Same issue as well

and also a proud owner of Sonos paper Weights,or if I put all 4 speakers together and make a nice small boat anchor.

I’ve got a matching set as well . . . and I put my Ultimate Ears Boom 3 speakers in front of them thinking I might be able to embarrass the Sonos speakers & system in to working. Apparently, Sonos is “courageous” but doesn’t embarrass easily.

Hey Radley,

So, that “faded” Music Library is not actually a folder, it’s the metadata file that Music.App uses. You might know it by another name: iTunes Library.xml. And since Apple removed access to USE that XML for things a while back, you need to point the Controller to where your music files actually live.

Your Music is actually located in the folder above, “Media.” (Unless you changed the default music location in the Preferences of Music.App, but most people don’t.)

So it would look like this: /HARD DRIVE NAME (eg Macintosh HD or in your case, maybe iMac)/Users (eg YOUR USER NAME)/Music/Music/Media (yes, the default really does Music twice)

I can’t guarantee this will work, but it’s worth a shot :)

--Brian

Same for me, I only have two paperweights (small house) but stilled very p’d off. Even manually adjusting the folder location, I get the same error; I WFH a lot and have my music on in the background to help me drown out the white noise and focus will now have to search for some decent streaming music with no ads to get me through til this is fixed.

Doesn’t work for me , might be some sort of sharing issue.I have literally tried all folders related to media and different locations, and no luck, same result.

Brian . . . 

Thanks for the tip. I tried the path you suggested and it’s a no go. The message I get is:

While that path is clearly visible and not faded on my Mac:

. . . but it is when trying to connect with it on the Sonos app:

So to my luddite mind, it’s an app issue. Sonos had no problem pre-update connecting to the Mac Music Library; now - the speakers might become planter stands.

Thanks Brian - appreciate the advice,

Radley

Hey Radley,

So, that “faded” Music Library is not actually a folder, it’s the metadata file that Music.App uses. You might know it by another name: iTunes Library.xml. And since Apple removed access to USE that XML for things a while back, you need to point the Controller to where your music files actually live.

Your Music is actually located in the folder above, “Media.” (Unless you changed the default music location in the Preferences of Music.App, but most people don’t.)

So it would look like this: /HARD DRIVE NAME (eg Macintosh HD or in your case, maybe iMac)/Users (eg YOUR USER NAME)/Music/Music/Media (yes, the default really does Music twice)

I can’t guarantee this will work, but it’s worth a shot :)

--Brian

Brian . . . 

Thanks for the tip. I tried the path you suggested and it’s a no go. The message I get is:

While that path is clearly visible and not faded on my Mac:

. . . but it is when trying to connect with it on the Sonos app:

So to my luddite mind, it’s an app issue. Sonos had no problem pre-update connecting to the Mac Music Library; now - the speakers might become planter stands.

Thanks Brian - appreciate the advice,

Radley

Hey Radley,

Yeah, I do agree it’s the Sonos App. My parent’s system had a similar issue last year and I moved them over to a NAS to fix it. Not an option for everyone though. Sonos needs to fix this. This is why I got my parents on Sonos as they came from Bose, which did the same thing in their App. But now my mission is I wanna make sure you know where you music files are :)

I suspect it’s in “Automatically Add to Music.” Music.App sorts strangely for my taste. If you wanna know where your files are, open Music.App > Settings > Files and you’ll see this screen

That path is where your music files live. Good information to know for the future :)

--Brian

Yes. Same problem. Pretty maddening, and will HOPEFULLY be fixed soon. I even tried moving all my music to my WD external HD, and had the same issues.

This morning (5/20/24) the path to my music folder magically appeared in my Sonos Music Library Settings, although I can’t access any music within the library. I get a message saying “No Selections Are Available.” Nor can I separate the two rooms that the speakers are in - curiouser and curiouser.

Yeah, I’ve encountered the “ghost” library that appears and disappears depending on who knows what…

Same problem.  Does anyone know if Sonos will fix???

I wouldn’t hold my breath. Mid-June is when Sonos estimates the local library issue to be fixed. 

There is a workaround detailed in here where you add the folder as a NAS drive option. It worked for me. 

Thanks alfie . . . I tried that several times and it didn’t work for me. I’ve all but given up on Sonos, even though I’m a HUGE fan of palindromes. I’ll wait until the “fix is in” and enjoy my Ultimate Ears Boom speakers in the mean time.

WHY would Sonos think about removing access to the Music Library?  I mean, what is their rationale?

And no estimated fix ETA.  Gawd, what a dumpster fire they created here.

Update: 5/5/24

I was able to create a path to the music folder . . . 

. . . but am unable to update the Music Library. When selecting “Manage>Update Music Library Now” on the Mac Sonos controller , Sonos will start indexing but will only do so for a second and no music has been loaded.

Go figure . . . the lights are on but nobody answers the door.

I tried this, and other options, and it does not work.

I note that Sonos applied an update the the MacOS controller -- I have (and am KEEPING) the older DMG in case they manage to hose this up just as badly.

Why they would program this without access to your local Library (ie: YOUR MUSIC THAT YOU PLAY) is well beyond anything I can imagine.

Update: 5/5/24

I was able to create a path to the music folder . . . 

. . . but am unable to update the Music Library. When selecting “Manage>Update Music Library Now” on the Mac Sonos controller , Sonos will start indexing but will only do so for a second and no music has been loaded.

Go figure . . . the lights are on but nobody answers the door.

I ran into the same issue, was an error with my pathing,i had to change something in my path and it worked. example my path being on an external drive looks like this /Volumes/iTunes/iTunes/music.

I tried this approach, copying my “iTunes Music” onto an external drive, that was freshly formatted and has the correct permissions and ownership.  But interestingly it doesn’t work, but the error I get is also puzzling as it errors at it cannot use it as “//MacbookPro16/iTunes Music” even though I gave it a direct path from /Volumes/drive/iTunes Music.

I’m not sure what could be wrong here.

I’m currently using an iMac with macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 with four Sonos Play 1 speakers using Sonos OS S2 version 16.2. After updating, the path to my Music folder no longer appears in the Sonos Music Library Settings nor am I able to reconnect to the Music folder:

When I try the “Advanced” method, I get this - note that the Music Library folder is faded and cannot be selected.

After chatting with a Sonos Support Tech they confirmed that the access to the Mac’s Music Library was removed from the app and while Sonos has been made aware of the problem there is no estimated date as to when access will be restored. I now have a nice collection of Sonos paper weights.

Any other Mac users find the same thing?

Exactly the same June 8 - can’t believe it doesn’t work and we have to wait for new update when they don’t warn us before updating They are aware of this problem and they could have saved me from updating and loosing all my ability to play music. 

I’m currently using an iMac with macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 with four Sonos Play 1 speakers using Sonos OS S2 version 16.2. After updating, the path to my Music folder no longer appears in the Sonos Music Library Settings nor am I able to reconnect to the Music folder:

When I try the “Advanced” method, I get this - note that the Music Library folder is faded and cannot be selected.

After chatting with a Sonos Support Tech they confirmed that the access to the Mac’s Music Library was removed from the app and while Sonos has been made aware of the problem there is no estimated date as to when access will be restored. I now have a nice collection of Sonos paper weights.

Any other Mac users find the same thing?

same ...unbeeelievable

That’s just f’ing ridiculous, removing access to your local Music Library.  Like how does that make ANY SENSE at all?   The only thing I can think of, is they are attempting to steer you toward paid services.  For example, if you subscribe and pay for Apple Music, you may have access to your content that way.  But you have to PAY for that.  I literally have 8,000+ songs here of my own, and I should be able to be listening to them on my privately-owned Sonos speakers.

This is also why I feel it is imperative that Sonos provide the installation (IPA) file for the prior version of the Sonos app (for iOS at least), so we can at least use our content while they diddle around and figure out when they’ll fix their dumpster fire.

Same issue here too with access to the music file on Mac.  So many issues with Sonos in the past and now, most of the 6 speakers were already in a cupboard since the boost wasn’t ‘boosting’ and now this issue with the library.  Time to change the system I think and just give the Sonos away as it has no value

Agreed! Sonos speakers just paperweights at this point and whole-home interface inop. Anyone know of alternatives to Sonos that can not only use free standing company speakers but interface with whole-home , hard-wired system?

I'm looking hard at Bluesound. A bit more expensive, but I no longer trust Sonos. I just read that they are about to deliberately and permanently remove access to music stored on my Android phone (apparently they've already done that to iPhones) so we have to wonder what's next on the hit list. My library is on a PC, but I do also have it on my mobile for occasional use.

I absolutely perceive that Sonos want to kill music libraries, presumably because they're are not profitable, but that for me is the entire point of getting into Sonos and I have over 8,000 tracks of high quality music.

I'm appalled, and leaving. I hope I can raise a reasonable sum for my 6 Sonos units.