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Contributor I
May 16, 2024

How to solve the Error 913 (Music Library) on a Mac

  • May 16, 2024
  • 251 replies
  • 34533 views

There is a reported bug fix coming mid-June 2024. If you can’t wait until then…

(I did this running Sonoma 14.4.1) And thanks to folks in a separate thread on the details - just tried to put them all in one place.

I made a video of the process if you prefer that way: https://youtu.be/kjhKhDuvgDY


Part 1 - Set up the share (System Settings/Preferences)

  1. Open System Settings (in earlier MacOS it’s called System Preferences).
    • Click on the apple in top left of your screen to find that option.
  2. Choose General
  3. Select **Sharing**.
  4. Enable **File Sharing**
  5. Click the "i" symbol
  6. Click the "+" symbol.
  7. Add a shared folder by choosing the folder where your music is stored and selecting Open
    • The name of the folder here will be the ShareName that you’ll use in Part 3.
  8. Under ‘users’, confirm that the list includes an ‘everyone’ option, and that you set ‘everyone’ to *Read Only* at a minimum (or “Read & Write”)
  9. Ensure the customer's account is set to **Read & Write**
    • I’m not 100% sure ‘customer’s account’, but I took it to mean the account I login with on the computer.
  10. Click the Options button
  11. Ensure that both SMB and the customer's account below are checked and choose Done. 

Part 2 - Find your computer’s name

  1. At the bottom (or sometimes top in earlier versions of macOS) of the Sharing page, you’ll see Local hostname. Everything before the .local is the hostname. Copy that down - that will be your MacName that you’ll need in Part 3.

 

Part 3 - Add the share to Sonos

  1. Open the Sonos app on your mac.
  2. Choose Manage > Music Library Settings
  3. Choose the + for your music folders.
  4. Instead of ‘another folder or drive’, choose Networked Device
  5. Type the network path name when prompted, and press Next. The format will be \\MacName\ShareName
    • Remember the ShareName and MacName you captured earlier? This is where you’ll use them. Make sure the \ are the right ones (not /, but \).
  6. Enter the Mac username and password. The password is the same as when you login opening your laptop.
    • If you’re not sure about the username, you can find it this way:
      • Open an app called ‘Terminal’ on your macbook. (Go into Launchpad and type ‘term’ and it’ll show up)
      • Type whoami and press enter. 
      • The result that shows is your username. (e.g. Perhaps my computer shows my login name as Salami Slices but my username technically is different (salamislices)). Copy and paste that into the username that Sonos is asking for.
  1. If that doesn’t work, someone had mentioned trying the following:
    • From System Settings, on left side, choose ‘users and groups’
    • Click on the ‘i’ next to Guest User
    • Enable “Allow guest users to connect to shared folders” and choose OK.
    • Now, from Sonos app, when get prompted for username and password, leave them blank and just choose enter.
      • The idea is it would treat it as a guest and since gave access to guests, will work.

 

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251 replies

Trending Lyricist II
July 17, 2024

I found this Sonos Support link for .xml playlists (below), maybe see if it assists. If no joy, just to add that I use .m3u playlists myself and they are working okay in the new Sonos App.

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/itunes-playlists-missing-from-sonos-library-on-usb-drive

That is how I added it with the fake NAS. Under the current Apple Music, I have to rename it as iTunes. And that worked until yesterday’s update. The playlists show up, but I can’t access or play them - “unable to browse” error.

I’ll try the m3U option.

Apple Music Library user
Ken_Griffiths
July 17, 2024

I found this Sonos Support link for .xml playlists (below), maybe see if it assists. If no joy, just to add that I use .m3u playlists myself and they are working okay in the new Sonos App.

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/itunes-playlists-missing-from-sonos-library-on-usb-drive

That is how I added it with the fake NAS. Under the current Apple Music, I have to rename it as iTunes. And that worked until yesterday’s update. The playlists show up, but I can’t access or play them - “unable to browse” error.

I’ll try the m3U option.

You ‘may’ possibly find Apps that can export the playlists from an .xml file to .m3u individual playlists.

Trending Lyricist II
July 17, 2024

I found this Sonos Support link for .xml playlists (below), maybe see if it assists. If no joy, just to add that I use .m3u playlists myself and they are working okay in the new Sonos App.

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/itunes-playlists-missing-from-sonos-library-on-usb-drive

That is how I added it with the fake NAS. Under the current Apple Music, I have to rename it as iTunes. And that worked until yesterday’s update. The playlists show up, but I can’t access or play them - “unable to browse” error.

I’ll try the m3U option.

You ‘may’ possibly find Apps that can export the playlists from an .xml file to .m3u individual playlists.

Apple Music does it for individual playlists, but no joy. “No music available” when I select it.

I really wish Sonos would actually test things before inflicting the updates on their users. While they can’t test every possible configuration. access to the local library and playlists is a pretty low bar for functionality, and should be tested for.

Apple Music Library user
Ken_Griffiths
July 17, 2024

Apple Music does it for individual playlists, but no joy. “No music available” when I select it.

I really wish Sonos would actually test things before inflicting the updates on their users. While they can’t test every possible configuration. access to the local library and playlists is a pretty low bar for functionality, and should be tested for.

I can’t add anything @krez56 as I have only ever used .m3u playlists with my own local library for quite some years, that’s with Sonos and without. Those playlist all play fine - I can even load my entire NAS library to a speaker using those type of playlists as shown in the attached. I was never able to achieve that with *.xml playlists.

July 17, 2024

I used salami slices’ method to resolve Error 913 and my music library from iTunes is working.
My Playlists now appear within the Sonos Favorites list and are shown as one large XML file, I.e. no individual song listings. Can anyone suggest a solution to fix this?

I tried to contact Sonos customer but waiting for almost an hour for help is nuts.

Thanks

 

Enthusiast II
July 17, 2024

I don’t understand why I can see all the playlists and songs but get message “Unable to browse music.”  It makes no sense.

 

I just ordered Apple HomePod to try it out.  IF it works, I may eliminate my SONOS products.  I cringe every time there is an update and most of the time, something goes wrong.  All I want is to play my music from my playlists.

Lyricist I
July 18, 2024

There is a reported bug fix coming mid-June 2024. If you can’t wait until then…

(I did this running Sonoma 14.4.1) And thanks to folks in a separate thread on the details - just tried to put them all in one place.

I made a video of the process if you prefer that way: https://youtu.be/kjhKhDuvgDY


Part 1 - Set up the share (System Settings/Preferences)

  1. Open System Settings (in earlier MacOS it’s called System Preferences).
    • Click on the apple in top left of your screen to find that option.
  2. Choose General
  3. Select **Sharing**.
  4. Enable **File Sharing**
  5. Click the "i" symbol
  6. Click the "+" symbol.
  7. Add a shared folder by choosing the folder where your music is stored and selecting Open
    • The name of the folder here will be the ShareName that you’ll use in Part 3.
  8. Under ‘users’, confirm that the list includes an ‘everyone’ option, and that you set ‘everyone’ to *Read Only* at a minimum (or “Read & Write”)
  9. Ensure the customer's account is set to **Read & Write**
    • I’m not 100% sure ‘customer’s account’, but I took it to mean the account I login with on the computer.
  10. Click the Options button
  11. Ensure that both SMB and the customer's account below are checked and choose Done. 

Part 2 - Find your computer’s name

  1. At the bottom (or sometimes top in earlier versions of macOS) of the Sharing page, you’ll see Local hostname. Everything before the .local is the hostname. Copy that down - that will be your MacName that you’ll need in Part 3.

 

Part 3 - Add the share to Sonos

  1. Open the Sonos app on your mac.
  2. Choose Manage > Music Library Settings
  3. Choose the + for your music folders.
  4. Instead of ‘another folder or drive’, choose Networked Device
  5. Type the network path name when prompted, and press Next. The format will be \\MacName\ShareName
    • Remember the ShareName and MacName you captured earlier? This is where you’ll use them. Make sure the \ are the right ones (not /, but \).
  6. Enter the Mac username and password. The password is the same as when you login opening your laptop.
    • If you’re not sure about the username, you can find it this way:
      • Open an app called ‘Terminal’ on your macbook. (Go into Launchpad and type ‘term’ and it’ll show up)
      • Type whoami and press enter. 
      • The result that shows is your username. (e.g. Perhaps my computer shows my login name as Salami Slices but my username technically is different (salamislices)). Copy and paste that into the username that Sonos is asking for.
  1. If that doesn’t work, someone had mentioned trying the following:
    • From System Settings, on left side, choose ‘users and groups’
    • Click on the ‘i’ next to Guest User
    • Enable “Allow guest users to connect to shared folders” and choose OK.
    • Now, from Sonos app, when get prompted for username and password, leave them blank and just choose enter.
      • The idea is it would treat it as a guest and since gave access to guests, will work.

 

None of the workarounds described here seem to work with me. I’m running Ventura on an iMac and while the workaround worked the last time that there was an update, it’s not working for me now and I’m looking at a very expensive paperweight that can’t play my music library. Any new tips?

Trending Lyricist II
July 18, 2024

(Excellent work-around snipped - go near he start of this thread if you need it)

None of the workarounds described here seem to work with me. I’m running Ventura on an iMac and while the workaround worked the last time that there was an update, it’s not working for me now and I’m looking at a very expensive paperweight that can’t play my music library. Any new tips?

I lost everything with the firmware update, and had to repeat all of the steps to re-add my local library. I can’t access my playlists - they are there, but an “unable to browse” message comes up when I try to play them. However, I had saved a couple of them as Sonos playlists, and am able to play those. 

Music Library songs, artists, and albums are available, just not imported playlists.

OSX Sonoma.

Apple Music Library user
Trending Lyricist I
July 18, 2024

I am another victim of the Sonos Controller for Mac Version 16.3 “update.” A couple months ago, I had successfully implemented Salami Slices’ workaround for adding a file share to Sonos in order to access my Mac Music library. With the update to Controller 16.3 my share disappeared. When I’ve re-added it today, I get the error, “Unable to browse music” when attempting to play any of my imported playlists. Fortunately, I’m able to play artists, albums, and songs, just not any of my saved playlists.

Note: after re-adding the file share, I was having more “Unable to browse music” errors. I unplugged my router and then reconnected it. Refreshing my Mac’s IP address seemed to fix the errors—except for my imported playlists.

Lyricist III
July 20, 2024

Yes, I, too, am very grateful to Salami Slices.

Just one tips for French users : the network path uses English terms, at least in my Mac.

“\\Mac-Studio/Macintosh HD/Users ...etc instead of “.../Utilisateurs ...” was what worked for me.

 

But ….

a new update and all all my efforts were washed away. No access to Apple Music’s playlists again.

Please, Sonos, keep kids from playing with the buttons …!