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Sonos app on android: Missing playlists

  • 16 April 2023
  • 7 replies
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S
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On my up to date Android phone, I have a large library of mp3 and flac files. It is largely maintained in Black Player.

 

Black Player makes playlists in the android media engine.

 

About half of these playlists appear in the Sonos app. But about half are MISSING.

 

Where is the Sonos app looking for playlists?

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Best answer by Corry P 20 April 2023, 17:45

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7 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @SamJones6 

I’m sorry to hear that you are still struggling with this. Unfortunately, there is no update for me to share for the ticket to which I assigned your previous case.

I highly recommend that you switch to an alternate way of playing your tracks on your Sonos system. You could create a free account with YouTube Music and upload your tracks to the cloud, set up a Plex server on your local network, or set up a NAS (Network Attached Storage) solution - doing so with a Raspberry Pi or equivalent can be fairly cheap.

I just don’t know where your Black Player Ex app is storing your playlists, nor why they don’t show up in the Sonos app.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S
Userlevel 1
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Can you back up a bit?

This is not a question about Black Player. You do not need to think about Black Player.

 

Talk to me about Android.

  1. Somewhere in Android, there is a place where playlists live.
  2. That somewhere seems to be the place the Sonos app looks
  3. The job of Sonos in this thread is to say:
    1. If you use utility/app X (not Sonos), you can see the place in Android that has the playlists Sonos sees
    2. The name of this place in Android (in Android speak) is _______
    3. As long as you get your playlists visible here, Sonos will see and play them

That then lets me either:

  1. Discover that the tool I am using to create playlists (whatever it is) is not doing the full Android dance, and I can chase it in Android-land; or
  2. There are, in fact, playlists that the Sonos-sphere should see, but for some reason isn’t (allowing Team Sonos to make its app better)

 

I look forward to hearing from Sonos as to answers for 3.1 and 3.2

Thanks!

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @SamJones6 

If Black Player Ex uses the same standards as other media apps for Android do, then I take your point.

Talk to me about Android.

  1. Somewhere in Android, there is a place where playlists live.
  2. That somewhere seems to be the place the Sonos app looks
  3. The job of Sonos in this thread is to say:
    1. If you use utility/app X (not Sonos), you can see the place in Android that has the playlists Sonos sees
    2. The name of this place in Android (in Android speak) is _______
    3. As long as you get your playlists visible here, Sonos will see and play them
  1. Correct
  2. Correct
  3. I will try:
    1. I concede that as half of your playlists show up in Sonos, it seems that Black Player Ex does store its playlists in the standard location for Android.
    2. According to a Google search, the location is /data/data/com. But, that location is not available to the user on a non-rooted device.
    3. Playlists stored there should show up in Sonos, but will not do so if they are not successfully parsed by Sonos - as to why only half of them are, I can only guess. Perhaps a different file extension is used for some? Examination and comparation of the files may well garner some clues, but as they are not available to the user, this is a non-starter. If your device happens to be rooted, by all means take a look, but I’m certainly not going to suggest that you root your phone - it will void your warranty, for a start, and also prevent apps that check for this having happened from working (your banking app is the prime example).

That then lets me either:

  1. Discover that the tool I am using to create playlists (whatever it is) is not doing the full Android dance, and I can chase it in Android-land; or
  2. There are, in fact, playlists that the Sonos-sphere should see, but for some reason isn’t (allowing Team Sonos to make its app better)

 

  1. That much already seems possible.
  2. Also possible. I would not count on this being addressed, however - it is by no means a priority for us, I’m afraid.

I look forward to hearing from Sonos as to answers for 3.1 and 3.2

While I am of course aware that you will not be entirely satisfied by these answers as they don’t really help you get to a resolution, I’m afraid it’s the best we can do for you at this point.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S
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Why does Sonos offer an Android app if it chooses not to offer support for it?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @SamJones6 

I just installed Black Player on my phone and it is now clear to me that the app does in fact maintain it’s own list of playlists which must be manually exported before the rest of the Android system has access to them.

Android playlists must be imported to Black Player

So, to see the playlists you create from within Black Player in the Sonos app, you will first need to export them to the Android library:

Note that this is after tapping on the 3 dot menu, then More, while in Playlists » Playlists

You will probably also need to restart the Sonos app afterwards as it only looks for playlists when it launches.

So, in answer to your question, we offer support for the Android Sonos app specifically and not the Black Player app (well, normally).

I hope this helps - if it does not, I suggest you contact the authors of the Black Player app.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S
Userlevel 1
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@Corry P  That fixed it!  Thanks!

Steps I took:

 

  • Exported all playlists
  • Rebooted phone (to be sure Sonos would re-read the playlists)

Perhaps that could stand being a knowledge base…. “If you don’t see your Android playlists in Sonos… try these steps...”

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @SamJones6 

Good to hear - thanks for updating the thread!

That is not a bad suggestion.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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