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Music library search bug?

N
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if I search my music library in Sonos with for example "The Fugees", then nothing comes up. But If I search with only "Fugees", then it lists the album by them. It then displays the metadata alongside the album as being by "The Fugees"!
iTunes and even Mac OS finder easily find the album with a search for "The Fugees".
It seems the use of the word "The" at the beginning of a search means the results are ignored. If the word "The" occurs anywhere other than at the beginning it works fine.
Is this a bug?
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Best answer by ratty 2 July 2017, 12:35

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13 replies

ratty
It's deliberate. The index doesn't store a leading 'The' for artists, otherwise there'd be massive bunching under the letter T.
(The sole exception is 'The The'.)
N
Badge +2
So why does the exact same search work fine in iTunes and Finder?
iTunes lists the Fugees after fun Lovin Criminals and before Funkadelic.
ratty
Because their index stores the leading 'The' and Sonos' doesn't?
N
Badge +2
...so it's a bug or poor piece of code in the programming of the Sonos music library index?
Stuart_W
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
So why does the exact same search work fine in iTunes and Finder?

Because they work differently as ratty says. It makes much more sense to search "fugues" rather than "the fugues" - those first 4 characters are a complete waste of time and effort
Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, SL One in Study, Play 1in Bathroom & Conservatory
Stuart_W
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
...so it's a bug or poor piece of code in the programming of the Sonos music library index?

No. It's intentional behaviour.
Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, SL One in Study, Play 1in Bathroom & Conservatory
N
Badge +2
So it's a deliberately bad implementation of indexing your music library way that impairs search functionality?
If true that is poor.
Here's a suggestion for Sonos - write better code so that you can offer the same basic search functionality available in iTunes, Mac OS Finder and other apps.
ratty
The Apple Reality Distortion Field again?

No, it's a deliberately sensible implementation. It makes the artist list more browsable and saves on library index space, which is severely constrained.
N
Badge +2
So the issue is caused by a need to keep the library index small? Smaller than other music player apps?

I have an android phone and a healthy scepticism for Apple marketing claims and their 'closed environment'. I do find Sonos schills annoying though - apparently nothing is EVER anything other than perfect in the Sonos world. In that respect Sonos fanboys seem remarkably similar to Apple fanboys.

Here's what another user had to say about my issue:
"You should report it as a bug to Sonos. It seems the use of the word The at the beginning of a search means the results are ignored. If the word "The" occurs anywhere other than at the beginning it works fine. In the file you sent the album artist is blank but the track artist is set to "The Fugees" and yet the search doesn't work. If I change it to "Fugees, The" then the search works fine (for "Fugees, The" not "The Fugees". My guess is that someone's trying to be a bit clever and ignore the word "The" at the beginning of any search, but that then causes issues when trying to match the rest. It's a weird one."

I believe Sonos is the best system available if you only use [compatible] streaming services, and the sound quality is excellent. But if you mainly use your music library then the Sonos app feels like a very poor cousin to every other music player app. Worse, there appears to be no interest in acknowledging that, or making improvements. If I had known that before investing £1,000 in Sonos products then I wouldn't be on this forum today. The functionality when working with your own music library is poor, and I'm left wishing I had invested in a different system.

The only practical things I can do now are point out issues in the hope that Sonos take note and improve the software, and let other people know so they can make an informed choice.
Stuart_W
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
It's literally NOT an issue.

Let's say you make the following searches:-

The Jam
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Jesus & Mary Chain

In your world you are going to search for:-

"the jam"
"the Beatles"
"the Rolling Stones"
"the Jesus & Mary chain"

In the Sonos world you search for:-

"jam"
"Beatles"
"Rolling Stones"
"jesus & Mary chain"

The results will be identical but YOU have typed 16 more characters that add nothing to your search.
It is simple a happy result of this methodology that the index is smaller as a result.

The bug is in your logic.
Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, SL One in Study, Play 1in Bathroom & Conservatory
ratty
Unlike a computer-based media player, the Sonos music index storage space is limited. It's held in NVRAM in each and every player, not the controller app. The early player models are not well endowed with memory, but Sonos still maintain compatibility and interoperability with ZP100s sold in 2005. Go back far enough in the forums and you'll find the history of the library capacity gradually being increased to its present 65k track limit as Sonos eked out the available space with improved data management techniques.

Are Sonos likely to devote any further attention to the local music library? I very much doubt it. Some while back they commented that consumption of local music was down to around 10%, the rest being online streaming. Following their re-calibration of strategic direction some while back they committed to the primacy of streaming, plus voice control. Those wanting more complex indexing or additional library capacity are directed towards Plex.
ratty
It's literally NOT an issue.
No, it really really isn't. It delivers economy of storage space and typing, and a clearer browsing and power-scrolling experience in the index. When music actually plays the full metadata is correctly displayed.
N
Badge +2
Ratty - Thanks for the explanation and Plex tip - that's the first I've heard of it and I'll look into that.
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