My 20 year functional SONOS system is now throwing "incorrect encoding" error messages.

Are you using the S1 or S2 App?

I don’t know why you are asking me that question, I have S1 on my phone purely as a device interface but I don’t use it.

Control of my Sonos devices is via DNLA which as I say above is working just fine. It’s decoding my previously for 20 years working FLAC and AIFF files which does not work. Other file formats in my library work perfectly as they have always done. 

Please keep the focus on my question.

Can you check for updates within the Sonos App.  Can you play music from the Sonos App as a test?

Something that Sonos’ decoding for FLAC is very inconsistent about is bit depth (may also be true of AIFF but I don’t use that). Are you able to check whether your FLAC files are encoded with a bit depth of 24-bit or less?

The problem that I’ve found is that a lot of files seem to be encoded at 32-bit, and sometimes the system will play these files correctly and sometimes it won’t. It may be that Sonos has tightened up on this in a recent update and is policing the limit (of no more than 24-bit) more tightly?

[Edit: BTW, it’s DLNA, not DNLA - the latter is something to do with libraries!]

Red wine always helps :)

There are no updates - I am on 16.3fw and yes the app plays crap off the internet fine.

My problem is that there has been a codec update I am pretty sure.

It needs to be below 16 bit for the S1 App: https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/supported-audio-formats-for-sonos-music-library

I suspect that link is out of date - I think S1 supports 24-bit, but they haven’t updated that doc.

OK - thanks for that pointer - I am happy to transcode the library - but I need to know where to go

It would be worth tagging Sonos staff @Corry P because he corrected me on this in a previous recent thread, where he stated that although one of the support docs says 16-bit, current support (under S2) is 24-bit. He should be able to confirm whether S1 is still on 16-bit for FLAC - hopefully not!

Hi @Anthony_531 & @Antifon 

From internal documentation:

So, a Play:5 Gen 1 will not play 24bit audio from Music Library, but it will not prevent playback of the file either - it will down-sample (downmix is incorrect terminology) 24 bit audio to 16 bit audio and then play it.

No devices will play 24bit with S1 software.

@Anthony_531 - do your AIFF files play at all? Even for a second? Or do they fail instantly?

If they do play but then fail, the first thing I would check for is local interference. If, however, they all fail instantly, then it does appear that something is awry.

In either case, please submit a support diagnostic and reply here when you have done so, but please don’t share the given number. Please let me know which room you attempted playback in, and the file type. Thanks.

Hi @Anthony_531 

Good to hear you found the answer! Thanks for updating the thread!

Sonos S1 systems require SMBv1 to be available - perhaps that is why you cannot see your Music Library? On what kind of device is it stored?

Yeah - that will be it - I removed it [SMBv1] - it’s a 2019 Datacentre edition box. Still works fine as a renderer - when fed via a DLNA server though.

Hi @Anthony_531 

Can it run Plex? There is a Plex music service for Sonos - that would allow browsing from the Sonos app while bypassing the need for SMBv1. Or, if you have another device on the network that can run Plex and access the NAS, that would work too.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Corry, that’s above a beyond and a rare thing in this day and age. 

I don’t have a requirement to access my music / or video outside my existing solution as the interface on that is perfect for what I need.

Thanks again.

Regards

Anthony.

 This is a bit off subject, but then again not really.  It does have to do with tracks that will not play.  You don’t get the Encoding error instead the track has no album art and, if I remember correctly, the track name is displayed with the track number included In the name.
 

 The reason for this is some forms of the apostrophe are not accepted as a legal character.  It’s very hard to tell that it is different than the legal apostrophe, but if you look very closely you can see a slight difference in the angle.  I have had some downloaded tracks and ripped files that would not play because of this illegal apostrophe.  The solution is to replace it with the apostrophe on your keyboard at which point it will play.

 By the way… No other music playing software I have ever used rejected those tracks that were rejected by Sonos.