Sonos and Mac OS 10.15 Catalina

Sonos doesn't connect to the iTunes app, or the Music app. It looks for the data where it's stored, without going through Apple's software.

Does it still see your previous music? Or have you checked to see how the new Music app is saving the files, in terms of the format? It's possible that you need to mess with the settings for saving "new" music in order to be sure it is being saved in a format that Sonos can read.

No. It doesn't see the old music. It looks like there is a new file created called "Music Library.musiclibrary" instead of the old "iTunes Library.xml" file perhaps that index hasn't been properly accounted for on an external drive yet? TY.

Interesting. Since this isn't an officially released product, and just the Gold Master, it is entirely possible that Sonos doesn't yet support this new file type. Which implies an upcoming controller update, I would guess.

Thanks for flagging this for the Sonos guys to take a look at. I'd certainly hope that there's some group in Sonos already looking at it.

Not sure I was as much help as I was an echo chamber for you, but in either case, you're most welcome. I'll keep my eyes peeled to see if Sonos wants to respond to this here, or maybe just wait until this goes "official".

And frankly, it would be interesting to me to see if it does require a code change of the controller, or if it's just a .xml or .json file that would get downloaded in the background, without a full code update.

Thanks Ryan. Might want to get the word out to the community as it just dropped this morning 🙂

In the past, when I was willing to mess around with Apple betas, I used to have difficulty with the "gold master" being slightly different than the actual release. Yea, I know...that really doesn't make any sense, but it's true. I don't know if it is really a difference in the code base, or whether it's a difference in the app checking for a release number, but it used to happen.

Have you tried running the Sonos app using this morning's Apple release, rather than the "gold master" to see if it works for you? I'm in terminal "please wait while we install as slowly as possible" mode.

So what I’m reading out of that is that Apple’s playlists wont work, but existing Sonos playlists will?

Mac OS X 10.15 Catalina has dropped support for XMLs with the iTunes app, now called Music. The Sonos software looks for an XML file for importing playlists out of iTunes. Because of this, music libraries shared with Sonos will not be able to find playlists that are created in or updated with the new Music app. Please note that the rest of your music library should work with Sonos without any issues, this just affects the playlists in XML format from iTunes.

We'd recommend holding off on updating to Mac OS X 10.15 Catalina, but if you've done so already, you can use AirPlay 2 in the Music app to play your playlists to Sonos (if you have compatible Sonos players). Also, if you have an Apple Music subscription, your playlists and music should be available in there.

The team is investigating this now, and we'll update you when we have more to share.

For anyone that's updated and isn't currently seeing any of their music, go into the Sonos software and under Manage > Music Library, remove your music library, and then add it, but choose the folder that has your music library. This should locate all of your tracks, since they're still in the same music format which Sonos can read. It's just the XML files that are currently an issue.

If that's still not working, alan_52 shared that you can do the following:

uninstalled using CCleaner
Removed Sonos and Sonos Library from Settings > Security & Privacy
Rebooted

Installed Sonos from scratch
Tried adding Library - no dice
Granted Sonos Library Full Disk access in Settings > Security & Privacy
Granted Sonos Full disk access in Settings > Security & Privacy

Sonos now plays my own library and Sonos created playlists again

You may not need to fully uninstall, I'd recommend starting with granting the disk permissions:

Granted Sonos Library Full Disk access in Settings > Security & Privacy
Granted Sonos Full disk access in Settings > Security & Privacy

Hi alan_52, we don't have a timeline on this the team is still investigating, but I'll let everyone know when we have more details to share. If you have a Sonos player that's capable of AirPlay 2, that's probably the best free option at the moment for playing your iTunes playlists that aren't imported anymore with the Mac OS changes. You're also welcome to contact our support team to discuss if you have any concerns.

I have tried "Music Library, remove your music library, and then add it, but choose the folder that has your music library. This should locate all of your tracks, since they're still in the same music format which Sonos can read. It's just the XML files that are currently an issue." but still won't work

But while Catalina is in beta, the more details we can get on potential issues, the better.
Catalina isn't in beta anymore. It was released yesterday. I can't play music files on my external drive either. Internal drive works fine, but external is a no-go. Deleting and re-adding the music folder doesn't make the music files playable. They don't even appear in the library. As I have a Play:1, AirPlay isn't an option for me. The speaker is basically useless for how I want to use it. It's incredible this hasn't been caught before now.

Sonos should have been testing their app in tandem with the Catalina beta. Clearly they should have updated the app before Catalina went on general release. This is NOT just a playlist problem. I'm unable to play anything. My library is now literally unplayable. My music collection is bigger in size than my entire internal drive, so transferring the collection to the internal isn't an option either.

Granted Sonos Library Full Disk access in Settings > Security & Privacy
Granted Sonos Full disk access in Settings > Security & Privacy

Sonos now plays my own library and Sonos created playlists again
Thank you alan_52. Allowing full disk access did the trick. I had a whole chat session with Sonos about this earlier today and they were clueless.