Youtube Music not playing, skipping through playlist

Yes, I’m seeing the same issue too (I only use the free version here) - maybe the YTM service is down at the moment?

There’s nothing showing yet on the Sonos service status page here…

https://status.sonos.com

Maybe try again in a short while.

Hi Ken, 

No problems with the YTM service, Iǘe been having this problem for a few days now ;-)

Ah the free version of the service seems to be working again now, perhaps give it another go…

Hi, I've had this issue for probably a year now. And after several conversations with support I've been told this is a 'known issue'... A known issue where I cannot play probably 95% of any music on YouTube music (I have premium, not the free version).

The fact that Sonos think this is acceptable is an absolute disgrace and this company seems to be slipping towards becoming defunct. And I say that as an owner of a full Sonos surround system plus several Ones around the house. 

I’m surprised to hear it’s a known issue - I assume it’s on Googles side, as they are responsible for the audio feed into the Sonos API. It’s odd that their ‘free’ service is working okay, well it is working okay here for the 250 tracks I uploaded to their servers.

The Sonos status page shows the service as fully operational too. See here:

https://status.sonos.com

What I said was what Sonos advised me, and that they were 'working on it'. That was a couple months ago now since I last asked them about it. I'm quite aware that their servers and YouTube's servers are showing as fine. As I said, this is going on for a long long time now. 

I'm glad yours is working.

This apparently is an acceptable level of service from Sonos to have a known bug that that they haven't bothered actioning:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5A1MPe8rnmffL5KR6

The only time I’ve seen a playlist ‘skipping’ like that, is when there is a connection issue between the Sonos player and the YTM audio source - Clearly the source cannot fill the players audio buffer and so it jumps to the next track (and the next etc.) until it is able to find a track that will successfully fill its buffer.

The attached screen capture is what I see when playing from YTM, but as mentioned I only use their free service (recorded a few moments ago).

Did you explore the devices SNR levels with the Sonos Staff and look at the usual things, like reducing interference by using non-overlapping WiFi channels and setting the 2.4Ghz WiFi band to 20Mhz only etc?

Interesting, and what you say about the buffering makes sense to me, however that didn't seem to be the issue while with support...however I don't recall them looking at my network.

However my 2.4GHz network is not what you'd consider congested (see attached picture). I also don't know how to check the SNR levels or how to change the network (I recall in the old app having more options but can only locate the option to change the Sonosnet channel at the moment), so I may get onto support once again to try and prompt them to actually try and solve this. 

I would simply set aside ‘slow’ SonosNet these days and see how your setup runs on your local WiFi connection instead - most Sonos devices these days also use the faster 5Ghz WiFi network - I would just see if that quickly resolves your issue. Make sure you add both the 2.4 GHz and 5Ghz band to your Sonos network settings if they do have different SSID’s - in my own case the WiFi uses the same SSID/credentials and uses auto band-steering but you can likely steer your devices to the most appropriate band.

These are the devices that support the faster 5Ghz WiFi band:

• Play:1
• Play:3
• Play:5 (Gen 2)
• Sub (Gen 1)
• Sub (Gen 2)
• Era 100
• Era 300
• Move 2
• Roam
• Roam 2
• Roam SL
• Five
• Move
• One (Gen 1)
• One (Gen 2)
• One SL
• Port
• Sub (Gen 3)
• Sub Mini
• SYMFONISK Bookshelf (Gen 2)
• SYMFONISK Floor lamp
• SYMFONISK Picture frame
• SYMFONISK Table lamp (Gen 2)
• SYMFONISK Bookshelf (Gen 1)

SNR levels apply to devices running on your WiFi network (not SonosNet) - see this link:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/understanding-the-network-details-section-in-the-sonos-app
 

To switch between SonosNet and your local WiFi, see the latter paragraphs in this link: 

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/switch-sonos-between-a-wireless-and-wired-setup

i would set the routers 2.4Ghz band to use channel 6 with a channel-width of 20Mhz only, that’s based on the image you posted. Leave the 5Ghz band on 80Mhz and maybe fix its channel to whatever it is using at the moment.

Hope that assists and resolves your issue.

Ken, you’re a legend for all this help, however after trying all you’ve suggested, there is no change.

- I confirmed speaker that I’m testing on is on my Wifi and has acceptable SNR level of 33-40dB

- I tried 2.4GHz network with the settings you suggested, no change

- I disabled 2.4GHz network and enabled only 5GHz, no change

What are the download/upload speeds that you get from your ISP? Are you using any type of security or blocking software to protect your network? 

On the speaker for example in the bedroom, which would be the worst signal wise, I get 30-40Mb/s. But I have just tested this on my Arc that is hard wired directly to the router (they are located in the same corner of the living room), playing soley off of it and no other speakers in the group. I still experience the issue. Doing a speed test off the router I can see I am getting 500Mb/s minimum when hard wired, and goes up to 1Gb/s.

I thought you might be onto something with security/blocking, as I have DNS blocking set up via Adguard on Home assistant. However I disabled it, and re-routed my DNS server to 1.1.1.1. Still have the issue.

I have also tested this with different types of playlist, i.e. one I curated, or one generated by Youtube, and the issue happens on both. Although I have noticed it happens more frequently on the Youtube curated ones (inclining toward the presumption that this is indeed a buffering or caching issue). The issue is frustrating as for a time Sonos will play a song it ‘likes’ but then a few seconds later if I click it again, it no longer ‘likes’ it and skips through.

Note if the Arc is wired to the LAN and you have not disabled its WiFi then your setup is not likely using your WiFi network, as a wired Sonos player will invoke SonosNet. Also it’s best to not disable the WiFi on a Sonos Home Theatre product as the adapters are used for 5Ghz ad-hoc connection to any wireless surrounds/Sub. I would uncable everything for your testing and ensure the adguard is not playing a role. The cloudflare DNS you are using should be fine.

Hi Ken,

Also many thanks from me for your assistance in this. I am still experiencing the issue, did some changes to my Wifi as suggested by you and ran some standard network tests, all checks out fine. I have a Roam SL and a One SL that are both connected to my 5Ghz Ubiquity AP, SNR is 50+ on the One and 45 on the Roam so that seems fine too.

Streaming through the YTM  app (or any other streaming service) on my Pixel 7 Pro or Zorin Linux PC works a charm, but the Sonos app still nogo.

Best regards,

Erik

Hi Erik, 

I’m not that familiar with Ubiquity WiFi, but if relevant, have you setup your Ubiquity AP as mentioned on the manufacturers website here?

https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/18930473041047-Best-Practices-for-Sonos-Devices

Or is it just a wireless AP that’s extending your existing routers WiFi signal? 

Hi Ken,

It is setup as a 'full' AP not as a bridge or extender. My ISP's Wifi on the modem/router is disabled and the modem is running in bridge mode. I have my own firewall setup with an EdgeMax with the latest fw version and haven´t had any connectivity issues with my Sonos devices. I used to work in IT so I may not have the standard networking setup ;-). 

'All' Sonos devices are on Wifi and the Sonos app detects them all correctly and can use them all correctly.

Best regards,

Erik

Perhaps just as a test, would it be possible/easy to connect a Sonos product to your currently bridged router’s WiFi, by-passing the Ubiquity AP and EdgeMax, just to see if the YouTube Music service then works for you - obviously you would need to connect your mobile controller/App to that same WiFi network too and temporarily take the router out of bridged mode.

I ask as I am able to easily do that with my own, currently bridged, router as my own WiFi mesh AP’s switch automatically here between bridged and router modes, but I’m not sure if you would find it as easy to test these things with your own setup.

It would be interesting to establish if it may work in your case.

Hi Ken,

I fully agree with you, it would be interesting to see if I have the same issues with my network setup 'out of the game' so to speak.

Unfortunately, that is not as easy as it should be, my ISP has chosen to lockdown all settings in this modem, so getting it 'unbridged' and it's Wifi re-enabled would require a servicecall and a 24 hour leadtime. It's a shame that, besides this, this ISP is very good or this would have been a reason for me to switch ISP's and go from DOCSIS to Fiber.

Best rgards,

Erik

I guess I’m slightly lucky in that I can quickly switch the local ISP provided router myself between modem and router and swap a couple of cables and have my setup in either mode. It was just a thought to try.

Another option might be to try a small setup (controller & speaker) on a mobile hotspot to see if that works, but it’s likely not going to achieve anything more than me showing you that YouTube Music (via Sonos) is working okay here and not skipping tracks.

The one thing I would say is if it’s not happening for any of the other (Sonos) built-in music services, like Amazon Music, Apple Music or Tidal etc. then it must be something to do with the YTM  (via Sonos) locally where you are. However in that instance I would have expected to see far more reports about it here in the community.

I’m out of ideas, but maybe go back to Sonos Support and see if they may help to escalate the matter for you and perhaps speak to Google/YTM Support too and try to tackle the issue from both sides.

Hi Ken,

Again, thanks for your input, I guess it's tinker time and see if I can get it to work. I will try support, but have no high hopes there ;-).

I had Spotify before YTM and that did work as expected, I switched because YTM came with the YT Premium sub.

Best regards,

Erik