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Hello -

Wondering if anyone else is experiencing the the issue where you start an album/stations/playlist from Apple Music and after a random amount of time (sometimes in the first 30 seconds, and other times 5-10 mins), the song stops playing on the speaker(s), but the app shows that the song continues to play (this will continue on forever if I am playing a station). Music doesn’t start again from the speaker(s) until I start a new album/station/playlist. 

 

I’m pretty sure this started with the new app update, but I can’t be totally sure as I do a fair amount of airplay music playing (which seems completely uneffected). 

 

Here are the steps I have done to try and fix/debug this issue:

  • Tried Amazon and TuneIn and both worked fine.
  • Restarted app
  • Tested multiple speakers (grouped and ungrouped)
  • Restarted router/modem
  • Restarted Sonos system
  • Removed and re-installed Sonos app
  • Removed Apple Music and Reactivated
  • Removed Apple Music as my preferred music service (I saw one posting on here where that remedied a similar situation

 

Kind of at a loss as what else to try. I did reach out to the Sonos help chat and they suggested I try removing Apple Music and readding (which I did and it didn’t help). They also seemed to imply they have heard of this issue impacting others...so, I guess I am not at the misery loves company stage of this issue…

 

Thanks for any additional suggestions to fix.

Matt

 

From Japan. I was having trouble connecting to the support center at all. I couldn't find anyone complaining about similar symptoms on X (Twitter) or blogs in Japanese, but I found this forum and was relieved to know that there are people in the world suffering from similar symptoms.
I have two Sonos Five in stereo and two Sonos One SL, but they have not worked properly for months when streaming on Apple Music. After a few minutes to a few dozen minutes of music playback, the music suddenly stops, but the app recognizes that it is still playing. Air Play works fine for now.
Thank you Macollin1 for updating the information as needed. From what I've read on this forum, it seems that officials are already aware of this problem, but I sincerely hope that they will take a more urgent approach to the problem.


I did the same thing last week, and had a similar experience. I asked a ticket number so it would be easier for me to check on the status, but they wouldn’t go that far. So, it seems like it’s at least acknowledged as a bug...


Hey so I called Sonos finally and they seem to be aware of it and have investigations and bug tickets open. I would recommend everyone to reach out to them and also make them aware this being an issue so the priority can go up for this matter.


Also had to do a complete factory reset of my entire setup (for other annoying reasons) and the issue is still there like before. After at most 1 or 2 songs, a song will skip in the middle of playing and then the next song will be shown as playing but not audio coming through the speakers anymore. After that even selecting a new song or playlist will be silent. I am using Apple Music.

For some reason AirPlay is working fine, but since AirPlay on Sonos has much worse audio quality (like easily noticable), I basically have my entire Sonos setup downgraded because some greedy C-suits pushed their engineers to generate shareholder value faster. Years of customer trust annihilated because someone doesn’t understand the Dunning Kruger effect and thought the experts in the team could be ignored. I wish I could just return all my speakers and just get some HomePods instead.

Also the fact that Sonos tried to blame people’s Wifi when all of the sudden everybody started having those issues is embarrassing.


 

...

Sorry for my rant, circling back to the actual issue I found some other issue in regards to streaming music via apple music to sonos mentioning potential trouble with lossless audio in regards to data size. Maybe this or maybe the container files are being buggy when using the api? Anyone aware of this being an issue with Tidal or Amazon as I believe they make use of lossless audio as well.

I did some more testing this weekend, and I am coming to this same conclusion (above). I streamed Amazon Music from Friday afternoon until this morning without this issue occurring. The problem is there is no way to turn off Apple Music lossless to test this out. I came across a number of reddit posts and posts on this site asking how to turn it off. So, I am wondering if the lossless issue has been occurring for a little longer than this being am issue introduced with the new app update. Regardless, I think I am at an impasse in terms of being able to debug any further. I hate to say it, but looks like I will just keep using my hacks until Sonos finally fixes this.


Bummer. 😢 Still happening to me as well. I have not factory reset so was eagerly awaiting if that worked for you. 


Another update (and this time I am cautiously optimistic)...I finally broke down and did a factory reset on my Play5 and it appears to have resolved this issue, as the music has been playing for several hours without problems (it would usually stop after about 5 minutes in most of my trials). In my troubleshooting steps I posted above that was the one step I had not taken.

 

I am going to keep the stream on and will report back later this weekend.

 

 

Welp, that didn’t work...just had the issue. It seemed to kick in shortly after I started a different stream on another speaker. Back to the drawing board.


Another update (and this time I am cautiously optimistic)...I finally broke down and did a factory reset on my Play5 and it appears to have resolved this issue, as the music has been playing for several hours without problems (it would usually stop after about 5 minutes in most of my trials). In my troubleshooting steps I posted above that was the one step I had not taken.

 

I am going to keep the stream on and will report back later this weekend.

 

 


Same issue here. Can play for quite awhile then no sound even though the app shows the track or station is still going. Trouble seems to have started with app update. I can AirPlay to the speakers fine. I find if I switch to AirPlay and go back to Sonos it’s working again … until it isn’t.


I am having the exact same problem. So frustrating. Everything worked fine prior to the new firmware and app. I have to use airplay. I have wasted so much time trying to get my system working. It is not a wifi issue because I have unplugged all my speakers but for one which was directly connected to my router and the music still stopped. All this because Sonos wants to collect and sell our information. Hot garbage. 


Just circling back on my post from 3 months ago. As others have noted, this issue is still persisting and it seems to be related to the new app update. I continue to workaround this issue with one of the following hacks (since my music service of choice is Apple Music):

 

  • Stream only to an older generation speaker (in my case a gen1 Play1)
  • Using the Sonos app, start playing music to a gen1 Play1 and then group to a newer speaker (Play 5, Amp gen2, Beam, etc) and lower volume on Play1 to zero.
  • Airplay from my phone to a speaker that supports airplay - it seems that it’s the newer generation speakers that this issue occurs with.

 

I have no idea why “anchoring” my newer speaker(s) to the very old Play1 fixes this issue, but that seems to be the only way to prevent it at this point. Not ideal as it just adds more clicks and it certainly is not family friendly…

 

 

 


I’m not sure I would trouble shoot anymore. We have this problem playing Apple Music in Sonos app through Google Mesh WiFi to a single source Sonos Amp connected to analog speakers. This is the most basic setup I can imagine. Music just randomly mutes, but still displays playing in app.

We never encountered this problem before the new Sonos app update.

The workaround currently is to select another music source (e.g. Sonos Radio) then switch back. That usually clears it for quite a while, but it will occur again eventually.

The problem is in the Sonos app somewhere, and will hopefully be addressed in the future.


Not sure where you guys are but hello from France.

 

We use free.fr as our internet supplier which is complicated by sometimes running a VPN but never for the Sonos speakers which have a dedicated direct connection to the internet through the main router.

 

All speakers are wireless.  One SL and One in kitchen.  Same in bedroom.  Also in lounge but here they act as surround sound speakers for the Arc and Sub.  This has definitely started since the latest update that Patrick Spence has not stopped apologising for!

 

Just as you describe, the system simply stops playing through the speakers.  The connection to App;e is still there as it shows that music is playing and it moves from one track to the next but nothing I do can get the sound back.  Speakers are also disappearing off the system list in a random fashion then reappear without any intervention from me.  I suspect their software development team have not properly logged their previous development so have no idea if a tweak here or there will affect anything else in the system or perhaps they have just not properly tested the system before release.

 

Come on Sonos, you scan these forums so give us a reason and a timeline for a solution please.  Or take all my speakers back and refund me.  if you cannot get them to work with Apple you should say so to inform apple users not to buy your products.  I am paying a monthly subscription for a service I cannot use on your system that cost me a fortune and I, along with many others, would like to have it sorted out please.

 

Everyone that has a similar problem, please send an email to Patrick Spence.  No idea if he actually reads them but his team do follow them up and the more that raise it the more likely to get a solution.

 

Sorry I cannot offer any solutions and apologies if it seems like a rant but it is intended to try together Sonos to do something for its customers.

 

Geoff


I created a playlist on Amazon Music and it still cuts out. Another issue with Amazon Music is regardless of the size of your playlist it will only play the first 100 songs. This whole thing just drives me crazy. I keep having to add and remove speakers now but that is almost a full time job.


Same here, to be honest the amount of issues I am running into is getting annoying. This used to work for me when still using Spotify. Since switching to apple music this issue occurred  along with the fact that google assistant can not be used with apple music on sonos either.

 

Switching to Alexa just opened a different can of worms as it seems to just pick its own streaming service sometimes showing alexa music in sonos and sometimes apple music.

Siri is not even an option anymore for years and the sonos assistant will not let me integrate my home automations and services.

All convenience and ease of use seams to be gone once you try to use apple services on sonos directly.

 

Sorry for my rant, circling back to the actual issue I found some other issue in regards to streaming music via apple music to sonos mentioning potential trouble with lossless audio in regards to data size. Maybe this or maybe the container files are being buggy when using the api? Anyone aware of this being an issue with Tidal or Amazon as I believe they make use of lossless audio as well.


I have been dealing with this issue for a very long time. I have added a dedicated 2.5 WiFi just for my Sonos, I have purchased a new iPad as suggested, I have run diagnostics, spent hours on the phone, changed WiFi channels, moved speakers, changed streaming services and it continues to happen. It is so frustrating because every day it is another battle. I have 5 speakers and invested a fair amount of money into this system and I just can’t get it to work right.


Thanks for confirming this. I appear to have 2 workarounds for this (neither are ideal):

  • Group my gen1 Sonos1 with whatever speaker I am playing Apple Music on. No idea why, but this anchoring seems to avoid the drop outs. I have been able to play music for multiple days with this option.
  • Use airplay instead of the Sonos app. This isn’t a great option as it is a pretty big battery suck on my phone.

I seemed to have exhausted Chat support as they keep telling me to call the 800 number when I reference my case number. The phone line hasn’t had a wait time under 60 mins when I have called. I don’t have that kind of time right now. Will keep trying to call though.

 

 


I don’t think it’s eero  related as it’s happening to me as well since the updates. And I’m not using eero. 


Last night I tested pairing the Play5 and Move2 (both experiencing consistent issues) with an old Play1. The Play5 and Move2 are connected to the Eero in my office and the Play1 is connected a different Eero, All speakers played all night without issue. So strange, as I tested earlier in the night with just the Play5 and Move2 grouped together it dropped out almost right away. It’s almost as if the older speaker forces Sonos the newer speakers to steam Apple Music in a different way…

 

 


Yes it’s definitely a frustrating process troubleshooting. I was looking at my eero app and trying to compare connectivity/ channels or anything else that might seem off. Aside from many of the issues that have all reared their head since the May Sonos app update which is when this started for me. Noting I do not have an Ethernet cable connected to any Sonos speaker. All on WiFi connection. Eero somehow grouped the connection type on 3 speakers to connection type ‘Sonos’ while the others are all WiFi. Not sure if is related to this issue we are both having but usually all speakers are showing WiFi on eero. Unfortunately I can’t confirm if this occurred after a Sonos firmware update or app update from Sonos or eero. 

 


Thanks for responding. Bummer this is happening to us…

I ran a test and plugged my Play5 back in to the switch that’s connected to my main Eero. Experienced the drop out within the first 5 mins. So, I’m back to a full wireless solution. Drop outs seem to be less frequent with this, but still occurring. My setup had been working fine for a couple of years with this setup until the last week-ish.

It looks like Eero’s was last update was on 5/15. So, it seems something in the latest Sonos update broke something. I will keep after them as best I can.

 

 


Following thread. Same issue running on eero 6+. I have been getting longer play time as you mentioned in your most recent reply. Can start and play an album or station via Apple music on the Sonos app, will play through all Sonos speakers (9 speakers) for ½ hour or sometimes longer and then suddenly  sound drops from all speakers or in some cases one speaker randomly remains playing. But it appears all speakers are still playing within app despite no sound. Edit: I should mention on my eero I am running in an all wireless set up. No speakers connected via ethernet cable to eero.


Update. Spoke too soon. It just waited much longer than it ever had to break. So, no go with a fix. Will reach back out to Sonos with my diagnostic info.


A quick update on this. I spoke with Sonos chat again today and one thing they had me do was look at my network. Specifically this article: https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/recommended-eero-network-configuration-for-sonos since I am on an Eero network. 

 

As it turned out I had one speaker plugged into one switch and another plug into a different switch. Per the article above this can cause issues. I unplugged both speakers and am currently running the whole system with better results.

 

So far so good...

 


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