Skip to main content
tln2
Trending Lyricist I
May 25, 2023
Answered

Update to 15.4 lost play from 'on this mobile device'

  • May 25, 2023
  • 43 replies
  • 1787 views

Unfortunately, I chose to update Sonos to 15.4 last night.

I can no longer play any music ‘on this mobile device’ which is what I use almost daily.

Is this a ‘feature’ where Sonos will no longer allow play from Androids, or a bug???

    This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.
    Best answer by Airgetlam

    I’m not a Sonos employee, I don’t have any insight as to where they consider making ‘official’ announcements. 

    I do recall seeing an article on Engadget about it, too. I’d think most of the major outlets carried it as well.

    My guess is this change, much like when it happened to iOS users, is being forced on Sonos by the OS manufacturer. For Apple, it was a ‘security’ issue, Apple didn’t want outside devices to have the ability to reach in to their system. Which puts people like Sonos and others using this method of access in a bad position. Customers, not unlike you, seem to think Sonos wants to do this in order to make you angry. My expectation is they didn’t want to do this. 

    43 replies

    Show previous replies
    RJSUK
    Enthusiast II
    July 7, 2023

    They are slowly stripping away the services that they were promoting when I first bought Sonos. You have to question how much longer until they judge that it's not worth supporting NAS? The fact that 'New Search' does not include results for personal music libraries does not bode well and it's only a matter of time until they drop 'Classic Search'. Moving forward, it'll be streaming services only and you'll need to invest in a Era Bluetooth speaker if you want to play your own music. Backwards technology that's nowhere near as reliable or as good as streaming over Wi-Fi. Some of the apologists are very understanding and tolerant of Sonos' couldn't care less attitude!

      John B
      July 8, 2023

       

      They are slowly stripping away the services that they were promoting when I first bought Sonos.

       

      To which other services are you referring?  Incidentally, Sonos never promoted “play from the device”.

       

       

      You have to question how much longer until they judge that it's not worth supporting NAS? The fact that 'New Search' does not include results for personal music libraries does not bode well and it's only a matter of time until they drop 'Classic Search'

       

       

      Moving forward, it'll be streaming services only and you'll need to invest in a Era Bluetooth speaker if you want to play your own music. Backwards technology that's nowhere near as reliable or as good as streaming over Wi-Fi.

      It is not impossible that Sonos will one day abandon support for NAS drives, bit I doubt it.  I suspect it would be harder to take it away than to leave it.  As I explained in my previous post, network drive support has been part of Sonos since day 1.  Playing from a device was an addition that never fitted well with the Sonos model.  

      Your comment about “streaming over WiFi” is meaningless.  All sources stream over WiFi, (or SonosNet) whether the source is a streaming service, a local drive or “on this device”.  The actual differentiator is the reliability of the stream to the router.  Here, the most reliable is the wired network drive, but with a decent internet connection the advantage is negligible.  By far the least reliable is “playing from the device”, because of the extra wireless step required to get the music to the router.

       

      Some of the apologists are very understanding and tolerant of Sonos' couldn't care less attitude!

       

      What is your evidence that Sonos has a “couldn’t care less attitude”?  Please explain how this attitude has not resulted in business failure, rather than the spectacular growth that a=has in fact occurred?

       

        RJSUK
        Enthusiast II
        July 11, 2023

        Classic apologist comment there - they're removing features but the business is growing spectacularly! How many shares do you own?!

        I have rarely had drop outs of any kind using play from this device. It was far more stable than any Bluetooth speaker (Bose, Sony, etc.) I've used.

        The "couldn't care less attitude" is the fact that they're removing features that I use. This also inludes search results. New Search - which will eventually replace Classic Search - does not include results for music libraries and suggests that the writing is on the wall for NAS users.

          Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement