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

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smaksimoff

Lyricist I

Same issue on a NEW Sonos Five.

MacOS 10.15.5

D

DocIsInDaHouse

Lyricist I

Same here : MBP Catalina 10.15.4 & 2x One SL

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serj popkov

Lyricist I

Same issue here.

@Ryan S any update on this?

this is really disappointing - can’t really recommend Sonos for anyone for now.

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SonoS_DaD

Lyricist I

+1 - I’m also experiencing this. Finally registered just to post about this topic:

I use my i5 Mac Mini at my Desk and for its speakers I thought I’d utilize a stereo pair of Sonos One devices. I’m able to recreate this issue 100% each time:

Start playing music on the device (select “This computer” on spotify).
Plays successfully and will play without interruptions from song to song.
Pause song.
Play song and it won’t proceed although it’s listed as still connected successfully via Airplay.
Switch back to normal speaker output and swap back to stereo pair sonos.
Playback resumes.

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SonoS_DaD

Lyricist I

Found a fix!

A third-party application for Mac called SonoAir works consistently for me. When you launch the application it will detect all Airplay compatible devices and add them to the sound menu. Your speaker will show up as “Speakername+.” Select that one and it should connect immediately (much faster than previously).

I’ve tested a number of intervals and across multiple applications (Spotify, Youtube, Chrome, local sounds) pausing or closing these apps completey. I have been unable to recreate the issue that I was having beforehand.

The only downside is there is a delay in sound output. This can range from 1-5 seconds at times. I was experiencing delays using the native configuration but I don’t believe it was this long. The app is free (I won’t link the site so please Google the name of it) but the developer accepts donations to continue improving it.

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iuno

Lyricist I

Hi everyone,

I have a imperfect fix.

If you press play using the Apple remote and you hear nothing, clicking pause/play from the Sonos App (on your phone) will kick the sound back in.

It's not a perfect solution for obvious reasons, but it's brought some light relief as I would rather do this than have to connect/reconnect the speakers everytime which is what I have had to do so far….

M

marczxc

Lyricist I

I can’t believe that such a common action is still buggy after so much time. This is literally frustrating me more and more each day and I’m close to abandoning the Sonos ecosystem.

Airgetlam

It’s odd to me that you’re having such difficulties. I use AirPlay 2 on two different Sonos systems without issue.

It leads me to think that there’s something different about your local environment than mine that’s causing the problem, but there just isn’t enough information, beyond your frustration, to help figure it out.

Bruce

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talisman83

Lyricist I

Is there still no fix for this?