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Best Music Library Management Software for Sonos (Android and iOS)?

M
We have had SONOS since 2013 and now have 8 speakers. Initially we used iTunes as the music library software, but kept having speakers drop, skipping when music was playing (25-30 seconds), and other problems. An IT guy has been working with us sporadically for more than a year (!) to try to sort this out. He recommended Plex, but I dislike the inability to use multiple genres (or any genres if not on the PC), and the emphasis on videos, TV and streaming, none of which interests us. And creating playlists is possible only on the desktop, not on an iPad.

More recently, he put us on a trial run of Roon, but it still drops the first 20 seconds or so of songs, and unilaterally decides to skip songs we've placed into the queue. And at $499, it just isn't all we are looking for. (Plus, how can one play "Name that Tune" when the first 20 seconds are MIA?)

I also tried Bliss, but it doesn't work well in Android as music management software. We use Android phones and iPads in various locations around the house to control the SONOS , so we need music library software that works for both.

We have a 4TB Synology NAS housing the actual music (roughly 380GB), but we want software that will let us embed the appropriate cover art and assign OUR preferred genres., plus develop and save playlists. We used to be able to assign multiple genres to a single album (jazz, vocal, female vocal) in iTunes/SONOS, but none of the other software seems able to handle that.

I am not super tech-knowledgeable, but I've tried to research options and am coming up empty. What am I missing? Is there a program that fits our needs? Or is one of the ones I've mentioned going to do it, but I haven't figured out how?

Another IT friend suggests it may just (!) be a matter of getting a better WiFi grid in the house (two stories, brick/plaster/lathe, about 3000 square feet), but that still doesn't restore our multiple-genre and extensive playlist options of old -- unless that would enable a return to (gasp) iTunes....

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 3 July 2019, 19:37

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10 replies

K
I can't help you with the playlist management - what Sonos does in their app suffices for me - but you might be mixing issues here. Getting a better WiFi is not the solution for playlist management, because WiFi isn't the cause for any problem there.

With music contained in the NAS, have you indexed the files in Sonos via Music Library management there? And if so, does that music play without any stuttering/gaps/stoppages? If yes, WiFi isn't the problem.
J
I am sure I am being dim here, and I admit I know zero about Plex etc, but I an really puzzled by a statement like 'Initially we used iTunes as the music library software, but kept having speakers drop, skipping when music was playing'. Sonos has never used the iTunes software for anything. Using iTunes could not possibly lead to dropouts on Sonos. Possibly the connection between the router and the computer on which the music resides might cause such a problem, but that is a totally different issue. The Sonos music library just indexes the files in the iTunes library folder. It can also pick up the playlists. But these are are just folders and files in a particular location. Sonos is not using iTunes itself.
A
As has been mentioned, you seem to have two different issues here - reliability of playing and library facilities.
I can't really comment on extended tag information, but feel that the reliability is likely to be down to network issues. Have you reserved IP addresses for all your Sonos kit in your router? If not, then you could well be affected by duplicate IP addressing - something that Sonos is particularly sensitive to.
melvimbe
On the issue of music dropping out, what does your network setup look like? Are you using a single router? Do you have any access points setup? Perhaps a router with mesh setup/ satellites like Orbi or Google wifi?
Danny
M
Thank you all for the quick responses! Maybe I wasn't using the correct terms for what we have done in the past. We would rip and index CDs in iTunes, then save them to the SONOS library, which worked great until about 2 years ago, when we started getting the drop-outs and skips. We put an Orbi router upstairs near our modem and an Orbi satellite downstairs, which seemed to help for a while, but still had some issues.

I don't know whether we have reserved IP addresses for all the SONOS units, although I recall a year ago the tech guy who has been working on this was checking all sorts of data for each unit, with charts and graphs showing signal strength and other things, so maybe he isolated IP addresses. How would I check?

The tech guy is using MusicBee to re-tag the music, because he says iTunes messes up the tagging and that's part of the problem with SONOS playing (although as I write this, that sounds rather odd). Assuming he (or I) finish retagging as needed in MusicBee and move the remaining music over to the NAS, will SONOS be able to see and retrieve as in the past?

I'm so confused......and frustrated!
J
Hi. Let us be clear on one thing. Any dropouts are nothing to do with the way the music files are organised or tagged.

Do you have a Sonos component wired to your router, or are you fully on Wifi?
J
Also, I don't know much abour Roon, but I don't recall seeing anywhere that using the Roon music player was something Sonos supports.

I suspect you are wise to have rejected that route.
Ken_Griffiths
Marna,

I would certainly speak to or change your IT guy (assuming he’s not a relative or friend). Your system should not be in this state after a year of sporadic assistance from him. I’m surprised you have not posted here sooner, or at least sought the assistance of Sonos Customer Care.

I would at least expect the following type of setup to have been tried by him...
  • To wire one Sonos device to the main Orbi router Hub, to switch all your products over to SonosNet (Sonos in-built wireless network).
  • That the Orbi Hub (satellite) has been set to the same “fixed” non-overlapping WiFi channels as it’s main router Hub.
  • That the SonosNet wireless channel chosen has been set at least 5 channels away from the Orbi's 2.4ghz wifi channel
  • That any stored WiFi credentials stored in the Sonos App “Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup” were removed to prevent the devices running in mixed mode.
  • Finally, for added stability, that the Sonos IP addresses were all reserved in the local DHCP Servers Reservation Table
Those would at least be the basic things to do and all those matters are very widely discussed in this forum for any IT guy to refer to.

As far as tagging your library files, there are plenty of things on the market to do that. My personal favourite is MP3Tag software, but it comes with a bit of a learning curve. I can’t see why you don’t just keep things simple and use iTunes for ripping and tagging the files and then transfer/store/sync them (and any created playlists) to your synology NAS library. Then Add the synology library path to your Sonos App and let that index the lot.

i think your IT guy might perhaps be overthinking things and missing the obvious things to do to try to resolve your 'dropout' issues.
M
We do have one SONOS speaker wired to the main Orbi router. I think I'm going to have to go back to the basics and start over with setting up SONOS, Orbi, iTunes and the NAS in hopes they talk to each other reliably. I'm not sure how to set channels or remove stored credentials or reserve IP addresses, but I expect I can find all of that in the SONOS forums.

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments. I'm not able to devote the time to doing all of the remedial measures for a couple of weeks, but will check back if I get things to sort out.
Ken_Griffiths
We do have one SONOS speaker wired to the main Orbi router. I think I'm going to have to go back to the basics and start over with setting up SONOS, Orbi, iTunes and the NAS in hopes they talk to each other reliably. I'm not sure how to set channels or remove stored credentials or reserve IP addresses, but I expect I can find all of that in the SONOS forums.

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments. I'm not able to devote the time to doing all of the remedial measures for a couple of weeks, but will check back if I get things to sort out.
Wouldn’t it be easier to ask your IT guy to sort it .. he will know what to do (hopefully). Just bring this thread to his attention and the points mentioned and let him take it from there for setting channels and reserving IP addresses.

If you have a Sonos device wired then to remove the wifi credentials, you just open the Sonos App and in Settings navigate to “Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup” and reset/remove the stored WiFi credentials (if they are there). So that’s easy enough to do yourself.

Hope that helps and that you get all your Sonos issues resolved soon. Don’t forget, you or the IT guy, can also speak with Sonos Customer Care, if necessary.
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