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stephenkward
Contributor I
July 15, 2026
Answered

Sonos speaker connected to Access Point but cant be controlled when iPhone connected to another Access Point

  • July 15, 2026
  • 21 replies
  • 200 views

I’ve seen a few discussions about this issue, but I haven’t come across anyone who has found a solution.

I have a Sonos Five connected to one of my access points (5GHz, using the same SSID as my router and other APs). When my iPhone is connected to that same AP and the Sonos Five, everything works perfectly. I can start music from the Sonos app and control playback without any problems.

However, when I move to another part of the house and my iPhone roams to a different AP, the Sonos app can no longer control the Sonos Five. The speaker still appears in the app, but whenever I try to pause, play, or perform any other action, I get a "Could not connect to server" error.

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

Roaming on the iPhone appears to work smoothly, but it feels like the Sonos app isn’t refreshing its connection properly. Even if I leave it for a long time, it never seems to recover.

Interestingly, if I roam back to the main router’s Wi-Fi, the Sonos app immediately recognises what’s playing and I regain full control of the Five. The issue only occurs when the phone is connected through a different access point.

My access points are Omada EAP650s, all configured identically and running in standalone mode. Roaming works fine for every other Wi-Fi device in the house, so this seems to be a Sonos-specific issue.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Best answer by craigski

This is the switch I use in my setup 

 

Spec here:

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/business-networking/soho-switch-poe/ls1210gp/#specifications

Two “Features” that will need to be correctly configured in your setup:

Advanced Features • Extend Mode Button (Ports 1–4, Up to 250 m PoE power supply and data transmission)
• Isolation Mode Button (Ports 1–8)
• PoE Auto Recovery Button (Ports 1–8)
• Compatible With IEEE 802.3af/at Compliant PDs
• IEEE802.3x Flow Control
• 802.1p/DSCP QoS
• IGMP Snooping
• Green Technology

 

Check switch on back, make sure Isolation is set to OFF.

The irony that “Smart” switches can be dumber than a cheap unmanaged switch if the smart features are misconfigured for a specific use case, eg AirPlay, Sonos, etc 😀

21 replies

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stephenkwardAuthor
Contributor I
July 17, 2026

This is the switch I use in my setup 

 

Spec here:

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/business-networking/soho-switch-poe/ls1210gp/#specifications

Two “Features” that will need to be correctly configured in your setup:

Advanced Features • Extend Mode Button (Ports 1–4, Up to 250 m PoE power supply and data transmission)
• Isolation Mode Button (Ports 1–8)
• PoE Auto Recovery Button (Ports 1–8)
• Compatible With IEEE 802.3af/at Compliant PDs
• IEEE802.3x Flow Control
• 802.1p/DSCP QoS
• IGMP Snooping
• Green Technology

 

Check switch on back, make sure Isolation is set to OFF.

The irony that “Smart” switches can be dumber than a cheap unmanaged switch if the smart features are misconfigured for a specific use case, eg AirPlay, Sonos, etc 😀

Yep, it turned out to be the isolation toggle on the Switch. When I turned this to off.. I could tell there was a change in my set up as the Omada app showed both PoE APs, rather than just the one you were connected to.  
But, I did go ahead and add a OC200 controller to my setup.. which has worked wonders! 
 

So yeah, cheers for the help and advice. It does go to show you can use business style APs which are not in mesh mode, and still have a stable roaming setup which works brilliantly with Sonos and AirPlay, not matter what AP/Router I’m connected to in the house.
Speediest’s are showing my max full fibre 500mbps download speed on both APs.  Although I did have to unplug the and replug in the PoE Ethernet cable on the back on the network switch for one of the APs as it had dropped down to 10/100 after toggling the isolation switch. 
 

All in all, solid setup now.
 

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