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As a long-time enthusiast and user of Sonos, it pains me to report a persistent and frustrating issue that has arisen with my iPhone 15 Pro Max running on iOS 17.1. The problem lies in the inconsistent AirPlay connection between my iPhone and my Sonos Play:5s and Ones, which leads to unexpected drops while streaming audio.

Having been with Sonos since its early days, I've witnessed the brand's evolution and have thoroughly enjoyed the seamless integration and impressive sound quality that it traditionally offers. However, the latest experience has been disheartening, marking the worst period of connectivity issues in my history with Sonos products.

Initially, I suspected that environmental factors or network congestion could be contributing to the problem, but after thorough testing, resetting network settings, replugging Sonos products, changing the WIFI router brand, doing network stability checks and ensuring that my devices' software was up to date, the issue persisted. My iPhone 15 Pro Max, which boasts the latest hardware and software capabilities that one would expect to work flawlessly with premium products like Sonos, seems to be at the heart of the matter.

The AirPlay dropouts occur randomly—sometimes mid-song or just as a track begins. This not only disrupts the listening experience but also undermines the reliability of the ecosystem that I've heavily invested in over the years. I have over 12 Sonos units at home, in different rooms. While the Sonos app itself remains stable, it's the AirPlay feature, which is crucial for streaming a variety of content from my iOS device, that is failing to maintain a steady connection.

Did you have issues with AirPlay on your previous iOS device? Have you rebooted your phone?

After updating to Ios17.1, AirPlay isn’t working anymore to Sonos play:5. I can select the speaker, then it seems that my phone is connected, but no sound on the play:5. Really annoying. 

What has Apple said to your issue, since it seems tied to iOS 17.1?

I think it’s some apple bug. I have the same problem in homepod and sonos since 17.1 update. iPhone connected but not sound. I have to stop, play, disconnect, reconnect, etc to get it to work.

I had this issue before the iphone 15. It’s an issue with the internet. Sometimes the phone and the speakers connect to wifi on a different wavelength - according to Sonos support 

I’ve had this issue for over a year.  A number of calls to support and all they seem to have is Re=set Sonos Ones to factory and re-install.  I don’t believe that it is an Apple problem, since my Airplay to my Sonos Roam is rock solid.  I’ve sent communication to the CEO of Sonos and got a response from some Support Level 2 tech.  Again asked to re-install.  It worked for about an hour and the connection to Ones dropped.  Reported the results.  That was three weeks ago and I haven’t heard anything since.  Needless to say I am not happy.

I’ve had this issue for over a year.  A number of…

ah, thank you Winediamonds. I called apple support as well. Neither company could help me through the issue. I’ve reset the system once already since this occurred. I was also instructed by Sonos to disengage my TV from apple play. Unfortunately, that didn’t solve the problem and I had to reset my TV to re-engage apple play. A frustrating mess.

if the Sonos app weren’t so clunky, it wouldn’t be much of an issue to work around the apple issue.

im also able to airplay to Sonos from my MacBook just fine. 

 

Seems unusual that it would be a Sonos issue, if it works perfectly well from your Mac. The difference in the equation, as near as I can tell, is the sending device, the Sonos speaker being sent to isn’t changing at all, is it?

Seems unusual that it would be a Sonos issue, if it works perfectly well from your Mac. The difference in the equation, as near as I can tell, is the sending device, the Sonos speaker being sent to isn’t changing at all, is it?

I don’t believe so. I think it’s an apple issue, but I don’t know how to fix it and no one else seems to. 

I recently bought a pair of Sonos One SL. My HomePod was a disaster with frequent connection problems.

I recognize the issues above and I have them with my pair of Sonos One SL as follows:

Connection with my iPad and iPhone: Airplay connection can be made… but when I start a stream (Apple TV app or Apple Music App), the video starts and in case of Music the counter starts, but there is no audio. You can see the connection though Airplay indicated on the device, but after a few seconds the connection breaks and the audio starts playing through the iPad or iPhone speakers.

I sometimes manage to get a working connection with audio after closing WiFi connection, restart of iPad/iPhone, but I did not find a solution that always works… 

A very strange behavior though… And… I can have a steady connection with Airplay from my Mac! So it is a problem with iOS / iPadOS for sure. 

Interesting; when my iPad does not play audio through my Sonos and I change the airplay setting from ‘Sonos’ to ‘My Macbook speakers’, it does work. 

One other thing I encountered: if everything works fine and I play an Apple TV App series on my iPad and I pause and resume it a few times, the eventually audio will stop working… then the video starts without audio. This lasts a few seconds (think 10 seconds) and then audio will start playing from the iPad speaker.

Well… One real good thing is that when the Sonos speakers are playing there is no intermittent audio loss anymore. I had that a lot with my HomePod (2nd gen). I love Apple, but they should stay away from speakers… I had the same issues with HomePod minis and should have been warned…

And a stereo pair of Sonos One SL really sound very well! And much better than one HomePod.

 

If anyone has the same issues with Airplay as I describe above; please let me know and share whatever you did to solve it or we can share our experiences and let Sonos (log files) look into it. Eventually Apple seems to be to blame. But that's my conclusion since Airplay on Mac is always working and on iOS / iPadOS not.

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