Question

Delete Old Imported Playlists

  • 2 February 2016
  • 8 replies
  • 2684 views

Hello - first post here. Title says it all really. The underlying playlists have been deleted at source but Sonos still shows them - quite a bit of clutter I would wish to delete.

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8 replies

Userlevel 2
Badge +3
Hi Samd1, I assume you're talking about Sonos playlists? If so, simply delete them from a controller by swiping left and tapping delete (on mobile) or right clicking and choosing delete (on PC/Mac.)

If you're talking about music library playlists (such as from iTunes) then you will need to choose "update music library now" from the "manage" drop down on Mac/PC, or Settings-Manage Music Library-Update Music Index Now on mobile. If the playlists still show up after that, it's likely you have an old iTunes Library.xml file in your music folder that is from an older library and no longer being used. Removing that will typically solve the issue. If you can't figure it out, or you'd like to walk through it with some help, please give us a call: www.sonos.com/contact
Many thanks for your reply. Yes they are imported iTunes playlists and when using the notepad search facility in the Library xml file, I can find all my current ones but no trace of the old ones. I have updated the library, indeed yesterday I deleted all media from iTunes and all library entries and re-started from scratch - old playlists still there. Windows pc search shows no trace! Stranger than fiction!
Userlevel 2
Badge +3
Many thanks for your reply. Yes they are imported iTunes playlists and when using the notepad search facility in the Library xml file, I can find all my current ones but no trace of the old ones. I have updated the library, indeed yesterday I deleted all media from iTunes and all library entries and re-started from scratch - old playlists still there. Windows pc search shows no trace! Stranger than fiction!

Hi Samd1, at this point I would say I'm confident there is an old iTunes library xml somewhere within your shared music folder. I would take a look through the folders to find and remove it. If you have difficulty still, I'd recommend giving us a call so we can go through it together. www.sonos.com/contact
Hello
Many thanks for your persistence. You were spot on. Nestling like a domesticated diplodocus in e-sata share of NAS. All sorted now - thank you.
Userlevel 2
Hi,

I have the same problem here, but: I do NOT use iTunes at all... I manage my files and playlists in MediaMonkey locally on my PC, then sync them to a Synology NAS, where Sonos picks them up.
When I synchronize it will pick up new playlists, but ols ones, deleted on the NAS still show up in Sonos...
I do not understand why Sonos does not symply at a possibility to deltete an imported playlist, instead of having people look around for XML files etc...
I have the same problem here, but: I do NOT use iTunes at all... I manage my files and playlists in MediaMonkey locally on my PC, then sync them to a Synology NAS, where Sonos picks them up.
When I synchronize it will pick up new playlists, but ols ones, deleted on the NAS still show up in Sonos...

Perhaps your NAS has a 'trash' folder containing deleted items, and you've pointed Sonos at the entire share?

I do not understand why Sonos does not symply at a possibility to deltete an imported playlist, instead of having people look around for XML files etc...

Because the prime directive states that "Sonos will never, ever write to the user's music library".
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
Hello,

I wanted to build on deleting old imported playlist issue. I use Media Monkey and have had to reinstall it a few times. I presume the reinstall caused multiple instances of imported playlists on Sonos when indexing Sonos library, which in my case is stored on NAS. Media Monkey uses m3u format playlists. I searched the NAS folder(s) for m3u (search criteria = *.m3u) files and deleted the files which were multiple instances of same playlist. After completing deletions, I ran the *.m3u search again to verify the multiple instance m3u playlists were deleted.

I also searched for obsolete iTunes Library.xml (as noted earlier in this thread) in music folders on NAS and deleted those.

I then opened Sonos on PC and ran Update Music Library Now command which now did not list any of the old/obsolete playlists, both m3u and thos form itunes (xml)
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
A couple more thoughts on playlist management:

I'm not aware Sonos can export playlists. Sure would be a great capability since playlist adds soooo much value to a music collection (120GB and growing in our case).

That said, we use Media Monkey to create m3u format playlists which are then picked up by Sonos as an imported playlist on updating music collection. The Sonos playlist feature works fine, but I'm not aware they can be "exported" to other applications such as Media Monkey, WinAmp, iTunes. We've found Media Monkey to be good software for managing large music collection in Windows OS world.

BTW, when are we gonna get Audible on Sonos?...I thought I read it was coming 3Q/4Q 2017. Sure would love it.

Thank you.