Contributor I

AirPlay cuts out on pause

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
August 3, 2019
107 replies
15289 views

I just got a Sonos One (Gen 2) after reading that Airplay was finally working well with it. I was hoping to use it as my speaker when streaming video from my MacBook Pro, but have been hounded by audio issues–even with it connected via Ethernet to my Airport. The audio cuts out if paused for more than a few seconds. The easiest fix has been to go to Volume in the Menu Bar, switch the output device to something else and then back to Sonos. It's a pain to have to do this over and over. The audio comes back without much delay.

I noticed that there is a substantial delay when I go to unpause music that's been paused for a bit as well, but not as bad as when unpausing Netflix or Youtube. The audio also cuts out in minute drops every now and then, which probably just comes from AirPlay sucking up my shitty wifi's bandwidth as I've read in other posts.

Given all the other unresolved issues I have read about and the hassle that was setting this up over the phone since the app's automated setup didn't work, I am thinking I am probably just going to return my speaker. I would rather have a cheap Bluetooth speaker that I don't need to run an additional application for or even have plugged into the wall all the time.

I feel mislead. I don't get the hype for this thing.

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Pinned Reply By Corry P

Hi all.

This was brought to my attention on another post - thanks @joycean

I have done some investigating and found out the following:

AirPlay 2 requires that a buffer be filled prior to playback. Airplay 1 does not. As live system sounds cannot be buffered (you’d need time-travelling software code), when AirPlay-ing from macOS system settings AirPlay 1 is always used.
AirPlay likely times-out if no data is sent (ie. silence), though I cannot find a figure for this period.
AirPlay 1 is not supported by Sonos, but tends to work. Therefore, if you are using AirPlay 1 and sending all system sounds to Sonos, it works, usually, but may have issues like those described here. As AirPlay 1 is not supported by Sonos, we will not be addressing these issues.
macOS Applications (like Safari, Apple Music and Spotify) do support AirPlay2, but you must initiate the connection from that application, not the Mac’s settings. The media stream can then be buffered to the speaker and synced for playback.

In our own testing, we were unable to produce this issue when using AirPlay 2. If you experience these issues while using AirPlay 2 (initiated at the application level rather than at the system level), we would very much like to hear about it. Please get in touch with our technical support team if this is the case, as this is something that we would want to resolve (be it a networking or software issue).

It would be interesting if any of you could recreate the issue as you have before, but while having one media paused (YouTube for example), start something else playing over the AirPlay 1 connection - when you restart the paused media, does it play through Sonos immediately? I suspect so, as the second media playing will have kept the connection to the speaker live. I suspect @eldiets1’s fix of having a minimised window does exactly this.

I hope this information helps you all to use your Sonos speakers with your Apple products in a satisfactory way.

Show previous replies

A

AbhinavArya

Contributor I

I abstained from writing a post in the community for so long. I have been facing this horrible problem for more than two years. I did not even talk to Sonos because looking at the state of affairs in the community forums, it seemed to be a futile exercise. It makes me sad that such a high end, costly product has these petty and stupid issues which must be a hygiene factor.

With all respect, community managers from Sonos only scratch the wounds by asking members to recreate the issue. This is the limit. There are tens of threads where people are so desperately looking for solution to this. Do you really think they are all making this up.

A

Alexander Sivokho

Lyricist I

Hi Sonos Management team,

This post appears to be going on for over 8 months now and I just purchased brand new Home Theater - 5.1 Surround Set and experiencing exactly the same issue with both, Beam and ONE SL’s.

Unfortunately, this is unacceptable for $1,300 speakers set to not be able to play Apple Music for longer than 10 minutes without glitches with disconnecting/pausing and requiring re-connection that takes few minutes to play music again.

Can someone please review this issue ASAP with Airplay random pauses and advise how to resolve it? It just appears to be embarrassing to return such a great home set for this simple but major issue.

Thank you,

Alexander Sivokho

T

Taras Dzedzey

Lyricist I

Count me in, have same problem.

MacBook Pro 2017 playing any Youtube or something from browser over Airplay. Go and pause. after 2 minutes try to resume. No sound for more than 30 seconds but Video continue playing

R

Raim

Lyricist I

I noticed the same problem.

My setup:
MacBook Pro 2017 (macOS 10.15.2) <-- WI-FI 5GHz --> Router MikroTik 952Ui <-- Wire --> Sonos ONE <-- SonosNet --> Sonos ONE SL

I submitted my diagnostics:
Your confirmation number is: 1132744257.

Steps to reproduce:
- Using macOS
- Connect to Sonos speakers using AirPlay (in sound preferences, under the volume adjustment icon)
- Go to youtube.com using Chrome (84.0.4135.1)/Safari (13.0.4) browser
- Start playing a video (any video will do)
- Stop the video for say 30 sec or more
- Start playing the video again
- The video is played without sound for about 40 seconds
- After about 40 sec the sound plays synchronously with the video

The interesting point is that there is traffic to Sonos after starting playing a video but the sound comes after some time:

I

IBMDude

Lyricist III

@Sonos , do you have any update on this? I still like my Sonos Beam, but this problem is well documented by now and there are tons of people who would appreciate a workaround or a fix!

G

GoopNugget

Lyricist I

yep same issue here. i have to deselect sonos speaker and then reselect it after a pause.

I

icko2

Contributor I

I have 2x Play 1SL and experiencing the same issue with Mac OS 10.14 and 10.15.

It is very frustrating and destroys the good experience of using the speakers.

@Sonos you must provide some response after years of reporting on the issue.
It’s a major bug!

This itself, makes me reconsider my opinion about the brand and I am not recommending it to a friend.

I

IBMDude

Lyricist III

On twitter with Sonos Support handle. Trying diffferent things from locking down the wireless AP’s channel to Channel 6. Moving the AP closer, etc. No dice. I cannot believe I was dumb enough to buy another Beam for my home office after giving my first one to my parents for their TV. Ah well, the triumph of hope over experience!

G

gaving

Lyricist I

I just figured this was an issue with my wifi and hoped wiring it up would sort it.

Pretty stunned it didn’t help and that this looks like a software glitch! :scream:

I

IBMDude

Lyricist III

Since I bought the Beam from Costco, I am taking it back to them. This bug was too much of an irritant for me unfortunately. However, for those who have this problem, there is a workaround if your beam is accessible, i.e. within reach. Pressing the pause/play button ON THE BEAM, almost always works in picking it up fairly immediately. If you do the same from your iOS device though, it is a hit or miss - mostly a miss. But if you want to walk over to your Sonos device and press the button there, it almost always works. Good luck with your setup!

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