Music skipping to next track

Try some of the troubleshooting tips in this article:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/305?language=en_US

If there is a data starvation issue, players will move on to the next track.

It is unfortunate that some of the diagnostic information is hidden from us. The newer units do not populate the left column of the Network Matrix.

There is a little raw data available in /proc/ath_rincon/status and /sbin/ifconfig for each Room. None of this is defined beyond what you see and can deduce. It would be interesting to watch for changes in error counts. If error counts move faster for one unit compared to the others, this is probably a hint. A problem is you don’t have very good control over the logging interval. Most of the data, but not all, is reset between page refreshes.

A phone/pad WiFi scanner App can be useful tracking down sources of interference, such as unfortunate WiFi channel assignments of nearby clients and access points. Android is much more useful than iOS for this sort of App.

PING each player and look for dropped packets and PING time.

I looked through the suggestions in that link and I don’t think any of them are a problem. Noise floors in the network matrix are all around -100 to -113 which seems good. When I stream FLAC files from my Nas over Sonos there is no skipping and we are able to stream 4K videos without any issues. It’s only Sonos streaming music that has a problem.

PING each player and look for dropped packets and PING time.

I gave this a try for a couple zones and found return times in the range of 2 - 20 ms. There were no dropped packets for the short time I let it run. However, I think the fact that music plays fine from the Nas suggests that it’s not a wireless interference problem. 

There is a little raw data available in /proc/ath_rincon/status and /sbin/ifconfig for each Room. None of this is defined beyond what you see and can deduce. It would be interesting to watch for changes in error counts. If error counts move faster for one unit compared to the others…

I’ll try keeping an eye on this. The status page is reporting a large number of PHY errors since the last reset. The number in one case was 2774417 for one of the players, but it does reset between refreshes. The most recent value was 12122. I have Jazz playing flawlessly from the Nas as I’ve been looking at these readings.

What is the source of the music that skips? Are you playing from a music service App, rather than starting play via a SONOS controller?

What is the source of the music that skips? Are you playing from a music service App, rather than starting play via a SONOS controller?

These skips are happening with the Sonos controller, which I nearly always use. 

Well, the music play from the Nas just stopped rather than skipped. I’m not sure if it was on the last song in the queue or not, but I suspect it was. I’m pretty sure that I have these skips on my wired One SL in the garage, but tomorrow I’ll play some music out there to check.

Consider the possibility of an NAS fail. There could also be some network issues. In the Windows desktop controller there is an Error Log in the Help panel. I never confirmed that this is a system wide log or a controller log.

At one point I replaced the router and reconfigured the DHCP range slightly. A few weeks later I started having some very intermittent failures associated with play from an ancient NAS, but they were not really consistent with a failing NAS. Eventually I thought about duplicate IP addresses, but I’m too smart for that, right? Finally, I swallowed my pride and checked IP addresses … darn! When I had reconfigured the DHCP range I forgot about a small, hidden away, seldom used device with a fixed IP address -- now shared with the NAS.

Hi @dan8558 

Thanks for your post!

The next time you hear this issue, please immediately submit a diagnostic and reply here with the number given when convenient. Thanks.