Answered

YouTube Music not listing full library

  • 13 August 2020
  • 87 replies
  • 14050 views

Userlevel 2

Hi,

 

I’ve recently switched over to YouTube music as Google are closing Play Music but an having issues accessing my full library through the Sonos Desktop or Mobile app. Both the Artist & Albums listings are truncated. When I access them as follows:

 

YouTube Music →  Library → Albums → Uploads (only lists down to albums starting with ‘R’, everything after unavailable.)

 

YouTube Music →  Library → Artists → Uploads (only lists down to artists starting with ‘J’, everything after unavailable.)

 

Does anyone else have this issue? Anything I can do to get Sonos to let me browse my Full Catalog again like I could with Play Music?

 

Cheers!

icon

Best answer by Xander P 10 February 2021, 17:35

View original

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

87 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

@Tom P.  iBroadcast is the most common suggestion for those wishing to abandon YTM for storing their own music.

Badge

guy b - you can play them on Sonos but you have to search for them.  They are there even though they are not listed in your library.

 

An update to my last post:  I finally spoke to someone higher up at Sonos, and he explained that, contrary to what the Sonos and YTM tech support people told me, the issue is with YTM.  Sonos merely “reads” the data provided by the music provider, so there is an issue with YTM not feeding the correct information to Sonos.  He also told me that he doubts YTM is prioritizing resolving this issue since it probably affects only a small number of users.  He encouraged me to keep complaining to YTM.  I emailed them a couple times but never heard back.

EVEN WORSE, I found out that eventually YTM will *require* you to pay for a premium subscription (more than $12/month!) just to listen to your own music on your own speakers!  To me, this was unconscionable.  So I quit YTM.

Fortunately, I found iBroadcast, which provides a free cloud-based storage locker service that is both very easy to use and, more importantly, compatible with Sonos.  I would encourage folks to check it out if you’re only looking for a place to store and play your own music.  So far I’m really happy with it. 

checking out ibroadcast now. SONOS should be telling users not to waste their time with youtube music at all. Talk about not ready for prime time. 

Are you able to transfer your library from Google Play to iBroadcast?

Badge

Had a live chat today and spent 20 minutes explaining that my library from YouTube Music was only loading up to the letter “B”.  After a few back and forth questions and answers, she told me “Let me check”….and has not been heard from since….the chat expired.  This is becoming very frustrating.

 

My library also only loads up to B and my issue has been open for a month or two. They have no answer for this and really don’t seem to care. I now use iBroadcast instead of YTM and it works great, is free, and is supposed to remain free. Check it out. YTM is a sham.

Were you able to transfer your library over from Google play to iBroadcast rather than up loading your music again?

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Had a live chat today and spent 20 minutes explaining that my library from YouTube Music was only loading up to the letter “B”.  After a few back and forth questions and answers, she told me “Let me check”….and has not been heard from since….the chat expired.  This is becoming very frustrating.

 

My library also only loads up to B and my issue has been open for a month or two. They have no answer for this and really don’t seem to care. I now use iBroadcast instead of YTM and it works great, is free, and is supposed to remain free. Check it out. YTM is a sham.

Were you able to transfer your library over from Google play to iBroadcast rather than up loading your music again?

No, there is not an official transfer process like there was for Google Play to YouTube Music but you can upload an entire library. Just make sure you know where your Google library files exist and follow the iBroadcast upload process. And my experience was that it is very slow. Took about 8-10 hours for my library which consisted of about 5,500 songs. 

Userlevel 1
Badge

Neither party is interested in this problem in the slightest. I am a premium YTM subscriber, and I own 7 Sonos speakers. When you contact support at either Google or Sonos the answer is the same -- it’s the other guy’s fault … :rolling_eyes:

 

I’m going to try a work-around by porting a Chromecast into my Play5 aux/in. Wish me luck … :expressionless:

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

I’m just living with it as a non-premium YTM subscriber. I have both YTM and iBroadcast. My YTM works, I just can’t browse my entire library. I can still search all of my YTM so it’s not that bad. iBroadcast doesn’t work well for me because a lot of my music files are missing album names, which iBroadcast is aware causes major indexing issues for them. Oh well. None of these providers are perfect. But if I was subscribing to any of them, I would feel way different. I subscribe to Amazon and Spotify, no issues with either of those. Now if only they would provide a file hosting service...

Userlevel 2

Another frustrated user experiencing the same limits of accessing full YTM library.  Can someone help clarify how you can use iBroadcast on Sonos?  I don’t see it listed among the list of Available services when I go to add a new service.  

Thank you!

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Another frustrated user experiencing the same limits of accessing full YTM library.  Can someone help clarify how you can use iBroadcast on Sonos?  I don’t see it listed among the list of Available services when I go to add a new service.  

Thank you!

I see it in my available list of services. There’s a search/filter at the top of the services page too that you can type iBroadcast in and it comes right up. I’m using Apple iOS. Maybe if you’re using Android it’s different. 

Badge

@controlav - I’m looking for a decent music streaming service that is well supported on Sonos, not a service to store my own music.  GPM was decent, but YTM is garbage!  I’m currently trying Tidal, but as with other services, some of the perks available in App is not transferred to Sonos - like the simple alphabetical lists for artists and albums.

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

@controlav - I’m looking for a decent music streaming service that is well supported on Sonos, not a service to store my own music.  GPM was decent, but YTM is garbage!  I’m currently trying Tidal, but as with other services, some of the perks available in App is not transferred to Sonos - like the simple alphabetical lists for artists and albums.


Oh I see, ignore my prior post then. I use Spotify, TIDAL, Apple and Pandora. Fortunately Sonos gives us a substantial choice of services, far more than anyone else. I don’t think anyone will disagree with your views on YTM on Sonos though. Personally I wish Groove was still available, as not only did it work, I knew a few of the engineers responsible for it.

Badge

Hi folks. Just to let you know that this issue has been reported to our partner and we’re waiting for their response. We’ll keep you all posted here. Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

We and the community are always here to help.

Is there anything Sonos can or will do to have this issue fixed? I get nothing from YTM when I contact them. I sense that they either do not understand the issue or do not care. Either way, Sonos should have an interest in the quality of the products that they host from their service providers, such as YTM. Sonos success primarily depends on these service providers products. I am amazed at the lack of caring from both sides. Sonos is not cheap and the customer service here leaves much to be desired, and the lack of communication is very frustrating. 

Is there any update from Google?

Badge

Krishma is there any update from Google?

Badge

As I have started to use Tidal on Sonos, I’ve realized as with YTM that the artist and album section of my collection can not be alphabetized - is that an issue Sonos knows about, and if so, is Sonos looking for a solution?  The non-alphabetical listing in YTM is one reason I can not tolerate using it on Sonos.

Just another frustrated user here.  Google Play Music worked fine.  Youtube Music is just terrible, for all the reasons outlined above.  It’s slow and extremely buggy.

I think it’s unlikely that the problem resides in Sonos.  If you have both Sonos2 and Android Auto, you will see that the exact same problem occurs with both.  So that strongly suggests that the issue lies with whatever YTM “hands off” to all other apps.  Since Google owns both YTM and AA, a solution is more likely to be found by complaining through AA.  I will do that, but I don’t hold out much hope.

I agree with whoever (above) suggested logging a ticket with Google support, rather than chatting with google experts etc online.  I think what happens with front line support staff (at Google, Sonos, and others) is that they are obliged to follow standard help “scripts”, which may or may not be applicable to the problem at hand.  Sonos users who have been led to try various solutions for this particular problem (reinstall, etc) are, to my mind, either victims of standard help scripts, or, perhaps, speculation on the part of the support staff.  Either way, users are understandably frustrated.

As for “workarounds”, in Sonos, I have found (as others have) that even though not all YTM artists and albums will display while browsing, a search will indeed find the item you want.  It’s a pain, but at least the music is available.  

Problem there is, if you can’t remember exactly what you are looking for, you can’t search for it, and, if other family members are less tech savvy, they can’t find anything after the letter B (or in my case, F).

However, and as unsatisfying as this conclusion may be, I don’t think we can fairly blame Sonos for these problems.  The fact that the same thing happens with other apps that rely on YTM means that this must be the fault of YTM.

 

 

As I have started to use Tidal on Sonos, I’ve realized as with YTM that the artist and album section of my collection can not be alphabetized - is that an issue Sonos knows about, and if so, is Sonos looking for a solution?  The non-alphabetical listing in YTM is one reason I can not tolerate using it on Sonos.

I had the same issue using YTM with Sonos, but I found that (as in my post 40 minutes ago) in that instance the solution was to be found in YTM.  After I saw that everything was all out of order in Sonos2, I looked for settings to change the order, and found none in Sonos.  So then I went back to YTM and discovered that it also was out of order.  Finally (on my phone) I noticed that in any list (albums, artists or songs), there was a little tab at the top left corner above the first item in the long  list.  It seems the default was “recently added”, but if you click on the little down-arrow, it lets you sort them A-Z or Z-A.

I did that for all three options - artists, albums and songs, and then YTM finally was ordered sensibly (for me.  For non uploaded items, I left the default at recently added, e.g., other non-uploaded songs that I had “liked”)

I don’t know if I had to restart Sonos or not to make this work, but to be sure, I did anyway:  I turned off sonos on my android device, turned it back on, and then Sonos showed all my stuff in the same alphabetical order that I had on YTM (up to the letter F, that is :-)

I want to follow this thread as I am having the same issue you are all reporting with Google Music moving to YT Music and losing the ability to see my whole music collection on Sonos. I cannot find this music through the search bar either. I only see A through B on albums.

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

I opened up my YTM ticket for this issue a couple of months ago and haven’t had an update in weeks. I followed up with YTM a few days ago just asking for a update... still no response from YTM. It is obvious now, YTM does not care about this issue and Sonos is doing nothing to force their hand. Shame on both companies. 

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

It’s been over 4 months since I reported this issue to YTM and nothing has been resolved. Half the time they don’t even respond when I email them asking for an update. Anyone think they actually care about this? I don’t. Oh well, I guess YTM is losing another customer. 

I have exactly the same problem. I only see my albums that have a track that starts with the letter A to D. My workaround was to subscribe to Spotify, transfer all my music and give up YT Music. If I could go back in time, I wouldn't invest $4000 in a sound system that depends on the cloud to work properly. In my opinion, it's Sonos' responsibility to ensure good integrations with the different partners, because in the end, it's the Sonos experience that is degraded by poor software quality from the music service providers.

Solved it for myself. Got rid of YTM subscription.…

Subscribed for Deezer HIFI, lossless audio, and cheaper. Sounds amazing!! No bugs encountered, clean app interface.

Can't cast to Sonos, but Deezer so far plays well with Sonos app and syncs instantly, so i'm happy. 

 

Bye YTM

 

Userlevel 2
Badge +4

Same here.  Cancelled YTM, now using iBroadcast, Plex and Spotify.

I acknowledge that most of the issues are likely due to YTM, but there are a couple of Sonos issues, such as when my AMP crashed hard after fast forwarding in YTM.  Totally reproducible.

What would have been nice is if Sonos front line support did not insist on the problem being packet loss on my Internet connection.  My own measurements indicate that this is not a problem and Sonos works fine with all services other than YTM.

I've had my SONOS One for a few months and have had very few problems. I have primarily played my music library through Google play music playlists. Now that Google play is going away, I moved my library over to YouTube music. But now, songs will start playing, then at some point they stop and it skips to the next song. Thats when I get the "not encoded correctly" error message. It has happened on every single song I've tried. It also happens if you try to scroll to a certain point in the song. This problem started immediately when I switched to YouTube music.

This speaker is completely useless in this condition. 

I've read the other posts on this topic, but they don't seem to apply to my situation. 

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Diagnostics Confirmation #679235385

Unfortunately I have been experiencing the same issues.  The most frustrating one is when a track plays for a good amount of time and then suddenly throws an error code and jumps to the next track.  If I have cross fade on it will cross fade extremely early.  When I use youtube music outside of sonos the tracks work perfectly.  Sonos is aware of the issue and is working at it, though not as quickly as I would like.

Userlevel 6
Badge +15

Hi everyone, just to keep you all updated:

YouTube Music have increased the container size (i.e. how many Artists/Albums/Tracks will appear in the list) from 99, to 999 - which should for most people resolve this issue.
For those of you with larger libraries, you may still find that there are some results at the end which will not be shown - for these you can continue to use the Search function as previously, and it may be worth reaching out to YouTube Music again if this continues to be an issue.

If you have not noticed more results being shown under YouTube Music in the Sonos app, it may be worth removing and then re-adding the account to your system.

Remove a Music Service account

Add a Music Service to Sonos

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

I only see Playlists now. Removed and re-added. (I don't use it anyway though)