I’ve been dealing with this royal screw-up and watching this post for a mere six weeks, and I think Sonos needs to understand that not only are they making their customers furious, five months of non-functionality is not an “outage.” Its a non-delivery of service.

I have 60,000 songs in my Apple Music library, many of which are unavailable on streaming services. I moved abroad and quickly went out to get a Sonos speaker, and now I have a 265 euro paperweight.

I know enough about the software, encoding, and streaming services to know this is likely a business fight. Apple wants to deliver this new file format. Sonos doesn’t want to accept it, or worse, can’t figure out how to render it.

I hope Sonos executives know how quickly this could turn into a class-action suit. Compatibility with Apple Music and iOS devices is their bread and butter. And it's right there on the website. A very bad look. Five months and counting…

Exactly how “quickly” can it turn into a class action suit?  Because the hundreds of threats to bring down a class action suit in the past have yet to yet to yield an actual class action, going back decades.  So apparently the answer to that question is, not very quickly at all. 

If someone has the cash and is pissed off enough, pretty quickly.

But forget that. Anyone affected by this could just drop this info off at Techcrunch or worse. I’m just astounded at the lazy attitude and terrible “solutions” Sonos is using to try and placate its customers. I know people use other services on Sonos, but what’s the number of households affected by a five-month “outage” on Apple Music. Would be interesting to find out.

What is perhaps odd, is that I use the Apple Music service within the Sonos App too …and many years ago, I converted my iCloud ‘matched’ library to DRM-free tracks, this was whilst using an annually paid ‘iTunes Match’ subscription, that was in addition to my monthly-paid Apple Music subscription - IIRC it was suggested at the time to delete the local library tracks and re-download the DRM-free tracks in iTunes with the annual ‘Match’ subscription in place - which in-turn allowed library playback on other devices.

Anyhow, the fact of the matter is, I have 24k+ tracks in my online iCloud library and I play tracks from that library, at random, via the Apple Music service within the Sonos App and not once (to the best of my recollection) have I seen the ‘not encoded correctly’ message - all my tracks seem to play without any issue at all …and long may that continue. 

I therefore have no reason at all to take part in any class action - I do wonder though if some are perhaps having these issues due to DRM tracks within their own iCloud library tracks? 

I also read somewhere that the ‘not encoded correctly’ message can also appear in the Sonos App if there is an interference issue between the iCloud server source and the playing Sonos speaker - so these things might be worth some further exploration too before forking out cash, or perhaps taking part in any legal proceedings.

The Apple service within the Sonos App certainly seems to be working okay for playback on my Sonos products.

Since we’re better at troubleshooting this than Sonos…

I currently use “iTunes Match.” I also have a hard drive of everything I ripped long before Match that’s not with me atm (I just moved overseas). They’re both fail safes to one another.

I also recall the “re-Match” request and did that. I might have the option of dumping everything in iTunes and reloading it when my hard drive arrives in a few months. Not psyched about that.

What I can’t make sense of is that I have new albums that Matched from the last two months that won’t play. I have long ago, previously Matched albums where one song will play. I have tracks not available in Apple Music that won’t play (not sure yet if I can find any that do play -- haven’t dug deep). This still strikes me as a Sonos problem, not an Apple one. The app allows me to hit play on tracks. But when that command is sent to the speaker, I get the error. This possibly means that Sonos manufactured a load of bad hardware. Would a firmware update even fix this?

No one has seen this “not encoded” error until the last five months. Upthread someone emailed the CEO of Sonos! What needs to be done? Does Sonos have a Board of Directors? 

Here’s my question to you: Pinned at the top of the thread is a Sonos engineer who proposed this “solution.” Do you have a speaker NOT in this list grouped in? Is this “fix” what’s making your system work?

---------------------

We are aware of an issue whereby tracks uploaded to Apple Music can give a “not encoded correctly” error when attempted to play on Sonos. Apple are working on a resolution.

In the meantime, you can circumvent the issue by searching for tracks instead of browsing, or by grouping-in a speaker not in the following list:

• Amp

• Arc / Arc SL

• Beam (all generations)

• Era 100 / 300

• Five

• Move

• One / One SL

• Port

• Ray

• Roam / Roam SL

• Sub (gen 2, gen 3) / Sub Mini

• SYMFONISK products

Iam also getting “Unable to play - the song is not encoded correctly' when using youtube music on stereo pair play1s

Latest iOS and sonos updates.

Generally sonos will play first track of an album ok, then error on a few, play a few seconds of another etc etc

Used to get it now and again going back over several years, now every album, very frustrating!!

Radio streams ok

This is not just an apple music problem.

For those who want to make a go of it, according to the advice given below, the only speaker currently available from Sonos that might help with this is Move 2. (And I hope it’s not accidentally missing from the list.) The list we’ve been given is mostly just the full suite of their available hardware.

The only other options would be speakers that are discontinued but still supported, which are the Play:1, Play:3 and the Play:5 (Gen 2). There are Play speakers out there on eBay or FB Marketplace, etc. If you want your Sonos back, it’s probably your only shot. I hope it works for me.

-----------------------------

In the meantime, you can circumvent the issue by searching for tracks instead of browsing, or by grouping-in a speaker not in the following list:

• Amp

• Arc / Arc SL

• Beam (all generations)

• Era 100 / 300

• Five

• Move

• One / One SL

• Port

• Ray

• Roam / Roam SL

• Sub (gen 2, gen 3) / Sub Mini

• SYMFONISK products

I started a thread on this topic back in February. I have spoken with multiple sonos techs, I emailed the CEO (got a response from his exec secretary), I spoke with an Apple Music tech, and yet we are still here. I did discover the work around back in February by playing around with different speakers, so if you have an older speaker attached everything will work as before. It took Sonos a while before they would admit the issue and then offer up a solution. It still bothers me that on the Sonos music service status page there is a green check next to Apple Music.

This was happening at both houses so that is how I knew it was a Sonos/Apple issue not the “interference” they always try to peddle (I do acknowledge that sometimes that can be an issue). It is clearly not a DRM issue if there is a work around like adding an old speaker. I don’t know if it is now possible for me to get rid of Sonos with two house full of speakers and amps but I am done buying more Sonos product. Bottom line is you can’t rely on these companies to do the right thing for customers. 

Agreed sonos are basically admitting there is a problem with new stuff and not the old stuff, maybe they needed an S1.5 software version but can’t be bothered ……….

Perhaps the stereo paring of PLAY1s has made this worse, it’s the only change i have done.

Just discovered this issue. IOS 17.2 with the latest Sonos application. Using a surround system with a playbar and two play Ones. Super frustrating they have not figured out how to fix this yet. 

I would suggest powering off all sonos stuff, turn router off and back on wait...switch one sonos device on at a time and wait a few minutes after it appears in app,  before powering up the next etc etc.

See if this makes an difference….

I have this problem as well.  I only have a SONOS Connect and I use it to play my Apple Music collection through my Hi-Fi.  My collection is over 1,200 albums and all of this has been uploaded from the CDs.  Some of the tracks are ‘matched’, plenty of it isn’t.

The problem seems to come and go.  Today I’ve had several albums that won’t play.  At other times it’s just the odd track that won’t play.  On another day they would all play correctly.

There is no problem using Apple Music directly using Bluetooth connectivity with other speakers (not SONOS) - only using the SONOS S2 App connecting through the SONOS Connect.  I can’t see how this is Apple’s problem, it has to be a SONOS one.  Even though it’s not every track, it is VERY annoying!!

Are you connecting to a local server, or are these pieces uploaded to Apple’s servers? If it’s the latter, Sonos takes your command via the controller, and requests the data from the Apple servers. At that point, Sonos is merely playing the music on the Apple servers, and any errors that are generated by the Apple servers. This is why you’ll see many of us suggesting tits the data sent by Apple that is the problem, Sonos is merely attempting to play what it receives from Apple, and shows errors if that data is  incorrect.

If,  however, you’re playing from local storage, and not Apple’s servers, then there is likely another issue causing this error, and you should indeed be contacting Sonos support, rather than Apple Support. Sonos support can help you track down what is going on locally to cause this error, which is most likely Wi-Fi interference. But Sonos support can’t reach to Apple’s servers themselves to see what is going on, they are restricted to sending requests for music to the Apple servers, Apple wouldn’t want to allow another company that kind of access, due to potential security issues. In fact, Apple has set up different servers for Sonos to access, which has the SMAPI set up, which is another reason why things work when using the Music app, but fail on the Sonos, they’re talking to two different servers. 

I wonder if t is a handshake/timing issue that gives “song not encoded correctly” and nothing actually wrong with the track on apple server, maybe change the error display to “sorry this is taking too long skipping to next track”. Whenever i did get this sonos would struggle for about 20seconds and no more, then skip.

This is the MOST ANNOYING experience and puts you off internet/wifi music altogether, and more importantly to sonos, buying any more sonos kit, even getting the old vynal out which is all the fashion.

I have just got some Bose headphones (no sonos option) and iam extremely impressed with those as well, maybe the new bose AI sounbar next…..

Airgetlam - all of the music I’m trying to access is held remotely on Apple servers, none of it is downloaded or accessed from my local copy of Apple Music.  It may be, as you say, the error is what is returned by Apple when my SONOS Connect requests the offending song(s).  So, what is SONOS doing to resolve the issue because it’s their product that is not working correctly.  Presumably there’s some dialogue between Apple and SONOS and they’re working together to come up with a solution.

I’ve checked this morning and the songs that won’t play are all designated as ‘matched’ - I assume this is a master copy of the song held by Apple, and not my actual copy uploaded.  One of the songs by the same artist is classed as ‘uploaded’ (from a different album - but the same version of the song) and this plays correctly and without error - presumably a copy that has been uploaded and stored by Apple.

Could you just try turning router and all sonos off and back on again, please, just for me.

i had this with google play music. i think i had duplicate ip adresses and it was messing sonos up, but i have no idea, but turning off and on , moving one speaker nearer to router and running trueplay solved my issue.

paulrw - just for you I turned everything off and then beck on again.  Still the same issue I’m afraid.

I’m sure I’ve successfully played this particular album in the past but, as of now, I’m having no joy.  The location of my SONOS Connect is very close to my router - approx 5m across the room - and my internet connection is very stable and pretty quick (400+ Mbps).  Thanks for trying to help.

Can you get an ethernet cable from router to connect, then change to use sonosnet and not wifi, just for a test maybe if you have a cable...this would eliminate any wifi interference from microwave, skyQ etc etc

Of course if google play music did have a problem, they could of fixed it before i moved sonos speaker….we will never know as sonos do not inform us generally

I got so annoyed i created a sonos playlist of just the tracks that played.

I do have an Ethernet cable that would reach but connecting at the router end is a problem (the 2 sockets are both in use).  Anyway, I tried deleted the album I’d been having problems with and then added it again - and waited for all the songs to get ‘matched’.  Hey presto, it now plays.

I have the problem with a number of other songs/albums but, for now, I’ll just enjoy listening to the original problem album!  Thanks for your help.

i have a netgear switch on the back of my av unit, relatively cheap, reliable and well made from amazon

gawd this apple music x itunes match x sonos x spatial nonsense is getting me depressed… no matter what i try i cant get all tracks to play from my extensive itunes match tracks…. ‘use older speaker first’, ‘play direct from search’ nope nothing works… have just got move 2 - will see if that newer hardware works but my suspicion this is apple x dolby spatial x sonos problem and will take some time while the blame game continues and well lets face it its a small % of us with extensive itunes match catalogues - shame liked sonos but its got bloated and no one take responsibility…. sigh been here since 2007…. maybe its time to leave and sell get a different solution….  

This is where frustration takes you……..to look for something else.

I notice sonos have buddied up with Deezer, hopefully this will guarantee at least one streaming service will work flawlessly.

Sonos is indeed now bloated, maybe they should of developed sonosnet, and their own routers to tie reliability in, instead of adding airplay, bluetooth. The main flaw is they rely on everybody else to stream and have no control.

We have 3 play:1’s (and a roam) and this is still an issue. I wouldn’t normally comment here but ended up googling for a fix after way too many months of frustration, and see the suggestion is to add a play:1, so just wanted to chime in that it is not likely to be a magical fix. 
 

I’m not sure who is to blame here but right now I see two choices for our house. 
 

1. buy apple/other speakers
2. swap to Spotify (entire family has to switch)
3. buy newer Sonos speakers

Option 3 doesn’t sound like it would help except for giving me AirPlay. Based on other comments here the Spotify solution is also hit/miss (teenage daughter would love the swap, wife and I probably prefer to stay Apple bound), though I sometimes use my free account there without problems. 
 

I feel my only real option is 1. And by going with HomePods I’m securing much better support since if there is one thing Apple will focus on it’s their own service. 

I basically do not understand why tf Sonos hasn’t prioritised this, because I can’t be the only one with this kind of sentiment. And it gets worse every time they pop up another ad in my system for discounts. Screw that!! 

Just 2 days ago I purchased a Beam (Gen 2) which is my first Sonos device and have noticed that several of my playlists suffer from the “Unable to play song … song not encoded correctly.” error.  As with others I can use Airplay 2 to stream songs to the Beam without any issues (so far).

I’m seeing a bunch of folks in this thread who are unhappy with Sonos.  Being new to Sonos I will say that this could very well be an issue with Apple.  I purchased the Beam because the pair of Apple HomePod Minis I had been using suffered from a problem that looks and feels like this same issue. The HPs worked for 9 months just fine but then all of a sudden things went belly up in August.  Since then I had been working with Apple support having worked with them to make sure my network was not the source of the issue, I rebooted, reset, and eventually submitted system diagnostics to engineering and nothing was identified.

So with my HPs when streaming playlists (by speaking to them) I would have the stream stop & restart, or simply stop altogether.  I then started to observe the songs being played using the Home app on iOS.  In the Home app I found I could frequently scrub the timeline back 10-20 seconds and the song would restart and then complete playing the song.  I also could observe multiple songs being skipped.  Of course Apple doesn’t provide any sort of messaging/logging to give users a clue as to what the issue might be (at least the Sonos app provides a clue about an issue).  The HomePods would also seem to lose my credentials occasionally and I would be forced to reconnect the HPs to my AppleID.  So if the music is encrypted in transit from Apple and the HPs lose my credentials then the Music would not be decryptable and so perhaps would appear to be improperly encoded??? (pulling this out of very thin air).

Also FYI, the songs I have seen that are having this issue are songs that are listed as being Matched using iTunes Match but I am not sure why that matters.  It is my understanding that when I am playing the songs from the Sonos S2 app that these songs are streamed from Apple’s servers not from my iPhone and being matched they are Apple’s DRM free versions of the songs.  

If the songs were “Uploaded” by iTunes Match then they would be my original songs and perhaps they would have issues.

I’ll be digging into this more moving forward.  If I find something new I’ll add the info to this thread.

@AgingKeeper,

To play your own ‘matched’ songs on other devices I’ve always thought you needed an iTunes Match annual subscription as mentioned here…

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146

That annual only subscription used to allow users to also convert their DRM encoded tracks to DRM-Free tracks. I recall subscribing many (many) years ago to convert my entire local iTunes library. I think back then it used to cost around £17-£18 (or less) per year on top of any other monthly subscription. 

I’m not entirely sure what the position is nowadays as it seems a few things have long since changed at Apple.

Maybe these things though are connected to the issue you’re seeing, er.. perhaps?