Since the 15.2 release there is quite a few songs that display this error when trying to play them. These seem to be mainly songs that are not lossless. They were purchased over time from Apple Music. They will still play if I use the Apple Music app, but they will no longer play from Sonos app. I suspect some lossy codex broke with latest release. Occurs with all my Sonos products.
Is this a known issue?
I’ve found a work-around YMMV.
The ‘not encoded’ error occurs when sending to any Airplay-enabled speakers. In my case this is all my speakers other than a stereo pair of PLAY:3s.
Context: I have a stereo pair of PLAY:3s, 1 Move, and 2 SYMFONISK Bookshelf speakers
1 Ungroup all speakers (I left the stereo PLAY:3s in stereo config)
2 Source of music: My Library (iTunes catalogue)
3 Send the music to any of the Airplay-enabled speakers, encoding error occurs
4 Send the music to the PLAY:3s - success
5 Add in one of the Airplay-enabled speakers, now the music plays to that/those speakers as well
6 Drop the PLAY:3s, music keeps playing to the Airplay-enabled speakers
7 Stop all music
8 Try to play that same album, direct to an Airplay-enabled speaker - works
9 Try to play another ‘My Library’ album directly to Airplay-enabled speaker, fails, back to step 4
Here is a quick video showing steps 2-6:
If I had to guess, the album that worked on step 8 was cached locally in a way that worked with all speakers. Switching albums reset the cache and you are back to where you started. What this does confirm, though, is the issue is likely on Sonos’ side, not Apple’s. If you were able to play the album on a non-Airplay speaker, and even trick it into playing on an Airplay speaker after, then it’s something about how Sonos is interacting with the content, not Apple.
I wish there was a way to revert whatever update was sent to these speakers.
Really annoying this. Half the songs on my Apple Music playlists won't play due to this error.
I'm moving from Sonos, too many issues. Disappointed.
Here is my experience. I am on 15.5 and just experienced (or at least noticed) this issue. Got the improperly encoded issue today for the first time with songs in Apple Music. I even got the error with the songs when playing directly (not through a playlist). For example, any song on Adele’s 21 album gave the error. We normally use my wife’s Apple account to use her playlists, but I tried switching to my Apple account and the songs from 21 played fine. Then I switched back to my wife’s Apple account and the songs work. Not sure if that’s a solution for others but thought I’d share in case it helps someone else.
I’m having a similar issue attempting to play podcasts from IHeartradio. This makes me think it’s not an apple issue, but an issue of some missing codecs in the latest version of Sonos’ updates.
Same issue but not with apple music, but with TuneIn Podcasts.
Here's how:
The above is fine, but there is an issue here:
If I do the search again, I can play the same podcast. This has been an issue for a long time.
I found a solution that seems to work. As mentioned before, you can search in the Sonos app for the artist/album/song and play that way instead of going to your Library. Or the fix I discovered consists of the following steps on my Mac.
Go into the Music app and:
1 - Right click on the artist or album and Remove Download
2 - Right click and Download again
3 - Find the artist/album folder in iTunes -> iTunes Media -> Music
4 - Copy the album folder somewhere else temporarily
5 - Back in the Music app, right click the artist/album and Delete from Library
6 - Go to File → Import to Re-import from the previously copied folder
7 - After it has synced with iCloud (will show down arrows for each song, may take several minutes) test in Sonos to see if it plays now
8 - Delete the copied album folder
Hope this helps!
Well, 15.4 didn’t resolve the issue. I used airplay to stream a playlist to one of my zones, and it worked fine. I then opened the Sonos app and chose the same zone, and it showed the music I was playing through airplay. When I went from song to song through the Sonos app, it was fine as it recognized every song. It’s only when I choose the playlist in the Sonos app that I get the encoding error and it starts skipping songs. But any of the songs skipped due to an encoding issue can be played through the Sonos app by going to the album or just the song. Very odd.
Happening to me as well. Apple Music playlist initiated from the Sonos App. I find numerous songs skipped for the reported “encoding error”.
Sonos can’t figure this out and provide a fix? Disappointing.
Edit: Starting the playlist from Apple Music and Airplaying to the Sonos speaker appears to overcome the problem- at least with the one song I’ve tried this far. I hope Sonos isn’t satisfied with this as a solution.
They have no intention of solving this IMO.
+6
Still a problem with 15.3
It’s very frustrating. It’s a problem with music I’ve bought on iTunes because it’s not on Apple Music - and doesn’t play in Apple Music as Lossless…. (another frustration for another day).
This is not just an apple issue. I'm experiencing the same exact issue using Tidal on a Note 20. Really disappointed I gave Sonos all this money and I can't even listen to my music.
After emailing the CEO, I was contacted by an L3 Engineer. He said it started with 15.2 but is telling me that it’s a network issue and it a problem with the group I initially started with. Of course, it’s not a zone grouping issue and it’s not a network issue - I have a solid Orbi network that hasn’t been changed in years and I have a Sonos Boost. I think they have no idea how to fix the issue. Seriously, I may order the Nakamichi Dragon and find another way to listen to my music in different rooms.
Any talk of networks is BS. I’m a network engineer and my home network is all Ubiquiti hardware with most Sonos devices hardwired. I’ve got a range of Sonos, old and new. The workaround of adding an older non-airplay Sonos into the group works 100% consistently for me (in my case it’s an old connect). There is no way it can be network. I have literally tested everything in depth on my network. Music source is Apple Music btw.
All of a sudden this week , the Radio Station (Talk Radio) started sending error messages Music not encoded properly. Unable to listen to the radio. Radio station is WSB 95 in Atlanta, 97.5. What happened?
I don’t quite understand the delete from your library and redownload fix. With iTunes Match in the Cloud, I rarely have these songs locally at all. Like on my iPhone, I have very few of the Beatles songs downloaded. Some of them play fine on Sonos from a playlist I created, but some have the encoding error. I can even start playing from the Sonos app on my Android phone or Mac or ChromeBook and have the same problem and none of them have these songs downloaded. Am I misunderstanding something?
It’s not a delete / re-download. It’s a delete from your library and re-add to your library. And have fun doing that on all your albums.
I updated to version 15.5 a day ago (06-22-2023) and I am am the same issues with encoded issues. Hopefully this is corrected soon. Wondering if there is a way to down grade to previous versions to avoid the error's message?
I have much the same problem. I use Apple Music but also have albums that I have purchased from apple over the years in my library and also CD’s that I own that I have put in my library. Many of these songs, but not all, have this issue. I have entire albums that will not play and others bought and downloaded on the same day that will play. Some of the purchased albums part play, with certain random tracks ignored by the Sonos app with others on the album playing fine. My system is a mixture of early speakers (Play 1’s and 3’s) and newer stuff, Sonos Ones, One SL’s, a roam and 5’s that are all air play compatible. Here’s the thing; all the problems are with playing stuff on my newer speakers. The songs that will not play on the newer speakers all play directly from the Sonos app to the Play1 and 3’s! I can even start these songs off on a Play 3 and then use the Sonos app to group the Play 3 with the newer air play speakers and they then play fine. I note from this and other forums that numerous different streaming services are also affected. This surely must then point to a problem with the software trying to play the music, i.e. the Sonos app? As for contacting Sonos support, I will but I know from previous contact they are unhelpful and lacking any real technical grasp of the issue.
Have you rebooted both your speaker and router? What service are you using to reach this station?
I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.
There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.
When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.
Thanks for all the suggestions above. Adding an old Play 1 to the group seems to be a temporary workaround for me, but it’s difficult to call it any more than a workaround, as who wants to have their entire Sonos customer experience ruined by having to add a Play 1 to the group every time you want to listen to your Apple music collection which has been built over a 15+ year period.
It’s difficult to call it anything other than a Sonos problem if there’s a workaround to get it working with older formats/devices. I’d be happy if the Sonos engineers just ‘auto-swapped’ to the legacy format when it runs into the issue, as they are requesting the tracks from Apple Music. My experience is that it will just jump to the next song (in a Playlist) until it eventually gives up after finding about five unplayable tracks—not exactly the user experience Sonos wants its customers to be getting during their usage of its otherwise great technology.
So if you’re listening Sonos—and you should be—then give your engineers a nudge and tell them when this happens to auto-retry with a format request to Apple Music that does work with your Play 1 devices, rather than give up. This doesn’t feel like a difficult fix or a big ask, but you’re losing the loyalty of your most precious asset, your existing customers!
Thanks for listening.
Welp, it’s be at least 9 months and we are all still in hell
I have Play 3 and I just have my library of MP3s on OneDrive. Only a handful of songs work. Has there been any overall update on this?
Sonos has never been able to play music stored on the OneDrive cloud system.
I have the same problem playing via YouTube Music. Please fix this, Sonos!
I don’t quite understand the delete from your library and redownload fix. With iTunes Match in the Cloud, I rarely have these songs locally at all. Like on my iPhone, I have very few of the Beatles songs downloaded. Some of them play fine on Sonos from a playlist I created, but some have the encoding error. I can even start playing from the Sonos app on my Android phone or Mac or ChromeBook and have the same problem and none of them have these songs downloaded. Am I misunderstanding something?
I encountered the same problem, half the playlist won’t work but i am using Youtube Music. Guess Sonos that’s broken rather than Apple or Youtube
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