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Answered

Plex playlist problems with Arc and Arc Ultra, but not Move

  • May 22, 2025
  • 9 replies
  • 95 views
G

My music source is primarily my Plex server. I have multiple Sonos systems.  One system has just a Move and is located on the same network as the Plex server.  Another system has only a Beam and is located remotely from the Plex server.  The third system is also located remotely from the Plex server and contains two setups there: Home theater (Arc Ultra+2 Fives+Sub (Gen 3)) and a Move.    The first two systems play playlists from the Plex server just fine.  Changes have been made over time, and I can now play playlist as big as 9K songs.  That’s great.  On the setup that has the Arc Ultra, it will not play any Plex playlist (short or long).  It simply times out and says cannot play song and skips to next, skips to next and on and on.  The Move at the same location has no problem playing any Plex playlists.  This tells me it is not a network delay issue.  I recently discovered that if I start a Plex playlist with the Move, then add the Arc Ultra setup, the Arc plays the music just fine (I think the Move is in control of loading the playlist in this mode).  If I then drop the Move from the connection, the Arc Ultra cannot continue the play list for long (sometimes maybe a song). 

I would have thought the Arc Ultra would have more horsepower and be better than the Move or Beam for this.  I assume this is something the software could easily fix since it works on the other products.  Seems like some kind of timeout issue. 

Note a previous Arc at the same location had the same issue (and work around) as the Arc Ultra, so it too should be able to be fixed. 

Best answer by Jamie A

Hi ​@grsmith,

I’ve reached out to the team to look into this but none of my colleagues have the same setup to test, however a diagnostics should be able to tell them what’s going wrong. Can you replicate this issue and submit a diagnostics within ten minutes of the issue occurring, then privately message me the reference number so I can provide it to them.

If you can, I would recommend multiple diagnostics; one with playback started from the Arc Ultra and Move grouped, one the other way around, and one with just the Arc Ultra playing.

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9 replies

Jamie A
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  • Jamie A
  • Sonos Staff
  • May 23, 2025

Hi ​@grsmith, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I’m sorry to hear you’re having issues with playing Plex to your Arc Ultra. 

You are correct that the Move is in control of loading the playlist in your workaround. When you start playback in your system, the product that you start from becomes the Group Coordinator (GC), the Move in your case. The GC will be the device the streaming data is sent to, where it then hands it out to other devices in your system that are grouped with it. If you ungroup the GC, then then another device is chosen as the GC, which will be your Arc Ultra setup. 

I wouldn’t rule out this being network related, as both the Arc and Arc Ultra have the issue while in the same location, and we don’t have anything in our internal information regarding the Arc or Arc Ultra not working with Plex. 

Since the Arc Ultra setup gets a timeout error or stops playing after the Move is removed from the group, then it’s likely something is preventing the Arc Ultra and Plex from communicating properly. If you could list your routers make and model, as well as the make and model of any other networking equipment you have in your house, then the community and I can help with providing specific troubleshooting steps for you to perform.

Also, if you haven’t tried already, I would suggest temporarily wiring the Arc Ultra to your network via Ethernet cable to see if that prevents the timeout from occurring. 

I hope this helps!

G
  • grsmith
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • May 23, 2025

My system in the problem location is a pair of Ausus Zen XT9.  One is set up near the modem as the router.  The other is set up in the middle of the house as a mesh node. The XT9 has 3 radios, 1 2G and 2 5G.  One 5G is used at the backhaul connection between the mesh node and the router node.  The there is no Ethernet wiring in the house. The Sonos devices are on the 2G wireless channel. 

G
  • grsmith
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • May 23, 2025

Note: I’ve tried the whole system on the 5G wireless channel also with the same results. 

Jamie A
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  • Jamie A
  • Sonos Staff
  • May 27, 2025

Hi ​@grsmith,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Looking through our internal information we have information on ASUS RT and AX routers, but not on XT models. I’m not sure if XT is just a later version of the models, but I don’t have any official steps I can offer. However, I did find a reply from a user who also has a two node XT9 system. While their issue isn’t exactly the same as yours (they had speakers missing from the app), they disabled the router setting ‘WMM APSD’ and it resolved their issues. I would recommend trying this, as well as adjusting the other settings they have listed, to see if this resolves your issues as well. Their reply is the last one in the following thread:

There are other steps in here that you can try as well, but if none of that works, I would recommend contacting our support team after submitting a diagnostics after starting playback from the Arc Ultra.

I hope this helps!

G
  • grsmith
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • May 27, 2025

I want to reiterate, that the Move doesn’t have any issues and I can move it to be near the Arc Ultra and it still handles Plex well.  This really seems to be a marginal timeout in the Arc compared to what is used in the Move.  Maybe it would be better with a different router or mesh system (or different ISP) but the fact that the Move works shouldn’t be discounted. The Arc ultra cannot play any playlists, even small ones without running into issues and not playing any songs.  Seems like something your developers could fix if they looked into it. 

Jamie A
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  • Jamie A
  • Sonos Staff
  • Answer
  • May 28, 2025

Hi ​@grsmith,

I’ve reached out to the team to look into this but none of my colleagues have the same setup to test, however a diagnostics should be able to tell them what’s going wrong. Can you replicate this issue and submit a diagnostics within ten minutes of the issue occurring, then privately message me the reference number so I can provide it to them.

If you can, I would recommend multiple diagnostics; one with playback started from the Arc Ultra and Move grouped, one the other way around, and one with just the Arc Ultra playing.

Airgetlam
G
  • grsmith
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • May 28, 2025

Good idea.  I will do this.  I won’t be at the system for a couple of weeks to do this, but will when I am next there. 

Airgetlam
G
  • grsmith
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • June 14, 2025

info sent

Airgetlam
Jamie A
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  • Jamie A
  • Sonos Staff
  • June 17, 2025

Hi ​@grsmith,

Thanks for sending the diagnostics, I reached out to the team with them so they can look into the issue for me.

They are seeing an error message when you play form the Arc Ultra, specifically the error message ‘Transport error ERROR_LOST_CONNECTION’. The diagnostic shows the Arc and Move are on a separate BSSIDs but it doesn’t say in the diagnostic which of the Asus Zen XT9 the Arc is connected to. As a test, power down the XT9 that is functioning as a mesh node and then test the Arc again to see if you get the same issue.

If you get the same issue, then please send me another diagnostic and I can follow up with the team. If it does solve the issue, then I’d try looking for a way to prevent the Arc from connecting to that mesh node, maybe though the Asus router software, if possible.

Airgetlam
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