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BrendaLC
Avid Contributor I
December 22, 2023
Answered

setting up Sonos on new computer

  • December 22, 2023
  • 11 replies
  • 1340 views

Hello - hope someone out there can answer this as I’ve tried everything.  I recently purchased a new computer and have reinstalled the Sonos app.  I have also reinstalled my iTunes and re-established the correct music library path.  Even though the legacy path with former computer name has been purged, Sonos is still trying to use this to play music, so I only get an unable to play message.  I have gone rounds with this removed, reinstalled, reset everything including the Sonos app but nothing seems to work.  What gives?

Note:  the music path setting is correct but the error message when trying to play clearly shows the legacy path.

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Best answer by controlav

 

And where do I find this iOS app? 


This is the one.

Thanks but that is my Windows app which can’t import/export playlists. My iOS app is https://apps.apple.com/us/app/phonos-plus/id1511326524

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Ken_Griffiths
Ken_Griffiths
January 5, 2024

Thank you again to everyone who replied to this - since my last update I have been on calls with both Apple (to sort out my legacy iTunes) and Sonos (to figure out why the library doesn’t sync properly).  While I’ve been able to get some things working, it’s still a disaster and makes no sense whatsoever.  I matched my iTunes path with the library path for Sonos.  Some things play, most don’t.  Playlists don’t sync, Sonos still tries to play from the old path that has long been purged.  I’ve deleted playlists because of this and tried to recreate them which only created more problems.  Just all around disenchanting and exhausting.  Why is this so hard? Everything is scattered and disorganized now whereas before I had a single resource/location music library and several playlists via iTunes that synced perfectly w Sonos.  Has anyone else started over using existing music files? 

With regard to your issues with local library playlists for use with Sonos…

I personally find that straightforward UNC paths direct to each of the chosen local music library tracks, as a single ‘one-line’ entry in a text file (with .m3u extension), seems to work best for each playlist.

Here are a couple of ‘example’ entries (as seen in a text editor) to hopefully demonstrate what I mean, but clearly your own network path will be different to your PC or NAS library storage.

\\192.168.0.1\MyNAS\MyLibraryShares\Music\Genesis\Trespass\The Knife.flac

\\192.168.0.1\MyNAS\MyLibraryShares\Music\Genesis\Trespass\Stagnation.flac

I always also choose to strip out everything else from any exported playlist file, including these ‘directive extensions’ that .m3u playlists may (often) contain…

  • #EXTM3U - file header
  • #EXTINF: - track information/title

Note: Some .m3u playlist files may contain other types of ‘extensions’, which can all be removed. See this link :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3U

These extensions are not required for Sonos use, so I personally found removing ALL worked best for speed of loading the playlist.

In addition to the format stated above, the netbios name of the host NAS/PC also works well in place of the LAN IP address. Example:

\\MyWindowsPC\MyLibraryShares\Music\Genesis\Trespass\The Knife.flac

I have gone onto convert all my playlists to the above format and have just opted to place them in a separate folder within the local iTunes library, but they can be stored anywhere in the library that you’re indexing when using the UNC path for each track.

Using the above method I was able to get a 25,000+ playlist load to a Sonos player queue in a matter of a few seconds, well within the  Sonos 15 second timeout period.

Anyhow, I hope that assists.

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