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RogerWF
Enthusiast II
October 20, 2025

Sonos Controller - Duplicate Album Titles

  • October 20, 2025
  • 251 replies
  • 3207 views

Just an update to a previously reported issue Duplicate album names queued together | Sonos Community.  I have this album on my music library (apologies for some of the titles, but that’s the way it is):

 

File list for album tracks

The album is listed three times in the controller:

 

Selecting any one of the duplicate titles shows only one track:

 

These results are the same on the Windows, Android, and web controllers.  I reindexed before collecting this info. I should add that queueing any one of the duplicate titles only adds one track to the queue.

 

I emailed this info to Sonos support.

Moderator Note: Removed and recorded case number

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    kdowling
    kdowling
    March 23, 2026

     I’ll also add that it does not happen on S1, or, for that matter S2 software before the botched May 2024 update.

    --Brian

    True. But this particular problem started in Sept 2025. As I mentioned earlier in this thread: 

    Back on Anthony’s thread from October, I noted that this first occurred with system update 91.0-68261 on 9/16/25. But I wasn’t positive it didn’t start with the previous update, which was 90.0-68140 on 9/2/25. It was one of those two. More than likely it was 91.0-68261.

     

      Stanley_4
      Stanley_4
      Grand Maestro
      March 23, 2026

      Depending on the underlying NAS file system the recycle folder can be in the root directory or in individual subdirectories. 

      Some file systems also have a lost+found directory, often hidden.

        User117655
        User117655
        Prodigy II
        March 23, 2026

        I only mentioned the #recycle behaviour as there has previously been a lot of discussion about renaming, editing and recreating files.

        I did not put it forward as a reason or solution just as something to be aware of.

        I have share (root) levels indexed by Sonos and each share has a #recycle folder (Synology). If one does a Sonos index after copying a track, then deleting the copy, a duplicate album will exist with the single, deleted, track as it actually still exists in the shares #recycle folder.  If the title metadata on that track has been changed prior to deletion it will show as a duplicate album with a different track.

        I am still seeing and am frustrated by this issue and my share #recycle folders are empty or disabled.

        To reiterate, this was not posited as a reason or solution but mentioned for awareness. It has caught me out in the past. Depending on the editing and reorganising being done it can present exactly as the fault, which undoubtedly exists, has been described.

        That is all I was saying, I am sorry if I unintentionally obfuscated the issue...

          Anthony_6
          Collaborator II
          March 23, 2026

           I think with the NAS Recycle folder you could conceivably have duplicate albums with the same tracks in each album.  The duplicate album issue in Sonos is different in that there are duplicate albums, but there are different tracks in each of the albums.

          But then that would indicate that Sonos is looking in other folders it does not have access to. You can assign one path to the Sonos software for indexing. MAYBE if your music was at the Root level, which I doubt many people do.. Again, what kdowing said is correct. “This threrad is about Which is an actual bug introduced in the S2 indexing which Sonos has yet to identify and fix. It is not caused by incorrect tagging or duplicate files. Nor file name strangeness.” I’ll also add that it does not happen on S1, or, for that matter S2 software before the botched May 2024 update.

          --Brian

          I totally agree, I kept thinking that, Sonos only looks in the path set by the user, in my case media/audio/sonos…. So Sonos would never see the recycle bin.

          Anthony
          MoPac
          MoPac
          Headliner III
          March 23, 2026

          This is all very interesting, but not related to the problem which this thread (and this one Albums have suddenly started to behave strangely.) is about. Which is an actual bug introduced in the S2 indexing which Sonos has yet to identify and fix. It is not caused by incorrect tagging or duplicate files. Nor file name strangeness. 

           Can you tell me an album in your library that is behaving strangely?  I’d like to try to reproduce the problem here.

          kdowling
          kdowling
          March 23, 2026

          This is all very interesting, but not related to the problem which this thread (and this one Albums have suddenly started to behave strangely.) is about. Which is an actual bug introduced in the S2 indexing which Sonos has yet to identify and fix. It is not caused by incorrect tagging or duplicate files. Nor file name strangeness. 

           Can you tell me an album in your library that is behaving strangely?  I’d like to try to reproduce the problem here.

          Well, that’s just it. There is no one particular album displaying this problem. All you have to do is rename a folder, any folder, and re-scan. Now the albums displaying this problem no longer do. So, there was no problem with those albums. But a whole new set of albums are now displaying the problem. Any time the library is updated, the albums displaying the problem change.

            User117655
            User117655
            Prodigy II
            March 23, 2026

             I think with the NAS Recycle folder you could conceivably have duplicate albums with the same tracks in each album.  The duplicate album issue in Sonos is different in that there are duplicate albums, but there are different tracks in each of the albums.

            But then that would indicate that Sonos is looking in other folders it does not have access to. You can assign one path to the Sonos software for indexing. MAYBE if your music was at the Root level, which I doubt many people do.. Again, what kdowing said is correct. “This threrad is about Which is an actual bug introduced in the S2 indexing which Sonos has yet to identify and fix. It is not caused by incorrect tagging or duplicate files. Nor file name strangeness.” I’ll also add that it does not happen on S1, or, for that matter S2 software before the botched May 2024 update.

            --Brian

            I totally agree, I kept thinking that, Sonos only looks in the path set by the user, in my case media/audio/sonos…. So Sonos would never see the recycle bin.

            It all depends on your NAS, its setup, what it supports and at which level you index folders on Sonos.

            If a share:

                  \\NAS\Share

            containing folders of music:

                   \Classical

                   \Rock

            is indexed then the shares #recycle folder (\\NAS\Share\#recycle) will also be indexed.

            If you index at the individual folder level:

                   \\NAS\Share\Classical

                   \\NAS\Share\Rock

            Then the #recycle folder will not be exposed.

            Shares equate to a root level. Not all home NAS will support shares and may present a single root (or share) with a #recycle folder. A NAS can have many shares, I base my observations on Synology NAS capabilities.

              MoPac
              MoPac
              Headliner III
              March 23, 2026

               I don’t use my Synology as a share ( Too loud ), but I did disable the Recycle folder.

              ​@kdowling:  Your issue sounds like a PITA.  I don’t see a list of your Sonos devices.  Not sure it makes any difference, but do you know which Sonos device is the Associated Product ( The device that takes the index ). It’s unfortunately not listed in the new Sonos app, but it can be found in the Windows Sonos app or the old Orange app if your Android and you have that app.  Don’t know about MAC.  The Associated Product would be in the About Your System screen.  Again I do not know if a particular Associated product would have any effect on the index process.

               My Associated Product is a Beam Gen 2 at this time.  I guess that can change

              kdowling
              kdowling
              March 23, 2026

               I don’t use my Synology as a share ( Too loud ), but I did disable the Recycle folder.

              ​@kdowling:  Your issue sounds like a PITA.  I don’t see a list of your Sonos devices.  Not sure it makes any difference, but do you know which Sonos device is the Associated Product ( The device that takes the index ). It’s unfortunately not listed in the new Sonos app, but it can be found in the Windows Sonos app or the old Orange app if your Android and you have that app.  Don’t know about MAC.  The Associated Product would be in the About Your System screen.  Again I do not know if a particular Associated product would have any effect on the index process.

               My Associated Product is a Beam Gen 2 at this time.  I guess that can change

              Back in Sept when this started, I decided to downgrade everything to S1 except one home theater setup and one pair of Ones (for testing S2). So currently on S2 are Beam Gen 2, Sub Gen 3, 2 Era 100s, 2 OneSLs and a pair of Ones. The Beam Gen 2 is currently the associated product.

              Other members here have tested re-scanning with different devices (unplugging everything else), and it didn’t seem to make a difference.

                User117655
                User117655
                Prodigy II
                March 23, 2026

                ​@MoPac Too loud?

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