Avid Contributor III

Answered

Airplay to Sonos One speaker with only cellular internet connectivity available

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
December 15, 2020
23 replies
2823 views

I am trying to find a way of playing music from my iPhone via my Sonos One speaker at a location where cellular data is available but there is no LAN or internet connectivity available via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Is it possible to use a Sonos One on a closed network without internet connectivity? Or does Airplay necessarily rely on being able to connect to the Sonos cloud? If so, exactly what hardware do I need to create a Wi-Fi signal that I can use to connect to the speaker via Airplay? Or is there a way I can turn a cellular data signal into a Wi-Fi signal and for it to behave like a regular local area WI-Fi network?

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Best answer by Ken_Griffiths

You need two mobile devices to do this, one mobile device needs to be setup as a WiFi Hotspot/Router and the other is used with the S2 Sonos controller App.

Connect the controller device to the WiFi Hotspot and either add another wireless network to the Sonos Controller App or ‘factory reset’ and setup the Sonos speaker on the nearby broadcasting WiFi Hotspot signal. Note when you factory reset a device for use in this way it will lose all previous settings and services.

To add an additional wireless network you can do the following steps:

Ensure the mobile device is connected to the new WiFi network (Hotspot).
Open the Sonos app and wait while it searches for your existing Sonos system.
- If the app shows “We can’t connect to Sonos,” tap This isn’t working.
Tap More Options, then Update Wi-Fi Settings.
Follow the instructions to connect your previously setup speaker to the new WiFi network.

Some Sonos products, can remember the credentials for up to 16 wireless networks. When you bring your speaker back home, it may automatically reconnect to your WiFi network.

It’s often easier to factory reset the Sonos product for mobile setup and use in this way.

Once the speaker setup is complete on the Hotspot, you can then either use the Sonos App to play music etc. to the speaker or use other Apps on the controller device to ‘Connect’/‘Airplay’ to the speaker too.

Show previous replies

Ken_Griffiths

A further thought. Is the speaker currently set up with your home network credentials? If so you could use the same SSID and password for your mobile hotspot.

Yes the speaker is currently set up with my home network credentials. An iPhone’s hotspot SSID is the iPhone’s name. I don’t really want this to be the same as the SSID of my home Wi-Fi network. Is there a way of changing the SSID of the iPhone’s hotspot without changing the iPhone’s name attribute?

Yes, but please note if you decide to go this route all the system will switchover to the new WiFi signal and not just one speaker… that’s assuming you may have more than one device, so you still might find a factory reset of just the one device as being the easier option.

Ken_Griffiths

So basically the options are:

Switch off your router and connect your mobile controller to the new mobile hotspot and follow the prompts to find your speaker and set it up on a new WiFi signal. (See screenshot attached for what you will see to begin to setup your devices on the Hotspot)
Whilst on current WiFi signal and connected to the speaker via the App change the WiFi network in “Settings/System/Networks/Wireless Setup” - but this changes it for all speakers and not just the one device
Factory reset the speaker and setup as new device on the Hotspot signal (using a separate mobile (connected to Hotspot) as the Sonos Controller )

M

Matty72Author

Avid Contributor III

@Matty72 . You seem to have conflicting information in your post. You say there is no LAN, then ask about whether things will work on a closed network.

We know there is no connection to the Internet, but I am not sure what the rest of the picture is. Please would you clarify?

I would ideally like to be able to setup a LAN without internet connectivity and play music to my Sonos One speakers that is stored locally on my iPhone via Airplay. I am wondering what hardware I would require to achieve this. Is it possible to achieve a Wi-Fi signal to create a local network without internet connectivity?

Ken_Griffiths

@Matty72 . You seem to have conflicting information in your post. You say there is no LAN, then ask about whether things will work on a closed network.

We know there is no connection to the Internet, but I am not sure what the rest of the picture is. Please would you clarify?

I would ideally like to be able to setup a LAN without internet connectivity and play music to my Sonos One speakers that is stored locally on my iPhone via Airplay. I am wondering what hardware I would require to achieve this. Is it possible to achieve a Wi-Fi signal to create a local network without internet connectivity?

Just setup as normal first of all (the devices have to be registered to your Sonos account online initially) then just switch off the WAN side of the router, or simply remove it’s cable and you should then have it working locally on the Wifi signal only. If that’s the type of thing you’re looking for?

Ken_Griffiths

I should add that I don’t think you can do that with a mobile phone Hotpot, as switching off ‘mobile data’ I believe, (may) switch off the WiFi Hotspot service… er .. that might need to be checked, as I’m not sure if it applies to every type of mobile device, but it is the case for an iOS device.

M

Matty72Author

Avid Contributor III

So basically the options are:

Switch off your router and connect your mobile controller to the new mobile hotspot and follow the prompts to find your speaker and set it up on a new WiFi signal. (See screenshot attached for what you will see to begin to setup your devices on the Hotspot)
Whilst on current WiFi signal and connected to the speaker via the App change the WiFi network in “Settings/System/Networks/Wireless Setup” - but this changes it for all speakers and not just the one device
Factory reset the speaker and setup as new device on the Hotspot signal (using a separate mobile (connected to Hotspot) as the Sonos Controller )

I reset the Sonos One to factory default and was able to successfully connect it to the hotspot network. Whilst I can see what is playing on the speaker from the iPhone that is acting as the router, I can only play music from the controller iPhone. Is this the expected behaviour?

Ken_Griffiths

So basically the options are:

Switch off your router and connect your mobile controller to the new mobile hotspot and follow the prompts to find your speaker and set it up on a new WiFi signal. (See screenshot attached for what you will see to begin to setup your devices on the Hotspot)
Whilst on current WiFi signal and connected to the speaker via the App change the WiFi network in “Settings/System/Networks/Wireless Setup” - but this changes it for all speakers and not just the one device
Factory reset the speaker and setup as new device on the Hotspot signal (using a separate mobile (connected to Hotspot) as the Sonos Controller )

I reset the Sonos One to factory default and was able to successfully connect it to the hotspot network. Whilst I can see what is playing on the speaker from the iPhone that is acting as the router, I can only play music from the controller iPhone. Is this the expected behaviour?

Yes, or you can play from any other device connected to the Hotspot… just not anything on the Hotspot device (think of that Hotspot mobile as just being your network router only).

M

Matty72Author

Avid Contributor III

You need two mobile devices to do this, one mobile device needs to be setup as a WiFi Hotspot/Router and the other is used with the S2 Sonos controller App.

Connect the controller device to the WiFi Hotspot and either add another wireless network to the Sonos Controller App or ‘factory reset’ and setup the Sonos speaker on the nearby broadcasting WiFi Hotspot signal. Note when you factory reset a device for use in this way it will lose all previous settings and services.

To add an additional wireless network you can do the following steps:

Ensure the mobile device is connected to the new WiFi network (Hotspot).
Open the Sonos app and wait while it searches for your existing Sonos system.
- If the app shows “We can’t connect to Sonos,” tap This isn’t working.
Tap More Options, then Update Wi-Fi Settings.
Follow the instructions to connect your previously setup speaker to the new WiFi network.

Some Sonos products, can remember the credentials for up to 16 wireless networks. When you bring your speaker back home, it may automatically reconnect to your WiFi network.

It’s often easier to factory reset the Sonos product for mobile setup and use in this way.

Once the speaker setup is complete on the Hotspot, you can then either use the Sonos App to play music etc. to the speaker or use other Apps on the controller device to ‘Connect’/‘Airplay’ to the speaker too.

To reconnect the Sonos One to my home network I had to again reset it to factory default. Is the remembering 16 wireless networks feature not supported with the Sonos One product?

Ken_Griffiths

You need two mobile devices to do this, one mobile device needs to be setup as a WiFi Hotspot/Router and the other is used with the S2 Sonos controller App.

Connect the controller device to the WiFi Hotspot and either add another wireless network to the Sonos Controller App or ‘factory reset’ and setup the Sonos speaker on the nearby broadcasting WiFi Hotspot signal. Note when you factory reset a device for use in this way it will lose all previous settings and services.

To add an additional wireless network you can do the following steps:

Ensure the mobile device is connected to the new WiFi network (Hotspot).
Open the Sonos app and wait while it searches for your existing Sonos system.
- If the app shows “We can’t connect to Sonos,” tap This isn’t working.
Tap More Options, then Update Wi-Fi Settings.
Follow the instructions to connect your previously setup speaker to the new WiFi network.

Some Sonos products, can remember the credentials for up to 16 wireless networks. When you bring your speaker back home, it may automatically reconnect to your WiFi network.

It’s often easier to factory reset the Sonos product for mobile setup and use in this way.

Once the speaker setup is complete on the Hotspot, you can then either use the Sonos App to play music etc. to the speaker or use other Apps on the controller device to ‘Connect’/‘Airplay’ to the speaker too.

To reconnect the Sonos One to my home network I had to again reset it to factory default. Is the remembering 16 wireless networks feature not supported with the Sonos One product?

Yes they are, but that’s only if you add the new WiFi network to the existing Sonos Household, rather than factory resetting the speaker to create a new one. It certainly has done that here and there are other ‘not in use’ networks showing in my Apps Network Settings.

M

Matty72Author

Avid Contributor III

@Matty72 . You seem to have conflicting information in your post. You say there is no LAN, then ask about whether things will work on a closed network.

We know there is no connection to the Internet, but I am not sure what the rest of the picture is. Please would you clarify?

I would ideally like to be able to setup a LAN without internet connectivity and play music to my Sonos One speakers that is stored locally on my iPhone via Airplay. I am wondering what hardware I would require to achieve this. Is it possible to achieve a Wi-Fi signal to create a local network without internet connectivity?

I figured out how to achieve this. I have an ASUS modem router which I setup and connected to my home broadband. Internet connectivity was required to register the network and Sonos One speaker onto my Sonos account. Once that was completed, I was able to disconnect the modem router from the internet and I was then able to remain connected and continue to play music via AirPlay.tp the Sonos One. Moreover, I discovered that my iPhone utilises its cellular data connection for internet connectivity while connected to the Wi-Fi signal from the modem router which is disconnected from my home broadband. I anticipated that my iPhone would not have internet connectivity in this scenario,

I am still finding that I need to factory reset my Sonos One each time I change Wi-Fi networks. Is switching between Wi-Fi networks without having to factory reset each time a supported feature? If so, what exactly is the process to get this to work?

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community