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azegerman
Contributor I
April 24, 2021

Airplay connection sometimes unavailable

  • April 24, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 55 views

Hi all,

Hope to get some help with an issue we have been having for some time. We operate a yoga studio and have Sonos equipment throughout. Our teachers bring their own devices with their own music so we’re dealing with multiple makes/models and streaming services. Some staff use the Sonos Controller app, others do not.

In one of our studios we have two Play:1 devices (wifi) and a Play:5 (gen 2) device (ethernet). Sometimes we are not able to connect to the speakers via Airplay on an Apple device. I get the “cannot connect” error. This seems to affect mostly the hard-wired Play:5. What I found is that if I can connect one of the speakers, usually one of the Play:1 models, then I can group the speakers via the controller app on my PC and the speakers will immediately work. It’s almost like the controller has a ‘lock’ on the speakers and is refusing the AirPlay connection, even when no music is playing and the previous user has left the building. 

So even though I have a work-around, I’d like to understand what's happening so I can provide guidance to our (not always tech-savvy) staff.

 

PS: forgot to mention the problem seems to pop up in particular when the previous user used the “Line-in” source. Not always the case though….

 

Thanks,

Arno

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1 reply

Corry P
Corry P
Sonos Staff
April 26, 2021

Hi @azegerman 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

First off, the Play:1s do not support AirPlay - do you perhaps have Sonos Ones?

I would not suspect Line-In to cause any problems, but if teachers using AirPlay just walk away with their Apple device at the end of their lesson, rather than closing the AirPlay connection on that device, I could see this causing problems - especially if the next teacher is in straight after them. So, the first thing I recommend is asking them to close AirPlay sessions when they finish.

The router can also cause problems - assuming it’s not an enterprise-level device, I recommend you switch it off for 30 seconds and switch back on. You may want to repeat this every couple of months.

Lastly, I recommend that you group Sonos rooms in the app prior to playback - using AirPlay to “group” the speakers may be resulting in addition work for the system and reducing that may help matters.

 

 

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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