It looks as though music and playlists have been generally sorted.

personally I didn’t end up with a problem as my files were preserved in their original locations for some reason.

where I really am struggling is with the wretched Catalina podcast app!

As you know, all podcasts are downloaded into a hidden library folder and given obscure filenames.

they can be copied manually direct from the app to my old iTunes podcast folder in finder but it’s a real knife and fork job. They do retain their original filenames.

i haven’t found any free podcast apps which will download for later listening rather than stream.

Is there any progress to make podcast downloads simple for Sonos once again? It used to be so easy.

The current implementation for imported playlists is indeed a bit quirky when your music is not in your home/music/iTunes folder. In my case, this folder was non-existent.

Not having read the latest posts in this forum, I have made it to work in a slightly different way which may interest you.

Let’s say my music folder is currently at /Users/Shared/iTunes

I first made a symbolic link from /Users/Shared/iTunes to /Users/home/music/iTunes by using the terminal command:

-ln -s /Users/Shared/iTunes ~/music/iTunes

I then removed all the music libraries from the Sonos App, and added a default “My Music” library (first choice in the menu). This created the iTunes Music Library.xml file. I thought this configuration would work, but strangely enough it seems the SonosLibraryServer cannot stream correctly across a symbolic link.

I then removed this library from the Sonos app, and added a new library from its original location: /Users/Shared/iTunes

This effectively results in the following:

• Music files are kept on /Users/Shared/iTunes
• The Sonos-created XML index file is on /Users/Shared/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml
• The “imported playlists” are correctly synchronized with the Music App every time the music library is updated

Note to Cochonou:

please would you explain the above steps in more simplistic terms, thanks

Note to Ryan S

Regarding the statement below:

If you go into Finder and look at your folder structure for your username followed by “Music”, what else is listed there? You should have a folder called “iTunes” there, followed by the artists. If you don’t have that iTunes folder, you can add it by making a new folder by clicking on File > New Folder and then moving the files into it.

The structure should look like:
./Users/BowlerBrown/Music/iTunes/…

which files did you mean to move into the new iTunes folder?

Dear BowlerBrown,

The method I used is indeed less straightforward than the official Sonos-backed one, so I wouldn’t advise to use it unless your familiar with the Mac OS X terminal and the UNIX filesystem links. I just posted it as it might interest some people.

To answer your other question:

which files did you mean to move into the new iTunes folder?

I believe he meant to move the actual music files into this folder. Currently, there are only two ways of making the Sonos controller correctly read the Music.app playlists in Catalina:

- Have all music under /Users/BowlerBrown/Music/iTunes/

- Have music in another folder or drive, but still have a /Users/BowlerBrown/Music/iTunes/ folder present on disk. You need to also add this folder as a music library, even if it is empty. Otherwise, the Music.app playlists will not be imported and synchronized.

Best regards.

Cochonou is correct, to add to that, my above message really should have dropped the “move the files into that” as you don’t need to have anything at all in the Music/iTunes/ directory. When you use the Sonos app to add the music share (after that folder exists), the needed playlist file will be created sitting in that folder.

Thank you both. That clarifies the situation. The reason I queried was that I would have thought you could have caused problems by altering the file/folder structure within ‘music’. But as you said leave the folder blank when you do the music share.

If you still have a copy of your iTunes xml file that was retained as a backup could this be added to the blank iTunes folder?
 

Something doesn’t give and it’s driving me nuts. Still facing problems with playlists.

• OK, emptied my /user/music/iTunes library (nothing there was used anyway)
• Removed all library info from Sonos (it is fully updated)
• Recreated the share by clicking the + and filling in the NAS share path
• No .xml file appeared in the iTunes folder
• Updated the library from the menu in Sonos
• A .xml file indeed did appear :)
• In Sonos, my newest added music appears (added today) and it plays if I pick an artist or an album
• BUT - still no iTunes playlists in Sonos (under “imported playlists, it’s empty)
• Did a change to two playlists in the Music app (and the added songs play from within the Music app), updated Sonos again
• Still nada

  

  

  

   

What am I doing wrong?

Hi Madseno,

it wasn’t clear from your list but did you include the iTunes folder in your music share. I guess you did.

Hi there all.

Has anyone had any luck getting music and playlists from an external drive to work with Sonos and Catalina. I upgraded yesterday and lost all my music playability from iTunes folder to Sonos.

I have done everything the instructions tell me too. I have uninstalled Sonos and reinstalled it and reindexed and added the folder path repeatedly. Permissions are granted in the firewall and also the Privacy settings.

Folder path in iTunes is /iTunes/iTunes/iTunes Media.

Folder path in Sonos is /Volumes/iTunes/iTunes/iTunes Media.

Still no joy. Absolutely nothing showing, not music not playlists.

I noticed in Sonos Music Library the Folders options is listed and the path is //Alexs-Macbook-Pro/iTunes Media. Not sure what the but is but I see no way to change the path anyway.

Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Alex.

Following the above conversations has anyone had any problems with album artwork not displaying correctly in the the Sonos desktop controller after updating the music share?

Alex, if you are using macOS Catalina then the music library folder structure has changed, like /Music/Media

in macOS Catalina the Music App will not automatically generate the xml file - look in File → Library → Export Library and save the xml file - then update your SONOS library again - you should find all your music, except the playlists (see also this thread)

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.

All worked fine and Artwork is shown in the SONOS App. However, lately I have experienced issues with Album Artwork of songs that I purchased on the iTunes store. I am still investigating if this is due to the fact that songs may not be downloaded automatically onto my MacBook and as such an Apple Music issue or a synchronisation issue with the SONOS App.

Thanks, please post your results when you have them.

Thinking about your recent problem el Rubio I had a similar problem when using  iTunes when album Artwork showed in iTunes but not on some songs in playlists on the Sonos desktop app, it solved the problem when I selected the corresponding album in iTunes and selected the artwork in properties by clicking on it. I then double clicked on the artwork having selected it. Then went back to the Sonos desktop app and updated the share. Problem solved. Hopefully it’s the same problem as you have.

Hi, I confirm I have the same problem and use the same workaround for the time being. Songs that I buy from Amazon are in mp3 format and have the Artwork embedded. I assume that the songs I buy from the iTunes store in m4a format use a cache memory and do not have embedded metadata with JPG or PNG album art, so it must be done manually.

I have an external disk with my music library on to which Sonos connects to, this is a network enabled device so I do not need my Mac switched on for Sonos to access my music library.  As with so many I also had issues with not seeing playlists in the Sonos app.  Here is my work around:

Sonos music library folder is listed as  <external drive name >/Music

This contains a folder ‘iTunes Media’ containing all the iTunes/Music files.

In the Apple Music app on my Mac I export my Library to the file iTunes Music Library.xml in the <external drive name >/Music folder.    Do this in Apple Music by File - Library - Export Library.  This generates an XML file that Sonos can read and contains all the playlists.  For a library of about 5000 tunes this took just a few seconds.

In the Sonos app perform an ‘Update Music Index Now’.

You should now see all your playlists as you see on the Mac.

If you change your playlists in Apple Music on the Mac then the iTunes Music Library.xml file has to be regenerated and the Sonos index updated.

I hope this of some help but it is disappointing that the Sonos-Apple interface is so sensitive to configurations that are slightly different from the norm.

Roger

Hi

I have read this entire thread, and followed all the steps to get this working but still no joy on the playlist front. I keep my music on the Mac, but copy it all to my NAS via a Sync Task so that I can access my music via Sonos when the Mac isn’t switched on. This also means I have a backup of my media should I replace the Mac or it have any issues that mean I can’t access the files on it.

To try and get this working, I did the following:

In the Music app, I set the folder for my library to the default value, i.e. /Macintosh HD/Users/Martin/Music/Media, with ‘Keep Music Media folder organised’ ticked.

I deleted all the music from my library, and then re-imported it all so that it would be placed in the new ‘default’ location.

I deleted the music library from my Sonos app.

I granted the Sonos application Full Disk Access

I added a temporary folder with some music in from my Mac HD, which allowed me to also grant Full Disk Access to SonosLibraryFolder (as am unable to add or remove anything via Privacy>Files and Folders), though both have Full Disk Access in there as well. I then removed that Music Library.

I then granted the account granted to the NAS music share read/write access (previously had read only).

I added the folder iTunes under /Macintosh HD/Users/Martin/Music/, i.e. /Macintosh HD/Users/Martin/Music/iTunes

I created the correct folder structure (including iTunes folder) on the NAS share, and then sync’d the music library onto the NAS, so my structure on the NAS is now:
\NAS\Share\Music\Media\ (All Music is under here, by artist folders)
\NAS\Share\iTunes\

If I add my local music folder as the music source, and let it index, the Xml file is created without issue.

If I then remove the library and re-add using the NAS share with the credentials that have read/write access, the Xml file isn’t generated. If I copy the Xml file to the iTunes folder on my NAS, there are imported playlists present but they aren’t the ones in my library.

I’m obviously missing something - I thought by granting disk access and recreating my library from scratch would work, there is a step I must have missed?

It’s worked fine except I didn’t have my playlists, but thought as it appeared to be fixed, it was worth trying to get it working, but sadly still isn’t.

Any help or advice as to where I’ve gone wrong gratefully received

Regards

Martin

Hi Martin

My file structure on my NAS drive looks like this:

<external drive name>/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music

This is different from my original post - can't remember why I changed it.

In ‘Music’ is all the music by artist.

In iTunes I have a file  ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’

This file is created by Music app by ‘File - Library - Export Library’.  This will export the playlists.

Then update Music index in Sonos app.  So far this is working for me.

Hope this helps.

Roger

Thanks Roger...can I just check - do you have the library on the hard drive as well (like me)? Or is yours pointing at your NAS? As I said, it created the Xml file without issue when I set the location of the music library to be my default music location, but when I re-tried pointing at the NAS, the Xml wasn’t generated. I suspect the location of the iTunes folder isn’t correct, even though IMO it matches the structure on my local HD.

Think it will be quicker for me to recreate the playlists directly in Sonos rather than going through all this pain!

Appreciate your response though

Regards

Martin

Hi Martin

I only have one copy of my library and that is on the NAS drive.  My NAS drive is an Apple  Time Capsule so I don’t know if this makes a difference.

Having found the right incantations to make my system work I find that it is ok.  Every time I amend a playlist I just export the library as I described and do an update on Sonos and I then have all my playlists in Sonos.

The other feature I found with Sonos was, for me, a wired connection between Sonos and my network was a lot more reliable.

Good luck

Roger

I too, have the same issue with Sonos not importing playlists for those of us using Catalina.

Do we know whether Sonos plan to fix this?

Or are Catalina and Apple Music users (surely a growing number as laptops are updated) expected to find this thread and experiment with renaming file structures etc?

All strikes me as a very haphazard and unprofessional approach to a key feature of the software.

After days of reading these forums, here’s what’s finally worked for me. I have my music files on a NAS. Artists and albums were ok but playlists would not play.

• I exported the .xml Library from Music to the NAS
• Opened the .xml file with TextEdit
• Find and replace ‘.localized’ with nothing
• FInd and replace ‘1-’ with nothing
• Save and close

Updated Music Library in Sonas and my playlists were playable.