some music library files will not play

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I haven’t seen this exact problem mentioned, apologies if I just missed it.

I have an issue where only some of my music library files will not play on Sonos. If one of the “bad” files is in the queue, it will play the first few seconds, then switch to the next file. Often these occur in clumps, where several files in a row won’t play (but the rest of the files from the same album will). As far as I have been able to tell, once the problem is occurring, it’s always the same files that won’t play, but the problem is intermittent (for example, a set of files that I couldn’t play yesterday are working fine today). The same files always play fine using other apps such as VLC or Rythmbox (Linux). I have seen both OGG and MP3 files exhibit the issue.

To control my system I use the Sonos S2 controller running on a Windows 10 system, or the Android app running on various devices.

In each case the music files are being accessed from a Samba server (SMB) running on a Raspberry Pi 4, from an external USB hard drive. It’s possible of course that it could be a problem with Samba, but it is odd that it only occurs when Sonos is accessing the files. What I am really looking for is some hints on how to debug this so I can at least figure out where the problem actually is. I haven’t seen anything really helpful in the Samba logs and I haven’t yet found a way to get more information out of Sonos.

Thanks,

--Greg

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buzzAnswer

Grand Maestro

SONOS devices need to be able to chat with each other -- and they are very chatty. Web browsing, email, and even streaming services don’t need this level of support from the local network.

WiFi interference can be transient. I once had an issue playing music some evenings, Sundays were a mess. I slipped a copy of my log under my neighbor’s door, along with a polite note. A couple days later the log returned -- with annotations. She traveled on business on some days and Sunday afternoon she called her mom. She used a wireless phone system that has a history of polluting WiFi. I had my wired SONOS player on the opposite side of the party wall from her favorite phone location. I reconfigured my SONOS system, avoiding a wireless link with that player and my issue was resolved.

Only SONOS staff has access to the diagnostic data. You can submit a diagnostic within 10 minutes of an event, log the confirmation number, and contact SONOS phone support. Network issues leave tracks in the diagnostics.

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G

gswoodsAuthor

Contributor I

Interesting development. I just added some new music to my library, so I did an “Update Music Library”. The new files play fine, and as a lark I did a test and the files I was having problems with before are now also playing correctly. Anyone else that is seeing this issue, try re-indexing your music library (it’s under “Manage” in the Windows app, and Settings → System in the Android app.

--Greg

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gswoodsAuthor

Contributor I

I have also noted that sometimes I have to update the music library multiple times. It is said that it is insane to repeat the same thing multiple times and expect a different result, but that is what happens here. I suspect there us a bug in the update process such that whatever indexing data is being used to find and identify songs is not getting written correctly for some reason.

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

If you get a bad music library update send Sonos a diagnostic and contact them to look at it. If they are made aware of the issue they can send it to the software developers to be fixed, or if it is known the priority raised a bit.

I had issues long ago when I ripped my CD collection to my NAS, made temp copies of the problem albums and tried various tweaks until I found something that worked. Some were really frustrating, ended up stripping the meta data and renaming them 1, 2, 3 which finally worked. Renaming them by typing --not copying-- the titles and meta data back still worked so I’m guessing there was some character embedded in there that was the problem.

If you suspect WiFi issues, or they are even a possibility you can switch to a wired connection and see if that helps, as was suggested above. I’d pick my Sonos with the most memory and wire it, while unplugging all the rest to make sure it is the one doing the update. Yes Sonos has mentioned some smarts added to the update process to pick an optimum Sonos to run the update but I’m a fan of simple.

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