and 3. 

The computer share in the screenshot is what comes up in my Sonos app on my phone when following these instructions for Android (the link you also sent.) As said above, no matter what I put in there, clicking OK doesn’t do anything. The only option is to cancel. I expected that right or wrong, clicking OK would at least produce an error message.

Thanks for the quick reply.

My Sonos are S2 and I have set SMB 2 and 3. 

The computer share in the screenshot is what comes up in my Sonos app on my phone when following these instructions for Android (the link you also sent.) As said above, no matter what I put in there, clicking OK doesn’t do anything. The only option is to cancel. I expected that right or wrong, clicking OK would at least produce an error message.

My thoughts are that you cannot continue and add the library, because you have not typed the path correctly - see the two attached screenshots (taken from an iPad controller App) - note the fact it’s not possible to continue and add the library if the information has been entered incorrectly.

Sonos, since the system is running on your speakers, and trying to contact your NAS directly, will not recognize the ‘share’ set up in your local PC/Mac. You have to put in the location on the NAS, and not the ‘share’ location. 

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I copy/pasted the link address, Ken, so I don’t think that’s the problem. But thanks for the suggestion; a single character error could have been the issue. 

Bruce, you said, “You have to put in the location on the NAS, and not the ‘share’ location.” I’m not sure what you mean, can you explain a little more? 

I copy/pasted the link address, Ken, so I don’t think that’s the problem. But thanks for the suggestion; a single character error could have been the issue. 

Bruce, you said, “You have to put in the location on the NAS, and not the ‘share’ location.” I’m not sure what you mean, can you explain a little more? 

Note you will also need to insert the two forward slashes into the path. See example:

//NAS netbios name, or IP address/Path to the share (if required)/Shared Library Folder 

//NASBOX (or IP: 192.168.6.108)/Public Shares/Music

Obviously the above is just a fictitious example .. but ensure you add in the two forward slashes at the start of the path.

Oh and don’t forget to include any username and password that has access to the SMB share.

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If I attempt to log in with an IP address do I use the forward slashes? Also, note that in the attached screenshot (within the Sonos app for Android) the slashes are backwards.

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Either way (forward, backward, or no slashes) same outcome. Clicking OK doesn’t do anything, cancel is only option.

Forgot the screenshot.

 

The screenshot you’re showing in your last post @Waugust. does not relate to a NAS share? It’s a default computer share of its music folder - can you perhaps provide one with your actual NAS library path inserted?

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@Ken_Griffiths, if you mean the screenshot is not the specific information I need to enter, you’re right. This is just the format of required information. Nothing I’ve entered works to the point of hitting OK and having something happen. That may be because what I’m putting in is not correct.

I’ve asked a Synology tech to specify what that should be. I hope to hear from them today. When they confirm what I should enter, if it still doesn’t work, I’ll reach out to Sonos to see what they suggest.

Thanks for your suggestions.

@Ken_Griffiths, if you mean the screenshot is not the specific information I need to enter, you’re right. This is just the format of required information. Nothing I’ve entered works to the point of hitting OK and having something happen. That may be because what I’m putting in is not correct.

I’ve asked a Synology tech to specify what that should be. I hope to hear from them today. When they confirm what I should enter, if it still doesn’t work, I’ll reach out to Sonos to see what they suggest.

Thanks for your suggestions.

It’s usually…

//Name of NAS (or it’s IP Address)/Name of the SMB share

The NAS and SMB share names are the ones that you have setup in the disk station manager.

…and it’s good practice to setup a user/password for the share too in the DSM and set an SMB min/max setting of SMB v2 and v3 in the DSM settings.

That’s from a quick glance at the user manual, if that info. may help you at all?

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The following instruction from Synology engineer this morning.

“The format would be the same as any network attached device in theory.

Which would be \\[your ip address]\music\Itunes\music (etc) given the context of the screenshot. Remove the brackets in the IP address section.”

I tried both with the ip address and the name of my NAS. The first resulted in an error message saying “The computer (the ip address i entered) does not allow connection.”

I forwarded this to Synology, asking if there is some other permission I have not granted.

I want to make this happen more than I need to. Now it’s just a question of not giving up.

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Notice that your suggestion, and that of Synology, calls for \ rather than /. I’ve noticed that conflict elsewhere too.

Notice that your suggestion, and that of Synology, calls for \ rather than /. I’ve noticed that conflict elsewhere too.

The path you posted does not look correct to me. 🤷‍♂️

Perhaps try…

//(IP_Address of NAS)/music

 

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Spent time on the phone this afternoon with Sonos support. VERY strange outcome.

We appeared to successfully add my NAS music library using the Sonos app on my M2 Macbook Air. The agent said it could not be done on my Android phone even though there is a link to do so. I asked if the file would then be visible on my phone once we completed installing it using the computer. He said it would.

He then mentioned that my computer would need to be on to access the music once indexing completed. I was surprised and said that defeats the purpose of a NAS since the files I loaded to it came from the computer. I have the original computer file set up for play within Sonos. If I was ok having the computer on, I wouldn’t have bothered trying to gain access to the identical music on the NAS.

He agreed but added that Sonos does not yet have the capability to access files on the NAS without the computer being on. ☹️‪ ‬If true, I just wasted more hours over the last week than I care to think about, trying to get this done. 

I said it appeared we had successfully added my NAS files to the Sonos app because I assumed we had, and once indexing completed, they would be there. The file is supposedly there; I see it listed in Music Library Settings. But it does not show under Select a Music Source or under Music Library. Indexing doesn’t appear to complete based on the message you see in the attached screenshot. As far as I know, I didn’t import any playlists from the computer to the NAS, just music.

  

@Waugust,
From your description, it sounds to me like the Support Staff were setting up an ‘http’ library share to your iTunes library on your PC, rather than an SMB share to the library held on your Synology NAS.

My suggestion is to go back to Support and perhaps try again.

The playlist error message shown might be one arising from exceeding certain Sonos limits, such as there is a limit of 10,000 tracks across all playlists, but that’s another matter entirely and usually the indexing completes and skips the remaining playlists once the limit is reached - this is something else you may need to raise with the Support Staff.

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Thank you @Ken_Griffiths, I will do as you suggest.

He did have me change my SMB settings from min 2, max 3 to 1 and 2. I assume that was because he was doing an SMB share but maybe not.

Thank you @Ken_Griffiths, I will do as you suggest.

He did have me change my SMB settings from min 2, max 3 to 1 and 2. I assume that was because he was doing an SMB share but maybe not.

I was going by what you mentioned. You wouldn’t need your computer powered ‘on’ to access the library for starters …and there’s no reason why you should not have been able to setup the library share from your mobile device, assuming your mobile has a compatible OS, as mentioned below..

  • OS 14 and higher
  • iPadOS 14 and higher
  • Android 8.0 and higher (Not supported on Chromebooks)
  • Fire OS 7 and higher

Anyhow, perhaps you will get more joy with your next call to Support.👍

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Android 13 on Pixel 6 phone.

I am past the point of needing this, it’s now a personal quest. 

I’ll update you after my next encounters with Sonos and Synology support.

There are some videos on YouTube that may assist you - here’s two I came across:

I haven’t gone through them, but perhaps they might assist. 

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Thank you, @Ken_Griffiths. I had seen the second video, but not the first.

Update

Before calling Sonos this morning to question not being able to play music on my NAS without turning on the computer, I looked to see if the NAS source might be on my phone after all. Maybe it would take overnight “cooking” for this to happen. I opened the Sonos app on my phone and only saw what I knew to be there before. I assumed, my music located on my computer. (The attached screenshot is from my computer but it’s the same on my phone.)

Since my computer was not on, I decided to try to play something, believing it would not work. It did! I still saw brief notes, something about a song that could not be played. Too brief to read the full message. But that could be for a number of reasons.

The screenshot shows only one Music Library source, I expected two. The one located on my computer I previously was able to connect to Sonos, and now, a second one located on the NAS. I don’t know why there’s only one but do know for certain, my computer was not on this morning when I successfully started play music.

You’re probably right about indexing not completing due to too many songs in playlists. There are three I would like to delete, but so far have not figured out how to do that. I assume that has to be done on the NAS. If so, I can’t find anything to delete other than the music files. I don’t find a way to delete them in the Sonos app.

Note to any of you following this thread. @Ken_Griffiths has been extremely helpful. He knows what he’s talking about.

 

The playlists in iTunes are stored in library.xml file which once you’ve deleted them in iTunes can be exported…

File -> Library -> Export Library and get an XML file of your library metadata

Just replace the file on the NAS with the exported copy and see if that solves the indexing issue.🤞

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Everything is working as I hoped. Thanks for your patience and input @Ken_Griffiths , I couldn’t have done it without you.