Sonos App controls no longer appear on your lock screen



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This is sonos response to me today. They have no plans to fix the issue. It’s a big FU to all us Apple TV and iPhone users. Basically you have to turn off AirPlay every time you want to play music. I wish I never invested $500 in my system. Sonos you suck

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So something weird happened yesterday. I was actually able to control everything that was being played on my Sonos Beam right from my iPhone's lock screen. And this while there was an Apple TV running on the same network with Airplay enabled.

For content that was being played on Apple TV I was only able to control volume from the lock screen. Playing music, I had access to all controls.

I figured it was a software update that fixed this, but when I woke up this morning it was gone. And now I want it back. Does anyone know how this could have happened? Is it a bug? Reproducible?
agree the update has caused a lot of problems and doesn't seem to have improved anything Shame On Sonos
So something weird happened yesterday. I was actually able to control everything that was being played on my Sonos Beam right from my iPhone's lock screen. And this while there was an Apple TV running on the same network with Airplay enabled.

For content that was being played on Apple TV I was only able to control volume from the lock screen. Playing music, I had access to all controls.

I figured it was a software update that fixed this, but when I woke up this morning it was gone. And now I want it back. Does anyone know how this could have happened? Is it a bug? Reproducible?


You can control an Airplay 2 source (i.e. the Apple TV) from the lock screen. What you cannot do is control the Sonos app from the lock screen.
So something weird happened yesterday. I was actually able to control everything that was being played on my Sonos Beam right from my iPhone's lock screen. And this while there was an Apple TV running on the same network with Airplay enabled.

For content that was being played on Apple TV I was only able to control volume from the lock screen. Playing music, I had access to all controls.

I figured it was a software update that fixed this, but when I woke up this morning it was gone. And now I want it back. Does anyone know how this could have happened? Is it a bug? Reproducible?


You can control an Airplay 2 source (i.e. the Apple TV) from the lock screen. What you cannot do is control the Sonos app from the lock screen.


That's the weird thing - yesterday I did control the Sonos app from the lock screen.
So, I went ahead and turned off AirPlay on all 3 of our Apple TV units (we rarely use it anyway, and then only on one of them). Lock screen and Apple Watch control immediately returned. I did not have to may any chances on my Mac, our two MacBooks or any of our iPhones or iPads. While not ideal, this works for now. Glad to have this functionality back.
Interesting to read: Sonos was using a workaround for lock screen controls - playing silent music?!

https://www.johnlarge.co.uk/sonos-lock-screen-controls-broken-on-ios-after-version-9-0-update/
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Anyone hear anything new on this?

I’ve disabled Airplay on all my Apple TVs, reset the Sonos controller, rebooted....still not getting my lock screen controls back. What am I doing wrong?
So like others I am really annoyed by the latest "update". I invested a lot in my Sonos system (5 Connects, 2 Connect Amps, 1 Play1) and I regularly use my iPhone lock screen controls and my Apple Watch to control it. I followed others advice and went through and disabled AirPlay on all my Apple TVs and disconnected my Integra receiver from my network, as apparently there is no way to manually disable AirPlay. I was then able to get my lock screen controls back.

However I noticed some odd behavior which I don't think has been mentioned here. If I play an Apple Music playlist from within Sonos, my lock screen controls disappear again. If I go back to Sirius or a non-Apple Music source, they come back. I thought I was going crazy at first but tried it a few times with the same results.

So Apple Music, even with AirPlay disabled seems to mess things up. And I was careful to close all Music-related apps (including Apple Music) on my iPhone before doing any of this (not sure if that's necessary).

Anyone else notice that Apple Music screws things up even if AirPlay is disabled?
This is ridiculous! Sonos - you should bring back functionality for those of us who use AirPlay devices such as Apple TV. It truly makes me re think my future options of upgrading etc. I'm not going to buy compatible devices just for you. Fix it.
This is ridiculous! Sonos - you should bring back functionality for those of us who use AirPlay devices such as Apple TV. It truly makes me re think my future options of upgrading etc. I'm not going to buy compatible devices just for you. Fix it.

You should take a look at the link @WouterT provided. It does a pretty good job of explaining the issue I think. Maybe Sonos can figure out a way to 'rehack' it to get it to work, but I think it's unlikely they haven't already fully explored the possiblitieis. An iOS change that actually supports the functionality you want would surely be a better solution. If I understand it all correctly, you aren't going to find another home audio system that has lock screen controls on an iPhone since it's not supported by Apple.
Yeah, this is still frustrating me. I would really appreciate if Sonos would fix this immediately. Been eying some of the Alexa enabled speakers, but will not be buying any more (I have 4, a bridge and amp) until this is fixed.
SUPER ANGRY AND DISAPPOINTED. Really? Completely functional pre-update. No warning on the app about what was getting ready to be taken away.

FIX YOUR STUPID APP. This is why no one ever wants to update, because you're either effing up the UX, or taking basic functionality away. So not impressed with your company right now.
If you're just venting...ok. If you aren't interesting in airplay 2 and want your lock screen controls back, read through the thread a bit as the steps to get the lock screen controls back are spelled out a few times.
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If you're just venting...ok. If you aren't interesting in airplay 2 and want your lock screen controls back, read through the thread a bit as the steps to get the lock screen controls back are spelled out a few times.
The steps you mention includes disabling airplay from AppleTV and other devices using airplay. For me and many others that is not an option at all, because we use ours AppleTV`s every day.
The only solution for us would be to have an option to disable airplay 2 in Sonos-meny and ger the lock-screen controls back. I dont see why we should have airplay 2 functionality at all, as Sonos functioned super for us as it was before.
If you're just venting...ok. If you aren't interesting in airplay 2 and want your lock screen controls back, read through the thread a bit as the steps to get the lock screen controls back are spelled out a few times.
The steps you mention includes disabling airplay from AppleTV and other devices using airplay. For me and many others that is not an option at all, because we use ours AppleTV`s every day.


Which is why I prefaced the statement with 'if'.

The only solution for us would be to have an option to disable airplay 2 in Sonos-meny and ger the lock-screen controls back. I dont see why we should have airplay 2 functionality at all, as Sonos functioned super for us as it was before.


I'm not sure I understand what your saying as I think auto-correct may have messed with it, but if you're saying that you would like an option in Sonos to turn off Sonos speakers as airplay compatible and thus get the lock screen controls back....yea, I don't know why that's not an option. Since airplay 2 was live with Apple before it was live with Sonos, and the lockscreen controls were there in that middle timeframe, it seems like this would be possible, but I don't know for sure. As well, Apple could resolve the issue by implementing a proper way for home audio systems to use the lock screen, as android phones do. I am kind of doubtful that Apple will get enough pressure to do that though.
This is absolutely ridiculous. It was so easy before to stop music or turn up volume. You need to fix this ASAP.
That will teach Sonos to release a “hack” unsupported by Apple in order to provide functionality to iOS users. Given the number of complaints, and anger generated by the fact that Apple made a change that stopped the “hack” from continuing to work, Sonos would have been better off not releasing it until they could get official support for the process from Apple, which I suspect they’re still waiting on.
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SOLUTION!!!

This works with my setup. Macs, IPads, Apple Watch, iPhone and 3 Airport Extremes.

1. Create a guest network.
2. Put all your devices that use airplay on the guest network.
3. Leave Sonos on your default network.
4. When need to stream to Airplay devices log in to guest network.

Have a nice day! :D


These fixes are all like one step above "if you don't use a PIN to lock your phone, you won't have to enter a PIN to access the Sonos controls!"
This is awful 😞 I just want to disable airplay 2 completely within Sonos but keep the ability to airplay to my Apple TV or HomePod! I have no airplay-enabled Sonos gear...

Please make this optional Sonos! The lock screen and Apple Watch controls are too useful to lose :@

EDIT: I’m not sure it’s even possible to disable Airplay on the HomePod, so it sounds like as soon as you bring one of those into your network, it hobbles the lock screen functionality for all your non-airplay Sonos
There is an app that solves this problem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njaDky_p6aM
You may have heard this already, but iOS does not natively provide a way to control devices on your home network from the lock screen in iOS, the controls are only available for audio being played on the device itself. Because of this, the Sonos implementation of lock screen controls was built in a way that's no longer viable and with the launch of AirPlay 2 on Sonos.

Well, how do Spotify do it? Using Spotify connect, Spotify plays through Sonos Speakers. And you get the lockscreen controls after the Sonos 9.0 upgrade and with airplay 2 devices, like apple TV gen 4, running. Spotify is NOT playing on the device itself. You can remove spotify from memory, take the iPod to another location, even destroy it if you want, and Spotify continues playing through the Sonos Speakers. So your statement "the controls are only available for audio being played on the device itself" is incorrect. If we can have the lockscreen control when using Spotify connect with airplay enabled devices on the network, then why we have it when using the Sonos app? Perhaps the Sonos developers should ask Spotify how they do it.


And Deezer. I could control Deezer from the lock screen, Apple Watch and still allow Airplay to be enabled on my Apple TV. I use a mix of Bluesound Nodes in the office and studio and Sonos in the house. I think I'll just move to Bluesound.
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Today the lock-screen control suddenly came back on my iPad and on me and my daughters iPhones:D 🆒
I havent noticed any updates for Sonos, but perhaps its been updated quiet without saying so ? I feel good now 😃
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But today the control is gone again, I suspect the reason why the control suddenly functioned yesterday was caused by some restarts of our router because our internetprovider had problem with their system. Our Apple-TV’s was probably not reached proper connection with the network at the time I found the lock-screen control in function.
Today all units is connected to the network, an lock-screen controls is blocked again 😠