Skip to main content
User660879
Avid Contributor I
July 1, 2013
Question

why does my sonos app use so much bandwidth

  • July 1, 2013
  • 25 replies
  • 10072 views
I notice that my Sonos app on my android phone is burning large amounts of bandwidth throughout the night, even though there is no device playing. For example last night MyDataApps reported that the Sonos App consistently used ~1MB of wifi bandwidth. Thats 1MB of data every hour. Sonos is the highest data bandwidth consumer on my phone. I'm very concerned about this because it is means the wifi is on and is depleting my phone battery overnight. Of course, I can get around this problem by turning off the wifi. But that defeats the purpose of having a wifi connection. What is the Sonos app doing to want to use 1MB of data every hour? What can I do you limit/reduce/stop this data burn and thereby reduce the battery consumption of the wifi. Thanks, Rob
    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.

    25 replies

    Show previous replies
    Belly M
    Belly M
    August 17, 2017
    Unplug the wire from your router to the Modem (or whatever device goes off to the internet) and and measure again.
    CAW
    Collaborator II
    August 17, 2017
    From the little monitoring I've done, the chit chat of the Sonos app is all service discovery on the local network, not anything being sent to the Internet. It's the app keeping track of the status of your Sonos devices. Are they still there? Are they playing something? If so, what and how far into it are they? Etc. The same goes for the Sonos devices themselves; they do a lot of local SSDP traffic, and very tiny requests back to the monthership (measured in kilobytes per day) to check for things like if there is a new firmware version available.

    So even people with restricted data caps should not have Sonos eating up their Internet data.

    Now, is this background activity going to drain your mobile? (Keep in mind, the original post was over 4 years ago and mobiles and Android have changed a lot since then, including enforcing rules on what apps can do in the background...) Who knows? Personally, I don't have an issue with Sonos battery drain on my devices. Sonos isn't even in the top ten consumers.
    cmonroe
    Lyricist II
    August 17, 2017
    Most of the LAN traffic above is SSDP (verified with tcpdump) so we can ignore it.

    That being said, why did the Sonos mobile app use 524MB of data in the last month alone without ever being open (all background data)? Keep in mind this is all MOBILE DATA, not WIFI DATA! If it was SSDP on the LAN/WiFi that would be one thing.. Sonos is way down the list as far as battery consumers go but it's near the top for data consumption. Unless it's checking for updates every 60 seconds (bug) or looking for my PLAY1's on the cellular network (good luck.. that'd sure be a bug) I can't think of what it'd be doing.
    Smilja
    Smilja
    August 17, 2017
    Most of the LAN traffic above is SSDP (verified with tcpdump) so we can ignore it.

    That being said, why did the Sonos mobile app use 524MB of data in the last month alone without ever being open (all background data)? Keep in mind this is all MOBILE DATA, not WIFI DATA! [...]
    By any chance, are you using Spotify Connect?
    »And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
    cmonroe
    Lyricist II
    August 17, 2017
    No. So far only Apple Music and Deezer are linked.
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement