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Anonymous
August 6, 2022
Answered

Unable to see playlists on my Sonos after migrating my library between Imac’s

I bought a new IMac running Monterey and transferred my music library between the  networked machines via the migration assistant

 

i then exported all of my playlists from my old iMac to my new one via the ITunes export and import function 

 

On my Sonos I then added my new music location, indexed and can see my complete library in Sonos, however, it did not bring in imported playlists, which now shows ‘no selections are available’. I have followed all of the related topic in the Sonos community, but so far nothing changes.

I have created new playlists, new smart playlists and reindexed, but nothing comes across in Sonos. So frustrating

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Answer
August 18, 2022

Hi All

With a combination of ideas from @Corry P and @Ken_Griffiths I have fixed my issue!

I removed all of my current libraries from Sonos and then exported all my playlists as .m3u files and added them to the user > music > music > media folder (which is one level down from where the apple music library file is stored)

I assigned Sonos manually to the user > music level folder and they all came through (but only worked as .m3u files .xml were ignored)

Thanks for the feedback all, really appreciated

Steve

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19 replies

Corry P
Corry P
Sonos Staff
August 10, 2022

Hi @sdennis99 

Thanks for your post!

iTunes used to keep it’s playlists in an xml file stored in the iTunes folder. Nowadays, it keeps it somewhere else that Sonos cannot find. Therefore, an xml file needs to be made and placed where Sonos can find it. The Sonos app (for the Mac) will create this file for you if it doesn’t find it, but something may have gone wrong. I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to fix this for you.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
    Anonymous
    August 10, 2022

    Thanks, will give that a go

    Anonymous
    August 16, 2022

    Update - still not resolved

    Used the web chat to discuss with a technical agent, who stated that I simply needed to export and save each file as an XML, drop into my Music folder and index again. Nothing!

    Called today, has a GotoAssist connection and call for 90 minutes, where was asked why I did not have iTunes on my new Mac (but I thought this was replaced by the Music app several years ago)

    Anyway the person supporting me suggested that a music file named iTunes be created for the playlists, as the diagnostics sent stated ‘playlists not indexed as iTunes is missing’

    New iTunes folders created, playlists copied there and added to the music library, re-indexed and still no imported playlists in Sonos

    Connection lost and now I am back to the beginning. Technology is sometimes too difficult for it’s own good

    Ken_Griffiths
    Ken_Griffiths
    August 16, 2022

    @sdennis99,

    Here is a slightly different option for you to perhaps consider…

    Maybe look to export the playlists as .m3u playlists which can be read by the Sonos App - there are many options/ways to do this if you search online, but here below is one example I use with an iPad.

    If you use iOS devices, there is an App called ‘MusicStreamer’ which allows the import/opening of an iTunes .xml file and you can go onto import all playlists into the App (one at a time), you can then export those as .m3u playlists, which can be read by the Sonos App. It’s one of the ways I like to do my own playlists, rather than depending on the iTunes .xml file.

    MusicStreamer can be pointed at the local shared library and you can also go onto create .m3u playlists in that App too.. I save my playlists in a separate folder, but storing them anywhere in the library path will do… they can also be edited easily in a text editor.

     

      Corry P
      Corry P
      Sonos Staff
      August 16, 2022

      Hi @sdennis99 

      Sorry to hear that.

      Do you have the Sonos app installed on the new Mac? Is that where you’re adding the share from?

      Is the music stored on a USB drive?

      It’s worth double-checking the file permissions set on the created .xml file - ensure that the file can be read by adding permissions for “Everyone”. Please also make sure that the file is placed in the exact path that is given to the Sonos app.

      Yes - the iTunes app was renamed Music by Apple, thus giving it the same name as their music service - which is more than slightly annoying when troubleshooting. There may have been some documentation of ours with the old naming scheme that the agent was following.

      "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
        Corry P
        Corry P
        Sonos Staff
        August 16, 2022

        Hi @sdennis99 

        One more thought - don’t export the playlists from Apple’s Music app. Remove the file that currently exists in the shared folder, then add the share from the macOS Sonos app - the Sonos app will create the file if it doesn’t find it (unless the music is on a USB drive, in which case you’ll then need to copy it to USB manually). Perhaps there will be a difference between the file the Music app creates, and the file the Sonos app creates.

        I hope this helps.

        "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
          Anonymous
          Answer
          August 18, 2022

          Hi All

          With a combination of ideas from @Corry P and @Ken_Griffiths I have fixed my issue!

          I removed all of my current libraries from Sonos and then exported all my playlists as .m3u files and added them to the user > music > music > media folder (which is one level down from where the apple music library file is stored)

          I assigned Sonos manually to the user > music level folder and they all came through (but only worked as .m3u files .xml were ignored)

          Thanks for the feedback all, really appreciated

          Steve

          GaryMF
          September 27, 2022

          Hi All

          With a combination of ideas from @Corry P and @Ken_Griffiths I have fixed my issue!

          I removed all of my current libraries from Sonos and then exported all my playlists as .m3u files and added them to the user > music > music > media folder (which is one level down from where the apple music library file is stored)

          I assigned Sonos manually to the user > music level folder and they all came through (but only worked as .m3u files .xml were ignored)

          Thanks for the feedback all, really appreciated

          Steve

          I’m having similar issues and tried tech support to no avail.

           

          I tried doing what you said above, and made M3U files for all my playlists.  The problem is that I keep my music LOCALLY on my Mac and use with Apple Music, which is where the playlists are created.  I exported each playlist as an M3U and copied them to my NAS drive where I keep a copy of all the music and where the SONO APP points to as the “music Libarry”.   I re-indexed the Sonos Music Library and they playlists showed up in “imported playlists”.

           

          BUT….when I try to play the playlists, they don’t work because it seems like  the M3U files  have the LOCAL pathsways for each song since they were created on the local version of my music (e.g. Music/iTunesMedia/Music/artist/album/etc.)

          When I click on the song on Sonos in the playlist, it says it can’t find the song and lists a very generic pathway, even one higher than my music library folder (i.e. it is looking for it at “NASDRIVE/PUBLIC” when my actual sonol library is “NASDRIVE/PUBLIC/SHAREDMUSIC”.

           

          I don’t want to manually edit all the song pathways in every playlist. 

           

          Please help!

           

          Thank you

          Ken_Griffiths
          Ken_Griffiths
          September 27, 2022

          @GaryMF 

          If you open each playlist in a decent text editor - just do a ‘Find/Replace’ to change every path for every track in a couple of seconds.  You could also strip out everything else from the playlist file, including these ‘directive extensions’…

          • #EXTM3U - file header
          • #EXTINF: - track information/title

          Note: Some .m3u playlist files may contain other types of ‘extensions’, which can all be removed. See this link :

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3U

          It isn’t that difficult once you get the first playlist sorted to then do the others.

          Hope that assists.

          GaryMF
          September 28, 2022

          @GaryMF 

          If you open each playlist in a decent text editor - just do a ‘Find/Replace’ to change every path for every track in a couple of seconds.  You could also strip out everything else from the playlist file, including these ‘directive extensions’…

          • #EXTM3U - file header
          • #EXTINF: - track information/title

          Note: Some .m3u playlist files may contain other types of ‘extensions’, which can all be removed. See this link :

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3U

          It isn’t that difficult once you get the first playlist sorted to then do the others.

          Hope that assists.

          Thank you for the suggestion, but before I try all that, is there some new version of the “library.xml” file I can put into my shared music folder?  It used to work before…..I think when it was iTunes. I had all these imported playlists by copying that file over.  

           

          What’s the analogous version now? (vs. having to manually recrate each time I make a new playlist)?

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