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

I would suggest powering off all sonos stuff, turn router off and back on wait...switch one sonos device on at a time and wait a few minutes after it appears in app,  before powering up the next etc etc.

See if this makes an difference….

I have this problem as well.  I only have a SONOS Connect and I use it to play my Apple Music collection through my Hi-Fi.  My collection is over 1,200 albums and all of this has been uploaded from the CDs.  Some of the tracks are ‘matched’, plenty of it isn’t.

The problem seems to come and go.  Today I’ve had several albums that won’t play.  At other times it’s just the odd track that won’t play.  On another day they would all play correctly.

There is no problem using Apple Music directly using Bluetooth connectivity with other speakers (not SONOS) - only using the SONOS S2 App connecting through the SONOS Connect.  I can’t see how this is Apple’s problem, it has to be a SONOS one.  Even though it’s not every track, it is VERY annoying!!

Are you connecting to a local server, or are these pieces uploaded to Apple’s servers? If it’s the latter, Sonos takes your command via the controller, and requests the data from the Apple servers. At that point, Sonos is merely playing the music on the Apple servers, and any errors that are generated by the Apple servers. This is why you’ll see many of us suggesting tits the data sent by Apple that is the problem, Sonos is merely attempting to play what it receives from Apple, and shows errors if that data is  incorrect.

If,  however, you’re playing from local storage, and not Apple’s servers, then there is likely another issue causing this error, and you should indeed be contacting Sonos support, rather than Apple Support. Sonos support can help you track down what is going on locally to cause this error, which is most likely Wi-Fi interference. But Sonos support can’t reach to Apple’s servers themselves to see what is going on, they are restricted to sending requests for music to the Apple servers, Apple wouldn’t want to allow another company that kind of access, due to potential security issues. In fact, Apple has set up different servers for Sonos to access, which has the SMAPI set up, which is another reason why things work when using the Music app, but fail on the Sonos, they’re talking to two different servers. 

I wonder if t is a handshake/timing issue that gives “song not encoded correctly” and nothing actually wrong with the track on apple server, maybe change the error display to “sorry this is taking too long skipping to next track”. Whenever i did get this sonos would struggle for about 20seconds and no more, then skip.

This is the MOST ANNOYING experience and puts you off internet/wifi music altogether, and more importantly to sonos, buying any more sonos kit, even getting the old vynal out which is all the fashion.

I have just got some Bose headphones (no sonos option) and iam extremely impressed with those as well, maybe the new bose AI sounbar next…..

Airgetlam - all of the music I’m trying to access is held remotely on Apple servers, none of it is downloaded or accessed from my local copy of Apple Music.  It may be, as you say, the error is what is returned by Apple when my SONOS Connect requests the offending song(s).  So, what is SONOS doing to resolve the issue because it’s their product that is not working correctly.  Presumably there’s some dialogue between Apple and SONOS and they’re working together to come up with a solution.

I’ve checked this morning and the songs that won’t play are all designated as ‘matched’ - I assume this is a master copy of the song held by Apple, and not my actual copy uploaded.  One of the songs by the same artist is classed as ‘uploaded’ (from a different album - but the same version of the song) and this plays correctly and without error - presumably a copy that has been uploaded and stored by Apple.

Could you just try turning router and all sonos off and back on again, please, just for me.

i had this with google play music. i think i had duplicate ip adresses and it was messing sonos up, but i have no idea, but turning off and on , moving one speaker nearer to router and running trueplay solved my issue.

paulrw - just for you I turned everything off and then beck on again.  Still the same issue I’m afraid.

I’m sure I’ve successfully played this particular album in the past but, as of now, I’m having no joy.  The location of my SONOS Connect is very close to my router - approx 5m across the room - and my internet connection is very stable and pretty quick (400+ Mbps).  Thanks for trying to help.

Can you get an ethernet cable from router to connect, then change to use sonosnet and not wifi, just for a test maybe if you have a cable...this would eliminate any wifi interference from microwave, skyQ etc etc

Of course if google play music did have a problem, they could of fixed it before i moved sonos speaker….we will never know as sonos do not inform us generally

I got so annoyed i created a sonos playlist of just the tracks that played.

I do have an Ethernet cable that would reach but connecting at the router end is a problem (the 2 sockets are both in use).  Anyway, I tried deleted the album I’d been having problems with and then added it again - and waited for all the songs to get ‘matched’.  Hey presto, it now plays.

I have the problem with a number of other songs/albums but, for now, I’ll just enjoy listening to the original problem album!  Thanks for your help.

i have a netgear switch on the back of my av unit, relatively cheap, reliable and well made from amazon