Can I play Flac files direct from a USB hard drive connected to the Port?

You mentioned you have an Arris BGW210 and ATT service so based on one version of it’s manual (here) you may have both ethernet ports and wireless available to connect. You might even be able to power the Filehub from one of the USB ports since it uses a regular USB-A to microUSB cable.

The RAVPower Filehub manual is here.

If you have a simple local LAN and an ethernet port available and space near the router it would be simple to attach that way and not worry about the wireless setup. Wireless isn’t hard to setup though.

For file access you can use the Win File Service(Samba) option (page 26, provides SMBv1 which is the Windows file sharing protocol Sonos can use). If you use this you’ll be able to access the disk and add/remove/move the files around without moving the disk to your laptop first. This will provide what Sonos calls a Music Library (Sonos App>Settings>System>Music Library).

Or, if you only want access to the music on the disk, just turn on the DLNA Service option. This will provide a DLNA/UPnP service you can access (uses http) via the Media Server option in Sonos (Sonos App>Settings>System>Media Servers). Of course you can try each out and see which works best. 

Keep in mind the Filehub and similar devices are pretty low-end devices so don’t expect to be able to serve more than one or two simultaneous streams of music/video.

Hope this helps.

edit: fixed “Media Servers” in second Sonos App menu reference above. 

Huzzah!  The temporary system is up and running through Sonos.  I’m running the “old Windows 7 Dell Laptop” as a server.  It’s connected via ethernet to the Sonos Port, and the laptop is connected to the USB Drive with the FLAC music files.  

I was able to add the FLAC files to the Music Library function of Sonos.  I’m not sure how ‘stable’ or robust this set-up will be, but there was room enough in the cabinet to hide the old laptop, so my wife will be happy.  I’m going to order the Filehub as well so I have backup, in case the current set up  gets quirky.   

I’ve also got a bunch of films on the same USB drive, so now I’ll still have to get those onto to another USB drive I have around as a back-up, so the second drive can get plugged back into the Blu-Ray.  Of course, all these media files just make more argument for the NAS.

Thanks again to Bruce, David and AF Teacher for your help and education.  You guys do the “Sonos Community” proud.  

So, I’m still working my old W7 laptop + USB combination connected by ethernet directly to the Sonos Port.  I get the occasional message (1000 something) that there has been a “problem adding tracks to the queue”, but then it mostly plays them anyway.   I checked the support page for this, but It didn’t seem to apply. . .

I’ve disconnected the Wi-Fi from this laptop, since I’m using it in a hardwired configuration, and I thought maybe that was slowing the “buffering”?  Is there something else I can do?  I closed the Sonos app on this laptop as well.  Do I need to do something else to help the speed, and prevent the queue issues?  Would leaving the window open for the USB drive help? (sorry if that sounds really dumb) 

There are more than 1,200 hours of FLAC files in the library, so it seems like a large amount of data.  Maybe it’s too big for the library?

I’m waiting for the Filehub gizmo to arrive before I try and check that out.  Thanks again for any advice.  

it would be most useful to know the exact error message. just as an initial guess, sonos can have an issue adding very large playlists to the queue if the music source library is slow. since you mention 1200 hours of FLAC files i wonder if you have a large playlist as well?

It’s Error 1002.  It seems I get the message, but then if I wait a few seconds and hit play again, it will play the “CD”.  I haven’t used a playlist.  I play the “album” as it comes up.  I guess that means that the “Playlist” is actually the album tracks?  

I looked up error 1002, but I’m not sure how it relates to my set-up.  It mentions the “NAS drive taking too long to respond”.  I’m guessing this applies to my W7 laptop/USB hard drive combination.  That’s the reason I was asking if there was something I could do to improve the speed of that combination.   Since I’m hard wired into the Sonos Port, it didn’t seem logical to me that it would relate to the Wi-Fi connection. Thanks again.

Error 1002 is the one I thought most likely. I’ve only seen it on very large playlists (~1000 or more tracks) and usually only when I shuffle them since it takes time to gather and process the data. Just adding an album (guessing 10-20 tracks) to the Sonos queue shouldn’t cause this issue with a nominally well performing setup. This could be an issue with the speed and settings of your laptop or network connection. You mentioned it took a long time for the Sonos to index your library earlier in this thread so that may be another indicator of the performance issues. I don’t know how your network is setup in general but would expect since you have the laptop connected directly to the Port the problem might be in either the ethernet cable or settings on the laptop.

I’ll be interested to hear if the Filehub performs better - with a minimal setup as a Filehub it will only have one job and might be just what you need.

If you’re serious about making this work reliably and with your large music library it might be better to invest a bit more in a media server. Something like Plex Media Server on your laptop or a Raspberry Pi and adding the Plex client on Sonos would be a simple solution for less than $100 (nearer to free if you dedicate the laptop). If you went with something like an RPi you could also use that to stream your movie files to the TV via the HDMI connection.

Thanks.  Interestingly, I’m not getting the queue error 1002 today.  The “albums: are playing the first time, without any error messages.  Maybe the changes I made in closing the Sonos program on the laptop, or disconnecting from the internet are working?  I can’t see that there are any other changes, except a bit of time.   I’ve gone through 4-5 albums today without any issues.  If this continues to be OK, I’ll go with this set-up for a while.   It may be that the fewest complications work best for me (some version of Occam’s Razor?).

In the meantime, I’ve tried to hook up the RavFH by laptop and phone, using another hard disk I have for the purpose.  I can get to the hard disk, and use the file management properties, but that’s where I’ve hit a dead end.  There’s a section for “Music”, but so far I cannot figure out how to put something there from the hard drive.  It won’t allow any drag and drop or cut and paste into this area, but I tried a few times.  

When I connect the RavFH, it disconnects either laptop or phone from my Wi-Fi, so that leaves me wondering what the heck is going on.  I can get to the Samba / DLNA choice, on the laptop or the phone, but then I go into endless loop again (p 26 of the manual).  The instructions and my limited understanding don’t seem to be a good combination.  I’m still uncertain which mode I’m supposed to be in.  Thanks again.

If this continues to be OK, I’ll go with this set-up for a while.   It may be that the fewest complications work best for me (some version of Occam’s Razor?).

truth. :-)

Hello,
as david82 mentions the ravpowers seems really interesting for guys like me that already have their music on an external drive and don’t need to inverst on an elaborate NAS system. 

From what is described above all i need is a Ravpower device that

1. will be connected to a free ethernet port on my rooter or an ethernet switch port if there are no available ethernet ports on the rooter. 
2. i just connect my external drive to Ravpower on its USB port
3. i get RAvpower IP address and connect to this device using a browser on a laptop, desktop or even mobile device. 
4. As David says i need to enable Win File Service(Samba) option, in order to transfer, delete, update the music folder, which lies on my external drive connected to RavPower, from any other device connected to the same wifi or appartments’ local network so that i edit my music gallery whenever needed
5. I somehow get the IP address of the ravpower device plus the part to my music folder, in order to feed it to SONOS settings so that i can finally access and play music with sonos speakers on various rooms. 

Are these more or less the steps needed to set up and play music in SONOS using the ravpower? It sounds simple but now that i read it i am scared something in the way will go the “other way”

thanks

Yianns

Yiannis,   I wish I could be more help to you.  I couldn’t figure out the steps for the RAV.  I went through multiple procedural variations, and just kept getting caught in the same failure loops.  I already had a solution with an older (Windows 7) laptop as a dedicated “server” for the USB hard drive, which has worked very well for me.  If you are able to get the RAV to work, please post the detailed steps.  I couldn’t make sense of the RAV directions either, so it might just be my limited abilities.