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CuzFeeshe
Enthusiast I
April 9, 2023

Unable to play song ‘song’ - the song is not encoded correctly. Issue since 15.2

  • April 9, 2023
  • 144 replies
  • 24859 views

Since the 15.2 release there is quite a few songs that display this error when trying to play them.  These seem to be mainly songs that are not lossless.  They were purchased over time from Apple Music.  They will still play if I use the Apple Music app, but they will no longer play from Sonos app.  I suspect some lossy codex broke with latest release. Occurs with all my Sonos products.

Is this a known issue? 

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    Pinned Reply By Corry P

    Hi @The Etron 

    Thank you for reporting the issue with TuneIn Podcasts - we were able to replicate the problem and are now investigating.

     

    For everyone else, please note that there are multiple reasons for the “not encoded correctly” error occurring:

    • Apple Music used to (years ago) provide music tracks with Digital Rights Management (DRM), which results in Sonos being unable to play them. Re-downloading those specific tracks would be the only way to fix this. Other sources may have done the same.
    • Failed WiFi transmissions can also cause this error. Our support team can identify if/where this is happening and assist.
    • Actual errors in the files themselves can also cause this error - if this is the case, the same files will produce the error each time, and probably at the same point. Again, replacing the files will be the only way to resolve. Most likely to be seen with Music Library rather than with music services.

    I recommend each of you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

    I hope this helps.

    Edit: I should add that if there were an issue with our software rather than encoding/transmission issues, we would also need to you get in touch to have the issue documented and investigated.

    144 replies

    Show previous replies
    Palos
    Contributor I
    June 27, 2023

    Has Sonos said anything about this yet, it is a big issue?

    runaway_hedgehog
    Contributor I
    July 5, 2023

    Just adding in- I have been experiencing this issue for a very long time. Appears to happen with “Matched” songs (I originally manually added to iTunes as MP3s).

    I have a very large Apple Music Library I’ve been building over 20 years so this is crippling my Sonos experience- super disappointing. 

    Sonos version 15.5

      Ken_Griffiths
      Ken_Griffiths
      July 5, 2023

      Has Sonos said anything about this yet, it is a big issue?

      Staff have mentioned this earlier in this thread… see below link:

      I would perhaps submit a diagnostic report when you experience the issue and note its reference number and then get in touch with Sonos Support. 

      I use an Apple Music subscription with Sonos too and have s local library of 25k tracks (mostly AAC 320 encoded, with DRM removed) and am not currently seeing this issue, so it’s probably best that you contact Support as suggested.

      Airgetlam
      Airgetlam
      July 5, 2023

      What happens if you ‘delete’ the local copy of the ‘matched’ song, and then download a fresh copy from Apple? Just as a test….I’m curious, not making a guarantee .

      Bruce
        Palos
        Contributor I
        July 5, 2023

        What happens if you ‘delete’ the local copy of the ‘matched’ song, and then download a fresh copy from Apple? Just as a test….I’m curious, not making a guarantee .

        It works except I have thousands of songs and you don’t know which ones have the problem because they give you a quick warning then skip. If you delete and add again it fixes it. 
        hiw can you tell which ones are not coded correctly?

        Ken_Griffiths
        Ken_Griffiths
        July 5, 2023

        What happens if you ‘delete’ the local copy of the ‘matched’ song, and then download a fresh copy from Apple? Just as a test….I’m curious, not making a guarantee .

        It works except I have thousands of songs and you don’t know which ones have the problem because they give you a quick warning then skip. If you delete and add again it fixes it. 
        hiw can you tell which ones are not coded correctly?

        Just select them all and remove them and download the copies from the cloud overnight in the iTunes App… I did it with 25,000+ tracks, albeit that was some years ago with an iTunes Match annual subscription back then …and it took me a couple of days (mostly waiting for it to complete)… but it literally takes minutes to sort within iTunes.

          Airgetlam
          Airgetlam
          July 6, 2023

          Indeed…it’s an Apple problem, dating back to when they ‘matched’ your own files and downloaded a DRM version. Must be 5 or 6 years ago (maybe more?) when I essentially had to delete my entire ‘matched’ library, and force Apple to download ‘fresh, DRM free’ copies….of music I had ripped myself from various CDs. I remember being somewhat annoyed that Apple thought a DRM version replacing my locally ripped version was preferable. 

          Can’t  really point the finger at Sonos on this one, unfortunately. Apple doesn’t share their DRM key used by Apple Music with a ‘third party vendor’ such as Sonos. It’s tedious, but @Ken_Griffiths has the right way to do it, annoying/frustrating as it is.

          Bruce
          Flashback
          Lyricist I
          July 6, 2023

          It is totally a Sonos S2 app issue. I bought Sonos because of it’s integration with Apple Music and my library of 16,000+ songs.  This needs to be addressed and fixed asap.
           I can play the “wrongly coded” songs air playing to the Sonos system speakers from Apple Music.  I can play them on Apple Music directly on my computer, iPad and phone. In my case, I first noticed this issue on a purchased album in my library from iTunes called B.J. Thomas the Living room sessions.  I purchased it maybe 5 years ago and It is no longer available thru Apple Music, so I don’t have the luxury of deleting it and re-downloading it again.  It is stored in iCloud.  It played fine on the S2 app previously, so somewhere along the line, one of the Sonos updates has screwed this up, or failed to address something that recently changed with Apple Music.  Apple Music still plays those songs thru my Apple Music app, and airplays them to Sonos speakers without an issue, but I want to use the Sonos S2 app as I did before.  
          I wonder if there is a way to go back as many Sonos updates as possible to see if any of these wrongly encoded songs will play again.  

            Ken_Griffiths
            Ken_Griffiths
            July 6, 2023

            @Flashback,

            I don’t believe this is anything recent as this Sonos support document below has been around for some time and mentions the issue with Apple and DRM …

            https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/missing-tracks-or-albums-in-sonos-music-library

            …and I think it’s that old now, that the Apple link mentioned is no longer valid, but once-upon-a-time it pointed users to an Apple support document for using an iTunes Match subscription to remove the DRM from tracks.

             

            Flashback
            Lyricist I
            July 6, 2023

            The title of this thread is “Unable to play song, the song is not encoded correctly since update 15.2”.  That is when I believe my issue popped up.  Some posters in this thread lumped in with an older DRM issue, which possibly also gave a “song doesn’t play because it is wrongly encoded” message, but this is a new issue.  The S2 app played all these now “wrongly encoded songs” perfectly from when I bought the system 2 years ago until fairly recently.  

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