HEOS players: Artwork and Artist/Track Info not visible

[badewanne1234]

What server version of Music Assistant has the issue?

2.9.0

How is the MA server installed?

Home Assistant OS Addon

Mandatory: Carefully read the Troubleshooting FAQ and confirm that

• I have examined the logs and tried to resolve this issue
• I have fixed any errors or warnings in the logs that relate to tags
• I am not running MA across a VPN, VLAN, subnet, behind a firewall, or using local SSL or have any other complex network setup
• I am not using or have disabled tools such as AdGuard, Pi-hole or pfSense and retested
• I have checked my network setup to ensure mDNS/multicast is not being blocked
• I have reviewed the Open and Closed Issues and Discussions
• I have reviewed the applicable player or music provider documentation
• I have reviewed the MA Status Page
• I have tried restarting MA and rebooting the host

As Applicable: Carefully read the Troubleshooting FAQ and confirm that

• If using HA, I have confirmed the internal URL is set correctly
• I have tried a wired connection for issues related to interrupted or poor playback quality
• If the problem relates to a device then I have checked the device settings
• If it is a frontend issue, I have tried a different widely used browser
• For voice problems, I have sought help elsewhere before returning here
• For playback problems, I have recycled power to the physical device

The problem

I have previously reported this in #5311

Upgraded to 2.9.0 now, but the issue still persists, it still happens ocasionally, that it shows "Url Stream" instead of the Artist and Track when playing via HEOS.

.
Verbose Logs of the HEOS player provider are attached and below is an excerpt of the logs of what it looks like (it says "Now playing changed externally but in fact, this is music that is playing directly through Music Assistant":

[36m2026-06-11 08:42:46.565 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.HEOS] [Kitchen] Now playing changed externally: HeosNowPlayingMedia(type=<MediaType.SONG: 'song'>, song='Url Stream', station=None, album='Url Stream', artist='Url Stream', image_url='', album_id='1', media_id='1', queue_id=1, source_id=1024, current_position=None, current_position_updated=None, duration=None, supported_controls=[<ControlType.PLAY: 'play'>, <ControlType.PAUSE: 'pause'>, <ControlType.STOP: 'stop'>, <ControlType.PLAY_NEXT: 'play_next'>, <ControlType.PLAY_PREVIOUS: 'play_previous'>])�[0m

How to reproduce

Play anything on a HEOS speaker through MA with default protocol HEOS. You might need to try it a few times as it only happens ocasionally. I had the best "luck" when playing radio on HEOS directly, then switiching to music of Music Assistant directly.

Music Providers

Local Files

Player Providers

HEOS

Full log output

d5369777_music_assistant_2026-06-11T06-43-29.056Z.log

Additional information

nothing else to add

What version of Home Assistant Core (if used) are your running

2026.6.0

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

On what type of hardware are you running?

Generic x86-64 (e.g. Intel NUC)

Have you included ALL of the information specified in the Troubleshooting FAQ or explained why you cannot

• Yes

[MarvinSchenkel]

@Tommatheussen

[Tommatheussen]

Seems the order of events is even more random than I expected, I will try to come up with an alternative solution to handle the cases.

@badewanne1234 I see in the logs both the player in the Living Room and Kitchen change what's playing, are those grouped together? Are the players connected wirelessly or wired (just trying to find out a case where I can reproduce, because I haven't seen this happen at all on my devices so far)

[badewanne1234]

Hey @Tommatheussen
Yes they are grouped together. Kitchen is wireless, Living Room is wired.
Thank you! 👍🏻