Playback paused because your account is being used in another location

Hi @TJHooker23 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Please remove YouTube Music from Sonos and add it again:

Remove a music service account from Sonos

Add a music service to Sonos

I hope this helps.

Hi @Corry P 

I did this three times, I also uninstalled and reinstalled YT Music and Sonos Apps, removed YT Music Service, rebooted smartphone and Sonos boxes, …

Spent two hours with Google Support Chat.

So far, nothing helped.

Thank You.

Tobias

Hi @TJHooker23 

Unfortunately, the diagnostics don’t say much more than the app does, in this instance. It seems likely that YouTube Music is applying different restrictions to third-party integrations, but also that this account is in use somewhere else - it’s just that your Google devices and Apps don’t “see” this as an issue.

Is your YouTube Music account signed into any other third-party devices, possibly in a different location? If a device was paused instead of stopped, it may explain what’s happening here.

I checked my Google account, and I have only two devices, an Android phone Samsung Galaxy, and a Windows 10 laptop. Both are in the same location WiFi VDSL2 100mbps. Laptop is switched off. Still the problem that I can play YT Music Premium (9,99 Euro per month) on the Android App, or on the Windows 10 browser, but not on Sonos. I have a Sonos Play:3, Sonos Beam with Sub and 2 One SL, and a Sonos Move.

I used Sonos for several years with Google Music which became YT Music Premium, but a few days ago it just stopped.

Please assist.

Yes, I chatted with Sonos support yesterday for one hour, and they gave me a case number and a specific phone number to call, but once the chat closed, I lost everything. Could you please send me a PM with case and phone?

Hi @TJHooker23 

Sure. Just a moment...

@Corry P It still works only partly after having an extensive support call with Sonos.

After rebooting all Sonos devices over and over again, the YT Music Premium streaming works for a number of songs. However, for some artists and songs I still get the same error message. Specifically for “Alvaro Soler Summer 2021”. I never manage to start it from Sonos, though it works on the YT Music App on the smartphone. After some attempts to play Alvaro Soler on Sonos, it blocks also other artists.

I know this is a very strange behaviour, but I could reproduce this several times, and I am an ICT professional having Google and Sonos for many years.

Please check and assist.

One strange thing is that this Album is called differently in other countries, like in Italy it is called “Estate 2021” which is the Italian term for “Summer 2021”. That should not prevent Sonos of playing it. I switched also the language of my Smartphone to Italian, but still not streaming.

Thank You

Hi @TJHooker23 

It’s good to hear that you can now play from YouTube Music on your Sonos speakers!

I’m not sure what more I, or we, can do. When it comes to streaming, we make sure the speaker does as expected and that the network is sufficient for playback. If any track on YouTube will play on Sonos, then the reason for another track not playing simply has nothing to do with anyone other than YouTube (if it’s repeatable with particular tracks, as you said). 

The issue is isolated to Sonos because YouTube keep a separate server for handling requests made via Sonos devices, but it is still YouTube’s server.

For what it’s worth, I found “Summer Vibes 2021” by Alvaro Soler on YouTube Music and I am able to play it on Sonos (in the UK). Do you know anyone in Italy with YouTube Music and Sonos? If so, perhaps you could ask them to test playback too.

@Corry P I suggest you touch base with YT Music Premium Support. I will send you the ticket number by PM.

For the problem, it remains as I explained. The Album is called “Alvaro Soler Summer Vibes 2021” in the YT Music App, and pleays without problem on Android or Laptop.

On Sonos, the same Album is called in the re-authenticated YT Music account (same user-id) “Alvaro Soler Estate 2021”, and I always get an error message.

Hi @TJHooker23

As this is an issue you are currently experiencing, and to close the loop correctly, it would be better for you to make and maintain direct communication with YouTube Music. If YouTube need further clarification from us they will then reach out via their own internal channels.

Well, for me this sounds similar to this case:

An Album is called differently in the US, the UK, and EU countries, and Sonos is just searching the wrong album on the YT integrated service.

As YT Music App is playing the Album perfectly, this is a Sonos bug.

No. Sonos do not do the search here (how could they without full access to the YT database?), YT do the search at Sonos’ behest. And they do it wrongly (like so many other things with their Sonos integration).

I agree that it sounds a lot like the link you posted.

@controlav@Corry P 

Thank you for reaching out. I understand all the technical details, I studied computer sciences 30 years ago, and since work as ICT professional, I did ISACA CISM and ISC2 CISSP in 2009, and continue to work in ICT as Senior Manager.

How can you leave end users with the suggestions to “check your WiFi” and “reboot your Sonos boxes” when the underlying problem is known for years?

What can I do as end user to improve the way the Sonos back-end servers are connecting to the YT back-end servers?

Please escalate this to Tier 2 or above.

@TJHooker23 

I understand we have narrowed down the issue from it not being a global YouTube Music issue with your Sonos, but to a specific track(s) that you are experiencing. Sonos provides a platform for music services to play through the Sonos system. When you search for a song through YouTube Music, you are searching in their database. This is why we would recommend contacting YouTube Music as they have direct authorship over their database and can investigate directly.

These are standard troubleshooting steps to take, and at the time you couldn’t play any tracks, so it was unclear where the problem was. The issue of particular albums/tracks not being available can only be fixed by YouTube.

Directly? Nothing. Indirectly, you could let YouTube know how you feel - they may work towards doing that if they receive a high volume of contact from customers on the subject.

As community moderators we don't deal with Sonos Customer Care or with YouTube Music directly. Any escalations are handled on a case-by-case basis by these respective teams.

Thank You, I should still recommend that you track those issues as “Known Issues with YT” and not as “Answered” or “Solved”.

I will get back to YT Music Support.

For Sonos Support, I have also a ticket open with them, but I assume there is no point to push this up.

Greetings from sunny Italy.

TJ

Same issue in Japan. Super annoying.

YT Music Support denies that the problem even exists. They claim to have given me a 5 Euro rebate on the next month YT Music subscription, but changed at the same time the billing period, so I paid more than without complaining to them.