unable to play youtube music

Hi @n0de 

If you disable the Explicit Content filter (Settings icon » Manage » Parental Controls » Filter Explicit Content » Off), do you then get search results for YouTube Music? If so, we are aware of the situation and are investigating.

I hope this helps.

Well, after many previous attempts to get through to technical support without losing my mind listening to muzac on hold for a hour - I finally got through today.

Guess what they said? 

This is a known issue, we’re working on an update.

I haven’t seen this known issue written anywhere, and just here Sonos staff are outright denying it - but the Sonos technical support state otherwise.

To be clear:

• I’ve had this issue on multiple Android and Apple phones.
  • I can get around the issue using Apple Airplay by playing the same albums directly through the YT music app.
  • I can also get around it using Bluetooth in on my Roam and then porting that sound out to the other speakers, but that is very clunky and playback can be glitchy.
  • I can occasionally get these albums to play through voice activation using Google Assistant 
• I’ve had this issue using the Sonos web interface
• Removing my YouTube Music service and re-activating it does not fix the issue.
• Sonos Technical support were not able to provide any advice beyond what I’d already tried.

This is a bloody joke - Sonos have stuffed up at every step along the way with this update. The update was obviously a disaster. The refusal to rollback the app to the previous version was idiotic. The updates have been too little too late. Communication has been absolute shambles. Customer support has been abysmal.  

In April I was looking at my next Sonos upgrades, now I’m trying to figure out how I get my broken system refunded so I can replace the entire system with something from a competitor. 

Hi @Itsumishi 

Thank you - I looked up your case, found the issue that was identified and tagged it to this thread - I will update you here on this thread when it is resolved. It is a relatively recently identified issue, hence my not being aware of it. In addition, this thread pre-dates the occurrence of the issue by several months.

Where would you expect it to be written? We don’t publish every issue we ever hear of, but we do let customers know that their issue has been identified and that we’re working on it. My apologies that this one slipped past me, but I certainly did not “outright deny it”.

Where would you expect it to be written? 

Literally any of the comms where Sonos is talking about the issues they’re working through on the apps? 

Not being able to play large portions of music from one of the worlds largest streaming platforms is a pretty significant bug - but I guess when millions of customers are still finding their volume control is painfully slow and laggy this one falls down the priority list. 

As I said, comms, (alongside the many other issues) has been a disaster. 

Hi@Itsumishi 

Please see my opening post here:

We are only now starting to have enough time in the day (after reading new posts) to start responding to customers here on the Community, but there are far more of you than there are of us - we cannot respond to everything. Nor should we - this is a user forum, first and foremost. We only respond when we are the only ones who can respond, or if no-one else has after a set period of time.

I’m sorry, but how is it a bug if I can play those tracks?

I was also able to play/view the albums you specifically mentioned on my system:

 

Google sometimes emit invalid data over their SMAPI interface, for example Content-Type with quotes in it, or not bothering to XML escape long error strings correctly. This will break the apps in various ways.

The fact that YTM works at all on Sonos is frankly surprising. The old Google Music SMAPI team did a great job, but the YTM SMAPI team have never really cared very much.

Seriously? Why would I care if you can play them? What I care about, is that 20-30% of the albums I’ve tried to load since this train crash App update have refused to play - and no one from Sonos seems to have any advice on how to fix it.   

I have no idea what any of this means.

What I do know, is that prior to the May update, I was able to play each and every single album I ever tried to load from the YT Music library, via the Sonos app. Occasionally I’d get something not load properly, but it would be a temporary, easily solved issue. Since the May update - I have consistently been unable to play between 20-30% of the albums that I try to load up. These albums will consistently refuse to play, others consistently work. Restarting my Wifi network does nothing to fix it. Powering off my Sonos system does nothing to fix it. Removing the YT Music service from my account and re-connecting it does nothing to fix it.

Calling Tech support and pouring through these forums has wasted me a bunch of hours, but it hasn’t led me to any useful advice on how to fix the issue - and judging by all the comms coming from Sonos - its so far down the priority list it isn’t likely to be fixed anytime soon. 

Hi @Itsumishi 

Apologies - It does seem to be a bug, though it is strange indeed that you cannot play those tracks while I can - at a guess, I would say that this may be due to the model of speaker you are playing to. We are aware of one particular Album (Rage Against the Machine, self-titled) that will not play on any Sonos device, as far as we can tell. That some particular albums will play on my system but consistently won’t on yours is strange, and if it is not a result of the specific speaker model you are playing to, or your location, I don’t know what else it could be. Are you able to play those albums on any of the speakers you have (in case you have only tried with one)? Are you able to play them from the YouTube Music app (if not, there may be restrictions due to your location)?

Issues that are not high priorities may still be addressed quickly if they are easily reproducible and if a software developer knows what to do about it. I don’t know if this issue would fall under those descriptions, however.

I just tested RATM self titled and it actually played the third track... The rest wouldn't play though. However it was a different experience to the albums I've mentioned previously because once it gave up on a track the app tried to load the next track (ie the app runs through all track names). With all the other albums I've had problems with it simply never gets past not loading the first track (skipping won't even switch track names nor does selecting an individual track from the albums work - at least not any of the ones I've tried).

No I am not able to play any of these on any of my Sonos rooms. I've got a pair with a One and a One SL, I've got a Beam and I've got a Roam. It doesn't matter which speaker I try to play on its the same issue. 

Yes I can play them in the YT music app including via Bluetooth. My wife can also Airplay them to the Sonos speakers, but I can't because my phone is Android. So it's not a regional YT thing.

Hi @Itsumishi 

Thanks for that additional info. I hadn’t tested on a One, but I have now and got the same results with Marlon Williams - it played with no issue.

So, it’s not the location, and it’s not the model of speaker. I’ll feed this info back to whoever has ownership of this particular issue. In the meantime, I can only suggest using one of the methods that you found works.

Sorry I could not be of more help.