Please add option to sort library by date added...please.

  • 13 May 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 113 views

I see there have already been numerous threads requesting this, but they’re all closed. So in the spirit of the proverbial squeaky wheel, I’ll start a new one.

I have to insist that from a feature / development / technical / indexing perspective, this is neither a complex request, nor even an esoteric one. Just about every and any file management system out there (including those completely unrelated to music) offers the option to sort files by date added. There’s something extremely satisfying for those music listeners who (and there are still very many of them) still purchase music, even if digitally, to be able to buy a new album or three, and then sort those by date acquired/added.

I realize that streaming may be the primary way most listeners experience music, but it isn’t the *only* way, and the software still references the music library. Literally every music app/software I’ve ever used has had this feature, until now. As long as you are going to continue to support a local music library at all, why not include this (again, VERY basic) feature?

Please, Sonos….PLEASE. So excited to have (recently) bought these speakers and am please with the sound quality and everything else, but never would have imagined this very basic feature to be missing.


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3 replies

I’m not convinced that it’s that easy from a development perspective. There’s a high chance that the data you wish to sort by is not in the Sonos API, and consequently not available from each streaming service. Which would require a rewrite of the API, then convince all streaming companies to update the API they have implemented on their servers, then write the code in the controller to gather that data and sort by it. Lots of effort there, complicated by external dependancies. Have you ever attempted to organize many companies outside your own to doing something all at the same time?

And especially if you’re talking *only* about local files, and not streaming sources, what would the kickback be if one feature is local only? What percentage of users are still on local only. I certainly am, but previous administrations of Sonos employees has indicated it’s in the single digit percentage range, so does dedicating the resources to implement that feature make sense, or would a feature that reaches a larger proportion of the user base, and potentially sells more hardware (the only way Sonos make money, essentially) make more sense?

I’m not disagreeing with your desire, merely the assertion that it’s neither complex, nor esoteric.  It definitely would help my situation, but I have realistic expectations that as part of the smaller minority, the chances of it being implemented for local files is exceedingly small. That being said, it’s entirely possible that it’s already in the pipeline for the next release. We just don’t know. So it’s a valuable “ask” for sure. 

To add to what Bruce said, an index of the local library is stored on each Sonos device, and I would assume anything metadata you would sort by is included in that index.  If ‘date added’ isn’t already stored in the index, that means it would take up more of the memory on your speakers.  While devices in an S2 system aren’t running low on memory (as far as we know), I’m thinking Sonos is going to be very selective about enhancements that use up that available space.

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Hi @Titofeh, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I’ll be happy to pass this on as a feature request, however as melvimbe mentioned, I believe that adding this feature in would come at the expense of total music library capacity, resulting in having less music available.