How do I access iTunes with my Sonos player?

I installed the Sonos player, which seems to be a sleek little unit, but I don't understand how to play my iTunes music through it. How can I play my songs and playlists?

Dave's Answer:

The Sonos is a versatile system. One of the ways it achieves this is to use its own software. Therefore, you don't need to use iTunes, or even have it on your computer, to use your Sonos.

Sonos imports all your songs into its own music playing software, called the "Sonos Desktop Controller." If you open up the desktop controller, you'll find all your music listed on the right hand side, by Albums, Artist, Songs, Composers, Genre and Playlists:

If you click on "Playlists" you'll see that any .m3u or .xml files that you had in your music library when you installed the Sonos are listed there.

Let's say, however, that you want to listen to a new iTunes created playlist through the Sonos software. Not a problem!

Just open up iTunes, right click on the playlist you want to add to the Sonos, then click on "Export Song List." Save it as file type .xml somewhere in the directory that you told Sonos to use as your music library when you set it up.

You're almost done.

Now just go to the Sonos Desktop Controller, and click "Music", then "Update Music Index Now."

Sonos Music Library: Importing Playlists

When the Sonos software is done importing new music and playlists, you'll be ready to listen to your music. Piece of cake!

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Categorized: iPod, Sony PSP and MP3 Player Help (Article 6617, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: sonos digital music player, sonos player
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Reader Comments To Date: 20

Jack Gardner said, on June 8, 2008 4:15 PM:

You seem to have contradicted yourself somewhat, if the system was versatile as stated, then it would let you play music through itunes, not by its own system. This is in fact the complete opposite of versatile.

Mac said, on November 25, 2008 12:45 PM:

I did hear that Sonos will not play itunes purchased files because of DRM, is this true?

Nigel said, on April 13, 2009 2:01 PM:

Hi,

I recently bought an ex demo sonos system, and i am very impressed with it.
i noticed that it had a sonos playlist already in it, which plays even when my pc is off.
The question i have, is when i create my own playlist from a music queue, it will not play unless my PC is on !
PLease can you tell me what i am doing wrong !
Apart from this, i am very impressed with the system
Kind regards

Nigel

Della Churchill said, on June 23, 2009 5:45 AM:

Can you store your CDs on a Mac to be played via Sonos without using iTunes? We are concerned about compressing to mp3 files from better quality CD recordings.

Thanks

Vista user said, on September 19, 2009 1:48 AM:

I followed the steps and it didn't work. The names of some of the playlists showed up but there were no songs in them. Where have I gone wrong/is there something else i need to do?

mike said, on May 9, 2010 8:52 AM:

Dave

can I transfer a genius playlist to my Sonos? I dont seem to be able to do it the same was as any other playlist I created myself?

thanks heaps

Darel Rex Finley said, on June 28, 2010 7:06 PM:

What a pain. I like my Sonos a lot, including the excellent iPhone app... but no recognition of all the music on that same iPhone? Nor its playlists? Incredible blunder. I didn't buy a Sonos so I could jack around with manual file management and playlist exportation every other day on my PC.

Paul said, on August 23, 2010 11:10 PM:

Thanks mate, I just selected all the songs right clicked, exported it to a file which i saw within the sonos (wasnt too sure where to put it but just chukd it anywhere), updated the index and it worked. Cheers!!

flynn said, on April 14, 2011 7:42 AM:

Recently purchased Sonos S5 and zonebridge trying to 'add a share' to be able to listen to itunes "access denied check user name and password".
I have windows 7 - Kaspersky 2011. I have disabled firewall to allow access - no success.
Computer is password protected but I have tried with no password - no success.
Hope you can help

Paddington said, on July 8, 2011 2:31 AM:

Hi Dave,
I have just installed my Sonos and installed my music from iTunes, however when I put music in the queue it doesn't play the songs continuously, it stops after each one has been played and then I have to manually hit "play" to play the next song, even though all the songs are sitting in the queue?
Can you help me resolve this asap?

Thanks,
P

Preston said, on October 16, 2011 2:37 PM:

I got my iTunes playlist to load to the Sonos system but most of the songs have m4a extension and will not play on sonos system. Only the songs without the m4a extension will play.

Dennis said, on November 24, 2011 3:37 PM:

I bought à Play3 but Sonos Does not Play THE mp3 's directly from my iPad 1. Can i make my iPad sharable voor Sonos? Who knows how?

jdh said, on November 25, 2011 4:10 AM:

Yes, Sonos does have its own software, but I don't like it. It's even harder to use than iTunes, and has all of iTunes' limitations. The question for me is, is there some way I can use my Sonos speaker wirelessly to play my iTunes library from my iMac. Perhaps some hardware to make Sonos Airport-supported??

mike gillies said, on December 21, 2011 4:40 PM:

I also have the problem "access denied check user name and password" but I'm not using Kasperky.
Sonos have so gfar been unable to provide a solution and I am unable to play any of the music in my itunes library which is a pain. Does anyone have any suggestions to fix this?

oli daniels said, on February 13, 2012 10:42 AM:

You can play your sonos speakers through itunes directly also, along with any device with a headphone jack port. You just have to set your sonos player up for it from within the sonos desktop controller/iphone app... once youve opened the desktop controller you go to settings --> room settings --> choose your room --> line in --> autoplay room --> change to the room youre in and click done.

Then when you plug in a device to the line in port it will auto-play whatever your phone/laptop is playing.

William Kirk said, on March 2, 2012 5:14 PM:

Spent alot of money on this Sonos system. I am not happy about ITunes not being able to run through it. Very misleading. I don't have time to fart around with files or playlists every time I want to listen to some music.

"Versatile"? What a load of garbage. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you guys would just fix that one Itunes thing, which is a very huge thing, your product would be great. You're misleading your customers.

Pete said, on March 4, 2012 8:53 AM:

i have a problem where I don't use my iMac for around 30 minutes the sonos controller loses connection with the paths I have set up as the directory for stored music in iTunes. As instructed in the set up, I set the iMac to "never sleep" but doesn't seem to make a difference. Only solution I have it to shut down iTunes and sonos controller and reboot. Hoping for a more sophisticated solution than "switching it off and switching it on again"

thoughts anyone - seems like a basic issue and kind of surprised it happens.

JaimeL said, on October 31, 2012 8:31 PM:

Thanks for the great insight into Sonos. It sounded very good at the best buy store and I was going to make the grave mistake of purchasing it, as the store staff at Magnolia were "trying" to convince me that it worked with iTunes. Now, I spend some valuable time fiddling with my iTunes palylist, why the heck would I want to do it again in a Sonos App?

ken said, on December 1, 2012 5:00 PM:

sonos used to work something happened now it is running set up assisant for over 2 hours will it ever work again

Peter said, on April 14, 2013 10:18 AM:

You never answered how to play from iTunes. (I also stopped reading after 4 sentences, you went into a diff explanation)

We know it can play the songs from "anywhere", but what are the steps for iTunes? I dont want to recreate all my playlists and have to move all files into one place. Just play what I have listed on iTunes.

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

How do I access iTunes with my Sonos player?

Reader Comments To Date: 20

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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