I, like every other Sonos user, lost access to my beloved local music library curated from my personal “hard copy” musical collection and playlists when the new app was released. However, I was a lot better of that most because I had an old iPad with the “old” S2 app which was still able to play from my library. Every time it offered to update I refused point blank for that very reason.
Today however it appears that a device update has rendered the old app useless because it is now no longer able to control my Sonos speakers. I consider this an almost underhand and sneaky way to “force” me to use an app which no longer serves the purpose I originally intended it for and renders my expensive speakers a lot less attractive than they were.
A fix for this was hinted at being available “mid June” but still no sign.
PLEASE, PLEASE, when will this be fixed? And if the answer really is never, please come clean so I can attempt to offload my speakers on to someone who doesn’t need it want the facility I bought them for in the first place!
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I guess one option for people to try here is to use the IP address of the NAS/PC/Mac that hosts the library, and then to fix that IP address by either a DCHP reservation or using a manual address *outside* of the DHCP range on your router.
By putting the IP address in instead of a name, it helps remove any discovery issues from the equation.
So…
//192.168.1.240/mymusic
for example.
The other question I’d ask is do you let the PC/Mac hosting any libraries go to sleep, or power off? Wondering if the ‘new’ Sonos discovery methods mark local libraries as off-line if they can’t periodically contact them? If you leave the PC/Mac on, do the libraries still disappear?
I guess one option for people to try here is to use the IP address of the NAS/PC/Mac that hosts the library, and then to fix that IP address by either a DCHP reservation or using a manual address *outside* of the DHCP range on your router.
By putting the IP address in instead of a name, it helps remove any discovery issues from the equation.
So…
//192.168.1.240/mymusic
for example.
The other question I’d ask is do you let the PC/Mac hosting any libraries go to sleep, or power off? Wondering if the ‘new’ Sonos discovery methods mark local libraries as off-line if they can’t periodically contact them? If you leave the PC/Mac on, do the libraries still disappear?
We haven’t had name resolution issues, but it won't hurt to configure a static IP address and use that instead. It doesn't seem to improve the availability of the music library in the Sonos app, though.
Our library still appears and disappears with no recognisable pattern, despite its file share being hosted on a permanently docked Windows tablet that's always on (enforced with a custom power profile).
The other question I’d ask is do you let the PC/Mac hosting any libraries go to sleep, or power off? Wondering if the ‘new’ Sonos discovery methods mark local libraries as off-line if they can’t periodically contact them? If you leave the PC/Mac on, do the libraries still disappear?
The machine hosting the library being on or off is unrelated to the ‘Music Library’ being shown in the app, so library behaviour and access looks to be the same as the old S2
App —> Speakers catalogue | Speaker os mount —> Library
I switched my server off an hour ago.
The app still browses the music library presented by the devices and is blissfully unaware of the music server.
During browsing there is no cover art because that is loaded on demand, by the speakers as far as I can tell, from the server as you browse rather than trying to store copies on the devices.
Trying to play, the play button spins and then eventually times out. The device I was trying to play to then just showed ‘No track’ but the items were added to the queue.
It makes sense for that behaviour not to have changed. For the app to check the library server existence and share access it would need an smb client building into the app.
At the moment based on behaviour I’ve tested my only realistic suggestion for it appearing/disappearing would be if the speaker the app has connected to doesn’t actually have the music library correctly configured in it. Unfortunately the “associated product” info has been removed from “about my system” so it’s no longer possible to see which speaker the controller app has connected itself to
@The Krollmanns If your music library (not settings) does appear again, can you inform us if you can use it please? i.e. Select and play something from Artists, Albums, Folders, etc.?
In the brief time mine was visible for me I can confirm that I was able to select and play individual tracks, However, I didn’t try to use it hat much becasue of the absolute mess it had made with the indexing (compilations etc)
Thanks @essenby I really appreciate the information. No matter what happens on my mobile, unfortunately I always get the helpful “Something went wrong” message when I click any of the music library options. Hopefully this gets resolved soon now. Let’s see what happens in the next release. BTW, the music library option hasn’t appeared in my app for a few days now, even though the music library settings are still available and set correctly.
I guess one option for people to try here is to use the IP address of the NAS/PC/Mac that hosts the library, and then to fix that IP address by either a DCHP reservation or using a manual address *outside* of the DHCP range on your router.
By putting the IP address in instead of a name, it helps remove any discovery issues from the equation.
So…
//192.168.1.240/mymusic
for example.
The other question I’d ask is do you let the PC/Mac hosting any libraries go to sleep, or power off? Wondering if the ‘new’ Sonos discovery methods mark local libraries as off-line if they can’t periodically contact them? If you leave the PC/Mac on, do the libraries still disappear?
We haven’t had name resolution issues, but it won't hurt to configure a static IP address and use that instead. It doesn't seem to improve the availability of the music library in the Sonos app, though.
Our library still appears and disappears with no recognisable pattern, despite its file share being hosted on a permanently docked Windows tablet that's always on (enforced with a custom power profile).
@The Krollmanns as mentioned above I’m now experiencing the issue of the library no longer appearing, despite no app upgrade or change to my system or music library settings so far as I’m aware. I’ve no idea what’s going on. I’ve tried with IP address and NAS name. No matter what I try, when the music library was present and I clicked any option, all I got was “Something went wrong”.
The local music library is still hopelessly screwed up. Mine is on a Synology NAS, where it is always been, and is properly set up as SMB 3.
The music library regularly disappears from the iOS app. Sometimes it will reappear on its own, but that is rare. It usually sticks around for a day or two, then I have to re-add it to get it to come back.
Indexing in the new app is ridiculously slow compared to the old S2 app and the S1 app. Sometimes when I re-add the music library, it seems that the system knows about its existence or somehow reconnects with its original database as the indexing is lightning fast.
As with everyone else, compilations don’t index correctly. I get individual albums for all the tracks if I’m lucky. Sometimes these individual tracks will play, but most often they won’t. Most of the time the compilations (including orchestral albums which often have different composers, or conductors, or sometimes different orchestras) have multiple album entries comprised of one track each. All of the entries have the same track. If they play (which they usually don’t), all of the single tracks in the multiple albums show that they are all playing simultaneously.
These are repeatable results. Happens every time I have to re-add the library and the albums & tracks that are screwed up are always screwed up in the exact same way. As a former software engineer, I know that this pattern indicates that the code, while flawed, is stable. There isn’t some random process that needs to be hunted down. The code just needs to be rewritten by someone competent. I also suspect that the database gets so corrupted by the flawed code that the system simply gives up on the database and asks that it be added again in an effort to reindex what is already there.
This certainly shouldn’t cost $30 million or more, unless one starts counting lost sales, carrying costs for inventory that isn’t selling, lost EBITA, and similar costs that aren’t tied directly to the recoding effort. Sonos claiming such inflated losses, while also complaining that they can’t reproduce the errors in their labs, is pure gaslighting. Spence needs to be fired, along with the head of software development and anyone else in the chain that created this mess.
@The Krollmanns@essenby@RadicalDad There’s another release available today, but: “Customers can check for updates in their iOS / Android app store and download the latest version of the Sonos app once it's available to them.” It’s not available to me yet (3 weeks after the last release, no cadence of 14 days there).
If any of you get the Music Library working fully, please post a message saying so.
I did see the Music Library and its folders once in the Android app, briefly, about a week ago. I couldn’t believe it, so I backed out of the app and went back in. I’ve gotten the usual “something went wrong” ever since. Here’s hoping there’s some music library fix in the update, but we’ll see.
@RadicalDad totally agree with a lot of what you write. I’ve been a software engineer for over 40 years now and the blurb from Sonos is laughable.
@marner We're still stuck on the app version 80.06.04-release+20240801.4ae19ff. Our music library appeared only once in this app version, and we haven't seen it again for the last three weeks.
The app seems to recognise an existing playlist that we loaded into the queue of one of our speakers. It shows the playlist's name, and in the queue view it displays the songs with title and contributing artist(s), not album artist (which could be the reason for the messed up indexing), and no album art, either.
We're still using the Windows app to manage everything. The Android app is only good for pausing and resuming playback, and adjusting volume.
Our Android app is now on version 80.07.05-release+20240825.fd7bb7c. No progress with regards to our music library, though. It hasn't shown up yet in that app version. Playlists are still not available on the home screen, either.
Opening the app can result in anything between showing the correct status of our devices to not recognising our system at all and asking us to "get connected". It's as if no configuration information is retained between app runs.
The Windows controller app was updated recently, too. Luckily it still works fine and recognises our music library and plays our Sonos playlists.
We're getting increasingly worried that this is already the end of the line for the Android app, and that it won't get any better and further than this. We're dreading the day when the Windows app is upgraded to this new platform or discontinued, and we lose access to our music library and playlists forever.
Despite all the explanations and apologies from Sonos we just don't understand what's so difficult adding support for an SMB file share and playlists to this new app design. Is this because it's being developed with a tool or programming language that lacks support for these protocols? Is it lack of knowledge or experience by the developers? And why does the Android app not remember the configuration and network settings between app runs? How can this have gone so wrong and gotten so bad?
Am experiencing exactly the same with this latest release which was, for me, nearly 4 weeks after the last update and not the stated bi-weekly. I did see some article today that stated Sonos were moving to 4 weekly updates, but I can’t find it now.
I keep my Windows app updated and it’s all working fine, so I’m not too concerned there. But it’s a much longer process to fire up my desktop that uses the Android app.
Why the app can’t instantly connect to the system as it did pre-May update is anybody’s guess. I put this mess down to pure incompetence in Sonos at the very top for releasing the untested app in May.
I can’t understand why, when I delete and re-install the Sonos app on my Android device, it isn’t picking up the music library settings from the Sonos system which is working fine with Windows. I installed the application on a (second) Windows laptop and it picked up the configured music library immediately. This is obviously an issue in comms between the Android app and the Sonos system, and I would expect any competent developer to have fixed such an issue in a matter of days.
I’m on the 80.07.05-release+20240825.fd7bb7c version and I managed to add my music library from my Synology NAS.
It plays well, but no album art at all, either when browsing the library nor in the playing mode.
Also, I have a strange behaviour when listening to radio, when stopped, the artwork is correctly displayed but disappears when I start the radio; it comes back as soon as I hit the stop button. Anyone else having the same behaviour?
I’m on the 80.07.05-release+20240825.fd7bb7c version and I managed to add my music library from my Synology NAS.
It plays well, but no album art at all, either when browsing the library nor in the playing mode.
Also, I have a strange behaviour when listening to radio, when stopped, the artwork is correctly displayed but disappears when I start the radio; it comes back as soon as I hit the stop button. Anyone else having the same behaviour?
Update for the fun : I have a small app that I wrote for the fun in Javascript using the upnp api, and it shows the album art perfectly when on the official app no luck
We received an email with the subject “Highlights from the recent app updates” from Sonos today, claiming that the most recent Android app update should allow searching and playing from the music library. However, our library doesn’t show up in the app. We’re still on version 80.07.05.
While looking up the app in the Google Play Store we stumbled on a button to try a “web app” which is available here. While it doesn’t show our music library, either, it does seem to know about our Sonos playlists. Trying to view any of the playlists results in a “server error”, though.
Has anybody had any luck getting their music library and/or playlists to work in this web app?
@crilo What were your experiences after adding your NAS music library to the app? Did it stick or is it still hit and miss? Do you have Sonos playlists that include songs from your NAS, and if yes, can you view and edit them?
