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Sonos and Mac OS 10.15 Catalina

W
Userlevel 2
Tried using Sonos with Golden Master of Catalina and its a no go. When I add my music library on an external drive it does so normally but NO songs in the folder are recognized. Wonder if it has to do with Music being the new app for music instead of iTunes?I was able to see music added if it was on the internal drive of the machine.
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Best answer by Ryan S 17 December 2019, 19:01

Hi everyone, as BowlerBrown just mentioned above, there were some changes made in the Sonos 10.6 software for Catalina compatibility. If you haven’t tested it out yet, go ahead and make sure you’re all up to date, and then you should be able to add your music library and find your updated playlists. There are steps here to update your music library in the Sonos app. Let us know if you see any trouble and I’ll get the feedback to the team.

If you’re still having trouble with your playlists, check out this guide for some troubleshooting suggestions as well.

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157 replies

Airgetlam
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.
Bruce
Airgetlam
Another random thought....is it possible that installing the new OS has moved the location of the library? If so, you may need to re-point Sonos to look in the new location.
Bruce
W
Userlevel 2
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.
W
Userlevel 2
I readded the entire library with file sharing off and it has the correct path. It just doesn't seem to recognize any of the music in that folder.
Airgetlam
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.
Bruce
W
Userlevel 2
I expect the same thing. It appears that in Catalina it asks for permission to access external drives. Perhaps this is a new "feature" that might be tripping things up. Thanks for your help.
Airgetlam
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.
Bruce
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Hi Whiskers, as you guys guessed, 10.15 Catalina isn't fully supported in the Sonos app yet. The team is working on it.
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W
Userlevel 2
Thanks Ryan. Might want to get the word out to the community as it just dropped this morning 🙂
Airgetlam
By jove.... time to go update my Macs. Even if it doesn't deal with Sonos yet, I mostly use either Alexa or iOS devices to control anyway.
Bruce
Airgetlam
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.
Bruce
T
Badge
Catalina drops support for the .XML file format hence breaking Sonos and most other DJ/music apps that rely on reading that format to manage music files and playlists.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20903391/apple-macos-catalina-itunes-dj-software-breaks-xml-file-support-removal-update
Airgetlam
So what I’m reading out of that is that Apple’s playlists wont work, but existing Sonos playlists will?
Bruce
A
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
I have just updated to the new Catalonia operating system, and have the same problem, nothing showing in my library. If you go to Apple Music, (if you use it that is), there is a folder called my music, low and behold all my music and playlist created in iTunes are now here and they all work)
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
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
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
A
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
so how long will we have to pay for a subscription service to listen to our own music, and will you pay us a refund for the extra costs.
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
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.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
melvimbe
Userlevel 7
Badge +21
so how long will we have to pay for a subscription service to listen to our own music, and will you pay us a refund for the extra costs.


Do you think Apple let Sonos know they were making a change to iTunes?
Danny
A
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
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
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
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
In that case it may be best for you to contact the team directly. Another option would be to manually set up an SMB share to the location that has your tracks, and add it to Sonos using the app as if it were a networked location. But while Catalina is in testing for Sonos, the more details we can get on issues, the better.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
H
Userlevel 1
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.
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
That's correct, Holohive, I adjusted my statement above to be more clear.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
H
Userlevel 1
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.
A
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
We have now sorted my lack of music out by doing the following.
Things which made Sonos work

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
H
Userlevel 1

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.

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