Hi all,I have been using Sonos to stream music from my local media server with Plex for the past two years without problems. For a couple of weeks, I have been experiencing playback issues.I can browse my Plex music library without any issues in the official Sonos app When I select a song for playback, the song loads in the playback UI but frequently fails to play with the "Unable to play [track] - the connection to Plex was lost" I say frequently, because from time to time songs start playing correctly. Sometimes the error appears 20 seconds into the song Streaming from the Plexamp app to Sonos works perfectly fineI analyzed my Plex logs and can confirm that Plex is set up correctly. If the Plex setup was the issue, I would also always be unable to play a song and see an error in the Plex verbose logs.A few things among many I checked:NAT Loopback is supported by the router Manual port forwarding is allowed on the router The firewall is not blocking the connection between Sonos and Plex There is no wifi or connectivity issueI took two verbose log files from Plex, one where playback is failing, one where playback is working, and Plex logs in both cases show the same behavior without any errors. The only difference is that in the case where playback fails, Sonos does not initiate playback on its end after a direct play decision is made. Plex just does not receive any additional instructions from Sonos.Since I don't have access to Sonos logs, I can't debug the Sonos side of things, though. I tried to open a support case, but the only recommendation I got was to restart my router, and the Sonos speaker, which of course did not solve the problem.Are there any known problems at the moment? How can I find out what’s going on without access to Sonos logs, and ultimately, how do I fix this issue?Happy to provide Plex verbose logs in case it helps.

Sonos constantly loses connection to Plex

Hi all,

I have been using Sonos to stream music from my local media server with Plex for the past two years without problems. For a couple of weeks, I have been experiencing playback issues.

I can browse my Plex music library without any issues in the official Sonos app
When I select a song for playback, the song loads in the playback UI but frequently fails to play with the "Unable to play [track] - the connection to Plex was lost"
I say frequently, because from time to time songs start playing correctly. Sometimes the error appears 20 seconds into the song
Streaming from the Plexamp app to Sonos works perfectly fine

I analyzed my Plex logs and can confirm that Plex is set up correctly. If the Plex setup was the issue, I would also always be unable to play a song and see an error in the Plex verbose logs.

A few things among many I checked:

NAT Loopback is supported by the router
Manual port forwarding is allowed on the router
The firewall is not blocking the connection between Sonos and Plex
There is no wifi or connectivity issue

I took two verbose log files from Plex, one where playback is failing, one where playback is working, and Plex logs in both cases show the same behavior without any errors. The only difference is that in the case where playback fails, Sonos does not initiate playback on its end after a direct play decision is made. Plex just does not receive any additional instructions from Sonos.

Since I don't have access to Sonos logs, I can't debug the Sonos side of things, though. I tried to open a support case, but the only recommendation I got was to restart my router, and the Sonos speaker, which of course did not solve the problem.

Are there any known problems at the moment? How can I find out what’s going on without access to Sonos logs, and ultimately, how do I fix this issue?

Happy to provide Plex verbose logs in case it helps.

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Hi @Ltty

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Sorry to hear about this issue you regularly have with playing content from your Plex server.

Although there is documentation on the issue you are having, there are no support tickets associated with it, so it does not appear to be an issue that we are tracking as something needing solved. I can of course give you the advice I found there-

Please remove the Plex service from your Sonos system and add it back on again:

You’ve already verified that your router supports NAT Loopback, so we can cross that off the list.

Please confirm that your Internet speed connection is adequate for streaming (min. 2 Mbps download/upload). You can perform a speed test via www.speedtest.net and https://speed.measurementlab.net. Although your Plex server is local, Sonos uses a remote connection via our cloud servers to access it, so remote access must be available and correctly configured (see Plex help pages) for Sonos to play Plex content.

If your Plex server is running on a laptop, the laptop’s power management features might interfere with the Plex server’s ability to run properly - please ensure the host computer will not use any such power draw reduction features (such as turning off the hard drive or going to sleep).

If none of this is of help or applies, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

I hope this helps.

I am having the same problem where I can see the library but cannot play any tunes. With shuffle, Sonos tries to play four tunes with a cannot play message for each before just giving up. Just trying to play a tune I get a message that the connection to Plex was lost. Tech support had me try several things. I then gave them the log number and then they declared it a Plex problem and told me to contact Plex.

@BFu, did you actually contact plex?

What works as a workaround: I can stream music from the plexamp app to sonos. So playback casting from plex apps to sonos within the same network works without any issues.

@Corry P, thanks for your detailed answer. Already tried all of these steps, and technical support on the phone couldn’t help either.

I intensively debugged Plex, and what I can tell is that there’s no difference in Plex behavior when streaming a song works and when it fails. Everything points towards a timeout/interruption issue on the Sonos side, as in unsuccessful cases, Plex simply doesn’t receive playback information like it does during successful plays.

If I had access to the Sonos logs, I could troubleshoot myself, but from what I see on Plex logs and network behavior, I am 99% sure that it is not a Plex issue.

Hi @Ltty

Sorry to hear none of that helped.

Before we delve deeper in, please verify that your Internet Service Provider does not use CGNAT. A Google search should suffice, but you may need to ask them directly.

The reason I ask is because my ISP does use CGNAT, and that is the reason I cannot play Plex content on my Sonos system (ever since I changed to them from another ISP). If your ISP does use CGNAT, your only recourse might be to pay extra for a static public IP address (according to Plex’s support page linked to in my previous post), assuming that is an option with them. I can get Plex to work on Sonos, but only for a minute or so after configuring, and then it stops working.

I hope this helps.

Edit: Incidentally, I am not familiar with Plexamp, but I presume it uses DLNA or UPnP to push a local file to the speaker, rather than working through the cloud.

I too think the problem is with Sonos. Several years ago, Sonos and Plex were working without problems for me. Then a software update and I would have to try and play a tune several times before it would play. As more updates followed it became more unreliable until Sonos and Plex stopped working altogether. It seems that only services you subscribe to or services with Ads work now with Sonos. Maybe they are trying to get us to only use services where they make money.

Found this thread through a google search - Can confirm that while sonos<->plex genearlly works on my system, it disconnects randomly for no reason and sonos is the only playback client that has this problem with my plex server. Plexamp and other playback clients never have these disconnects.

Hi @Corry P,

The provider does not use CGNAT. Also, I forgot to mention that Sonos and Plax have worked seamlessly for the past 2 years. The problem started roughly 2 months ago.

Do you know if there’s any way to get access to Sonos logs so I could troubleshoot myself? The only missing link is the Sonos logs. I would hope to find any indication for the problem in the logs, but debugging and troubleshooting over the phone is super difficult.

Hi @Ltty

OK, at least we can cross that off the list!

There is no way for you to access those logs yourself, no - I can only recommend that you call our support team.

I recommend that you stick with it, though - even if support give you some things to try, be sure to try them (if not already tried) and to get back in touch if they do not help. It is likely only by trying things and reporting that they do not work will your support case get escalated to a higher level where some real changes may be able to be made.

I hope this helps.

Hi @Ltty

I’d be very interested if you get this fixed. I think IMHO It must be a Sonos issue and not Plex.

I have same issue, my set up maybe different though, wondering if you have your music library on a NAS ? And I also have tenda Mesh wireless set up in the house. (both of these are used as reasons why I may have drop outs - but I dont have issues with using Sonos directly to my music library)

I don’t have ability to to Plex to all my Sonos devices as I have some old Sonos Connect Amp’s which don’t support (is it Airplay that Plex uses to send to Sonos) so its a reall ball ache for me.

I only installed Plex as local library exceeded 65000 songs so it was seen as a way of avoiding that issue with Sonos.

In summary to support your case -

I can play from plexamp to the newer Sonos devices (eg) a port)

I can play plexamp to bluetooth speakers via my Iphone.

i an even play from plexamp when in my car using remote access to my Local library from my phone and bluetoothed to car stereo.

I can play using SONOS to the local library as well, albeit that is now bit redundant as it has not got all my music on as it won’t synch more than 65000 tracks - but that works fine so there is no Sonos access issues to my QNAP NAS

It is just when I use Plex as a Service from Sonos. Tonight I got 3 tracks before it baled out with the “Connection tio Plex TV etc…...error”

Tuesday, 26 August 2025 - 8:49 PM Greenwich Mean Time : Dublin, London
Unable to play 'I'm So Depressed' - the connection to Plex was lost.

Tuesday, 26 August 2025 - 8:49 PM Greenwich Mean Time : Dublin, London
Unable to contact the Plex Media Server. Please check your server settings at plex.tv and make sure that Remote Access is enabled.

Tuesday, 26 August 2025 - 8:56 PM Greenwich Mean Time : Dublin, London
Unable to browse music

The key to getting this, or most anything Sonos, fixed are diagnostics and calls to Sonos support. Diagnostics aren't usually looked at until a call comes in and a tech then opens them.

These forums and other contact methods do not appear to have the impact a call does.

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