external hard drive

  • 8 July 2018
  • 6 replies
  • 6328 views

Hi all i recently purchased a play 1 as the bose sound touch did not do what i wanted it to...The problem i am having (maybe i'm doing this completely wrong) is i have all my music on a external hard drive the play 1 recognises the hard drive but will not play all of the music that is on it, it shows the artist in search but tells me there is nothing to play...i was also wondering if i buy an adaptor could i plug the hard drive driectly into router would it then be recognised... any ideas. thanks in advance

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6 replies

Userlevel 7
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First what kind of external hard drive do you have, USB, eSATA, Ethernet?

All but the Ethernet are not directly connectable to a Sonos setup, that one you just plug into your router and give your Sonos the network name and music path and it works.

There are ways to connect the other two, using a Raspberry Pi for example but you might be better served by getting an Ethernet connected drive like the WD Live Drive or the like.
hi stanley thanks for the reply it's a Seagate 5TB Expansion connected via usb, i am at the moment putting my music to the plex server in the hope that it may work but it's taking a while as i have a lot of music hence why i have put it to the seagate so i can free up space on the pc. Hope this helps and thanks again.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
The Plex server will probably work. With that drive I'd buy a $50 Raspberry Pi kit (Pi, power, case and SD card) and use it as an SMB v1 server.
way above my head stanley lol...i looked up raspberry pi ( totally baffled) would the ethernet to usb not work ?
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
Aside from the connectors not fitting USB and Ethernet are incompatible, to go from one to the other you need a computer with both interfaces and to run the Samba server software that makes the USB drive data available on a protocol the Sonos understands.

The Pi is designed for grade school kids, instructions for setting up a Samba server on one are pretty basic, the grandson had no issues following them. That may be litle comfort to someone of an age that they were regularly sent to their grandmother's house to reset the clock on her VCR so she could tape her shows. :-)

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/samba-file-server

If the Plex isn't what you want and the PI is too frustrating grab a WD Live Drive (make sure it has an Ethernet port on the back) and move your music over to it. Mine works great for the data storage and transfer to Sonos but it is electrically noisy and needs to be several feet away from the router and any Sonos component to avoid problems.
thanks for the help stanley i think i will look into the WD live Drive, as for now the Plex option seems to be working although i am on my 3rd day of transferring files not sure if i have too much music or just a slow computer, i like the 'sent to grandma's house' in my case it was my aunt on a weekly basis lol...thank's again for all your help. cheers mate