This is core functionality. It makes local music impossible to use. I’ve spent close to 20 years now as a Sonos owner/user maintaining a local library, that is carefully tagged for use in Sonos.

It’s been reported and acknowledged by Sonos, it’s a firmware issue but no ETA of a fix

Yep, I have the same; it’s not your fault. I believe the software is taking the “artist” rather than the “album artist”. So it is “album name” + “artist” that’s being treated as a single album, so if you have, as I have, a compilation of 20 tracks by 20 different artists but with “album artist” as “Various Artists”, you don’t get a single entry listed in the app, but 20 identical entries (sigh! what we’d term “schoolboy error” here in the UK).

It shows lack of attention to detail when they were testing the changes to the system. It shows a very unprofessional attitude to regression testing (testing that any changes DO NOT break existing features).

Quite possibly also showing that this project was rushed out without due diligence. Again, one cause of this is senior management’s narrow-vision of what constitutes a major software change, failing to regard quality assurance as a serious part of product release - either through ignorance, or, I suspect, chasing the $$ in preference to turning out a quality product.

 It was corrected with a firmware update.  To make it work, though, your Album Artist tag needs to be populated.  In the case of compilations that Album Artist tag for the entire album is usually something like Various Artists.

I  agree that the latest firmware update 16.4.2 appears to have fixed the compilation album problems. My Music Library albums list in the Sonos app has now shrunk to a more manageable size.

The Music Library Compilations issue appears to have been resolved with Firmware Update 16.4.2.
Ross.

Or ‘Application Ruins Sonos Experience’ ? 

Thanks for the Tip,   I tried deleting the library scanning a different location then re-establishing the original library and re-scanning but sadly the compilation albums are still fragmented. 

Definitely not like we had! I went directly from LP to sonos about a decade ago. And it was great. Still don’t know if there are great alternatives, but wow are they losing the cred!

On the app go to music library and then at the bottom is folders. That seems to be working okay.

So, I’m on phone support right now with another issue and they want me to be on the latest update before they can go further into my issue. I told them the latest update is known to cause the issues mentioned here with albums and that I don’t won’t to turn my current issue into a worse issue.

Not sure what to do about Sonos.  I hate to dump a 12-component system and start over, but I think I may have to start seriously looking at a migration.  We’ve had a buggered system now for months - getting to be untenable.

And now my support call got dropped.  I guess I get back into it tomorrow. 

Thanks MoPac, that has indeed fixed the issue for me when using the Sonos app. Everything is perfect now.

Thanks again

Considering this wasn’t initially an issue when the music library became available with the new app, it seems a bit strange that it wasn’t a quick fix. I fear it’s somewhat low in the priority list. 

You can fix this providing you are prepared to forgo searches by Artist  and composer.

Download Mp3tag, go to the album causing the issue, select all tracks, copy the Album Artist into the Artist and Composer fields, save.  Then re-index your music library in Sonos.  Don’t make the Artist and composer fields blank,which I also tried,  for some reason Sonos doesn’t like this and won’t play the album.

This would not work for me - my compilation Albums have the ‘Album Artist’ set to ‘Various Artists’

The ‘Artists’ tag has the name of the singer, or band …and in my case I don’t bother with the ‘composer’ tag.

I haven’t reindexed since before the 16.3 update that caused the ‘compilation albums’ issue and my library displays fine with no duplicates in the new Sonos App.

Plus …Sonos have acknowledged this ‘compilation albums’ only issue and have said they plan to fix it. So I think it’s best to wait for that fix. Otherwise I can see users having ‘duplicates’ to contend with in their library search results.

I have more than 1000 Albums. I’m one of that dinosaurs that is still buying cd’s and listen to them using a hifi system. Sonos is not my primary system. It will take a lot of time to update all albums.  Very frustating situation

Some folk have suggested that the problem with compilation albums displaying as individual songs may be caused by the Sonos firmware rather than the app.

However, although I experience this same problem when using the Sonos app (app version is 80.12.03, and firmware version is 16.4.4), the problem does not occur if I view my library using Synology’s ‘DS Audio’ app on my iPhone (my library is stored on a Synology NAS).

Not only does the Synology audio controller display all my compilation albums correctly, it also allows me to select my Sonos system as a player, so I can use the Synology app to stream anything in my music library directly to my Sonos speakers.

So if Synology’s audio controller app is able to display compilation albums properly while the Sonos controller app is not able to do so, all while using the same Sonos firmware, doesn’t this suggest that the issue is more likely with the Sonos app rather than the firmware?

same here, I removed and added the library again, same issue. useless system

Why you should start editing tags when it worked before? And it works in heos and itunes. I import all cd's using itunes, I'm not going to start editing everything manually. 

The new app/system is a downgrade. I can't understand how this is handled by the Sonos team. 

I was in contact with the support team and they promised that next update should fix some stuff. But no clue what :)

I had similar issues.  I ended up changing the library in Sonos to an empty location followed by a libarary scan.  Then once complete I re-entered the correct library location and did a new scan.  The new scan takes a while but it should work.  Also check that Album viw is by Artist and Not Album Artist.

Yes, it’s a nuisance especially as it’s only the Sonos controller that has issues, seemingly because it’s so sensitive to tagging.

That said, it only needs one quick edit to each album, in order to globally populate the ‘Album Artist’ meta tag field for an entire album, so it’s a really quick fix even if you have a large number if compilation albums. I fixed all mine in an hour, and I have a lot of them. But I wish Sonos had more widely publicised the solution to this problem because I’ve been searching for a while now and many folk still seem to be discussing this online in search of an answer.

As for the old app version, I miss that too because I found it quick and easy to navigate, and it worked. The new UI is a bit convoluted and was rushed out with too many problems unresolved, but at least the Sonos team are aware and have been pulling out the stops to make it right. So as long as I can get everything working I’m happy, and I won’t be giving up on them yet.

It is frustrating when things fall apart, but it’s also a very nice feeling when things get fixed and start to work properly again. And there is progress. So I do hope you get your system all sorted too. 
Cheers

I’m having the same issue!

16.4.2 and later versions haven’t fixed it for me ,  its still an issue making the Album view a pain to navigate.    

Its very odd that they know when it happened, so they must know what triggered this behaviour but they haven’t yet put it back the way it was,   A seemingly obvious change you would think (ie “oops we’ve broken it, lets put it back the way it was until we have found a solution” )     

There is no way I want to spend hours playing around to fix tags - where does this stand with the CEO’s latest pronouncement on values and priorities?????  

Thanks for the suggested workaround @KiwiTony but I am with you on this one Ken.
Waiting “somewhat” patiently for Sonos to sort this out. Frustrated at the time it is taking being that we reported it back in July.
Ross.

What this, apparently, minor problem - which has not been repaired - suggests is that there is a lot of turmoil in the development of this release - which can hardly be called a “release” any more as it now in its 5th month and issues are still not fixed nor is there a clear “road map” of what will be fixed and when.

It would appear that Sonos development is about as well organised as Putin’s Russia is in trying to attack Ukraine.

Perhaps we should refer to this as Usability-Release-Zero in future correspondence.