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scottdorcas
Contributor I
April 8, 2023
Answered

Sonos S2 cannot connect to USB drive on ASUS ax3000/ax58u router

  • April 8, 2023
  • 15 replies
  • 879 views

Hello,

I installed a new ax3000 router in my home. All devices including my 2 Sonos speakers are properly connected via wifi and functioning. I also connected my USB hard drive to my router. This contains my music library.

I am attempting to connect a shared music folder without success. My router is configured to share the USB music folder (RW perms) over an SMB connection. Furthermore, the router is configured as UPnP media server. When I add the folder “\\192.168.x.x\iTunes” and credentials it accepts everything, but after 5 seconds it fails with an error message, “//192.168.x.x/iTunes” is no longer available. The device where the music files are stored may not be powered on, or the path may have changed.”

Using the same path above I can successfully connect using my mac and windows laptops. I’ve seen some others with similar problems but using a different model. Is this still a known issue? If so, SONOS when will you fix this?

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    Best answer by Jamie A

    Hi @scottdorcas,

    Are you running an S1 Sonos system? If so, make sure SMBv1 is enabled as S1 systems cannot use SMBv2/3. 

    I would however recommend you reach out to our support team for further assistance on this issue, as they can remote into your system to make any necessary changes.

    I hope this helps!

    15 replies

    Jamie A
    Jamie AAnswer
    Sonos Staff
    April 10, 2023

    Hi @scottdorcas,

    Are you running an S1 Sonos system? If so, make sure SMBv1 is enabled as S1 systems cannot use SMBv2/3. 

    I would however recommend you reach out to our support team for further assistance on this issue, as they can remote into your system to make any necessary changes.

    I hope this helps!

      Stygi
      Contributor I
      July 27, 2023

      I have the same problem. I have a relatively new ASUS RT-AC67P router. When I plug in an old external hard drive into its USB port (actually an old Thinkpad X60 laptop drive in a Sabrent external hard drive enclosure), I was able to get my Sonos system to connect to it, index it, and play music from it.

      But that old X60 drive is too small to hold my entire music library, so I went to replace it with a brand new Toshiba 2TB external hard drive. As with the OP, after I enter the path and credentials. Sonos accepts everything, but after 5 seconds it fails with an error message, “//192.168.x.x/toshiba/music is no longer available. The device where the music files are stored may not be powered on, or the path may have changed.”

      I’ve tried emptying the folder so there are only a handful of songs (<1000). I renamed the toshiba partition since it originally was called “toshiba_ext”, in order to remove the “_” character (since I saw some posts saying that Sonos doesn’t allow the “_” character). I’ve rebooted the router and power cycled all my Sonos devices. 

      Any suggestions?

      Stanley_4
      Stanley_4
      Grand Maestro
      July 28, 2023

      Does the new drive have any fancy settings for security or access?

      Or the router that might follow the old drive?

      Can you see the share from your computer?

      Could you rename the share to match the old drive?

      Stygi
      Contributor I
      July 28, 2023

      Thanks Stanley_4 for responding.

       

      I’m not aware of any fancy security settings on the new drive, or on the router.

      The share is visible from my Windows 11 computer without any problem (can read/write to it).

      I haven’t tried renaming the share to match the old drive but can try that and report back.

       

      In the ASUS router log, I’m seeing errors like this:

      Jul 27 15:42:12 smbd[3918]: [2023/07/27 15:42:12.315863,  0] smbd/smb2_server.c:401(smb2_validate_message_id)

      Jul 27 15:44:41 smbd[4166]:   smb2_validate_message_id: client used more credits than granted, mid 1025, credits_granted 0, seqnum low/range: 1025/0

       

      I’ve found other posts with people getting this kind of error when using an ASUS router with Sonos (e.g. https://www.snbforums.com/threads/samba-issue.78029/, https://www.snbforums.com/threads/sonos-and-usb-attached-hdd-drive-issue.79102/). One person solved it by ditching the router and switching to a different one, but I just bought mine 6 months ago so I’d prefer not to go that route.

       

      The new drive likely has a much higher data transfer rate than the old one (which is almost 15 years old) -- could this explain why the problem only occurs with the new drive?

       

      (Note that the Sonos system consists solely of Sonos One and Sonos One SL’s, so I think that makes it an S2 Sonos system. Regarding SMB protocols, I can’t find any documentation as to what SMB protocols are supported by my specific ASUS router [ASUS doesn’t publish a manual or specifications for it on their website], and its GUI doesn’t provide an option to turn on/off different SMB protocols.)

       

       

       

       

       

      ratty
      ratty
      July 28, 2023

      If the router has SMB2 -- which it does from the log messages -- Sonos will attempt to use it. There is evidently a known issue with Sonos, SMB2 (and possibly 3) and large directory trees. If the music is broken into smaller subtrees you may be able to index each subtree individually. Sonos accepts up to 16 share/folder entries. 

        Stygi
        Contributor I
        July 28, 2023

        Trying to keep my life simple so I’d rather not have to figure out how to split up a large collection. 

        The question is why using a different router solved the problem (for at least one other user). I suppose I can try and see.

         

         

        Stanley_4
        Stanley_4
        Grand Maestro
        July 28, 2023

        Splitting is easy, just make some new folders and drag/drop your music to them.

        My current setup is //share/Current/ with sub-directories under Current of A to Z.

        To split it up I’d rename Current to Current-A and add Current-J and Current-R then drag J through Q to Current-J and R to Z to Current-R.

        Then remove Current as the Music Library and add the three new, AJR ones there.

        If you need more, smaller splits just pick letters that work for you.

        Stygi
        Contributor I
        July 29, 2023

        Thanks for all the suggestions. Given that I still have this problem when I use a library that is 1/20th the size of my full collection, I don’t think splitting it into smaller folders will be the solution.

        I found several other posts on this forum about Sonos not indexing music libraries on USB drives attached to routers; it looks like the SMB2 protocol is part of the problem (e.g. one fix is to disable SMB2 on your router), and that Sonos is supposedly working on a solution. 

        Unfortunately my ASUS RT-AC67P router doesn’t have the option to turn off specific SMB protocols. While I could try flashing third party firmware onto it, I’d rather not while the thing is still under warranty.

        Instead I will try flashing firmware on an old Netgear router and see if I can get that to work.

        Stanley_4
        Stanley_4
        Grand Maestro
        July 29, 2023

        A Raspberry Pi is always an option. Lots of unused ones out there you can often have for asking.

        Live Journal: Stan  https://stan-miller.livejournal.com/

        You could use the gateway option with your music stored on your router if that would work for you.

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