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NAS drives and what to buy?

  • 24 January 2021
  • 23 replies
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S
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Hi, I have a huge collection of live music sitting on a standard hard drive (none of which is available to stream) and understand that I need a NAS drive to be able to play any of this through Sonos. 
unfortunately, that’s where my knowledge stops… could I please have some recommendations as to what to buy, makes and model numbers etc that are known to work. I’ve done a little research, but I’m more confused than when I started looking. 
I have a very basic knowledge of computing, but can usually get things working if I have the right equipment and software. Sorry if the question has been answered many times before, but there is lots on information online which is too complicated for me to grasp...

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Best answer by ratty 24 January 2021, 11:18

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23 replies

ratty

How much music (in GB)? And does your router have a USB port, with the ability to share storage onto the network?

A

And how many tracks are there?

S
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Hi, I’d need around 3-4gb and there are several USB ports in the back of my router. Thousands of tracks, unfortunately many are MP3 due to their age. Currently sitting on an external hard dive. Thanks so much for the quick replies. 

S
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Yes, the router shares storage, the external usb is visible to my MacBook, but not to Sonos. 

ratty

3-4GB? In that case you can just copy them to a modest-sized thumb drive and plug it into the router. Point Sonos at the share and it can index and play the tracks.

What router is it? 

S
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It’s a BT router. Not sure what model, but it’s fairly new and has a large blue circle light on the front. 

S
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So should my external hard drive work with Sonos then? Standard Seagate 4gb external hard drive. 

ratty

A BT router should work fine with a USB drive. You can google for instructions.  

Yes, you could plug in your Seagate drive though it may keep spinning all the time. If it does spin down when idle Sonos may throw a timeout error on the first track, before the disk has had a chance to spin up. The advantage of a small USB stick is it’s solid state and instantly available.

S
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That’s fantastic, thank you. I’ve got a thumb drive that I’ll play about with to see if I can get it working. Looks like you’ve saved me some money there, so thanks - most of the information seemed to point towards me needing something very specific.

very much appreciated, thank you 

S
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...and sorry… I meant TB, not GB… but if the principle is the same...

ratty

Okay...3-4 TB of music is a different matter. A thumb drive would not be practical.

By all means experiment with a few tracks on a thumb drive to check Sonos can see and play them, but it sounds like you’d have to wire your Seagate drive to the router as suggested. If that’s no good, it’s back to the idea of a separate NAS.

S
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Thanks, I’m putting a few tracks on a drive now to see if I can get Sonos to see it…

 

S
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Set the path to my router and the music folder…. says Sonos product cannot connect… why is everything so complicated…

 

ratty

What path did you use? It has to be a network path, not one using a mapped drive letter.

S
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Hi, thanks for all of your help, but I think this is the point where I have to accept my limitations.…

I’m putting in \\192.168…..\usb1\Music and it’s telling me “Computer 192.168…. refused to let Sonos connect to it

A

...and sorry… I meant TB, not GB… but if the principle is the same...

If you’re talking 3-4 TB of MP3 files, then you will be way, way over Sonos limits - Sonos would only be able to index a tiny fraction of your tracks.

Unless all of the tracks are very long, perhaps?

ratty

That path looks correct. Could there be any access controls (username/password) on the USB stick’s folder?

The other thought is that the BT hub is not enabling SMB/CIFS version 1, the sharing protocol which Sonos still requires. You could have a poke around in the relevant section of the router config pages. It may need to be explicitly enabled.

S
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Thank you, but that’s way over my ability. It’s a shame as I use my iPad pretty much all the time, especially for controlling Sonos, so this was more for everyday convenience. 
It is unfortunate that Sonos makes connections from any external source either so complicated or so expensive. I think it might be time to look at other brands who are more embracing of retrospective equipment and music libraries accumulated over many decades. 

106rallye
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Sonos has a limit of only 65.000 tracks. You probably have way more, so you need a NAS that runs Plex (that regrettably from the Sonos app has no folder view). You can also run the Plex app on you iPad an play them to your Sonos with Airplay if your gear is airplay enabled. Not sure you need a Plex Pass subscription for any of this.

ratty

It is unfortunate that Sonos makes connections from any external source either so complicated or so expensive. I think it might be time to look at other brands who are more embracing of retrospective equipment and music libraries accumulated over many decades. 

Sonos ‘embraced’ my ripped CD library 13+ years ago, itself accumulated over 15+ years, without problem. I did however choose to put it on an entry-level NAS that cost around £100, if memory serves. 

I hate to say this, but there will be technical issues of some kind or other, whichever network streaming system you’re using.

S
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Thank you ratty, you’ve been a brilliant help today and I’m sure they are very wise words… I’m not sure how, but I’ve managed to find the flash drive and finally managed to play a track from it about 15 minutes ago… now I need to find an SSD big enough, I note your words around the spinning of hard drives. 
Really do appreciate your perseverance with me, thanks again

ratty

If you really have 3-4TB of MP3s, be mindful of @106rallye’s comments. Sonos has a hard limit of 65k tracks in its local library, and this can be reduced depending on the size of the metadata (tags) and also the filename lengths. This is due to a memory limitation from the early days.

There is an alternative in the form of the Plex server, which would run on many NASes.

And 4TB of SSD could be quite pricey. Frankly with storage at that scale I’d be looking at a conventional HDD NAS rather than a disk hung off the router.

S
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….perhaps a good time to be trimming it down a little…

thanks everyone 

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