NAS Music Library to Sonos via MediaMonkey

Train_Nerd · Post by **Train_Nerd** » Wed Jan 02, 2019 12:47 pm

Date: 2Jan2019

Here is my successful experience (with some feature boundaries) to sharing my NAS based music library downwind of Sonos lack of support for SMB2+ and continued use of the vulnerable SMB1. When MS did the fall 2018 1709 W10 update, I lost NAS based music Library. We use NAS since we prefer use of .flac format, and think music rental via ugly-compressed streaming is not for us. 5+ Sonos units, 1.4 TB music library.

Obsolete vulnerable SMB1 desperately needs support for SMB2+. SONOS: get with the program! Yikes!

Sonos recommended solution was add Plex account to Sonos services, and enable Plex on NAS. This proved pretty unreliable for us. Speculate, maybe too many hops. Bizarre (read poor) Sonos "solution" to SMB1 problem.

Most notable thread on this (among others) IMHO: https://en.community.sonos.com/setting- ... eline.desc

Wishing to stop using vulnerable SMB1 (personal decision), a few comments:
1) Kudos to Mike V (S in IOT stands for Security - LOL) who posted about this alternative approach.
2) Long time lifetime-license MediaMonkey Gold user (https://www.mediamonkey.com).
3) We do not use iTunes to manage Library on W10, and have no Macs.
4) Not an IT guy, just self-taught gizmo-intrigued n00b music fan.
5) This approach requires both some thought and MediaMonkey experience. It's not elegant.

MediaMonkey (MM) is used as music library manager including rip to NAS share as .flac, playlist builder tool, among many other MM features. Three NAS back-ups, one off-site. MM knows and manages music library.

NAS: QNAP TS-253B, QTS 4.3.5, SMB1 disabled. Reference:
https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/faq/arti ... sion-1709/

On the following, YMMV depending on your configuration:

Install MM on W10 machine (in our case, an HTPC) which is on all the time (yep, that's necessary to be seamless to Sonos). Go ahead, buy a license for MM Gold version. IMHO, I like MediaMonkey because it lets me set options to manage music library my way. Unsure if all this works on free version.

You must add NAS-based music library to MM: File>Add/Rescan file to library. In my case, I pasted the music library path from W10 Explorer into the field at bottom of this window since picking path up from Network choices (above in this window) has been kinda wonky for me. The scan may take a few hours if you've a big library. You can watch scan process down at bottom of MM window. Not a big deal for me since we were already using MM.

In MM: Tools>Options>Library>Media Sharing (UPnP/DLNA), move over to right window pane.

In my case the MediaMonkey Library is listed. Check the box to left of listing. Then highlight and single click this listing of the Library. Click on the Options button. Check the Update counter box and the Share automatically with all new devices box.

In the pane below UPnP devices are listed. They are listed by Enabled status, MAC address, IP address, and name. In my case, several Linux Sonos devices are listed which seem to be those on which I have Sonos controller software/apps installed, e.g. ZP-120, Windows, iPad, iPhone. Make sure the enabled check box for each is checked. Then click OK button at bottom of this window, and window closes.
Then click OK at bottom of Options window.

In Sonos, (iOS iPad/iPhone) More>Settings>Advanced Settings>Show UPnP/DLNA Servers Enabled. I could not find this feature in W10 Sonos controller; posts suggest it used to be in File>Preferences but this now appears to be absent in W10 Sonos Controller v9.3, Build109822974 (did not try Android or Mac versions).

In Sonos, Browse>MediaMonkey Library (W10 MM machine name is listed)>Music and drill down to folder/sort you want. You can drill down via Location option to follow NAS music location path, having made MM aware of NAS library path (above.) Here is feature limitation: It looks to me like individual songs (filenames) must be added to Sonos Queue. No play Artist, Album, etc. in-one-shot capability. Once individual tunes are added, Sonos queue can be edited, played consistent with typical Sonos capability.

I'm thinking this approach avoids web hops and SMB1 vulnerability. I recognize this may serve as further incentive for Sonos to not fix NAS access which has been a long featured capability. Seems like such a premium product oughta get you to a NAS, streaming world (perhaps naively) aside.