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Answered

Sonos Port Usage - Changed?

  • October 14, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 110 views
lewisc
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We've installed hundreds of Sonos Ports, used as both an input, output, or both.

Today at a customers we had the following occurrence when adding a Port (to their existing system) which is completely different to what we've experienced before.

System:

  • Living room - Amp
  • Snug - Arc, Amp, Sub
  • Kitchen - Amp
  • (New zone) Streamer - Port with turntable as an input 

Sonos port added, updated, configured & turntable plugged in correctly.

 

If you wanted to listen to the turntable in the living room; you'd select Living Room as the zone, then select line in > Streamer - Turntable as the source, but when selecting this, the source wouldn't change.

Sonos support said that the Port zone has to be grouped with the zone where you want the line in source playing.

We're pretty sure that was never the case but further testing proved it to be the only way it would work on this system. 

 

Any thoughts?

Best answer by kdowling

That doesn’t sound right to me.

It should work like described here:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/use-line-in-on-sonos

and/or

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/play-line-in-on-your-sonos-port 

Two weeks ago, when my port was on S2, it worked like that. I’ve since downgraded my port to S1 and it still works like that. The port is not grouped with any other device. The port is not “playing”. I start the turntable, make sure the room I want to play in is selected. Chose “line-in” from the home screen. Select the source device (turntable) and it comes out the speakers.

I usually have the port autoplay enabled so that as soon as I start the turntable (after a short delay) I hear it in the family room.

Also, using port for line-in and line-out works. Whatever source is “playing” on the port, comes out the line-out. The source can be it’s line-in. Again, this worked two weeks ago on S2 and still works this way on S1.

A suppose this could have changed on S2 in the last two weeks, but I highly doubt it. It is documented to work the way I described and I haven’t seen any documents saying otherwise. If it doesn’t still work this way on S2, I’d say it’s got to be a bug.

Authorised Sonos Installer

5 replies

K
  • kayla4458
  • Lyricist II
  • 3 replies
  • October 14, 2025

yeah, that’s a weird one — you’re right, historically you could pick a line-in source from another Port or Connect without having to group zones first. the player receiving the stream would just pull it directly once you selected the source.

what’s happening now sounds like a backend change in how Sonos handles line-in routing — likely tied to the newer S2 firmware and updated audio path logic. grouping the Port with the playback zone forces a shared stream session instead of an independent line-in fetch, which explains why that’s now required.

if you’ve confirmed all devices are on the latest firmware and the Port’s line-in settings (compression, autoplay target, etc.) look normal, then this is probably not a misconfig — it’s just how the system behaves now. might be worth flagging through your installer channel or partner contact so Sonos can confirm whether this was intentional or an unintended change in the latest update.

lewisc
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  • lewisc
  • Author
  • Headliner I
  • 137 replies
  • October 14, 2025

​@kayla4458 I initially thought it was a temporary bug which is fairly common so I switched from iOS to and Android device and the issue was the same. I checked the network settings (UniFi) and all seemed okay. Also factory reset the Port and setup again but still the same issue. 

Sonos support also stated that using a single Sonos Port as a line in and line out is 'not a supported configuration' i.e. you would require 2x Ports 🤔

Authorised Sonos Installer
K
  • kdowling
  • 56 replies
  • Answer
  • October 15, 2025

That doesn’t sound right to me.

It should work like described here:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/use-line-in-on-sonos

and/or

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/play-line-in-on-your-sonos-port 

Two weeks ago, when my port was on S2, it worked like that. I’ve since downgraded my port to S1 and it still works like that. The port is not grouped with any other device. The port is not “playing”. I start the turntable, make sure the room I want to play in is selected. Chose “line-in” from the home screen. Select the source device (turntable) and it comes out the speakers.

I usually have the port autoplay enabled so that as soon as I start the turntable (after a short delay) I hear it in the family room.

Also, using port for line-in and line-out works. Whatever source is “playing” on the port, comes out the line-out. The source can be it’s line-in. Again, this worked two weeks ago on S2 and still works this way on S1.

A suppose this could have changed on S2 in the last two weeks, but I highly doubt it. It is documented to work the way I described and I haven’t seen any documents saying otherwise. If it doesn’t still work this way on S2, I’d say it’s got to be a bug.

Stanley_4
  • Stanley_4
  • Lead Maestro
  • 12383 replies
  • October 15, 2025

You can check the release notes to (usually) see when updates are released. It may be a couple weeks after that before they are available to your Sonos.

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/release-notes-sonos-app-updates

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/release-notes-sonos-system-updates

Looks like Oct 8 was the latest, so by the 22nd all should have access.

C
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  • craigski
  • Local Superstar
  • 904 replies
  • October 15, 2025

​@lewisc what version? I’m running 91.0-70011 and is working as it always has, ie select room, then line in source, no need to group. Also using Autoplay feature.


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