Content missing from Music Library

HI Corry,

Thank you for your reply.

I don’t think I can connect via ethernet. There are several rooms between the computer and the router. But the WiFi signal is healthy, and again, this wasn't an issue s few weeks ago- the entire library synced without a problem. 

Is there a Mac network standby mechanism that I can try tweaking?

Hi ​@Maxim M 

I have asked for you - this is new to me.

While I wait on an answer, have you tried just rebooting the Mac? If you have not, please do so. If you have tried a restart already, please try shutdown. If you have tried shutdown, please try reset (as far as I understand it, Shutdown saves the kernel of the Operating System so that booting up does not take as long, but does involve a loss of power which can help with some things, whereas restart actually makes the kernel reload from scratch, which can also fix things, but does not involve a loss of power).

I hope this helps.

Amazon and others sell inexpensive long Ethernet cables, 50 or 100 feet.

I have one here that is far less effort than hauling equipment closer to the router.

Get a pretty color to keep the spouse happy and put it away as soon as you are done with it.

I powered down my Mac and turned it back on. I also restarted it. The error message still comes but now it comes at 23 or 24 minutes into indexing instead of 20. Hmm...

I found a long enough cable. If I connect the Mac via Ethernet, does it still communicate with Sonos over WiFi? Sorry if that’s a dumb question. 

Hi ​@Maxim M 

Thanks for trying the reboot. That change is, uh, unexpected.

I am not great with Macs, but I presume not. You can manually disconnect the WiFi to be sure. And it is not a dumb question (as evidenced by the fact that I am not sure)!

In normal coding practices, the Sonos software should be looking for the lowest ‘cost’ connection. 99.99% of the time that would be a wired connection, but there are (extremely rare) situations in which an WiFi connection would be better. Which is, assuming Sonos followed this paradigm, why you shouldn’t turn off the radio/wifi unless you absolutely have to. It’s a safety net connection. 

This isn’t Mac or Windows specific, it’s the way networking works, across different OS versions. 

Thank you all for your replies.

I tried updating my Sonos Music Library with an ethernet connection between computer and router. I went back to trying to update my actual music library rather than the Sonos test folder that a tech support person and I set up a fwy phone calls back and this time I didn't get any error message, but the update stopped about 18 minutes in with seemingly the same material missing as before, so that’s not the solution, unfortunately. 

Can you rearrange your library to exclude the part where the problem occurs?

I recall issues I had long ago where I ended up indexing my library after splitting it into multiple parts. Once I had found the problem part(s) I worked on splitting them until I got to just the bit that was throwing the error.

Just to be safe you could use a temporary location and copy in files to index and remove them if the index completes. Then copy in the next set.

I suppose it is possible, but I’ve got almost 29,000 files in my library, of which about 4800 have consistently been uploaded to Sonos. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to which files make it and which files don’t and there aren’t enough hours in my day to try and figure it out, especially when the issue wasn't there just a few weeks ago. 

Ultimately I want to be able to keep my library whole and update it to Sonos as needed. If I have to jump through a lot of hoops every time, then I’ll be forced to look for a different way to listen to my music. 

I love Sonos when I works. Unfortunately it hasn't been working for me lately and I’ve spent too much time not getting the issue resolved with tech support. 

Hi ​@Maxim M 

Thanks for trying, and I am sorry to hear that things still are not going well.

So, with ethernet, indexing stops at the same point, but it takes less time to reach that point?

I am now wondering if there is a song somewhere that has some unusual characters in the filename or metadata that is causing the indexing process to halt - it been an issue before, but now long-fixed. I suppose it’s not impossible that it could come back (I have seen it return with a new speaker model, once).

Also, in your initial report, you mentioned that you had no issues a week prior - are you sure this is the case, or is it possible that you just didn’t notice the issue due to not trying to play Christmas songs before Christmas?

If we combine these two thoughts, perhaps you will find a Christmas song with unusual characters - if so, please try moving the album to a different folder so it does not get indexed, and test.

I hope this helps.