music greyed out on phone and won't play on Sonos.

  • 20 October 2020
  • 8 replies
  • 1371 views

Suddenly we unable to play some of our music which we have ripped into iTunes and uploaded to Apple Music. On our phones, although it’s greyed out it will play but those songs won’t play on Sonos? Those songs are also greyed out on Sonos but won’t play. Do you have advice you can offer, many thanks. 


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8 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @clare1.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us, I understand it can be quite confusi8ng as to what is going on with the Sonos system. Let me help you out.

I would like to ask some questions to better understand what is going on.

  • Aside from Apple music, does any other music service work like Spotify, Sonos Radio, Pandora, etc if applicable?
  • Can we try rebooting the Sonos device starting with the Sonos device connected to the router via ethernet cable if applicable, if not let's start with the device close to the router? (unplug the device from power and plug it back in after 10-15 seconds)
  • Can we submit a diagnostic so we can further check what is going on?
  • Did you notice anything happened prior to it was still working and the moment it stopped working?
  • Did any power outage happen?

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. The more information you provide, the more we can better help.

Thanks,

Hello Paul

we have tried the reboot - no change. We haven’t had any power outage. Still a lot of our music is greyed out. 
 

I have submitted a diagnostic report.

Many thanks Clare 

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @clare1.

Thanks for the update and immediate detailed response.

I would like to ask if you can try re-submitting a diagnostic and posting the confirmation number here in this thread so I can check it out for you.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. The more information you provide, the more we can better help.

Thanks,

Hi Paul

just resubmitted the diagnostics and the code is 2114284907.

many thanks

 

clare 

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @clare1.

Thanks for your immediate response and for resubmitting a diagnostic.

Based on the provided diagnostic, We have detected multiple router/extenders/access points of the same Wifi Name. These pieces of hardware (if not configured properly) are the cause of you unable to play music on your Sonos system.

I would like to recommend the following guidelines to better understand and configure them so that Sonos would work seamlessly and for the issue to no longer persists.

 I would suggest reaching out to the manufacturer of the mesh system so that the mesh system can be configured in bridge mode or access point mode or which option best fits your preference.

  • Have each access point have their own unique Wifi name so you and your mobile controller do not get confused about what and where to connect to access your Sonos system.
  • Disable Wifi Capabilities of the Main router that provides connection directly to your ISP or internet provider.
  • Disable the DHCP or IP-address generation of the Access point and only allow the main router to generate the IP-addresses to avoid IP-address mismatch or IP-address duplicates.
  • Wire a Sonos device to one of the routers/access points to get them to stay on a single network (having each access point have their own unique WiFi names).

 Let me share with you a topic in this community that discusses multiple routers. You can share and ask questions or comments on that topic if something is not clear. 

I hope this helps.

Please let me know if you have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

Hi Paul

we don’t seem to have a wifi problem as music plays ok. Our problem is that not all the song will play because they have been greyed out on our Apple playlist. 
 

When playing music straight off the phone all the music works, even though it is still greyed out

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Are they in a supported format? Is there any copy protection on the files?

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @clare1.

Thanks for the detailed and immediate response.

On top of what @nik9669a asked, I would also like to ask the following questions to better understand the situation more.

  • Do other music services work like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, etc?
  • Have these playlist worked before?
  • If yes, What were the changes prior it was still working and the moment they stopped working?
  • Was there a new mobile controller used?
  • Was there a new computer used?
  • Can we submit a diagnostic so we can further check what is going on?

I would also like to suggest some basic troubleshooting steps that might help out

  1. Reboot the router by unplugging it from power and plugging it back after 10-15 seconds to refresh network connectivity and delete temporary data stored on the router.
  2. Reboot your Sonos device (unplug them from power and plug them back after 10-15 seconds).
  3. Force close and re-open the Sonos app
  4. Test if the issue persists.

After doing the basic steps above, if the issue stops then we’re good. If not I would like to recommend the following steps.

  • Open iTunes on the computer.
  • Select Songs from the left side option on iTunes.
  • Besides the song title, there is a cloud icon. Click on the cloud icon and then click on the cloud figure icon on all songs with a cloud icon beside their corresponding title. This is to download the songs to the computer since that indicates that the songs are not on the computer but is on iTunes Cloud.
  • Once all cloud icons have been clicked and removed, Remove the music library from the Sonos app.
  • Re-add the music library from the Sonos app.
  • Test to see if everything works.

I would also like to suggest the following guides to check if these things would also help fix the issue.

  1. I had to change permissions for the folder where my music is stored.  It was set to “Custom,” and I changed it to “Read & Write.”
  2. I then went to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy.  Under “Full Disc Access,” both the Sonos program AND SonosLibraryServer must be allowed.
  3. Finally, the computer name and NetBIOS name must be exactly the same in both System Preferences > Sharing - and in System Preferences > Network > Advanced > WINS.

After that, I updated the Music Library and everything was there.

I hope this helps.

Please let me know how it goes. We are always here to help out.

Thanks,

.