Sonos Controller - Duplicate Album Titles

I think this is the fundamental problem. It’s very inconsistent in what happens, therefore it makes it very hard to track down what the issue really is. If it was always the same album that was duplicated then at least you’d know the fault was with something in that album. Sadly this is not the case. I think it’s an issue with the way the album information is read in the process of scanning the library. I do remember that in the old S2 (pre Spence) scanning a library took far longer than it does in the new S2 (post Spence). I presume new coding may have made it faster but maybe less reliable. Just my thoughts.

Maybe there is a pattern…

Looks like the different speaker code levels have different indexing results. If I index using older products (but not really old) such as Port or One, then the re-index seems to trip up in the same places. If I index using the Era 300 I get different results, but it also trips up consistently in the same place too.

We already know the Era 300 behaves slightly differently for local libraries as it can’t handle a NAS name and needs an embedded IP, but also on Sonology requires the ID used to browse the library to be an admin ID as well. 

Not great that we have different results from different products, and I guess any software updates will result in a different speaker potentially becoming the associated product. The Era 300 certainly seems to reboot much faster so in my system is quite often becoming the new associated product. 

What I haven’t done is change any of the folders to ‘move’ the problem, and have no doubt that happens, but having products behave differently too on different builds is less than ideal. 
 

My reference for indexing is Minimserver which doesn’t baulk on any of the albums Sonos does and looks at the exact same files. 

​@Corry P - Not the issue I’m seeing… Album Artist is correctly populated. If I index with a ‘different’ speaker software level, I get different results. 

Note 3 copies of Jeff Wayne - … Under theMartians… each of them have the same SINGLE track listed..

If I look at the files in metadactics, you can see they all have the same album artist and Album name. If they don’t it lists Multiple Values as you can see for track title and artist.. 

The above was indexed by an Era 300… if I index with a Port, the problem moves to different albums and the above is correctly indexed. 

Hi ​@Ian_S 

That looks suspiciously like the issue I document at the end of my guide (in the hidden section). I recommend you remove the shared folder from your Music Library and then add it again.

Newer players (like the Era 300) run a more recent version of the Linux kernel, and therefore a newer version of the SMB (Samba on Linux) network file-sharing protocol - this may be the cause of the differences seen, but rebuilding the index from scratch may repair this issue, as it did in my case (with Coldplay).

I hope this helps.

​@Corry P - Done that.. Adding and removing (once you get past the issues the newer kernel has with Synology, more bugs) results in the same issue. If I remove and then turn the Era 300 off, I get different results. The incorrect scanning is consistent depending on which software level does the initial scan or re-index. 

 See below… Queen - A Day At The Races 1993 Remaster… indexed correctly when the Era 300 is the associated product. 

If I turn off the Era 300 and re-index this becomes… 

And both entries for the 1993 remaster now just show:

Meanwhile, the previous example of the Jeff Wayne Album now looks like this…

As you can see… now matches the metadata reported by Metadatics … The above state happens on any Sonos speaker running 

Version: 17.7 (build 92071170)

The previous example when done by the latest version on the Era 300… The system will predictably flip-flop between the two, both obviously with issues. As detailed elsewhere, you can shuffle the files around which will fix the initial issue, but then move it somewhere else. So I’ve documented this as if I do nothing I get very different but repeatable behaviour. In both instances the metadata for Album Title and Album Artist are correct and do not change. 

Have also submitted a diagnostic. The last index was done by the speaker (a Sonos One) with an IP address ending in .194

​@Corry P 

Wow, this is getting confusing. I agree with ​@Ian_S , I’m seeing the same, an album repeating with the same one single track in each copy. This is not the same problem as your helpful guide shows. All my albums do have an Album artist & in compilations I have “Various Artists” as the album artist. However I was unaware of the turning off all my Sonos equipment bar one to carry out an index as ​@Ian_Ssuggests, really!

I have 3x Amps, 1x Port, 1x Play 3 & 1x One SL, which one do I leave on ??

It really shouldn't be this difficult. 

Hi ​@Ian_S 

I can see you have an open case with our support team regarding adding Music Library, but that you did not describe this specific behaviour - I can only really recommend that you get back in touch and get this behaviour documented, as I agree that it cannot be the intended behaviour. It may help you to get the message across if you reference the latter part of this thread.

Hi ​@Anthony_6 

As far as I am aware (taking ​@Ian_S’s report into account), they should all perform the task the same. I am thinking that the only devices that will show different results are those running newer versions of SMB, which you do not appear to have.

I do recommend you try removing the link to your music folder and re-add it, as described in the latter (hidden) section of my guide, but if that does not help, I recommend that you also get in touch with our support team regarding this behaviour.

I hope this helps.

The Play:3 might be worth a shout, that runs older software than the others. Might plug mine back in later and see…

​@Corry P The problem with complex issues like this is it’s very difficult to get past the defence layer in support without spending hours being told it’s a metadata problem etc. and having to go through it all again from the beginning with each different support person. Perhaps support could take a look at this thread… and maybe someone could also explain why my 300 purchase used 2 upgrade credits which at the moment is just feeling like Sonos rubbing salt in an open wound… 😏