Skip to main content
We have several different devices that we are using in the home to access sonos, including a samsung phone, ipad and an iphone. The only issue is with the iphone. When the sonos was initially setup 2 weeks ago there were no problems. Now when I go to the music services on the iphone it can't display any music and it says there is a network error. However, there is no network error and all the other controllers have no issues playing the music through the sonos one in our house speakers.
There IS a network error because your iPhone is part of your network and it is having difficulty communicating with another part of your network. A couple of things to check initially.

1. If so-called 'wifi assist' is enabled on the iPhone, disable it

2. Is your phone connected to the 5GHz band on your router? Depending on your router and setup, this might sabotage the connection to Sonos. Make sure the iPhone connects only to 2.4GHz
John,

Thanks for the reply. I did check and the wi-fi assist was disabled. I don’t know how to know if I am connected to the 2.4 or 5 for the router band so I will have to spend some time trying to learn that today to see if that would help.
On my Android phone there is a simple setting to allow connection to 2.4 only so there is probably the same on iPhone.



If you have a Sonos device wired to your router it doesn't matter which band the phone connects to. Do you? If so, this isn't the issue. If not, wire something and see if it makes a difference
John, yes the Sonos is hard wired to the network/modem. Sounds like it must be something else?
Yes it must be something else. We should next check possibility of interference.... although it's not clear why that should affect only one controller. Your wired component should be at least a couple of feet from the router. The SonosNet channel (check in Advanced Settings) must be 1, 6 or 11. Your router should be using one of the others, e.g. Sonos on 6, router on 1 or 11, and not Auto.



The following sequence has also worked in some instances:



On the iPhone:

Uninstall Sonos app

'Forget' your wifi network

Power phone off and on

Connect to wifi

Reinstall Sonos app. Ensure you choose to connect to existing system.
John,



Thanks for the options. I checked and no apparent interference issues and the other controllers have no issues. I also had a friend with his iPhone connect to the system and no issues there either. Just is with my phone?! I tired the unistall and reinstall method with no luck.



What is also strange is that I can run pandora from my iPad and when I go to my iPhone I can’t get to my stations “music” but can play and pause that pandora station that was playing from the iPad. I am baffled.
Me too I'm afraid. Is the issue just with streaming services? What about TuneIn? Local music? 'On this iPhone', that is playing music stored on phone?
John, yes the local music on the phone plays just fine. It is only the music services, all of them, e.g. pandora, tune-in, Amazon, etc...
I am getting beyond my comfort zone here, but you might try googling 'iPhone DNS settings', and maybe see if you can spot any differences in your friend's settings for iPhone that works
Try rebooting the router (power cycle)
John, I can try looking next time he is over. Not sure there was anything we saw difference wise when checking all settings.



Belly, already did that and reset the Sonos with a 10-second power off. Neither helped.
On the iPhone.. go to settings...General...Reset...Reset Network Setting.



Then connect back to your wifi.
No luck with the network reset. Even restarted and then downloaded and reinstalled the Sonos app. Same issue
A bit drastic but I would personally would factory reset the phone at this point.



Unless... you have any VPN software or similar installed? Have a look at what software has been installed or updated on your iPhone since it was setup two odd weeks ago and remove them, can always add them back but do reboot the phone before testing.



There is nothing that could have been altered / configed on your router since it was last working? Any rules / parental controls / filtering?



Apart from dynamite or contacting Sonos support to see if they have any ideas... I am at a loss.
Me too. The facts are that only one controller is affected, which tends to rule out router, internet and general Sonos system issues. Except perhaps for IP addressing issues, but that seems to be ruled out by the fact that only music services are affected, and music on the phone can be played.



Even a friend's iPhone is fine.



That is why my last resort was to mention DNS, wondering if there was something preventing the music services' servers from being connected to. But really I would expect that to be a system wide issue. I just wondered if there was something in the phone's DNS settings that was interfering with the process. But really clutching at straws.
Thanks guys I really appreciate all the help and support on trying to figure this one out. I completely am at a loss as you guys are. Think I will just stick with using the other controllers I have and ignore my phone for Sonos use for now. Maybe dig into it more in the future. Appreciate the fast replies too!
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings