Apple Music playback interrupted saying 'Unable to play - the song is not encoded correctly'

I’ve been dealing with this royal screw-up and watching this post for a mere six weeks, and I think Sonos needs to understand that not only are they making their customers furious, five months of non-functionality is not an “outage.” Its a non-delivery of service.

I have 60,000 songs in my Apple Music library, many of which are unavailable on streaming services. I moved abroad and quickly went out to get a Sonos speaker, and now I have a 265 euro paperweight.

I know enough about the software, encoding, and streaming services to know this is likely a business fight. Apple wants to deliver this new file format. Sonos doesn’t want to accept it, or worse, can’t figure out how to render it.

I hope Sonos executives know how quickly this could turn into a class-action suit. Compatibility with Apple Music and iOS devices is their bread and butter. And it's right there on the website. A very bad look. Five months and counting…

Exactly how “quickly” can it turn into a class action suit?  Because the hundreds of threats to bring down a class action suit in the past have yet to yet to yield an actual class action, going back decades.  So apparently the answer to that question is, not very quickly at all. 

If someone has the cash and is pissed off enough, pretty quickly.

But forget that. Anyone affected by this could just drop this info off at Techcrunch or worse. I’m just astounded at the lazy attitude and terrible “solutions” Sonos is using to try and placate its customers. I know people use other services on Sonos, but what’s the number of households affected by a five-month “outage” on Apple Music. Would be interesting to find out.

What is perhaps odd, is that I use the Apple Music service within the Sonos App too …and many years ago, I converted my iCloud ‘matched’ library to DRM-free tracks, this was whilst using an annually paid ‘iTunes Match’ subscription, that was in addition to my monthly-paid Apple Music subscription - IIRC it was suggested at the time to delete the local library tracks and re-download the DRM-free tracks in iTunes with the annual ‘Match’ subscription in place - which in-turn allowed library playback on other devices.

Anyhow, the fact of the matter is, I have 24k+ tracks in my online iCloud library and I play tracks from that library, at random, via the Apple Music service within the Sonos App and not once (to the best of my recollection) have I seen the ‘not encoded correctly’ message - all my tracks seem to play without any issue at all …and long may that continue. 

I therefore have no reason at all to take part in any class action - I do wonder though if some are perhaps having these issues due to DRM tracks within their own iCloud library tracks? 

I also read somewhere that the ‘not encoded correctly’ message can also appear in the Sonos App if there is an interference issue between the iCloud server source and the playing Sonos speaker - so these things might be worth some further exploration too before forking out cash, or perhaps taking part in any legal proceedings.

The Apple service within the Sonos App certainly seems to be working okay for playback on my Sonos products.

Since we’re better at troubleshooting this than Sonos…

I currently use “iTunes Match.” I also have a hard drive of everything I ripped long before Match that’s not with me atm (I just moved overseas). They’re both fail safes to one another.

I also recall the “re-Match” request and did that. I might have the option of dumping everything in iTunes and reloading it when my hard drive arrives in a few months. Not psyched about that.

What I can’t make sense of is that I have new albums that Matched from the last two months that won’t play. I have long ago, previously Matched albums where one song will play. I have tracks not available in Apple Music that won’t play (not sure yet if I can find any that do play -- haven’t dug deep). This still strikes me as a Sonos problem, not an Apple one. The app allows me to hit play on tracks. But when that command is sent to the speaker, I get the error. This possibly means that Sonos manufactured a load of bad hardware. Would a firmware update even fix this?

No one has seen this “not encoded” error until the last five months. Upthread someone emailed the CEO of Sonos! What needs to be done? Does Sonos have a Board of Directors? 

Here’s my question to you: Pinned at the top of the thread is a Sonos engineer who proposed this “solution.” Do you have a speaker NOT in this list grouped in? Is this “fix” what’s making your system work?

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We are aware of an issue whereby tracks uploaded to Apple Music can give a “not encoded correctly” error when attempted to play on Sonos. Apple are working on a resolution.

In the meantime, you can circumvent the issue by searching for tracks instead of browsing, or by grouping-in a speaker not in the following list:

• Amp

• Arc / Arc SL

• Beam (all generations)

• Era 100 / 300

• Five

• Move

• One / One SL

• Port

• Ray

• Roam / Roam SL

• Sub (gen 2, gen 3) / Sub Mini

• SYMFONISK products

Iam also getting “Unable to play - the song is not encoded correctly' when using youtube music on stereo pair play1s

Latest iOS and sonos updates.

Generally sonos will play first track of an album ok, then error on a few, play a few seconds of another etc etc

Used to get it now and again going back over several years, now every album, very frustrating!!

Radio streams ok

This is not just an apple music problem.

For those who want to make a go of it, according to the advice given below, the only speaker currently available from Sonos that might help with this is Move 2. (And I hope it’s not accidentally missing from the list.) The list we’ve been given is mostly just the full suite of their available hardware.

The only other options would be speakers that are discontinued but still supported, which are the Play:1, Play:3 and the Play:5 (Gen 2). There are Play speakers out there on eBay or FB Marketplace, etc. If you want your Sonos back, it’s probably your only shot. I hope it works for me.

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In the meantime, you can circumvent the issue by searching for tracks instead of browsing, or by grouping-in a speaker not in the following list:

• Amp

• Arc / Arc SL

• Beam (all generations)

• Era 100 / 300

• Five

• Move

• One / One SL

• Port

• Ray

• Roam / Roam SL

• Sub (gen 2, gen 3) / Sub Mini

• SYMFONISK products

I started a thread on this topic back in February. I have spoken with multiple sonos techs, I emailed the CEO (got a response from his exec secretary), I spoke with an Apple Music tech, and yet we are still here. I did discover the work around back in February by playing around with different speakers, so if you have an older speaker attached everything will work as before. It took Sonos a while before they would admit the issue and then offer up a solution. It still bothers me that on the Sonos music service status page there is a green check next to Apple Music.

This was happening at both houses so that is how I knew it was a Sonos/Apple issue not the “interference” they always try to peddle (I do acknowledge that sometimes that can be an issue). It is clearly not a DRM issue if there is a work around like adding an old speaker. I don’t know if it is now possible for me to get rid of Sonos with two house full of speakers and amps but I am done buying more Sonos product. Bottom line is you can’t rely on these companies to do the right thing for customers. 

Agreed sonos are basically admitting there is a problem with new stuff and not the old stuff, maybe they needed an S1.5 software version but can’t be bothered ……….

Perhaps the stereo paring of PLAY1s has made this worse, it’s the only change i have done.

Just discovered this issue. IOS 17.2 with the latest Sonos application. Using a surround system with a playbar and two play Ones. Super frustrating they have not figured out how to fix this yet.