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Music Server "Unable to play 'xxx' = cannot connect to HOSTNAME/DIR ..." for SOME tracks

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I’ve been muddling through getting my local Mac music library accessible to Sonos (something I used with no issues for years before the App was improved).  I have it working sometimes but also not working.

Some of the tracks work exactly as they should, launched from the Sonos program on the Mac or from the App on my  iPhone.  Some of them fail from my Mac, but then work from the iPhone, and then also work from the Mac. Others pop a persistent error message of the form:

Unable to play '<track name>.m4a' - cannot connect to /<HOSTNAME>/<DIRECTORY> because the server cannot be found.

 

My music library is on an external disk mounted directly on my Mac which is sharing the filesystem (SMB enabled).  I am trying to launch the music from the Sonos program on my Mac and also from two family iPhones.

It seems bizarre that some tracks are just fine while others that in some cases are in the same subdirectory can not be played.  Or perhaps, its that the server cannot be found for some tracks but that same server is found for others.

I’ve rebooted, reinstalled, done lots of things, now I’ve pretty much run out of trouble-shooting ideas.  Any help will be appreciated.

Best answer by Airgetlam

My knee jerk was to suggest SMB issues, but that wouldn’t make sense if it was connecting some times, and not others. You don’t mention which version of the Sonos or Mac OS you’re using, either, so it would be a challenge to suggest the wrong version of SMB.

is there any chance this drive is ‘sleeping’ sometimes? It could be the delay in spinning up would be causing Sonos not to recognize the location at one time (and device), but recognize it at another.

I would also be checking that the data files for the music match the information found in the supported audio formats FAQ, but that wouldn’t explain the server not found message, just any potential subsequent issues.

Have you submitted a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and called Sonos Support to discuss it? Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, they get sensitive about GDPR.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

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4 replies

Airgetlam
  • Airgetlam
  • 42976 replies
  • Answer
  • April 7, 2025

My knee jerk was to suggest SMB issues, but that wouldn’t make sense if it was connecting some times, and not others. You don’t mention which version of the Sonos or Mac OS you’re using, either, so it would be a challenge to suggest the wrong version of SMB.

is there any chance this drive is ‘sleeping’ sometimes? It could be the delay in spinning up would be causing Sonos not to recognize the location at one time (and device), but recognize it at another.

I would also be checking that the data files for the music match the information found in the supported audio formats FAQ, but that wouldn’t explain the server not found message, just any potential subsequent issues.

Have you submitted a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and called Sonos Support to discuss it? Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, they get sensitive about GDPR.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Bruce
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1 person likes this
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    BarrettJG
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  • BarrettJG
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 4 replies
  • April 7, 2025

Bruce, thanks for the speedy response.  I’ll be repeating my problems and then try submitting a system diagnostic, thank you for the handy links.  

I’ll go through (some?) of your thoughts here for clarity if nothing else.

You don’t mention which version of the Sonos or Mac OS you’re using: Sonos Controller for Mac, Version 16.7, Sonos OS S2, Build 84163110. The Mac is a 2024 Mac mini running macOS Sequoia 15.3.2.  Both of the latest update I could find.

Is there any chance this drive is ‘sleeping’ sometimes? I don’t see this a a possiblity. It is a SSD and I can play a working track immediately before and after a failed track.  

I would also be checking that the data files for the music match...All of the bad tracks are mp4 format, same as the good tracks that I have checked.  Certainly could be some cruft in my library, but my manual checks of each problem lead me to a playable (Apple Music) file of the same format as the good tracks.

Have you submitted a system diagnostic … That will be my next step.

Once again, thank you for the speedy and thoughtful response.

 

Airgetlam
1 person likes this
  • Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
Airgetlam
  • Airgetlam
  • 42976 replies
  • April 7, 2025

Heh. Apparently most of what I said was wrong ;)

.mp4 is not the only aspect that Sonos looks for, and what I would be checking. There are a lot of other ‘aspects’ of the file that might be making a difference, not merely the extension. I’m not guaranteeing anything, but it’s worth double checking before calling in to Sonos. 

Bruce
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  • BarrettJG
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 4 replies
  • April 11, 2025

Just a bit of an update.  The answer by airgetlam helped me to what seems like a working solution.  I had a number of problems:

  1. Apple Music is apparently very helpful in finding music files while Sonos is a stickler.  I had most of my non-working tracks in what was apparently a wrong  directory.  Cleaning up my directory structure solved most of that.
  2. The error message posted by Sonos: “...because the server cannot be found." is simply hogwash and sent me down the wrong rabbit hole.  The problem was the server couldn’t locate the music file.
  3. Many of my tracks were missing artwork in Sonos but not in Apple Music.  This is another case of Music being helpful and Sonos not so much.  It seems that Apple Music is happy to get artwork from: track, album, internet (all of them seem to be the same to the user), while Sonos looks only inside the track.  I noodle out how to embed the art in each track and that made Sonos artwork correct.
  4. I also discovered that my playlists no longer imported into Sonos.  This seems to have been triggered by Music embedding the playlists in its DB while Sonos expects them to be in a file named: ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’. 
    I was able to export the library and remake the Library.xml to make Sonos happy.

That was a huge, shall we say adventure of frustration, but after three days of effort I have Sonos seemingly as good as it was a year ago before the App was improved.

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