How many tracks are already in the Queue?

Thanks for the reply, buzz…. In this particular playlist, there are 55. Do you mean the total of ALL of my playlists? I’ve been at this since 2009!

Only Sonos can see the internal storage status so you’d need to submit a diagnostic and contact support with the number to have them check your storage status.

I was afraid of that. Two hours gone… But I appreciate your telling me what needs to happen. I’d like up upgrade to Sonos 2, but I can’t find anyone willing to set it up for me. That might solve a lot of other problems I am having…

Thanks again, Stanley 4

The “Queue” is the list of tracks that you are currently playing. “Playlist” is a Queue that you saved and can recall and play by loading it into the Queue. You can recall and add multiple Playlists into the Queue.

Players have a fixed amount of memory, each player stores a copy of the music library index and a copy of all Playlists. If you have a large library and build and store more and more playlists, you may limit the size of the Queue that can be managed. How many tracks are in the current Queue? In general, I wouldn’t expect adding 55 tracks would be an issue, but if there are already a few thousand tracks in the Queue, attempting to add 55 might push over the top.

You’ll need to work with SONOS support because they can access internal data. There are a lot of moving pieces in this drama. Long file names and track titles use space. I’ve seen reports of users running into trouble at a few hundred tracks to a few thousand tracks. As a quickie test I added 10000 tracks to my library and threw them into a playlist. I already had some older playlists. I then added this playlist into the Queue six times for a total of 60000 tracks. There were no issues.

Thanks so much for clarifying some of these terms as well as the inner workings of Sonos. There are so many mysteries to it that I don’t understand (Why doesn’t rearranging songs in a playlist ever work? My edits never “stick.” Why does Sonos insist on shuffling even when I have that icon deselected? Why does it keep playing the same songs in a playlist when there are obviously other choices? Etc…Questions for Sonos). You have cleared up some of reasons why I couldn’t get those 55 songs added. I have literally thousands of songs in multiple, lengthy playlists. Some are over 100 songs long. Plus people ask me to make playlists for them…  I bet I will need to delete a lot stuff if I want to add this latest playlist. Boo hoo.
I sure do appreciate the time you’ve devoted to my dilemma, buzz. I’m now going into this playlist “healing process” with a lot more information. I sincerely thank you!

Do you use a music service? Because Sonos copies playlists made in for example Spotify. And you can play those outside Sonos too. That’s why I never use Sonos playlists.

Yes, I use Spotify. Some of my playlists show up there, and some of them don’t. I understand this has to do with making them public which I did for those playlists I made for other people. But if you have a better suggestion, I am open to it!

Making and saving Playlists for music stored on a local computer or hard drive is a little different from working with music services. The music services usually want to manage playlists for their music in the service’s App. SONOS Playlists are stored locally in the SONOS players. A SONOS Playlist is built by loading tracks into the Queue, then saving that Queue as a Playlist. You can update a SONOS Playlist by saving the Queue again. Any edits to the Queue will be lost unless you save them.

You can certainly jump between music service playlists and SONOS playlists, but you need to pay attention. A track that is part of a music service Playlist will not automatically become part of a SONOS playlist. Music service Playlists are available to play on a phone/pad when you are away from your SONOS system. SONOS Playlists are available only when you are near the SONOS system. You can easily share a music service Playlist with friends. Sharing SONOS playlists is a hack.

Failure to save an edited Playlist could explain some of your issues. Also, you may be editing a music service Playlist which is similar to a SONOS playlist, then playing the SONOS Playlist which has not been edited. While the Playlists might look similar, they are distinct.

Finally, if you are storing music on a local computer or hard drive “share”, make sure that the Recycle Bin for that share has been disabled. As the SONOS library indexer is working through the files it often starts with the Recycle Bin. If the indexer encounters another copy(s) of a file, the copy(s) will be ignored. This  could be another reason why your edits seem to be ignored. The stale copy of the file in the Recycle Bin has been used, rather than the freshly edited file.

I talked with a Sonos rep today who accessed my computer, and of course after explaining that I couldn’t add a playlist I was able to add my 55-song playlist. The black bar at the bottom that night I was trying to add the playlist WASN’T THERE! I told him I hadn’t made up the missing option, and he explained that Sonos was doing some updating and that could have been the reason it was gone. Maybe he just took pity on me.
He next explained that editing the playlist was to take place on the right side of the screen, not on the left where the queue is. No wonder my edits wouldn’t “stick.” He looked at my endless list of playlists and said I hadn’t hit the wall yet, so all is good for now. Except I forgot to ask him why Sonos drops out a random speaker every time I use it. My broadband is excellent… Next time!

He explained (but I did not understand) why Sonos will stick to 10 or 12 songs over and over in a playlist of over 100 songs. My brain couldn’t take anymore, so I’ll have to live with that one.

Thanks again for all of this info, buzz. I didn’t feel so intimidated when I called in today.

“Broadband” is outside your house. The “LAN” (Local Area Network) is inside your house. SONOS operates on both the LAN and “WAN” (Wide Area Network — another name for Broadband). If the LAN is struggling, a given player cannot communicate with the SONOS controller or the WAN.

Think of the situation where you are across the street from a high speed highway exit ramp, but your driveway is so full of potholes that you cannot leave the garage. In fact you may not be able to pull out the lawnmower to cut the grass. You may have a second garage with easy access to the highway. On your LAN something could be making life difficult for SONOS. This needs to be investigated.

How do I get that checked out? My computer services are provided by Spectrum. I did buy a Sonos “boost,” thinking that would solve the problem. But no. My speakers are wired, not wireless. I got this system in 2008! 

I used to teach school. The analogy you used to explain this to me tells me that you would make a good teacher. You explained in in such a way that I could understand it. A plus!

It's bedtime in Texas…

Since you had all of your SONOS units wired, BOOST has no function. Boost is handy in situations where you only want to wire one unit and don’t want a player at that location. Another use for BOOST is in situations where you have a wireless player that is out of range from the other SONOS players. A wired or wireless BOOST can be placed about midway between the good coverage area and the out of range unit.

Describe your system and network for us. Give model numbers. Router? Do you have any network switches? Mesh points?

Don’t overlook the silly things, such as a bad network cable. Are the issues more typical at certain times of day? Another possibility to explore is a hardware issue. These show in the diagnostics, but support may have been distracted by the Playlist issue. And the hardware issue could be intermittent. Experiment with powering down a Room (“Room” is a single player, a “Bonded” pair of players, or a Surround system). If the system works OK with a particular Room powered down, hardware failure moves up on the list of potential causes. Notice that I said “moved up” not “proves” because some network issues could still be in the mix. And, Mother Nature is never fair -- we should be open to the possibility of multiple problems.

Well, looks like I can sell my Boost on Next Door!

I found this, but I confess that for the LAN test, I have no clue whatsoever what to put in the “folder.” I do not have two computers; I have an iMac and an iPad. Can you tell me what to put in that folder space?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_qzbE5PNCE