I found this “closed” topic about Sonos group doesn't work for Airplay.
Sonos acknowledged that it is a reproducible problem. Yet eight months later, I am still experiencing the exact same problem. I hope that Sonos understands that closing the topic doesn't mean the problem is solved. You actually need to fix your bug.
Best answer by Duhh
After some days of trying, the Era 100 + Play:1 Airplay would work about 30% of time. For the rest of the time, the sound would come out of Era 100 only. Tried rebooting the router/phone, change channel, changing the order of playing through Sonos App/Airplay. None worked reliably.
Needless to say I won’t buy another Sonos product again.
The forum software that Sonos uses, from a company named Gainsight (see the bottom of this page) automatically closes threads that haven’t been responded to. I note the last post on that thread is six months ago. I suspect that it was closed for that reason, the only times I’ve seen Sonos moderators close threads is if they infringe on terms and conditions of use, most frequently duplicates, swearing, or political discussion, but there are others that we agreed to when using this forum.
What you haven’t given us is what device you’re attempting AirPlay 2 from, or which AirPlay 2 capable Sonos device you’re attempting to send to.
Have you called Sonos Support directly to discuss it?
When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.
I thought using the word “the exact same problem” and giving the link would make the problem clear. So here I quote from the link.
“I own a number of Play One and Play Three devices, plus one Era 100 that I bought specifically to add Apple airplay functionality to the system. Until quite recently, whenever I had all my devices grouped together in the Sonos app, I would be able to go to Spotify, select the Era 100 device as a target for AirPlay, and music would play on all devices simultaneously. “
Since this is acknowledged as a known problem, you would think Sonos would bother to post something like “It is fixed now, try again.”, if it had been fixed.
And no, I haven’t found the Sonos support being helpful and don’t plan to waste more time there. Presumably, if one stands by the product, they would have had the problem fixed by now.
Then I’m not sure what is occurring with whatever device is sending the AirPlay 2 signal to the Sonos. I have tested both my iPad and my iPhone, both are able to connect with various AirPlay 2 speakers on my network. Unfortunately, as a non-Sonos employee, I don’t have access to any diagnostics you may have submitted, and suspect I’ll not be able to assist you further, but I do wish you luck in figuring this out.
Thanks for checking though. The AirPlay works with the Era 100 by itself fine. (Although not as reliable as the other Denon device I have on the same network.) It is when I try to AirPlay to the Era 100 plus two Play:1 as a group that doesn’t work. It always only play through the Era 100 alone. Like the original poster, I got the Era 100 to allow AirPlay to the older devices. It used to work and now it doesn’t. It is frustrating that Sonos knows about the problem but doesn’t fix it. I should have known when they switched to the buggy new app before spending more money on a Sonos device.
Yes, I tried to start the stream and switch to the Sonos app to include the other speakers in the group. But once I do “apply”, the stream stops. I have also tried playing through Sonos with the correct group first, then start the stream. This actually blends the two streams somehow. But once I stop the Sonos stream, only the Era 100 is playing the AirPlay stream.
Yes, I tried to start the stream and switch to the Sonos app to include the other speakers in the group. But once I do “apply”, the stream stops. I have also tried playing through Sonos with the correct group first, then start the stream. This actually blends the two streams somehow. But once I stop the Sonos stream, only the Era 100 is playing the AirPlay stream.
I suggest perhaps trying the Sonos devices all connected to the local routers 2.4Ghz WiFi band only (no devices wired) and set a channel-width on that band of just 20MHz in the routers configuration page(s).
Ensure the signal is using a non-overlapping wireless channel too, either CH 1, 6 or 11 and see if that maybe resolves your AirPlay ‘grouping’ playback issue.
Alternatively if you’re not sure how to go about making the suggested changes above, then maybe speak with Sonos customer support via this link…
Thanks for the advice. I just created a new WiFi network that is 2.4G only, put only the Sonos devices on it. Tried the AirPlay, still the same problem. Then I remembered that I have a Play:3 that is wired.(I thought that was required.) so I tried to unplug the Ethernet cable from it. And then the AirPlay actually worked. That was to my surprise. I can understand the IoT devices having issues with both 2.4G and 5G. But I didn’t expect the wired connection to be a problem. Any reason behind that? Is it because the Era 100 becomes the “hub” instead of the wired Play:3? Anyways, I will keep testing for a few days to see if it continues to work. Thanks! I appreciate it.
I don’t experience any issues with Airplay via SonosNet (wired connection). Changing the SonosNet channel might help.
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/change-your-sonos-system-s-wireless-channel
I have tried to isolate the SonosNet wireless channel to 11, while keeping the main network at 1 and 6. That didn’t make much difference. From what I can see now, I would speculate the problem might have to do with my wired connection is an older Sonos device(Play:3). Perhaps backward compatibility is the real issue. But I haven’t done any experiments to test that theory.
From the user interface perspective, it would be more intuitive to establish the groups and well as the devices to be AirPlay targets.
Apple doesn’t allow, to my knowledge, non-AirPlay 2 targets to appear in the Apple menu structure. Which is why you have to use the Sonos UI to group any associated ‘rooms’.
When AirPlay worked with Era 100 + Play:1 earlier today, it stopped working again. I can probably get it sort of working by tweaking something again. It has alway been finicky.
After some days of trying, the Era 100 + Play:1 Airplay would work about 30% of time. For the rest of the time, the sound would come out of Era 100 only. Tried rebooting the router/phone, change channel, changing the order of playing through Sonos App/Airplay. None worked reliably.
Needless to say I won’t buy another Sonos product again.
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