Sonos and Mac OS 10.15 Catalina

So, if you have saved the iTunes folder somewhere before you upgraded to Catalina, then you’re OK. Just copy that iTunes folder to a NAS on the same network. If you don’t have one, buy one if it’s that important to play iTunes playlists on Sonos before they fix this issue. Then all you do is add the location of the iTunes folder within Sonos. 

You need to inform your online support people that the app does not work with Catalina.  I purchased a Sonos system and they were great about helping me set it up.  Support guy told me about the app for mac and then we hung up.  He said it would work with Catalina?  This thread has been active for two weeks now, when will Sonos fix the issue?

I tried the recommended steps, but they failed:

1. CCleaner uninstall
2. Remove Sonos/Library from Full File access.
3. Reboot
4. New install of Sonos
5. Add Library as option 2, external file
6. Add Sonos/Library to Full File access.
7. Restart Sonos app, wait a few minutes. 
8. Nothing under Music Library Artists, Songs, etc.
9. Removed that library and added option 1, “My Music Library”.
10. Nothing.

Then I tried the alternative method of exporting Library.xml from “Music” app, and added the destination folder to Sonos. Right away, Sonos started adding files. Not progressing very quickly now, but it’s something.

Hard to believe Sonos, as a major software company, had no early developers access to early OS releases. 

FWIW, I have similar issues but am now able to access all my iTunes based music BUT I have most on an external HD. The Sonos app shows the files under “folders” as it always has but now just says “no selections are available”. No error codes or anything about “unable to access” the drive.

Just thought this might be helpful for SONOS’ troubleshooting and hopefully correcting the issue under Catalina.

Catalina has been a nightmare. My Sonos speakers are now useless [if I want to play my own iTunes songs/albums/music] unless I ‘buy into’ the monthly cost of Apple music. That’s just the tip of the iceberg with Catalina. I have now turned off all ‘auto updates’. My Fujitsu ScanSnap is also useless - I needed to buy a compatible scanner now that Apple upgraded from 32 to 64 bit hardware. Fujitsu was nice enough to offer a $200 off coupon. I sure do hope Sonos finds a workaround so I can play my songs/albums. Beyond frustrating AND costly! I only there was a button to uninstall Catalina!

Does Catalina 15.1 help with this at all?  The release notes say it improves the migration of iTunes Libraries to Music/TV/etc, so there is some sort of change there.

Sonos is TRULY THE WORST set up experience ever created. Products are great when they work but I have the same issue with Catalina. Both of my speakers are USELESS until a fix is released. 

I will certainly not be recommending these products to anyone else. 

Hi there,

IS THIS THE SOLUTION?  IT WORKED FOR ME: (until the next issue at least...) 

I just though I’d share what has worked for me: I have a Play:1 and two Ones, and when I installed Catalina on my iMac, I couldn’t access my music  library any longer.  So, I messaged Sonos on Messenger, and they suggested the following, which worked - it’s now set up as it was before.  Step 1 below alone didn’t work, but after Step 2, the problem was solved, so I’d recommend doing both.  Also maybe throw in a computer re-start etc (although I don’t think I actually needed to do this). So:

1. Check the System Preferences -> Security and Privacy settings of the computer. From there select the Privacy Tab and scroll down to and select “Full Disk Access”. From this screen make sure Sonos has permission. You'll also want to ensure Sonos has permission under Files and Folders (which is below).
2. Remove your music library from the Sonos App and then re-add it by first opening Sonos Desktop Controller App for Mac (computer, not the phone app). From the “Manage” menu, select “Music Library Settings”. Click on the folder you would like to remove (the whole music library). Click - (minus) and confirm you wish to remove the library from Sonos. Then Re-add the Music Library by clicking on the + (Plus) button in the same area (If you use iTunes or are not sure where your music is stored, leave “In My Music folder” selected. If your music is located outside of the My Music folder, select the appropriate option) - I have iTunes and left it as it was, with “In My Music folder” selected.

So this worked, and for now my speakers are working again.  I’ve shared this to try to help others suffering the same nonsense.

But that said, these speakers, apart from the good sound when they do work, have been quite annoying for the couple of years I’ve had them.  Sometimes disconnecting for no reason, stupid messages like Sonos can’t connect that then just go away a few minutes later, the Sonos app is much slower at responding to play, stop, skip etc requests than doing so to the speakers directly through iTunes/Music app.  Getting them on the wifi when you move house is more annoying than you’d expect in this day and age.  Smetimes they just stop playing half-way through a playlist without explanation.  Somtimes the music library just disappears and you have to restart the app to resolve it.  Etc.  So yeah, they’re annoying.  And although I did eventually get help from regarding this Catalina installation problem by messaging them via messenger, their first answer was just that they were aware of the issue but that there was no solution at this time and they didn’t have a time frame for a solution!  It’s only when, incredulous that my Play:1 speaker was now essentially and indefinitely useless (people have been talking about this problem on these forums for at least a month), it was only when I pushed them that they tried a couple of other suggestions (those above).  So yeah the speakers have very annoying issues (I wouldn’t recommend them unfortunately to older people who might not know what to do in these situation - delete your music library, re-add it, allow full disc access… whatttttt??), and the customer service/response rate to simple but debilitating problems just isn’t good enough: we as end users/customers shouldn’t be going through this nonsense in 2019 - I sometimes feel like I’m trying to connect to dial-up Internet in the 1990s with the amount of work and hassle these speakers, which should be plug in and play, have caused over 2 years), but anyway - I hope the above helps people for at least this particular issue.

Liam, I am one of those old users you wrote about. I followed each and every step listed for the last month.  

I agree that the sound of these speakers is fair to good.

But the hassles involved in trying to use my Mac, iTunes and wifi offsets the sound and no wires.

I am going back to wires and a Yamaha receiver, the Sonos speakers are going to charity.

Hi,

I tried a couple of hours all of suggestions above and gave up.

I have a Mac Book pro with Catalina and the latest version of Sonos Controller for Mac.

My Security and Privacy settings are

• Accessibility - Sonos is checked
• Full Disk Access - Sonos is checked
• Files and Folders - Sonos show up with “Full Disk Access”

I do not find SonosLibraryServer as suggested above in any of the Privacy settings.

When I try to add the Library via the Manage , Music Library settings in the Sonos app, I always get the Error message “Sonos was unable to add the music folder  Authorization failed”

I selected Music Folder but also selecting ANY other folder on my Mac provides the sames result.

Solutions ?

tx