Hello @paul0258, 

Welcome to the Sonos Community and thank you for reaching out with your playback issue.

Can you verify that this only happens on your Sonos Connect and not on any other individual Sonos speakers in your system?

Have you rebooted both your router and your Sonos players since this issue began occurring?

Have you made sure that your Sonos system is operating on the latest software version available?

It is a little odd that the 2nd track should be the issue, can you submit a current diagnostic report  from your system is the issue is persisting?  

Hi @Jean C. ,

Thanks for responding.

It has happened also in zone Garage (Play:5 gen1) and in zone “Play1 black”.

System has been updated.

Players and Connect have been rebooted.

Router and cable modem have been rebooted.

Boost has been rebooted.

Problem persists with the same pathology.

I do not have this problem when playing from Amazon Music.

No other wifi-based products or apps in my household are having any issues.

This includes video streaming apps such as Netflix, which consume more bandwidth than Spotify, or so I would think.

Diag# 1127012591.

I hope you are able to identify the cause of this very irritating problem.

Regards,

Paul

Hello @paul0258,

Thank you for the additional detail and the updated diagnostic report. 

Can you run two test sessions for me? 

• Can you test Spotify playback on your Sonos Beam in the Kitchen alone and un-grouped to other rooms for 5-20 minutes.
• Next, take either your Play: 5 Garage or your Play: 1, wire it directly to your router and test Spotify on this speaker only for 5-20 minutes.
• Make a note of any difference in playback behavior and then send a third diagnostic report.

I am looking for something very specific in the playback data so a longer test period on your wired player would be ideal   

Hello again @Jean C. ,

Thanks again for your help, it is truly appreciated.

Did all that you asked, here are my notes.

Regards,

Paul

Played Connect/stereo for about 10 minutes, a couple songs in q were skipped over, did not catch error.

Played Beam for 30+ minutes, several skipped over, about 10s before end of Bye Bye Mon Amour, got error "Can't play The Planets - the song is not encoded correctly" and then started playback of next one (Piste San Tistre).

Connected P1 to router via wire, pulled diag 1178493586.

Played for 50 mins.

Skipped 4th track Indaco, I was in another app so didn't see if there was an error message.

(Note that I intentionally skipped over track Eros, not a system issue.)

Later went back and replayed last minute of Nightbook, it successfully transitioned to Indaco.

Skipped ahead to Mon Amour to see if it would transition to The Planets- ok.

Switched albums. First two songs ok. Skipped to 30s left in 3rd song, then got same encoding error for 4th one. This time got a screenshot, see below.

Diag 975022880

@paul0258,

Thank you for your thorough test of this issue.

If you start playback using Spotify Direct Control from the Spotify app, does this issue persist? 

Hi @Jean C. 

Just adding my name to the list  (diagnostic report 2095493824). 
 

Spotify occasionally skipping to the next song seems to be a reported issue from time to time and WiFi is often blamed.
 

I am also experiencing this problem but my Sonos Port (S2) is hard wired (ethernet) to my router that is connected to a 100Mbps fibre line. The same as others, other services (e.g. Apple Music) never skip. 
 

Spotify Direct Control with the Spotify app also appears to work fine - it is only the Sonos implementation causing problems. 

Hi @Jean C. ,

From Spotify Direct, I played the entire Peter Gregson album (4 tracks) without any problems.

I played the Einaudi album but only the first and last 30 seconds of each song to test the transitions, as I was short on time. Again no problems.

This was on the Living Room Connect.

Diag 1180012471

Regards, 

Paul

Hello @paul0258 & @ColinvZ,

Thank you for the additional diagnostic reports and details.

If you are able to play successfully directly from the Spotify app without interruptions then this is likely going to be your best bet.

This is an issue that we are tracking and will let you know when there is a fix. 

I'm throwing my hat in the ring on this too.

This seems quite a common problem on here but im running out of options to fix it. I've had  Sonos for over 5 years with  no najor issues

... not now Plays first few tracks  absolutely fine then skips 3rd track and says 'Spotify encoding error'. Resumes on next track. Spotify Direct Control works fine as do other streaming  services.

FULL DETAILS 

Equipment:

EE Smart Hub

SKY Q with  boost (on second floor).to Mini Q

Hive (wired into the router)

Sonos: with Move, 4 x play 1s and a Sonos Boost wred into the router. Sonos Connect for turntaable.

Problem: SONOS plays three tracks off Spotify   flawlessly then has an encoding error and skips a track. Always same pattern. Had same system for 5 years only change is addition of the Move. Had Sky Q with boost and Hive for 2 years minimum no issues. This only happens with  Spotify via the Sonos App. Spotify Direct Connect is fine as are all other streaming services.

Tried:

Replacing router woth same model from EE as old one was malfunctioning.

Splitting bandwidth into two (2.4ghz and 5ghz) on router.

Stopping Smart channel and assigning 2.4ghz to a statoc channel (tried all three 1, 6 and 11) making sure Sonos wasn't on the same channel.

Changing EE Smart hub mode to Mode 2 which is more connectable.

Removing the Sonos Boost from the equation and running the soeakers on wifi only.

Unplugging router and Sonos speakers to reset.

Moving the reattached Sonos Boost to 4 feet (and another room) away from the Hive receiver using a long erhernet cable.

Still same repeating pattern, 3 songs and it skips.

Ugh.

Stewart 

Thanks again, @Jean C. 

“This is an issue that we are tracking and will let you know when there is a fix.”

It is better to know this than to think there is something problematic with my household.

I prefer playing from the Sonos app but can live with the Spotify app. Hopefully this is temporary.

Hope your team is able to deliver a solution soon.

Regards,

Paul

Absolutely, when I rang the hotline on thursday there was no mention of this.

This issue has been reported in these forums as far back as 2018. WiFi is normally blamed but it does not appear as though it has ever been conclusively addressed by Sonos (and reports in this thread prove that it is not a WiFi issue). 
 

Hopefully Sonos is able to commit the time to resolve this now. 

Hello @paul0258 et al.

Playback issues can have multiple and overlapping causes and 9 out of 10, its network related. 

When those potential causes are optimized, eliminated or accounted for we can look into sources of this issue.  

The glitch you are experiencing in this particular instance can be worked around by using the Spotify app to start playback rather than the Sonos app for the time being. 

Anyone who is experiencing the same issue should be able to solve it the same way until the root of the issue is fixed. 

I've taken SONOS off automatic updates so that I'm notified when theres an update and can track if it fixes the problem.

@Stewart UK, That’s one way to do it.

 I did take the liberty of looking at your system and have a few questions for you in general. 

• Is your Boost wired directly into your main router or is in a secondary router or extender?
• I see a flag for a possible bad Ethernet cable in your most recent report, have you replaced the cable since then?
• Can you change your Sonosnet channel to 6 from 1? I know that you have tried them all but 6 looks like the least trouble and your connectivity is rather weak over all.

If you happen to live in an older building with a lot of stone or plaster work, you may already be aware of the interference this can cause with WiFi networks and have taken steps to remedy these issues. How far apart would you say that your players are from each other in general and are any of them enclosed in a cabinet or in close proximity to other pieces of audio or electronic or audio gear?

Hya, thankyou. Answers below. :)

•  
• Is your Boost wired directly into your main router or is in a secondary router or extender?

Yes

• I see a flag for a possible bad Ethernet cable in your most recent report, have you replaced the cable since then?

Bought two new cables last week.

• Can you change your Sonosnet channel to 6 from 1? I know that you have tried them all but 6 looks like the least trouble and your connectivity is rather weak over all

Done it multiple times but havedone  it again Wifi signal is strong on all other products in house.

P.s. I just resubmitted a diagnostic as I had BT OpenReach out today, they relaid the cable to our house and then tested our system fully. Afterwards no faults were reported on any test. There is nothing left for me to do on my end sadly other than wait for a fix from your softeare team. The pattern is always the same Sonos will play 3 tracks perfectly thrn skip the 4th then go erratic. Same every time. Works perfectly via Spotify Connect

Hello @Stewart UK,

Thank you for the additional info. The only thing that I could possibly have you do at this point is switch the Ethernet port that the Boost is plugged into on your router, if you have more than one port available, and switch the Ethernet port on the boost itself. That might actually resolve the possible “bad cable” flag that I’m still seeing. 

Other than that, continue to use the Spotify app to start playback until we have a solution.    

Done that before but will try again. The issue is this is now a brand new different router and cables since the previous fiagnostic you saw and the new one today, so if theres an issue it has to be with your Sonos Connect ports surely ? Do I need to return the router to you ?

Im not sure what is going on but now no Sonos products are showing in Spotify Connect at all.

return the Connect I mean lol sorry, multitasking badly here 

Hello @Stewart UK,

I don’t think that returning the Boost would be necessary, I’m not seeing any “bad cable” flags before June 9th. So you either switched to a different cable at that point that is flagging the system or one of the ports you switched to has a bit of dust in it or something. Using the port 2 on the Boost, swapping the cable back or changing the router port (or all three) might eliminate that connection error. I’m not seeing any specific issues with the Sonos Connect running your turntable either just to be clear. 

If you are not seeing any Sonos players in your Spotify listing you may want to restart your Spotify app, it should find the players in your network. 

Hya

1. Ok no problem, Connect seems to be running fine so will leave as is.

2. I've  been on the phonewith  Sonos today andhelped  them by running live diagnostics whilst dling certain operations. We are all now convinced that this is sn.emcoding error between Sonos and Sootify and theyve passed the data caught to Spotofy also. Thankyou for your time.

I too am having an issue with Spotify streaming on my SONOS Move. This is the only device connected over Wi-Fi rather than the SONOS mesh network. Spotify tracks keep repeating even when shuffle is not on. Also the track actually playing sometimes does not match the track artwork showing on the SONOS app. Diagnostic log 1851372997.

Hello @ianacwilliams,

Thank you for reaching out with your playback issue. I’m not seeing your Move included in your current household on this diagnostic report. 

Is it in Bluetooth mode or on a different WiFi network?

If you have multiple routers, extenders or access points it could effect how well Spotify is functioning on your system. 

Its fixed ! Update your software everyone if you aren't  on the latest version..