Imported Playlist limits

  • 10 June 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 123 views

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I don’t have 1000 playlists but i have enough where Sonos cuts me off at the letter U.  Why are there limits?   Playlists are how i organize my music.  I don’t want to delete any.  It would at least be helpful if I could delete some from being imported to Sonos.  At least that would help.   Is that possible?


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5 replies

Userlevel 7
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Hi @OneandOnly 

Thanks for your post!

Are we talking playlists made from within the Sonos app, playlists imported to your Music Library, or from somewhere else?

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Imported Playlists from  iTunes to my Music Library in Sonos app

Userlevel 7
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Hi @OneandOnly 

Sonos will only import 1000 playlists from iTunes. but if you don’t have that many then there may be something else happening, like the xml file that Sonos loads is corrupted. However, as mentioned in our Imported playlists missing from the Sonos music library article, if the total number of tracks in all the playlists exceeds 40,000, then you’ve reached a different limit. The limits are imposed due to how much memory/storage the speakers have inside them.

If you are now using the macOS app called Music rather than iTunes, then the good news is that the xml file is no longer used by the app, thus your original playlists are safe. Due to the Music app no longer using the xml file, the Sonos Desktop Controller actually recreates the file prior to the speakers accessing the shared path for a re-indexing.

In Finder, on your Mac, please open the [user home]/Music/iTunes folder and look for a file called “iTunes Music Library.xml” and rename it to “iTunes Music Library backup.xml”. Now open the Sonos app on your Mac and tell it to re-index the Music Library.

If this fixed the problem, you can delete the original file. If there are now no playlists, delete the current “iTunes Music Library.xml” file and rename the backup to it’s original name to back-track. Double check iTunes/Music playlists are intact before deleting anything (in the Music/iTunes app).

If this didn’t help, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports about the process.

If you are hitting a limit somewhere, you will need to download Plex Media Server and get that to index your music. Plex can then be added as a Music Service in the Sonos app. Plex will import iTunes playlists, but you may need to Google as to how to get it to do it.

Hope this helps.

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In your reply you talk about renaming the Library xml to Library backup and if that works, delete the original.  I don’t understand.  If I am renaming the original (not duplicating), what am I deleting? 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @OneandOnly 

Apologies if it wasn’t clear.

Rename the file you find, so that it’s not indexed by Sonos but also not deleted. Re-index. If things are now worse, delete the file that’s currently called “iTunes Music Library.xml”, then rename the previously renamed file back to it’s original name.

If things worked, however, delete the file that’s now called “iTunes Music Library backup.xml”. Job done.

I hope this clearer. If you are in doubt still, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to do it for you.