Hi @sdennis99 

Thanks for your post!

iTunes used to keep it’s playlists in an xml file stored in the iTunes folder. Nowadays, it keeps it somewhere else that Sonos cannot find. Therefore, an xml file needs to be made and placed where Sonos can find it. The Sonos app (for the Mac) will create this file for you if it doesn’t find it, but something may have gone wrong. I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to fix this for you.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, will give that a go

Update - still not resolved

Used the web chat to discuss with a technical agent, who stated that I simply needed to export and save each file as an XML, drop into my Music folder and index again. Nothing!

Called today, has a GotoAssist connection and call for 90 minutes, where was asked why I did not have iTunes on my new Mac (but I thought this was replaced by the Music app several years ago)

Anyway the person supporting me suggested that a music file named iTunes be created for the playlists, as the diagnostics sent stated ‘playlists not indexed as iTunes is missing’

New iTunes folders created, playlists copied there and added to the music library, re-indexed and still no imported playlists in Sonos

Connection lost and now I am back to the beginning. Technology is sometimes too difficult for it’s own good

@sdennis99,

Here is a slightly different option for you to perhaps consider…

Maybe look to export the playlists as .m3u playlists which can be read by the Sonos App - there are many options/ways to do this if you search online, but here below is one example I use with an iPad.

If you use iOS devices, there is an App called ‘MusicStreamer’ which allows the import/opening of an iTunes .xml file and you can go onto import all playlists into the App (one at a time), you can then export those as .m3u playlists, which can be read by the Sonos App. It’s one of the ways I like to do my own playlists, rather than depending on the iTunes .xml file.

MusicStreamer can be pointed at the local shared library and you can also go onto create .m3u playlists in that App too.. I save my playlists in a separate folder, but storing them anywhere in the library path will do… they can also be edited easily in a text editor.

Hi @sdennis99 

Sorry to hear that.

Do you have the Sonos app installed on the new Mac? Is that where you’re adding the share from?

Is the music stored on a USB drive?

It’s worth double-checking the file permissions set on the created .xml file - ensure that the file can be read by adding permissions for “Everyone”. Please also make sure that the file is placed in the exact path that is given to the Sonos app.

Yes - the iTunes app was renamed Music by Apple, thus giving it the same name as their music service - which is more than slightly annoying when troubleshooting. There may have been some documentation of ours with the old naming scheme that the agent was following.

Hi @sdennis99 

One more thought - don’t export the playlists from Apple’s Music app. Remove the file that currently exists in the shared folder, then add the share from the macOS Sonos app - the Sonos app will create the file if it doesn’t find it (unless the music is on a USB drive, in which case you’ll then need to copy it to USB manually). Perhaps there will be a difference between the file the Music app creates, and the file the Sonos app creates.

I hope this helps.

Hi All

With a combination of ideas from @Corry P and @Ken_Griffiths I have fixed my issue!

I removed all of my current libraries from Sonos and then exported all my playlists as .m3u files and added them to the user > music > music > media folder (which is one level down from where the apple music library file is stored)

I assigned Sonos manually to the user > music level folder and they all came through (but only worked as .m3u files .xml were ignored)

Thanks for the feedback all, really appreciated

Steve

I’m having similar issues and tried tech support to no avail.

I tried doing what you said above, and made M3U files for all my playlists.  The problem is that I keep my music LOCALLY on my Mac and use with Apple Music, which is where the playlists are created.  I exported each playlist as an M3U and copied them to my NAS drive where I keep a copy of all the music and where the SONO APP points to as the “music Libarry”.   I re-indexed the Sonos Music Library and they playlists showed up in “imported playlists”.

BUT….when I try to play the playlists, they don’t work because it seems like  the M3U files  have the LOCAL pathsways for each song since they were created on the local version of my music (e.g. Music/iTunesMedia/Music/artist/album/etc.)

When I click on the song on Sonos in the playlist, it says it can’t find the song and lists a very generic pathway, even one higher than my music library folder (i.e. it is looking for it at “NASDRIVE/PUBLIC” when my actual sonol library is “NASDRIVE/PUBLIC/SHAREDMUSIC”.

I don’t want to manually edit all the song pathways in every playlist. 

Please help!

Thank you

@GaryMF 

If you open each playlist in a decent text editor - just do a ‘Find/Replace’ to change every path for every track in a couple of seconds.  You could also strip out everything else from the playlist file, including these ‘directive extensions’…

• #EXTM3U - file header
• #EXTINF: - track information/title

Note: Some .m3u playlist files may contain other types of ‘extensions’, which can all be removed. See this link :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3U

It isn’t that difficult once you get the first playlist sorted to then do the others.

Hope that assists.

Thank you for the suggestion, but before I try all that, is there some new version of the “library.xml” file I can put into my shared music folder?  It used to work before…..I think when it was iTunes. I had all these imported playlists by copying that file over.  

What’s the analogous version now? (vs. having to manually recrate each time I make a new playlist)?

I don’t know what the precise capabilities are with iTunes (perhaps others here will chime in) - I tend to use MusicStreamer (iOS App) to export/create my own playlists direct from my NAS library which can be viewed from that App (SMB share). The App is able to read .xml files too and export playlists from it to an .m3u playlist - but you could maybe try exporting your ‘library.xml’ file from iTunes and copying that to the root of your NAS library (that may work, perhaps?), but my thoughts are, you may have to edit the paths in that file too (using a text editor), but see if that may work for you.

@GaryMF, 

In MusicStreamer you can import an .xml file (read each playlist separately from that file) and later export them from the App to an .m3u playlists and set a ‘no path prefix’  - if you see my screenshot the entries in the ‘path prefix’ box for PC would result in the path being removed and it should work if you then go onto place the exported playlists anywhere in the library scanned/indexed by Sonos.

Disclaimer:
I’m not affiliated in anyway to the App, or it’s developer, but simply use the App myself and there is a bit of a learning curve to use it. I think there is a charge for the App too.. but you may find other similar solutions online aswell that may be ‘free’ of charge, work better etc.

So this info. is just to show you an example of the kind of Apps that are available for playlists that can be used with Sonos.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I guess I can try that but I want to first try to solve it using what I have. 

To be clear, it all used to work fine when Apple Macs still had iTunes.  I copied some type of library file (It might have been called itunesmusiclibrary.xml?) to the shared music folder on the NAS and my playlists showed up.

But now Macs have “MUSIC” not itunes, even though the music is still kept in an “iTunes Music” folder.  I don’t think the playlists are still stored there.   When I try to export the “library.xml” file and put it in the shared music folder, Sonos doesn’tt seem to be able to access it. 

This Sonos page says that you should be able to use the libarary.xml file but it’s not working for me:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/153?language=en_US

Sonos can import playlists from the Music app on macOS as well as the iTunes app on macOS and Windows by reading the app’s music library XML file. Additionally, Sonos supports M3U, WPL and PLS playlist files created with software like WinAmp and Windows Media Player.
 

If I recall correctly, you have to export the .xml files separately in the Music application. Not near a Mac right now, but as I recall,  it’s under the ‘Save’ menu. Once that’s done, you then run the Sonos update.

Fair warning, though, I don’t use Apple playlists myself. 

I did that. It didn’t work. 

Maybe (if it’s possible) point the iTunes/Music App at the NAS library and let it index it and then export the .xml file to the root and see if that sorts it, although personally I would just do a find/replace on the original .xml file to change all the paths in one fell swoop.

UPDATE: OK I did the “find and replace” in a M3U file and it seemed to work. 

It just sucks that now every time I make a new playlist i have to edit it to put it in my Sonos music folder (vs. how it used to work, i just move the Apple/itunes LIBRARY file over to the shared music folder on the NAS. 

Why did Apple bury this functionality???  :( 

Personal opinion (and my ecosystem is 95% Apple, too), is that Apple doesn’t care about 3rd party/other solutions. So they make changes that are for their own purposes, without consideration about how it affects anyone else. YMMV. But I do share your frustration, certainly.