Can't add folder to music library (913)

So the library setup side of things on the Sonos side is perhaps more simplified, but the setup of the folder share itself needs to be done by the users. There’s no longer any reliance on the SonosLibraryService to setup the folder share using HTTP.

For me this is the root of many of the user problems I see here. For reasons only Sonos can explain (or not) they have left all this redundant mess in both the current desktop apps and on people’s PCs/Macs who had previously used it. 

What Sonos need to do ASAP is remove the wizards from the desktop apps that still try and setup the HTTP service and also provide a tidy up tool to remove it from peoples systems as well. 

The latter is important as it’s confusing people trying to setup a new share as they think they need to give permissions to the Sonos service account the ‘helper’ setup. 

The video Sonos recently posted on how to setup sharing on Windows is also poor. It effectively uses your main account to access which is not ideal. They should have given it a bit more thought and shown how to create a service account (so no-one can login to your PC with it remotely) just for Sonos use which would be a safer option.

They should also make it crystal clear that none of the above has anything to do with SMBv1 and for good measure put together a quick video on how to check under Windows for SMBv1 support and whether it is installed. For most Windows 10/11 users it will not be. At least then people can verify for themselves that they don’t have it for a bit of peace of mind if they are worried about such stuff. 

SMBv1 is mainly confined to existing NAS users using old single drive solutions or things like Squeezebox’s… Now personally, if an ageing old NAS is used *only* for music, I don’t see why it’s such a big issue. IF someone wants to hack your music, there’s no value there. Again, if you use a dedicated account for access to just that, the real-world security risks are quite low. 

Even Microsoft allow you to use SMBv1 *if* you choose to. By default Windows 10/11 are secure(ish) for SMB, but you still have the choice to connect to your legacy devices if that is what you want to do. If Microsoft allow this I don’t see why a predominantly home based solution such as Sonos can’t. (I say secure-ish as if you look below you’ll see some old traditional default shares that ought to be alarming if you're worried about SMB v1) 

Finally as mentioned above, and I think this applies more to Windows users than Mac’s, check where your Music folder really lives. If you’ve tried to share it, and still get 913 errors from a Windows command line type

net share

You should see something like this…

 If, as in the example above you see the word ‘OneDrive’ somewhere in the path (or iCloud, Google etc.) then this will be part of the problem. Microsoft always try and make you use stuff that isn’t always in your best interest as they think they know better… 😉

Create a new folder somewhere on an actual hard disk so something like C:\Sonos for example and copy your music there. Share that folder instead. This may require you to reconfigure whatever music app you use to point at the new location. So copy the music first instead of moving so you don’t break anything. 

EDIT: Quite reasonably in my view, people who are non-technical and for whom the above is a bit much, will keep trying the defunct wizards in the desktop apps to re-setup their lost libraries when people say local libraries are now ‘working’. Another reason why Sonos need to remove them, after all, why would a company still have broken tools in software they have recently updated? 

@Ian_S,

i would agree about disabling the two HTTP library share options in the desktop controller Apps, but those Apps are old and I suspect are to be ‘retired’ in the not too distant future anyway (maybe weeks/few months is my guess). They have been in maintenance mode now for a very long time, they still have errors during update and startup etc. that were reported years ago. So I suspect that’s why Sonos have left them abandoned other than versioning/security changes to keep them going.

At the end of the day the easiest thing is to use the new mobile Sonos App to link to the shared local library. It’s what I would recommend folk use.

i can’t speak for Mac PC’s as I’m not a MAC user, but by default a Windows 10/11 PC uses SMB v2 or higher - some users may have (in the past) installed SMB v1 on Windiws 10 only, but the answer to that is to simply remove that in the control panel from the add/remove Windows features - but for the majority that clearly isn’t necessary.

The folder share needs to be local and the network access mode for the PC needs to be set to ‘Private’ rather than ‘Public’. Some 3rd-party firewalls can get in the way, but Windows own built in firewall is usually fine to leave enabled.

I’m not personally too bothered by which user account is used for the local folder share as the local network should hopefully be secure anyway - it can even be an "everyone” (read-only) share as far as I’m concerned to begin with - just to ensure it works with Sonos.

The account/user security can always be switched afterwards to something more secure by adding a user to the (read only) folder with a password and removing the “everyone” access. Then updating the Sonos App with those credentials etc.

Personally I do not find these things that challenging and there are lots of YouTube videos and online guides on how to setup a Windows 10/11 share etc. people just need to perhaps watch or read up on these things. 

Sonos have issued a lot of documentation on these things too.

You mentioned One Drive cloud based storage - I didn’t think that was supported anyway. I always thought the share had to be a locally shared library. 

If looking for cloud based storage for a library to play on Sonos I would just recommend using iBroadcast, or perhaps Plex on Sonos, linked to One Drive, instead. Not that I’ve tried the latter service to see if/how well, it works.

So, well versed on SMB1, SMB2/3 UNC, netshare, great wifi etc etc. My NAS drive has disappeared since May, returned once once for a CD worth of music and then disappeared again, has appeared today after my daily scan (with little success each time). Except, I play any music, imported playlists etc and “can’t find” message appears.

So progress, but “no cigar”! 

Will continue to use Plex for access to the NAS with little issues except that my imported playlists don’t exist)..
“

What NAS make/midel is it? - maybe set the min/max SMB to v2 and see if that fixes the issue.

Other potential settings on some NAS devices include…

• Oplocks - disabled  (not required: SMBv1 only)

Write Options: (not relevant for Sonos)

• Preallocate - disabled
• Strict Sync - disabled 

Security:

• Restrict Anonymous - enabled
• SMB Encrypt - Auto
• SMB Signing - disabled
• Hide Unreadable - disabled
• Hide Unwritable - disabled

Also try a different shared folder with just a few dozen tracks in it and see if that works as it might be an issue with the metadata or the fact that the library exceeds some Sonos limitations which include 65,000 slots for tracks (note that may not mean actually 65,000 tracks as some tracks may take up more than one slot. Also there are apparently these limitations…

Field Name Character Limits:

Artists - 76

Album - 92

Track - 100

Genre - 22

File name - 100

Ken, thanks, it’s a Seagate NAS (NAS case with hard drive) to my FIOS router. Coincidentally, the NAS will let me play genres but not individual tracks or albums so do that now to see if it fails anytime soon. I have 35k tracks and not near the 65,000 number etc.  Fingers crossed and everyday another step…

it’s a Seagate NAS (NAS case with hard drive) to my FIOS router 

Just to be 100% clear, you don’t mean an external HDD enclosure attached to your router via USB do you ? 

I was just looking at the possibility of buying a NAS drive to bypass the problem I have of being unable to connect the Sonos app to my iMac music library but, looking further around the Sonos Community pages, it seems that there are a large number of NAS drive users who are also experiencing connection issues.

Looks like I should put my wallet away...

Ian, I do. Its been my go to for years and was called a NAS case when purchased. So not a current NAS like Synology etc.

OK, so what is your exact router model? You need to see if that has SMBv2 support or not. Many routers with USB to share storage can still use SMBv1 … 😕

Model Fios-G1100 ©2019.

I left out that i use a TP Link Router as an access point for the NAS to USB connection then connect that to the FIOS router. Since this AM the playing of any genre in SONOS works like it used to but song selections and or imported playlists still don’t play.