Controllers Showing Tracks in wrong order and not displaying track number

  • 24 April 2018
  • 8 replies
  • 1274 views

Userlevel 7
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If this has been addressed then I cannot find it.

I noticed whilst playing Diamond Dogs by David Bowie that the tracks were displayed and played in the incorrect track order. I then went into the app Metadatics on the Mac and checked the tags - all fine. I forced all of them to be re-written and now as seen the tracks are still in the incorrect order AND the track number isn't appearing in the controller.



I changed the options in the Metadatics to write the tags in standard ID3v2.3(UTF-16). Any ideas to try to rectify would be very welcome.

Let's be honest it's not a big deal as the songs play, albeit not in the order David Bowie intended, but it offends m OCD about accurate tagging!

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8 replies

Userlevel 5
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Oh, album sequencing is very important! So, you've definitely checked the tag values are all there for each track (at a minimum - track number, title, artist)? The track order is fine when you use iTunes or other player software? You're browsing to artist->album? You updated your Sonos library after editing the tags? Works for all your other albums?

Do you have another copy of the album, incorrectly tagged, in your library? (Sonos can't really handle two copies of the same album unless you update the name eg. with a "2016 remaster") - been caught out by this a few times.
Userlevel 7
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Thanks Alan. The only one of those I thought it might be was having a duplicate album but that isn't it either - As I said I have been relatively OCD about keeping the files organised. Displays correctly in iTunes and all the tags appear to be correct.
Userlevel 5
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Had a quick play to see if I could replicate. Today's thought - playlist files (given your screenshot with the missing tracks looks like a Sonos playlist). So I took a correctly tagged and sequenced album with a .m3u playlist file in the folder and edited the file to change the track sequence (now lists track 1, track 3, track 2, etc). Results are:
1. Artist->Album browsing is the correct sequence (track number tags)
2. Music Library->Imported Playlists->ArtistAlbum.m3u is the scrambled track sequence, no track numbers shown (order from .m3u)
3. Music Library->Folders->Music/Artist/Album is correct sequence (because filenames are "01-TrackTitle" format)

Other than deliberately renaming the album as a test to confirm that Sonos is finding the files in the intended location, I'm out of ideas.
Userlevel 7
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Thanks Alan for taking the trouble to replicate. I don't use playlists at all so it's not that. I tried renaming the album and the renamed album displays the issue.

The only difference between this album and the other David Bowie ones is that it is m4a and the others are mp3 and Flac. But I have other albums that are m4a and they show the track number fine so I'm at a loss now
Userlevel 5
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I have a mix of MP3, M4A and FLAC in my library too, and they all work with Sonos if they're correctly tagged, so it's not that. I'm intrigued and confused by what's causing this. Guess you're going to have to log a ticket with support.
Go to iTunes and make sure the album is in the correct track order. Right-click the playlist name and select Copy to Play Order. This will set the correct album order in the xml/index file. Update Library again and the album should be OK in Sonos. Something I learned from calling the folks at Sonos.
Tod, that suggestion doesn't work for me. I've noticed a problem on a couple of albums I've bought recently - Warp & Weft by Laura Veirs and Saved by Now, Now. In both cases the album order is fine apart from the first track is wrong. The order displays correctly in iTunes. It's playing havoc with my OCD 😞
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I have this same problem and it's infuriating!

I recently purchased Muse's latest album. The pre-release tracks are listed before the rest of the album. Not in iTunes, only in Sonos.

I've tried the following to fix it:

- Sequentially reset the create/modify date for all files
- Created uniform permissions on all files (for some reason, they were different in OS X)
- Verified the track numbers are correct
- Verified the titles were properly formatted (starts with 01, ends with 16)
- Verified all of the information was identical in iTunes

Nothing worked. So, I looked at the files with an ID3 tag editor. (Tag Editor Free for OS X)

The *only* differences were that the pre-release tracks lacked both a 'Disc #' and 'Discs Total'. Adding a 'Disc #' and a 'Discs Total' to the pre-release track FIXED THE ISSUE!

I had to 'Update the Music Library' in Sonos for the changes to take effect, but after I did, everything looked good.

I hope this helps!