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Sonos "repeat" does not work as expected

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I select a folder with some 24 tracks in it. The folder is on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device I have my music on. I start to play them. All goes well. I select shuffle and repeat (not repeat 1). I expect the 24 tracks to be played indefinitely or until I stop to play. This is within the Sonos app running on an iPad. The app stops playing the tracks after some seemingly random amount of time and tracks, frankly I am not even sure, I have not checked it yet, if it plays all the 24 tracks at least once before stopping. When it stops, the queue points to a track in a middle of the list. I can press play and the app will restart playing the tracks but it will stop again sometime later. To sum up, no other apps or services are involved, only the Sonos app and a folder on a NAS device.

Please help. What can I possibly be missing here? This, to me, is a very basic function.

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panapAnswer

Trending Lyricist I

So I put some time aside to experiment a bit before calling Sonos. The idea, as you suggested, was to create a copy of one of the 3 excluded by Sonos files with a different name and then to start removing the different tags from this file while trying to play the entire folder after each change, until the excluded file would not be excluded any more from the queue. Then, the plan was to do something similar with the track that showed in the queue with no name.

I started with selecting the same folder expecting to see, as I did many times in the last few days, 24 out of the 27 tracks to be added to the queue. To my surprise, after selecting the folder, all the 27 tracks were added to the queue and there were no tracks with no name in the queue. In other words, this time around, everything seems to be working as expected. No files on the NAS were changed or added or removed. However, the last thing I did yesterday was removing and readding the main folder in the library (with 99% of the files including the ones in question). I did this after rescanning the library. Rescanning did not help with anything; that is I still saw the same result which is 24 tracks instead of 27 and one track with no name.

It looks like removing and readding the (effectively entire) library changed the behavior to the correct one. The last time I did something like this was a few years ago. Perhaps Sonos logic used while reading the library files got smarter (some bugs got fixed) and now it handles better the files (names and tags) which created problems before. It also looks like rescanning does not help with fixing whatever was broken but remove/readd did fix it.

I shuffled the queue and I am playing it to see if it will stop again, but, this time, I am hopeful that it will work as expected as I see nothing odd in the queue. It looks like there are reasons why the CS rep had the remove/readd of the entire library on his list of things to try...

Thank you for your help!

Show previous replies

Airgetlam

For mystery #1, perhaps Sonos doesn’t read those files, for some reason? Have you looked at the supported audio formats FAQ, and confirmed whether these files match properly?

For mystery #2, what happens when you ‘move’ the file out of the area where Sonos scans and plays from, temporarily (perhaps a ‘new’ folder on your desktop, so you don’t lose data), rescan, and re-attempt to play/randomize?

Bruce

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

I've made copies of the problem files, all ripped flac, renaned them x1, x2, x3 and stripped out all the tags. A reindex and the x files all played so I named them back to the original names with a "-1" and reimdexed again, most played, a couple needed odd characters changed out. Did the same with the tags and ended up with all working.

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panapAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

I do think the issue is with the file names and or content (some “special” characters) in some tags. I do not think it is the format. The format is mp3 and the encoding parameters seem similar as in the working files.

Ahh…, I hate modifying the music files in such a way. The problem is that all these files are in my iTunes library as well and I know that iTunes gets very “non-cooperative” when you modify a library file. I have recently had issues with exactly this. I modified the volume level in some music files and it messed up iTunes really badly. Having a file with the same name but with different modification times caused problems of files not being found after syncing to phones and tables. I ended up going file by file for the problematic files, removing them from the iTunes library and readding them. This was pretty painful and time consuming.

On top of that I rely on some of the tags, like the “comment”, to be there as I use them in iTunes auto lists. And, to make things worse, this is just one folder with 27 files in it. I have tens of thousands of music files and no idea which ones may have the same problem. Without knowing exactly what the issue is it nearly impossible to address it across the entire library as the problematic files can be present in many files in many folders. Frankly, even if one knows exactly what the issue is, going through thousands of files to search for “problematic” characters in meta tags sounds like an awful proposition...

Hmm, not sure what to do. Maybe I can try to press Sonos for more specifics about these 2 issues and what they choke on in terms of characters in file names and tags…? Knowing exactly what the problem is would at least be a better starting point...

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

Don't modify your original files until you have found the exact issues with each that are causing the problems. Make and work with copies.

Forcing a reindex, then submitting a diagnostic followed by trying to play the problem files and a second diagnostic might capture the issue. Diagnostics capture a limited amount of data in a small window of time so one of each operation isn't a bad plan.

Once all are submitted CALL them in, that is almost always the best contact method.

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panapAuthorAnswer

Trending Lyricist I

So I put some time aside to experiment a bit before calling Sonos. The idea, as you suggested, was to create a copy of one of the 3 excluded by Sonos files with a different name and then to start removing the different tags from this file while trying to play the entire folder after each change, until the excluded file would not be excluded any more from the queue. Then, the plan was to do something similar with the track that showed in the queue with no name.

I started with selecting the same folder expecting to see, as I did many times in the last few days, 24 out of the 27 tracks to be added to the queue. To my surprise, after selecting the folder, all the 27 tracks were added to the queue and there were no tracks with no name in the queue. In other words, this time around, everything seems to be working as expected. No files on the NAS were changed or added or removed. However, the last thing I did yesterday was removing and readding the main folder in the library (with 99% of the files including the ones in question). I did this after rescanning the library. Rescanning did not help with anything; that is I still saw the same result which is 24 tracks instead of 27 and one track with no name.

It looks like removing and readding the (effectively entire) library changed the behavior to the correct one. The last time I did something like this was a few years ago. Perhaps Sonos logic used while reading the library files got smarter (some bugs got fixed) and now it handles better the files (names and tags) which created problems before. It also looks like rescanning does not help with fixing whatever was broken but remove/readd did fix it.

I shuffled the queue and I am playing it to see if it will stop again, but, this time, I am hopeful that it will work as expected as I see nothing odd in the queue. It looks like there are reasons why the CS rep had the remove/readd of the entire library on his list of things to try...

Thank you for your help!

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panapAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Hmm, after reading my comments above I think I need to add a bit more. I stated yesterday that I tried to play the folder in question after removing/readding of the library yesterday and that it did not work. I am not 100% sure now if I did that but, perhaps, the readding of the library was not complete when I tried it. I think this would be the only explanation for why it did not work yesterday but does work today.

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panapAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Just reporting that the queue played for more than 3 hours at which point I stopped playing it. I believe that the issue is resolved now and the behavior is as expected.

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