Contributor I

Apple Music Lossless Cutouts and Skips

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 25, 2025
66 replies
3703 views

Hi. Is anyone else experiencing dropouts, skips, etc with Apple Music since Apple Music moved to Lossless? Before Lossless was introduced, I never had these issues. I have tried Amazon HD and Quboz in the past - both high-res services - and experienced the same behavior. Eventually my system will realize it’s not working and then downgrade back to non-Lossless music, but then it will try again 5 songs or so later. We really need a toggle in the app to downgrade to non-Lossless streaming for the systems that can’t handle it.

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craigski

Local Superstar

Any Apple Music inconsistency is also itself inconsistent - i.e. I have no such drop outs on any Apple Music lossless or Dolby Atmos tracks, across any of my ten speakers, and I suspect the majority of users don’t experience this issue. I can’t imagine how Sonos or Apple will ‘fix’ something that isn’t a universal issue. (I personally don’t believe your customer service agent’s assertion that this is an issue that has been known for six months.)

I have not experienced any Apple Music Lossless dropouts either, unless I’m cooking on high 😀

If I was experiencing the dropouts I would be getting IP address of affected device, doing some constant ping tests ‘ping -t <ip address>’, checking the UniFi admin logs, checking if affected device was roaming between APs, being force to band steer, etc.

I know there is a known issue that any steaming service will be affected by network issues, either local or beyond with ISP or CDN network.

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Rhonny

Prodigy III

@craigski

“If I was experiencing the dropouts I would be getting IP address of affected device, doing some constant ping tests ‘ping -t <ip address>’, checking the UniFi admin logs, checking if affected device was roaming between APs, being force to band steer, etc.”

And what would you do if you were just a normal person? 😉

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craigski

Local Superstar

I appreciate vast majority of Sonos users, ‘normal people’ are not network engineers (me included, does that make me normal?)

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CovertDirt

Enthusiast II

Any Apple Music inconsistency is also itself inconsistent - i.e. I have no such drop outs on any Apple Music lossless or Dolby Atmos tracks, across any of my ten speakers, and I suspect the majority of users don’t experience this issue. I can’t imagine how Sonos or Apple will ‘fix’ something that isn’t a universal issue. (I personally don’t believe your customer service agent’s assertion that this is an issue that has been known for six months.)

I have no reason to doubt what I was told. Which makes a difference being told something at least. I think you’ll see loads of posts across here and internet with the exact same issues. Not everyone, but it’s enough of an issue I had read lots of posts that were the identical issue I’m having on my set up.

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CovertDirt

Enthusiast II

@craigski

“If I was experiencing the dropouts I would be getting IP address of affected device, doing some constant ping tests ‘ping -t <ip address>’, checking the UniFi admin logs, checking if affected device was roaming between APs, being force to band steer, etc.”

And what would you do if you were just a normal person? 😉

Good point! This is why my dad gave up on his Sonos speakers after the app update. All too hard!

However I had previously done all of this over the last 12 months and there is zero wrong with the UniFi gear. It’s not showing any issues or dropped connections.

All the devices have fixed IPs - it’s the Sonos gear and Apple Music and none of this was an issue a year ago.

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Dilan

Contributor I

Any update on this?…the zones continued drops with Apple Music Lossless are unbearable. Today I spent time with support and I was told it’s a matter of bandwidth and that I should try to reduce the amount of Sonos products playing at a time as they may not be able to cope with the increased loads…this defeats the purpose of a large system. I was suggested to disable lossless at Apple’s end, which I don’t think is possible without downgrading my subscription.

i never had this problem before the feature had new app were introduced…

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SonosChicagoAuthor

Contributor I

Hi - I had the same interaction you did when I called Sonos Support about this problem and it’s mildly infuriating when we get offered these types “solutions”. First option, don’t use our products the way we advertised them to be used. Second option, do something with Apple Music that is actually not possible when streaming via the Sonos app. The solution that many people have asked for is for the user to have the option to turn off Lossless streaming from Apple Music. This seems to be the most sensible thing until Sonos is able to sort out why there are so many dropout, skipping, etc problems since the “upgrade” to Apple Music Lossless.

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dan v

Lyricist II

In case it’s of use to someone else. I’ve had some luck improving Apple Music playback by bandwidth limiting my speakers, forcing Sonos to request lower quality music.

I have 4x Ones and a Playbase, all using Sonos net. The Playbase is too dumb for lossless so if it’s included in playback, there are no issues. The Ones on the other hand, will request lossless and then deliver choppy audio.

I’ve experimented with limiting the bandwidth each speaker is allowed from my router (Asus guide - https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1013333/). I kept dropping the limit and found 1 Mb/s is pretty reliable and almost never requests lossless. I’ve had a buffering issue maybe once in two weeks? I suspect this works because the Sonos, itself, is choosing a worse quality stream as a fallback.

Notes:

I appreciate this is a hack but it’s stopped me going mad.
There’s probably a more accurate figure to force the quality fallback - I’d be curious to know…
If you’re not using Sonos net, I expect this approach will only make your playback more unreliable. (presumably, Sonos net data is transferred between speakers directly, and as such, won’t be limited by the router. The limit should really only impact traffic between the speaker and Apple.)

Thanks gang. Good luck!

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craigski

Local Superstar

Apple Lossless starts at 16 bit 44.1kHz, which is 1.4Mb/s.

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SonosChicagoAuthor

Contributor I

In case it’s of use to someone else. I’ve had some luck improving Apple Music playback by bandwidth limiting my speakers, forcing Sonos to request lower quality music.

I have 4x Ones and a Playbase, all using Sonos net. The Playbase is too dumb for lossless so if it’s included in playback, there are no issues. The Ones on the other hand, will request lossless and then deliver choppy audio.

I’ve experimented with limiting the bandwidth each speaker is allowed from my router (Asus guide - https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1013333/). I kept dropping the limit and found 1 Mb/s is pretty reliable and almost never requests lossless. I’ve had a buffering issue maybe once in two weeks? I suspect this works because the Sonos, itself, is choosing a worse quality stream as a fallback.

Notes:

I appreciate this is a hack but it’s stopped me going mad.
There’s probably a more accurate figure to force the quality fallback - I’d be curious to know…
If you’re not using Sonos net, I expect this approach will only make your playback more unreliable. (presumably, Sonos net data is transferred between speakers directly, and as such, won’t be limited by the router. The limit should really only impact traffic between the speaker and Apple.)

Thanks gang. Good luck!

Thanks Dan! I’ll be giving this a try. Hopefully the people at Sonos will figure out a fix for this persistent and absolutely frustrating issue.

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