Headliner I

Music Library Not Doing Its One Job

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Trying to play music from Library.

Song will play about five seconds - through some, not all, of the selected speakers. Then it will skip to the next and do the same. Sometimes for four songs, sometimes for five.

Then it will stop and return one of two messages:

Unable to find file (and provide an address that is absolutely findable on all other networked devices)
WiFi connection “unstable”

I spent about a grand last October upgrading every part of my network to avoid this problem, and it has returned.

I am playing the files through a Synology NAS DiskStation, that is wired into my router.

I have a Play 3 wired into my router, and in the same room - with direct line of sight, less than twelve feet away - another Play 3 and a Connect. I have four Play 1’s scattered throughout my one bedroom, 1300 square foot apartment. WiFi “instability” is not a correct diagnosis.

Yes I have changed channels of both router and Sonos. Router is on 4, Sonos on 11. Both are mega-green-starred channels on my WiFi analyzer. (1 is not as good).

Music Library is updated. Firmware on router and NAS is updated.

I have typed this while sitting on hold with support, and it is still a 15 minute hold time and I am late for another call.

@Wits’ end.

Any suggestions, other than setting on hold for a tech?

Diagnostic 1925358464

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Alonzo MosleyAuthor

Headliner I

I haven’t actively done anything with the network (e.g., changing DHCP ranges) - in fact, I am almost positive the last new piece of equipment I’ve added was the NAS in October. This problem has only become really consistent until the last few weeks. (At first I thought maybe it just didn’t like Bob Dylan. But then when it came for Taylor… oh!!!!)

When I looked through the “connected devices” on my router, I didn’t have anything with duplicate addresses. (The Sonos devices, the NAS, a printer, a TV, the PC, and my phone were the only things connected). Is there something else I should be checking, @buzz?

Dan: You're gonna need to get someone to fix my computer. Kim: What's wrong with it? Dan: It's in several pieces on my floor.

buzz

Grand Maestro

Typically, a router will only report items that it has assigned an address and will not indicate duplicates. My current Router (supplied by the ISP) is a mess and will sometimes create a duplicate. At this point I need to remind myself to reboot the Router every 6-8 weeks, else things start getting weird. Last week I caught it assigning a SONOS player an IP address that was clearly reserved for another device. Fortunately the other device was inactive. (Note that it’s not the same installation I was using during my NAS adventure described earlier)

You’ll need a program to check for duplicates. An iPhone/iPad would be a poor choice for installing the program because they do not report full network data to an App.

Alonzo MosleyAuthor

Headliner I

“an iPhone/iPad would be a poor choice” is apropos in many situations, I’ve found!

I had rebooted the router as part of my “troubleshooting” (in quotes because it’s the worst form of troubleshooting, natch), so that should have resolved issues as you’re describing, yes?

Googling “how to detect duplicate IPs on my network” leads to some really deep, arcane solutions… Gulp.

Whether or not this has anything to do with this particular Music Library situation, should I:

Re-assign my Sonos devices in a narrow-ish range (i.e., .201 - .249)?
Exclude that entire range from my DHCP table?

Dan: You're gonna need to get someone to fix my computer. Kim: What's wrong with it? Dan: It's in several pieces on my floor.

Alonzo MosleyAuthor

Headliner I

What’s the channel width on the router? If it’s 40MHz it could be interfering badly with Sonos.

It reads “20/40 MHz”.

It’s a dropdown box with the options:

20/40 MHz
20 MHz
40 MHz

Dan: You're gonna need to get someone to fix my computer. Kim: What's wrong with it? Dan: It's in several pieces on my floor.

Alonzo MosleyAuthor

Headliner I

You’ll need a program to check for duplicates.

Used NetScanTools’ “Duplicate IP Scanner” twice, and both times came back “No Duplicate IPs Found”

Dan: You're gonna need to get someone to fix my computer. Kim: What's wrong with it? Dan: It's in several pieces on my floor.

ratty

What’s the channel width on the router? If it’s 40MHz it could be interfering badly with Sonos.

It reads “20/40 MHz”.

It’s a dropdown box with the options:

20/40 MHz
20 MHz
40 MHz

Change it to "20 MHz".

C

craigski

Local Superstar

Here is a diagram showing the effect of a 40Mhz channel width on 2.4Gz, and why 20Mhz is recommended:

https://www.engeniustech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/blog_nov2b.jpg

I would change the router to channel 6, is Sonos if using 11, and you have seen 1 is “not good”

If the above doesn’t help, is it worth creating a temporary test Music Library on the Windows PC with the Sonos Windows Application, and copy some of the tracks that fail on the NAS. This may help diagnose where the issue is, can be disabled if no longer required, but useful to keep as a test, especially if there are network changes etc.