Sonos not seeing all songs on the B2

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Joe Katz

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Feb 26, 2021, 10:03:24 AM2/26/21
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Hello -- I have my B2 linked via NAS to my Sonos, and am using it as my sole music library. When I update the Sonos music library, it finishes with approximately 850 fewer songs than are on the B2 (30,740 in Sonos vs 31,592 on the B2).

Has anyone had this problem? Any ideas?

Thanks!

RichM

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Feb 27, 2021, 5:13:02 AM2/27/21
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Hi,

I can't work out how to get the number of songs in my Sonos library, so if you can help me with that I'll have a look.

Rich

Joe Katz

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Feb 27, 2021, 7:31:45 AM2/27/21
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Hi Rich --

After you update the Sonos music library, go to Songs and then click Shuffle (it will replace whatever you have in the queue). When it loads all the songs into the queue, the total will show in the top bar, to the right of "Queue." 

queue.JPG

Thanks for checking!

RichM

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Feb 27, 2021, 1:21:18 PM2/27/21
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Hi Joe,

Thanks - done that and can report 8303 on Sonos v 8270 FLAC and 38 MP3 on B2. So that's clear then!

Rich

Joe Katz

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Feb 27, 2021, 1:55:45 PM2/27/21
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OK then, yours is working fine! Thanks again for checking and comparing. I'll investigate further.

Peter Lowham

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Feb 27, 2021, 5:21:28 PM2/27/21
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Hi Guys,

The figures don't quite add up.

@RichM; 8270 flac + 38 mp3 = 8308 total.  So there is a slight mismatch with the reported 8303 Sonos tracks in your case.

@ Joe; The discrepancy in your case of 852 tracks; are there any 'wav' tracks in the B2 for example?  What does the 'Setting & Status' report show in the B2?

Regards,
Peter.

Jamie

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Feb 28, 2021, 6:41:29 AM2/28/21
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I discovered Joe’s method for figuring out the number of tracks in a Sonos library a while ago. When I used that number to compare the size of my B2 library to my Sonos library, I found that the Sonos library was missing 12 tracks out of about 35,700.

I investigated this minor discrepancy and found that the missing tracks were all from an album called “… Nothing Like The Sun” by Sting. I speculated that the “…” at the start of the album name might be the issue. I removed that string from the B2 album name and, sure enough, after updating the Sonos library, Sonos found the missing 12 tracks. I have other B2 albums whose names include similar strings – but not right at the start of the album name. Sonos was ok with those other albums. Sonos was also ok with the full “… Nothing Like The Sun” name in the album tag. It was only the B2 file name that caused a problem for Sonos.

This is just an example. I don’t imagine that it explains Joe’s 850 track discrepancy, but it shows the type of issue that can arise.

The biggest problem for me was diagnosing the issue, as neither the B2 nor Sonos have tools for analysing a library. My diagnosis was very laborious. I use a Windows tagging app called Tag & Rename that allows me to generate a spreadsheet index of my B2 library complete with all tags. I used that spreadsheet to analyse the tagging in my B2 library and then compared that with individual Sonos tag-based searches. For example, Sonos can search on the Composer tag. I have repurposed that tag in my B2 library to hold Year of Release, so I used that tag to find the number of tracks for each individual year in my Sonos library and compared those numbers to my B2 library spreadsheet. I found that the discrepancy was for a 1987 album. I then tried to access each 1987 album in my B2 library on Sonos until I found the one that was missing.

Another possible cause of Joe’s discrepancy would be if the missing tracks are in a format that Sonos does not recognise. I think I have read about an issue of that type on a Sonos forum, but I can’t remember the details. Also, I think that digital rights management issues can cause missing tracks on Sonos. Whatever the cause, the first step will be to identify the missing tracks using a diagnosis step like the one I have described.

Daniel Taylor

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Feb 28, 2021, 7:06:37 AM2/28/21
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Again we see the problems inherent in having certain reserved characters in a filename.  Save yourself some trouble everybody, and just leave those characters out of the name.

Peter Lowham

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Feb 28, 2021, 9:19:53 AM2/28/21
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Hi All,

As Daniel has stated, reserved characters in folder or filenames should be avoided as they will cause problems somewhere in your systems or network.

For example, in the case above, the dot/ full stop (.) character, when used as the leading character in folder of file names in the Mac OSX system, causes the folder or file to not be displayed.

Those reserve characters are mainly :

\ backslash
/ forward slash
:  colon
;  semicloon
*  asterisk
?  question mark
<  less than
>  greater than
|  pipe
`  Reverse apostrophe or grave accent
.  full stop (as a leading character)

Regards,
Peter.

Joe Katz

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Feb 28, 2021, 12:22:49 PM2/28/21
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Hello all --

Thanks very much for your replies.

Peter, here are my stats from Settings & Status:

31844 tracks in 4542 albums 2753 artists

0 WAV 15997 FLAC 6508 MP3 9339 AAC


Jamie, I have been using mp3Tag to straighten out file names, especially on compilation albums where B2 knows the artist as "Various." I am pretty new to that program so I'll see if I can do a similar Excel export to diagnose this problem.

Again, thanks to all. I'm very grateful for this forum.

JK 

Peter Lowham

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Feb 28, 2021, 2:08:37 PM2/28/21
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Hi Joe,

What is your Sonos track count now?  I see that you have added 252 tracks since your previous update.

Regards,
Peter.

Joe Katz

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Feb 28, 2021, 2:26:36 PM2/28/21
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Hi Peter --

The latest count is Sonos 30,964 vs B2 31,849 as follows:

31849 tracks in 4553 albums 2759 artists

0 WAV 15992 FLAC 6518 MP3 9339 AAC

Thanks,
Joe
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