Contributor I

Answered

Bring back the ability to search music library

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 8, 2024
119 replies
6027 views

I have been using Sonos for several years, and it is attached to a streaming service and my music library on a USB drive, which has years worth of accumulated music, including a lot not available on streaming. I have just (8 May) updated to the new Sonos app. Now I can still see and trawl through my music library, but cannot search in it. The general search function just returns the streaming and Sonos radio results, and there’s no dedicated search for the music library. This effectively cuts off my access to my own music, by making it prohibitively difficult to find anything. Please bring this functionality back. I know you want to prioritise revenue generation, but this is disrespectful to your customers.

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Best answer by BazDistro

Taking away search capabilities is bad enough—I’m already looking for Sonos alternatives. But they also removed the alphabetic side bar that allowed us to more efficiently move around the library. It’s hard to imagine this was an oversight. It’s a concerted effort to turn us away from our own music libraries and I agree with others who interpret this as egregious disrespect. If things remain unchanged, this is an absolute deal breaker. I don’t use streaming services and never wish to. Sonos is useless if it cannot help me to easily stream my own carefully curated music collection.

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Brian Doyle

Contributor I

okay, it's obvious that we can't search our music libraries. but I can't even see my music library! how the hell do I browse it in the new app? I have looked everywhere. there is absolutely no reason for me to have these speakers at all or this system if I can't play the music. I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on.

H

HermitBee

Lyricist I

Just signed up to add my voice to the chorus.

Thanks for removing my ability to search for any of my music, Sonos, I'm really glad I spent thousands of pounds on your products, assuming they would continue to do the absolute bare minimum.

S

Swiss_music_lover

Lyricist I

I have been using Sonos for several years, and it is attached to a streaming service and my music library on a USB drive, which has years worth of accumulated music, including a lot not available on streaming. I have just (8 May) updated to the new Sonos app. Now I can still see and trawl through my music library, but cannot search in it. The general search function just returns the streaming and Sonos radio results, and there’s no dedicated search for the music library. This effectively cuts off my access to my own music, by making it prohibitively difficult to find anything. Please bring this functionality back. I know you want to prioritise revenue generation, but this is disrespectful to your customers.

I am livid. My purchase of sonos some years ago was for the ability to listen to my 30,000 collected tracks. And now I cannot - it makes my all room / whole house investment in Sonos kit near worthless. I suggest we consider a class action lawsuit against Sonos.

Class action is probably the only way to get Sonos to give us back the features for which we have all invested significant sums of money. As others have pointed out here, many users have tracks in their local library that are are not offered by steaming services, particularly if one wants to listen to classical music performed by a specific artist or orchestra. Trying to force users to migrate to streaming services is also forcing them to pay subscriptions to listen to music they already legally own, and only to a subset of that music. So either Sonos provide this full search functionality, or we need our money back.

John Guarr

Enthusiast II

I have been using Sonos for several years, and it is attached to a streaming service and my music library on a USB drive, which has years worth of accumulated music, including a lot not available on streaming. I have just (8 May) updated to the new Sonos app. Now I can still see and trawl through my music library, but cannot search in it. The general search function just returns the streaming and Sonos radio results, and there’s no dedicated search for the music library. This effectively cuts off my access to my own music, by making it prohibitively difficult to find anything. Please bring this functionality back. I know you want to prioritise revenue generation, but this is disrespectful to your customers.

Agreed. I don’t use steaming music services and never will. But I have a large music library, which is basically music from my over 800 CDs and I need to able to search through my local music library. Every time I try to search for a song, the app lists either a music service or a radio station. I don’t use either. Please fix this ASAP.

John Guarr

Enthusiast II

I have been using Sonos for several years, and it is attached to a streaming service and my music library on a USB drive, which has years worth of accumulated music, including a lot not available on streaming. I have just (8 May) updated to the new Sonos app. Now I can still see and trawl through my music library, but cannot search in it. The general search function just returns the streaming and Sonos radio results, and there’s no dedicated search for the music library. This effectively cuts off my access to my own music, by making it prohibitively difficult to find anything. Please bring this functionality back. I know you want to prioritise revenue generation, but this is disrespectful to your customers.

I am livid. My purchase of sonos some years ago was for the ability to listen to my 30,000 collected tracks. And now I cannot - it makes my all room / whole house investment in Sonos kit near worthless. I suggest we consider a class action lawsuit against Sonos.

Class action is probably the only way to get Sonos to give us back the features for which we have all invested significant sums of money. As others have pointed out here, many users have tracks in their local library that are are not offered by steaming services, particularly if one wants to listen to classical music performed by a specific artist or orchestra. Trying to force users to migrate to streaming services is also forcing them to pay subscriptions to listen to music they already legally own, and only to a subset of that music. So either Sonos provide this full search functionality, or we need our money back.

Good point and my feelings exactly.

John Guarr

Enthusiast II

Hello,

I am no lover of the new app. When I spoke to Sonos support they said the inability to search NAS libraries was a bug/flaw that was being rectified, I hope this turns out to be true. I also find the new app less intuitive, the volume bars are harder to use and you have to hit apply for some reason. I’d be happy with the older app back but we all know that isnt about to happen.

I also have an issue that Amazon Music doesnt play, seems to let you select the album then it just skips each track, does anyone else find that?

Looks like it is - https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates

Yes, the volume bars are very difficult to operate. They don’t respond half the time and you have to line up your finger just right.

jgatie

Good grief people, local music search is scheduled for a mid-June release, so more than likely the next update. So you can stop with the threats of a class action suit that never really get past the fevered imagination phase:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates

Coming soon

Continued improvements to navigation for visually-impaired customers: mid-June
Playback controls including mute and volume numbers: June
Local music library search and playback: mid-June
Improved playback settings including Play Now: July
Create and edit local music library: July
Improved Autoplay settings: July
Improved Sub audio settings with Amp: July
Snooze alarms: TBD

John Guarr

Enthusiast II

Good grief people, local music search is scheduled for a mid-June release, so more than likely the next update. So you can stop with the threats of a class action suit that never really get past the fevered imagination phase:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates

Coming soon

Continued improvements to navigation for visually-impaired customers: mid-June
Playback controls including mute and volume numbers: June
Local music library search and playback: mid-June
Improved playback settings including Play Now: July
Create and edit local music library: July
Improved Autoplay settings: July
Improved Sub audio settings with Amp: July
Snooze alarms: TBD

Thank you, I just noticed this. Looking forward to its return soon.

C

CrisR

Lyricist I

Unbelievably frustrating. Agree with all above. What the heck are you doing Sonos? I can’t search my library. It’s a pretty big sin. It has basically ruined my experience of Sonos completely. PLEASE FIX IT.

jgatie

Unbelievably frustrating. Agree with all above. What the heck are you doing Sonos? I can’t search my library. It’s a pretty big sin. It has basically ruined my experience of Sonos completely. PLEASE FIX IT.

Did you even read the post just above yours? It’s being “FIXED” in mid-June, which by my count is about a week away!

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