I have this exact same question. I would just like to play a playlist from my phone to my Play5. I was originally trying to use my paid for PowerApp music player. I've downloaded ten other players trying to fix this problem. Why can't i cast from my phone? 

And since I'm commenting, why is Bluetooth required for set up but never used for practical purposes ever again?

I convinced my boyfriend Sonos was the best. Best sounds sure, but only if something plays. Anyone who loves music is most likely into playlists and owning music. We aren't streamers. This is a crazy problem for a speaker to have. 

If you have a PLAY:5 gen 2, you can just use Apple’s AirPlay 2 to send your iPhone’s music to it. 

The Bluetooth used for setup is actually BLE, known as Bluetooth Low Energy, which is a common system used for setting up devices, but it isn’t designed to carry music. 

You can thank Apple for this change. It has also hit the users of the BlueSound speakers, who used the same “back door” that Sonos used to be able to.

Bruce, thank you for this. I really would love to solve this problem, I've spent countless hours so far. 

I should have mentioned I'm on a Pixel phone. I did download Apple Music for Android and it seems to require a $9a month membership to create playlists of my own music. 

I think what Eric and i are trying to do is use music we have already purchased, use a playlist, and play our playlist from a phone. In my case, a Pixel phone. 

I've been using playlists on music players for over a decade now. And i can cast to my Google minis, and my tvs.  It feels like my speaker should have this functionality before anything else. 

Am i missing something? Does Sonos only support Apple?

Thanks for the help

Not my area of expertise, I’m afraid I’m an Apple user.

But my understanding is that as long as the app is storing music in the standard location, where Sonos has access to it, it will play “from this device” from an Android.

Its important to note that the Sonos app on your phone is not a “player”, it is a remote control to the software running on the speaker. It tells that software where to go and get the files to play, so effectively your phone is just a storage device that the speakers are trying to access to get the files.

If you’re continuing to have issues with “on this device” playback, I would encourage you to contact Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

I usually suggest the phone folks, they have more tools available because they're on the phone with you, but they are only available Monday through Friday during business hours. The Twitter support folks are available 24/7.

Yes wwoohhoo you’re right - I have my own music on my android, I’m creating a Playlist in the  Poweramp app and then exporting the Playlist. The issue I can’t figure out is how to tell the Sonos app to use this playlist.

If Poweramp doesn’t store the playlist in the normal location that Android uses, then Sonos won’t be able to “see” it. If they use their own “folder”, Sonos just doesn’t have the knowledge to find that data. If you can export that playlist to a different folder, I’d try that….assuming the playlist is in a format that Sonos is capable of interpreting. 

Poweramp exports to: Internal storage/Playlists - I’m not sure where Sonos expects playlists to be (I’ll have a dig around). BUT … something has changed! I can now see the titles of my PowerAmp exported playlists via Playlists in the Sonos app. However, each playlist is greyed out and I can’t access any tracks. My understanding is that Sonos can’t handle .m3u8 and many of the playlists are .m3u8 because that’s all PowerAmp can export. But I’ve renamed two of the playlists .m3u - and they are also there but greyed out.

Sorry, correction. The playlists that I renamed as .m3u  can see the tracks and they are playing on my Sonos!!

BUT - last night the playlists didn’t appear under Playlists in the Sonos app - tonight they did. So what happened? I’ll experiment and report back.  wwoohoohoo, this might help you too.

This is exciting. Thank you both. I will try moving the playlist as well tonight. Let's see how this goes. 

IT'S FIXED!!!!! IT'S FIXED!!!!!! 

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!!

The fix was easy thanks to all these notes. Bruce, you're right, the Sonos just can't find the playlists. It was finding the music, but not the playlist. Eric, you're right, Powerapp offers to export the playlist. When I exported the playlist, it told me where it sent the file. I plugged my phone into my computer, found the exported files, and copied them into the same folder where my music already was saved. In my case, the file was called "Music". The playlists immediately showed up in my SONOS app! The files that I copied over had a .m3u8 extension. 

Hope this helps. Really awesome of you to take the time to comment. You made my year! 

Thank you again!