music library after latest app update

Ken, thanks again for your knowledge and advice. So many questions but this one beats me. I’m able to seamlessly stream radio stations eg Sonos & TuneIn but when streaming specific tracks or albums on AM , Spotify or Amazon my Sonos network and app simultaneously freeze after a short but random time. At that stage a hard reset of the router is needed. An app stop/start doesn’t fix it.

My Sonos phone support call focused on the primary (first) speaker which acts as the master and changing that sequence. It involved a router reset and changing the order in which I see my units. This worked whilst on the phone but froze later! Graham

I've been trying to share the music library on my Mac with a new Sonos device. (My macOS is Sonora 14.5). After many long phone calls to the UK support/long waits for the chat bot, I've managed to find something that works for me.

The instructions, in Sonos Help on Safari, tell me to start with the Sonos app on the desktop/Manage menu/Music Library Settings - click. That takes one to a dialog box which asks you to choose a location from a choice of three. At first I tried "my Mac HD" but the path that it creates didn't work. Choosing NAS for the location of the music library obviously doesn't work because I don't have a NAS connected to my computer. But choosing the middle option "computer or other storage" (I may not have got the wording correct) is a good choice.

On the next page, there is a little "+" and I can Browse to my Music folder.  Trouble is, the path that shows up in the box and ends at the Music folder does not start with ‘Mac HD.’  But it does allow me to type in “//MacHD/” at the beginning of the path and...at last!..that is acceptable and my Music Library has appeared in the Sonos app. Phew.

I could've added at the beginning that this whole wretched rigmarole has been caused by my Play:1 being deemed too old. But I'm very pleased (now) with a replacement, a Roam 2. Well, very pleased until our masters make the next improvement.

(Apologies if this response has not been entered in the right category on the Community website. If anybody ever read this and thinks it would be helpful, I'd be grateful if it could be put somewhere where more people might stumble across it).

I initially had success restoring the music library on my Mac using the NAS option but it did not allow access to the playlists embedded in the music library saying “unable to browse music”. Subsequently when I go back to play music under the artist tab it will sometimes give me the same message so the NAS option is not a reliable fix for partial access to the library.

I have looked at other options and ROON seems to be a possibility with the caveat you have to pay monthly for its use. 

Having read Ken’s helpful information, my final thoughts are as follows. Those of us with music libraries are likely longtime Sonos users having invested in significant Sonos hardware for multi-zone functions. We are no longer prime customers for Sonos as the only equipment we will purchase in the future is replacement gear as Sonos discards equipment like zone players. The support staff I have talked to over this last 2 months have no apologies and a take it or leave it approach. They have NO incentive to fix this!

With the new update and app update, my music library on my QNAP NAS shows on the ios apps now and even has the search music library function and allows to update the database. It only took Sonos 2 months to restore this. Now i await to see if they add back listing artists, albums etc with the alphabet net to the listings so do not need to scroll through 100’s of albums or artists that takes forever and wears out my arthritic thumbs. Yes, I can search for the artist and album now but the alphabet list on the side is much quicker and more efficient. When will that be restored?

I’m on an iMac and have waited (mostly) patiently for the fix to access my local music library.  Following the “NAS” instructions, I have finally reached a point where Music Library shows up on my desktop Sonos app, along with various folders for Artists, Albums, etc.  But they remain empty, and clicking on the “Update Music Library Now” dropdown doesn’t seem to activate anything.  

Is anyone else running into this problem?  Anyone have a solution?

Thanks to reinstalling S2 and following the same guidelines you did, I got my Music Libraries back and functioning on my iMac desktop but, not the mobile app on my iPhone.  I don’t know if any of you heard but, Spence put out an email that I find insulting: “While these software updates have enabled the majority of our customers to have a robust experience using the Sonos app, there is more work to be done.  A majority of our customers?  Really??  I’d like a show of hands on this statement.

S2 used SMB v1 and HTTP sharing, which the new app does not support, so it’s no wonder the new app can’t see your library.  You need to follow these instructions, making sure you do not skip the links pertaining to sharing your music folder on the network:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/add-your-music-library-to-sonos

Thanks. I followed all of their NAS instructions exactly, and pointed Sonos to my folder - /Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music.  And in fact, when I try to update the library, I can see that this location is shown when I click the Folders link.  But the other links (Artists, Albums, etc.) don’t populate.  

jgatie… I’ve followed those instructions more than once and, I’ve had the S2 desktop app operational for quite some time but, never the iOS mobile app since the jacked up app release. I’ve manually input the network path as per the instructions using the Apple mobile app and, after plugging all that in… it does nothing. The “Add” button is grayed out. Doesn’t matter if I Reset the app or, delete the miserable thing and reinstall it.  Same result.

What’s one to do, delete the S2 app and lose ALL functionality?  Why didn’t Sonos release a desktop app that supports SMBv2 and/or 3 then? Or, is the Web App the only answer?

Hi @SlamDesi (Brad!), point of clarification: the Mac & Windows desktop apps do support SMBv2 and SMBv3. Technically speaker, the desktop apps are agnostic about SMB version. The firmware in your Sonos speakers, on the other hand, only speaks SMBv2 and SMBv3.

I hope that explanation makes sense.