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Pocketcasts not working

  • 9 November 2022
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The Pocketcasts Sonos service frequently does not work for me.  My Sonos queue has a long list of podcasts, almost all of them from Pocketcasts, and today none of those Pocketcasts items play.  I tried reauthorizing the Sonos service.  Also deleted and re-added the service.  No change in the (mis)behavior.

When I log on directly to Pocketcasts on their web site, I can play my podcasts without problems.  Podcasts in my Sonos queue that are *not* from Pocketcasts play as expected.

I see problems like this way more often than I’d like.  Is there any way to fix the current problem?  Any way to reduce the odds that it happens again?    

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Best answer by William_51 9 November 2022, 22:35

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W

I am getting the 701 error whenever I try and play a podcast from pocketcasts.

I deleted the pocket casts service, and added it again.

I tried logging in to the pocket casts service as well.

Apple Music, Amazon, TuneIn work just fine.

 

W

Sonos is showing a pocketcasts outage. They are working on a fix.  - https://status.sonos.com/

 

M

Has this been fixed? I cannot connect to PocketCasts via the sonos app on my phone and on my desktop. I’ve tried to reautherize the service several times with success and podcast are showing in the app, but when I go to listen it says it is unable to connect to PocketCasts. 

Ken_Griffiths

Has this been fixed? I cannot connect to PocketCasts via the sonos app on my phone and on my desktop. I’ve tried to reautherize the service several times with success and podcast are showing in the app, but when I go to listen it says it is unable to connect to PocketCasts. 

It’s currently working okay here, perhaps try reauthorising your PocketCasts account in the Sonos App under ‘Settings/Services & Voice’

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OP here.  There was indeed a Sonos Pocket Casts outage I was unaware of when I made my original post a couple months ago.  When that outage was fixed, Pocket Casts became somewhat usable for me again.

However, I've had a frequent problem with Pocket Casts that occurs around once per week, has persisted for years, and still exists.  Podcast episode playback often fails with the error "Unable to play xxx - the connection to Pocket Casts was lost" (where 'xxx' is the name of the episode).

When this error occurs, it commonly affect one specific episode in my queue, or a group of episode, while other episodes in the queue are unaffected.  The problem typically lasts hours or days.  At some random time, I always discover I'm able, once again, to play the episode(s) that failed.

I haven't seen this exact problem described anywhere else.  The responses I see to other reports of podcast playback problems generally suggest that the user's router is configured incorrectly, or there might be interference of some kind (wi-fi or other).

Can someone who is more knowledgeable than I about Sonos comment on the likelihood that the symptoms I describe result from local router, local interference issues, or any other local problem?  I don't understand how that's possible -- the local problem, whatever it is, would need to have episode-specific effects.

An example:  A few days ago I got the "connection lost" error while playing an episode.  As an experiment, I tried to restart the failed episode 19 times in rapid succession.  In each case, playback failed the same way and, around 10 or 12 seconds later, the next episode in the queue played without error.

I continued intermittently to experiment with my queue throughout the day and observed many similar failures.   Around 9 hours after I first saw the playback failure for that episode, I was able to play it without errors.

I occasionally reauthorize the Sonos Pocket Casts service or remove/reinstall it.  It's unclear whether those actions help, but in any case, any improvement doesn't last more than a few days.

If this problem is caused by my local configuration, is there any systematic way to troubleshoot?  If it's not a local problem, can it be fixed?

I usually play podcasts on a group of five Sonos One speakers.  I use Sonos controller apps on Windows 10 and on my Android devices.  I recently upgraded from Sonos S1 to S2 on all devices, and that had no effect on the problem I see.

Ken_Griffiths

OP here.  There was indeed a Sonos Pocket Casts outage I was unaware of when I made my original post a couple months ago.  When that outage was fixed, Pocket Casts became somewhat usable for me again.

However, I've had a frequent problem with Pocket Casts that occurs around once per week, has persisted for years, and still exists.  Podcast episode playback often fails with the error "Unable to play xxx - the connection to Pocket Casts was lost" (where 'xxx' is the name of the episode).

When this error occurs, it commonly affect one specific episode in my queue, or a group of episode, while other episodes in the queue are unaffected.  The problem typically lasts hours or days.  At some random time, I always discover I'm able, once again, to play the episode(s) that failed.

I haven't seen this exact problem described anywhere else.  The responses I see to other reports of podcast playback problems generally suggest that the user's router is configured incorrectly, or there might be interference of some kind (wi-fi or other).

Can someone who is more knowledgeable than I about Sonos comment on the likelihood that the symptoms I describe result from local router, local interference issues, or any other local problem?  I don't understand how that's possible -- the local problem, whatever it is, would need to have episode-specific effects.

An example:  A few days ago I got the "connection lost" error while playing an episode.  As an experiment, I tried to restart the failed episode 19 times in rapid succession.  In each case, playback failed the same way and, around 10 or 12 seconds later, the next episode in the queue played without error.

I continued intermittently to experiment with my queue throughout the day and observed many similar failures.   Around 9 hours after I first saw the playback failure for that episode, I was able to play it without errors.

I occasionally reauthorize the Sonos Pocket Casts service or remove/reinstall it.  It's unclear whether those actions help, but in any case, any improvement doesn't last more than a few days.

If this problem is caused by my local configuration, is there any systematic way to troubleshoot?  If it's not a local problem, can it be fixed?

I usually play podcasts on a group of five Sonos One speakers.  I use Sonos controller apps on Windows 10 and on my Android devices.  I recently upgraded from Sonos S1 to S2 on all devices, and that had no effect on the problem I see.

There are a number of things this could be, but perhaps try a few simple things first, such as… Have you tried using a different fixed non-overlapping WiFi channel (eg channel 1, 6 or 11) on your router and setting the channel-width to 20Mhz only to reduce interference.?

Also if you try that, but without success, then perhaps try the Sonos system setup to run on SonosNet instead, with just one Sonos device wired direct to the router, but positioned at least one metre away from the router and set the SonosNet channel so it’s at least 5 channels away from the selected router channel.

Just see if doing either, or both, those things cause the Podcast issue to go away.. if not, then it maybe best to submit a system diagnostic and either note/post it’s reference back here and then contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK  and see what the Staff can suggest to resolve the issue.

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Ken_Griffiths:  Thanks for your suggestions.  When I have some time, which might not be for a while, I’ll give your ideas a try, and I’ll report back.

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