Sonos Controller - Duplicate Album Titles

Yes, I quite agree, they seem transfixed on it being a metadata problem. Yet, as you may remember, I pointed out that scanning the library using the server name rather than using the IP address of the server gave different results, my server (running Unraid) has a fixed IP address, whether that makes a difference I don't know. That was repeatable, as it was always the same six albums or the same one album as I flipped between IP or name. So I really can't believe that is meta data related. It's the same with folder name changes, although that isn't repeatable. As each time you do it you will get differing albums misbehaving or if you're really lucky none. I need to change the genre of two albums but I afraid to do it as I'll have to re scan the library. At the.moment I only have one album showing the problem & it isn't one I listen too that often. So I am leaving well alone, but I really shouldn't have to worry about that.

I think that they would like it to be a metadata problem so they can blame the user. But then, why didn't the problem always exist, this is a fairly recent problem.

It's good that they are looking into it. We can only hope that one day it will be fixed.

FYI: Just an update.

Received this email from Sonos support, asking three questions:

“In that screenshot you sent that shows the 12 tracks listed out, what is the column just to the left of the Title column?  Also, what is your default media player on your computer for audio files?  You mentioned that making any kind of change to the music library and then reindexing would fix the problem.  What if you changed the name of the root music folder, reindexed (should result in failure), then changed the name back again and reindexed again?”

My reply:

“The screen shot was from your Windows controller.  The column to the left of the track title is the album art.

The tracks shown are MP3 files.  My default player for MP3 files is the Windows Media Player.

I think there is a misunderstanding.  I didn’t say that “making any kind of change to the music library and then reindexing would fix the problem”.  I said that “I realize that if I turned that (compilation) flag on for *all* my albums, that would probably eliminate the problem - for now”.  But it introduces a new one.  And I don’t see how to rename a root folder on my Synology server.  But given that your premise for the request was not correct, it’s probably not important.”

Any helpful comments would be appreciated.  Thank you.

I don’t for one minute think that messing around with root folders is going to make any difference. After all we both have the same problem, but I’m using Unraid, you’re using Synology, two different types of servers. I actually tried using an old Buffalo link station NAS, and made a copy of the library onto it, I got the same issue but with differing albums. When I’ve got a bit more time I might set up a library on my new Terramaster NAS, currently only used for backups from my Desktop PC. Also, why was it all good until about 4 to 5 months ago. I certainly didn’t change anything at my end and from what you’re saying neither did you.

What worries me is that Sonos don’t actually seem to understand the problem despite you clearly explaining it to them.

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Just FYI:  Another update. This email request was received from SONOS support on Monday 2/23/26:

vvvvv

“You mentioned in an email awhile back that you removed albums that were showing up as duplicates from your library and then re-indexed.  This resulted in new albums showing up as duplicates.  Can we try to remove _all_ your albums from your library, then re-indexing, then move all the albums back and re-indexing again?”

^^^^^

My reply:

vvvvv

“In summary,

1. I emptied out the music folders, reindexed, and verified that SONOS now showed my library as empty.
2. I then moved everything back as it was and reindexed.  Duplicates reappeared – 12 of them.
3. One particular album (Paste Vault) has appeared consistently as a duplicate and seemed to be an outlier in the symptoms it displayed, so I removed it and reindexed.
4. Now only five duplicate entries, but none of the twelve found earlier; five new entries.
5. Removed one more album that had a large number of tracks and reindexed.
6. Again five duplicates, but only three from the previous list of five, with two new ones.
7. Restored everything back to their original locations and reindexed.  Results identical to step two above – the same 12 duplicates.

...I suspect that it is some kind of memory overflow issue in your software.  Indeed, this problem did not exist before a particular software (or firmware?) update was introduced.  Many users on the SONOS discussion site are experiencing the same problem and concur.

I’ve spent a lot of my time on this at no cost to you, and don’t plan to spend any more.  I think it’s time for you to ... conduct your own research going forward.”

^^^^^

I attached a document to my email with screen shots verifying the results of each step.

Cheers!

That actually looks like progress from support. I think they might be getting it.

FYI: Another (frustrating) email exchange. Not ‘getting it’ yet...

From SONOS support:

vvvvv

“The official fix for this is to navigate to Manage > Music Library Settings > Advanced, then under Group Albums using, select Album Artists.  From there, manually edit the Album Artist of any affected album to 'Various Artists'. Can you confirm these steps do not resolve the issue for you?”

^^^^^

My reply:

vvvvv

“The different ‘Paste’ albums that currently show duplicate entries definitely have ‘Album Artist’ = ‘Various Artists’.  See screenshots below for confirmation.  The other duplicate album entries definitely do NOT have ‘Various Artists’.  But, as I have tried repeatedly to convey, there is no ‘affected album’.  Re-indexing after any change made to the music library results in different albums showing the erroneous duplicate entries.  Sad that this is what I have come to expect.”

^^^^^

An example of one of the included screenshots is shown here.

Hi, ​@RogerWF.

Personally I think you deserve a medal for being so persistent. 🥇

Darn. I was really hoping it was finally headed in the right direction.

Perhaps you should switch to albums that are not compilations with support… I have standard albums that are impacted where you would hope it was obvious that the solution is not to change the album artist to ‘Various Artists’ or mess around with the compilation tag. 

I have heard *nothing* back on my case. 🙄