No music found

[GT-in-OZ]

Summary

I have some larger questions about integrating Plex and Sonos, and am wondering whether this is the best place to post them; or whether there’s an existing thread I haven’t found yet; or whether I should start a new thread. Happy to take thoughts.

Please take into account that this is new to me, and I’m bound to be making newbie dumb errors.

Meantime:

I currently have a Sonos system set up in a beach house we lend to lots of other people. I’ve converted all my digital music files from my main system to 24/48 ALAC which I’ve installed on a NAS connected directly to the router in the beach house, which means that visitors can just use a tablet with a Sonos app on it to access the music. The computer connected to the router doesn’t need to be turned on – in fact they don’t even need to know there is a computer.

This works fine for the music library in Sonos, BUT I have far too much music for the Sonos database: especially since much of it is classical music, which greatly reduces the capacity of the Sonos database because of the metadata. So the Music library within Sonos only shows about 2/3 of the music.

SO I started playing with using Plex as a Sonos service. At first I used the Plex ‘app’ directly on the computer, and I can get that to work (though I can’t work out whether it’s transcoding or not).

HOWEVER, I have to open the computer and start up the Plex app for it to work. Otherwise the Plex service in the Sonos app just shows as empty. I thought that I could get around this by installing the Plex app on the NAS that all the music is on. But this has thrown up some problems (some of which I’m hoping are just ignorance on my part).

My music is currently on a Synology DS218j NAS. I can install the Plex app on it, but it’s got a very low end processor, so almost certainly it’ll struggle with any transcoding. Hopefully I’m not doing any (but I’ll get back to this shortly).

In the meantime the problem is that, although I opened up the Plex app within the GUI for the NAS, set up a new library pointing to the Music folder on the NAS, and asked it to scan the library, it’s showing no files, even after I leave it running for a while. I’ve tried disconnecting from the NAS a reconnecting a number of times, and get this message:

This application is at 192.168.1.2 and is not hosted by Plex. Continue only if you recognize this server and wish to grant access.

So I continue, and it opens up into the new library – but still no files. Ditto if I open the desktop app, which now shows both servers: the one I originally set up on the computer; and the new one I set up from within the NAS GUI. All the music shows in the original server, but nothing in the new server…?

MY QUESTIONS

How do get the new library to find the files? I’ve checked that the library refers to the folder containing the files (in my case /volume1/MUSIC), but no files.

Am I fundamentally misunderstanding how this works?

If I can get it to work, and I update the NAS to a more powerful one, what’s an appropriate level of processing power and/or a suggested NAS? At most I need a 2 disc NAS, and could probably get away with a 1 disc NAS if the processor was powerful enough. I guess this partly comes down to whether Plex needs to transcode ALAC @ 24/48 – though even that shouldn’t need much power. I’m not doing any video.

Does setting the Plex up on the NAS mean that I/visitors will always be able to access music through the Plex service in Sonos even if the computer is not on? (and will it automatically update its library if I add more files?)

Moderator: I have edited your post to make it a little more readable.

[GT-in-OZ]

Hi trumpy81, and thanks for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately it seems that someone (understandably) took the last part of a long post and posted it to a new thread, so you missed some crucial context.

In essence, I’m hoping to not transcode:

1. I’ve converted all my hi-rez files to 24/48 ALAC (which Sonos 2 can play), and leaving the CD-rez files in ALAC at 16/44.1;

2. Which are on a NAS, so visitors to the house can simply use the app on a tablet to play the music, without booting up the computer in my study;

[GT-in-OZ]

Hi trumpy81, and thanks for taking the time to reply.

Unfortunately it seems that someone (understandably) took the last part of a long post on another thread and posted it to a new thread, so you missed some crucial context.

In essence, I’m hoping to not transcode. What I have (and hope to do) is

1. I’ve converted all my hi-rez files to 24/48 ALAC (which Sonos 2 can play), and leaving the CD-rez files in ALAC at 16/44.1;

2. All of which (around 1.2Tb) are on a NAS, which is hard-wired to my Sonos system (a Connect driving an Anthem DAC/amplifier), so I don’t need to worry about wifi speeds);

3. Which means that my wife and son and visitors to the house can simply use the Sonos app on a tablet to play the music, without booting up the computer in my study.

4. But I have far too much music, so the Sonos music library can only fit about half the music; which is why I wanted to

5. Use Plex on a NAS so visitors (and my wife) can access any music on the NAS using the Plex service within the Sonos app on the tablet, without asking me to turn on my computer and boot up the Plex app.

In short I already have the music on a NAS, already in formats that Sonos can play as is, but there’s too much of it for the Sonos library; and I simply want to be able to play all the library through the Sonos app at full rez without turning the computer on and starting the Plex app.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Graham