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Apple Music songs keep skipping, connection issue

  • May 16, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 301 views
P

Hi,

When playing music from the the Sonos App on Apple Music, I keep encountering connection issues - songs not being able to play or skipping or play halfway and skip…

This issue happened last year, with one of the App update, this issue seemed to be resolved for the most part until recently. Recently, I have not been able listen a full album or playlist on Apple Music. 

The issue appears to be more severe when playing Dolby Atoms format, but also happens to other lower quality formats too. Only when playing on Apple Music.

I tried remove Apple Music and re-add, reset my systems etc. Not helping. Contacted Sonos support multiple times, they kept defer this to my wifi connection/interference, which does not make sense as this is not happening when playing music on Spotify.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Best answer by Airgetlam

Since this issue is only appearing on Apple Music, I suspect the issue isn’t Sonos per se, since if it was, you’d be experiencing the same issue across the board, as Sonos uses the same ‘player’ for all streams.

Which  leaves two potential issues

The first is a possible DNS issue between your speakers and the Apple servers. It probably wouldn’t hurt to reboot your router, and then reboot your Sonos devices, just to ensure they have the latest DNS data.

Next, it could be a potential issue with the source server, which is owned by Apple. You may want to reach out to them. Note that the server they’ve stood up for Sonos is not the same one they use for their own apps, so testing with Apple Music directly isn’t a ‘real’ comparison.

Oh, one third, albeit smaller, potential, is some sort of local wifi interference , just enough to be much more noticeable on Atmos tracks, due to the larger required bandwidth, but less frequent appearance on regular ‘stereo’ tracks. 

I would certainly recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, they get sensitive about GDPR.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

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6 replies

Airgetlam
  • Airgetlam
  • Answer
  • May 16, 2025

Since this issue is only appearing on Apple Music, I suspect the issue isn’t Sonos per se, since if it was, you’d be experiencing the same issue across the board, as Sonos uses the same ‘player’ for all streams.

Which  leaves two potential issues

The first is a possible DNS issue between your speakers and the Apple servers. It probably wouldn’t hurt to reboot your router, and then reboot your Sonos devices, just to ensure they have the latest DNS data.

Next, it could be a potential issue with the source server, which is owned by Apple. You may want to reach out to them. Note that the server they’ve stood up for Sonos is not the same one they use for their own apps, so testing with Apple Music directly isn’t a ‘real’ comparison.

Oh, one third, albeit smaller, potential, is some sort of local wifi interference , just enough to be much more noticeable on Atmos tracks, due to the larger required bandwidth, but less frequent appearance on regular ‘stereo’ tracks. 

I would certainly recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, they get sensitive about GDPR.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Bruce
AjTrek1
J
  • Jbj415
  • Contributor I
  • May 21, 2025

I have a system that’s doing the exact same thing, only with Apple Music. Drops out completely sometimes, cover art disappears, songs continue to play and the now playing screen screen hangs up and doesn’t change, sometimes while playing Apple Music Sonos app will display “No Content Selected” everywhere that Apple Music is selected. When Sonos tries to play “Lossless” all these issues start.
 

If I start the track on the Arc, it plays lossless (sometimes). If I group the amps with it, problems start. I have to remove Arc from the group and select the track again to get it work correctly because lossless goes away. If I don’t include the Arc at all sometimes lossless doesn’t negotiate and it works fine. If it does still negotiate lossless problems are there. It doesn’t negotiate lossless with any consistency or any pattern. I can select the same song 10 times and it may show lossless 5 times. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes the Amps connect lossless without the Arc and problems are there.


I have 9 amps and an Arc, all hardwired to 1Gbps internet. 

J
  • Jwdriver8
  • Lyricist II
  • June 8, 2025

I am having same problem with Apple Music through the Sonos app. Tried connecting with Ethernet cable, so it is not a network problem. Talked to Sonos support today and they eventually gave up and told me to use AirPlay streaming instead of the Sonos App. He said Sonos was aware of an issue related to Apple Music playback and were trying to determine how many people were affected. So are they going to do nothing unless a lot of people complain ?

Airgetlam
  • Airgetlam
  • June 8, 2025

It’s certainly, I suspect, lower priority. Probably a question of how soon it gets worked on, if it is on the Sonos side. Sonos, of course, has no code access to Apple Music’s servers, if the issue is in their side. If that’s the case, the best they can do is report it to Apple, and hope it gets worked on. 

Bruce
J
  • Jwdriver8
  • Lyricist II
  • June 8, 2025

It’s not an Apple problem. It is only a problem when using the Sonos app. Streaming directly from the Apple Music app via Airplay works fine, but that doesn’t support Atmos, which is why I bought the speakers in the first place.

Airgetlam
  • Airgetlam
  • June 8, 2025

Which, unfortunately, doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t an Apple problem. Apple has told Sonos to point at different servers than Apple Music’s itself, one that runs the Sonos API. So comparing the two just doesn’t match up. 
 

I hear you on the Atmos thing. Apple just recently released that to third parties like Sonos, I suspect Sonos is certainly working to get the new SDK (or API) integrated, they just haven’t completed/released it yet.  I’d expect they’d do that soon, but there are a pile of other issues they’ve been concentrating on as well. I’d think the number of coders isn’t infinite. 

Bruce
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