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Playing music from iPhone library to Sonos

M
Userlevel 3
I know there are other threads about this but I have not found any solution. It is impossible to properly play music from my iPhone music library to my Sonos speakers. The songs skip midway through, then skip and skip without even playing, then just stop playing all together.

Yes, I have done everything suggested. I have changed my wireless settings from automatic to channel 1, and I have set auto-lock to never and tried my best to NEVER USE MY IPHONE FOR ANYTHING while using Sonos. But this is ridiculous. Not only does it drain my battery but sometimes while playing music all evening long I need to use my phone - shocking, I know. The moment I open any other app, my songs start skipping.

This is NOT a wireless connectivity issue or other communication with Sonos speakers issue. I can stream Pandora from my Sonos app all day while using 6 different iPhone apps and never have the Sonos app on the screen. This is ONLY an issue when playing from my iPhone library. Again, Sonos, this is only an issue when playing from my iPhone music library.

This should not be an end-user workaround. This is a basic function and should be something that is fixed and explained by Sonos. Where is the solution?
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Best answer by Airgetlam 16 May 2019, 21:56

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47 replies

M
Userlevel 3
So the solution to being able to play music to Sonos via my iPhone is to not use my iPhone. Helpful.

I have no patience or sympathy for a company that sells a product intended to perform a service it does not perform. They spend millions on ads featuring people playing music from their iPhones.

I would appreciate constructive answers rather than belittling the question. A Sonos setup is not a small investment and it should work as advertised. Period.
M
Userlevel 3
Since this feature no longer functions and will not until a 3rd party - Apple - decides it will, Sonos needs to clearly state that music can not be played directly from your iPhone on its site, in their ads and in stores. Because there has been no official notification and I guarantee if I went to any AV store today, or the flagship store in NY and said I keep all of my music stored on my iPhone and want to be able to play it through Sonos wherever I am, they would sell me as much as I could carry.
Sjoop1985

This is NOT a wireless connectivity issue or other communication with Sonos speakers issue. I can stream Pandora from my Sonos app all day while using 6 different iPhone apps and never have the Sonos app on the screen.

When Sonos is playing music from a streaming service, the phone is not doing anything. It tells Sonos what to do, and then the players fetch the music over WiFi on their own, you could even turn the phone off. Interesting, isn't it, that everything works fine when you cut the iPhone out of the loop and just let Sonos do it's thing?
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans (John Lennon) --- Living room: Arc, Sub, 2x One - Kitchen: One - Bedroom: Play 3 - Office: Beam - Bathroom: Play 1
M
If the only option is to put my music on the computer that sits in a room down the corridor that I have to go to anytime I want to play or change music I rest my case - the system has lost all functionality and is then no better than putting on a CD!
S
I clearly purchased my SONOS speakers with the distinct impression that I could play my personal music library from iPhone on my SONOS speakers. I do not accept that this is an Apple issue...SONOS's software engineers should be able to figure this out. Now I have to make other investments, both in significant time and money, to be able to play my extensive personal music library from my I phone on SONOS. Though I have a small SONOS system in my home, I have bought extensive systems for my kids and grandkids. I am simply going to dump my SONOS speakers at my home and buy a BOSE wireless system. However, I believe this misrepresentation of the availability to play personal music from an IOS product will reach class action status quickly. Keep you eyes and ears open. This will go down as one of the biggest "bait and switch" in history. SONOS leadership...you should be ashamed of yourselves. Good luck. See you in Federal Court!
D
I have Sonos speakers in three homes and am super angry they will no longer play music or my Playlists from my iOS devices. As one of the most expensive speakers systems on the planet they should have long since worked out the issues with Apple. But instead they force customers to purchase music support from other vendors to enable customers to play their purchased tunes stored in their music library. Really! What a horrible management team at Sonos. How about Sonos hires technically competent engineers to fix this simple problem? If not I’m done with Sonos.
Dennis Cirucci
Naples, FL
Springfield, PA
Sea Isle City, NJ
M
Trying to understand all the above is a nightmare.
Lest face it Apple have screwed Sonos and Sonos is pretending everything is dandy!
put simply the functionality of the system especially for those of us using bridges and analog speakers is stuffed.
Thank God I did not discard my CD player!
I will be playing records next and binning Sonis!
T
Userlevel 1
So the solution to being able to play music to Sonos via my iPhone is to not use my iPhone. Helpful.

I have no patience or sympathy for a company that sells a product intended to perform a service it does not perform. They spend millions on ads featuring people playing music from their iPhones.

I would appreciate constructive answers rather than belittling the question. A Sonos setup is not a small investment and it should work as advertised. Period.
Airgetlam

Thanks for breaking our world, Apple. Sure would be nice if you explained why you had to do this to us, as well as the users of BlueSound. 

Bruce
Airgetlam
The solution, as has been explained in many threads, and in the Sonos FAQ on the matter, is to move your music off of the iOS device, and on to either a computer's hard drive, or an NAS of some type.

Yes, it's a pain in the rear. You can thank Apple for forcing this issue to occur, which Sonos has indicated that they're working on finding a solution for with Apple. And if you've ever been a developer working with Apple on anything at all, you'd have some sympathy for Sonos.
Bruce
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Hi melrose80, in case you haven't seen any of the solutions, here's a bit of background which gets you there. There is a specific issue we're looking into where audio playing to Sonos from an iOS device under the "On this iPhone" section may cut out if there are any non-Sonos AirPlay enabled devices on the network and the phone goes to sleep. If you haven't had a chance to see it, there's a message here on our support page about the specific feature.

To fix the issue, disabling AirPlay on any non-Sonos devices will fix the problem. Also, there's a good page here from one of our community members talking about a solution that worked for him. I've seen it work for other systems, but not necessarily all of them.

For playing music your personal music library, it has always been best to use a local storage like your computer or a NAS drive so the phone isn't the main hub of music. That way you can start playing music on Sonos at any time and leave the house, taking your phone, and music will keep on playing unless you stopped it. Also, if your phone's battery dies, you won't have to worry about the music stopping.

It's also worth noting that all newer Sonos players are also AirPlay 2 compatible. So if you have a Play:5 gen2, Playbase, Beam, Sonos One, or Sonos Amp, you can use your iPhone to play music directly to Sonos using AirPlay 2. You can even group multiple Sonos players together, all playing the one stream you've sent to one of those devices. This means if you go to the store and buy a Sonos player, odds are you'll be getting one with AirPlay 2 compatibility (the Playbar is one of the only ones still sold that isn't compatible).
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
C
I too am super angry with Sonos. I have connect 5?amps in my house. Worked fine for approximately 5 years then one day I simply can’t play my entire music library??? Fix this Sonos!! I am no longer a promoter of your product until u do.
Airgetlam

I’m of the opinion that the change by Apple was not directed at companies like Sonos and BlueSound, but instead a by-product of a change made for other reasons, probably security or battery life related. But of course Apple hasn’t commented about the change. 
 

For your daughter, I’d give strong consideration to AirPlay 2, it works well for me, when I’m not using my NAS. 

Bruce
D
I was offering an example of a solution and not saying it as a fact, but that said and without getting into the weeds let me give it a shot. Bluetooth and Wifi are both radio signals. Bandwidth requirement is low in Bluetooth whereas it is high in case of Wifi. Bluetooth is short range say 10 meters whereas wifi is good generally for 100 meters. Sonos has a new speaker out for preorder and I believe it is called "Move". It is Wifi at home but take it to the park and it becomes Bluetooth. So obviously this was already under consideration. The wired version most of us have at home has to be plugged in because Wifi is an energy hog in comparison to Bluetooth which uses much less energy and is well suited for rechargeable batteries. Next is the frequency range along which Bluetooth devices are supported which is 2.4 GHz to 2.483 GHz. On the contrary, in Wifi the frequency range is 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz. So couldn't it be a mater of some programming? I really am not a Sonos engineer but perhaps it could be, and at worst you might need to buy a dongle to plug into the port to make it happen. Even if I did have to buy say a $40 dongle, I'd rather do that than have to buy a $10/month music subscription forever. I trust this answer is responsive to your question.
N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
What port will you plug it into? Presumably you expect the dongle to be a Bluetooth to Wi-fi adapter that plugs into the Ethernet port?
C
Userlevel 2
Badge
ok im in a new world of Sh**e now! Apparently I already have to of downloaded my music library to another computer first form itunes or whatever music source to be able to load it to google play on a proper computer not an ipad or iphone before i can access the tracks in google play on my iphone and therefore from a source on the sonos???
Surely if im going to do it this way isnt it easier to add the apple music service on my sonos as surely this lets me access my music library?
controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Could you explain how Sonos is going to make "the speakers utilize a Bluetooth connection" when the speakers are not equipped with Bluetooth?

Please also explain how Sonos can run a file server reliably in the background on iOS when it is forbidden to do so by Apple?
Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
jgatie
I was offering an example of a solution and not saying it as a fact, but that said and without getting into the weeds let me give it a shot. Bluetooth and Wifi are both radio signals. Bandwidth requirement is low in Bluetooth whereas it is high in case of Wifi. Bluetooth is short range say 10 meters whereas wifi is good generally for 100 meters. Sonos has a new speaker out for preorder and I believe it is called "Move". It is Wifi at home but take it to the park and it becomes Bluetooth. So obviously this was already under consideration. The wired version most of us have at home has to be plugged in because Wifi is an energy hog in comparison to Bluetooth which uses much less energy and is well suited for rechargeable batteries. Next is the frequency range along which Bluetooth devices are supported which is 2.4 GHz to 2.483 GHz. On the contrary, in Wifi the frequency range is 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz. So couldn't it be a mater of some programming? I really am not a Sonos engineer but perhaps it could be, and at worst you might need to buy a dongle to plug into the port to make it happen. Even if I did have to buy say a $40 dongle, I'd rather do that than have to buy a $10/month music subscription forever. I trust this answer is responsive to your question.


The only part that is responsive is the fact you are not a Sonos engineer. The rest is nothing but rambling nonsense with no application to Sonos devices. Simple fact: There are no non-Airplay capable Sonos units that are capable of Bluetooth (as demonstrated by their FCC certification).

And you can currently add a Bluetooth receiver to any Sonos with a Line-in. Matter of fact, the Line-in is listed in the Announcements thread as one of the solutions.
D
nik9669a...I agree

jgatie...Not sure what you mean by Sonos running a file server in the background. Bluetooth creates a direct personal area network to a device. There is no server. And as I said Sonos already has a combined bluetooth/wifi solution in one of their latest speakers. I respect disagreement, but not someone who feels a need to be insulting. This site is supposed to be a place to share ideas and solutions. Perhaps you can consider that concept next time you post.
N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
DennisC, I’m sorry but my post was not a serious one.

The idea of Sonos (or anyone else) designing, developing, building, testing and supporting such a device in the numbers required by just a small handful of Sonos users for $40 retail is, IMHO, ridiculous.

Yes, the new Move speaker can run in Bluetooth or Wi-fi mode. (It will, contrary to your earlier post, also run on battery in Wi-fi mode.) But the hope that because they have developed this hardware they could cost-effectively strip out the relevant parts to create the dongle you want is highly unlikely.
D
I appreciate your reply. My thinking is this: using the with the last numbers I have seen, Apple has 900 million iPhones and they estimated 500,000 iPads out there worldwide. That’s 1.4 billion units available to use a wireless speaker. I can use my iPhone or iPad with my wired Harmon Kardon system by adding a Harmon Kardon Bluetooth adapter for $59. I don’t know how many HK systems are out there, nor do I know how many Sonos Wifi speakers are out there, but HK created a reasonably priced option for folks like us to use their big wired home systems with their portable devices, and so I was thinking why upset all those current Apple and potential Apple customers. Sonos stuff was/is some cutting edge stuff so why not come up with a solution for all of us who love the product, plus grab all the market share I could. HK seems to think so anyway. Just my two cents. I’m actually considering writing to Patrick Spence, Sonos CEO and asking him to consider a solution.
M
Userlevel 5
Badge +13
If the only option is to put my music on the computer that sits in a room down the corridor that I have to go to anytime I want to play or change music I rest my case


You do not need to go to the computer once you have added the music library to Sonos.

As long as the computer is on and accessible through your network you can start playback from your phone under the Browse tab. So yeah if it's powered off, you will need to walk up to it and turn it on.

Only difference is instead of "on this device" you now have the option for "music library"

So you don't have much of a case.

the system has lost all functionality and is then no better than putting on a CD!



It's not losing functionality, it's losing one feature. A feature that is unreliable which has alternatives that are way more reliable.
S

I do feel like I should follow up me previous comments with my latest experience. I dig into it a little bit, then I realized that I could leave iTunes and the Sonos app up on my wife’s computer, control it from my iPhone, and essentially play my iPhone music through my Sonos. Actually, I can even control it from Alexa without even using the iPhone. 
 

yes, it’s a hassle to leave the laptop up, but at least it gets my functionality back. It still seems to me like you could write an app to run on… just about any computing device… to serve music up to the Sonos. But maybe it’s two guys in Honk Kong working part time for Sonos that develop all their software, and they’re spending more time protesting lately. Who knows. Long as I can play my music, I’ll live. 

Airgetlam
Then I'd recommend that you speak directly with Apple.

No one is terribly pleased by this. Certainly not us, the customers of Sonos, but while I'm sure it's high on Sonos' list of things to get fixed, they have to rely on Apple to revert the change that was made which affects the way that Sonos, and oddly pretty much only Sonos works.

Until Apple is willing to work with Sonos on a fix (which they may, or may not have an interest in doing, since Sonos competes directly with HomePods), it seemed appropriate to provide potential solutions so that you can continue your life in the meantime.

And if you own an AirPlay 2 Sonos receiving device, such as a Beam, Sonos One, or PLAY:5 gen 2, you can always AirPlay 2 your content to your Sonos system, using Apple's own music player, which (oddly) isn't affected by the change that Apple made.

Yes, you're right. It sucks. I don't know of a single person who likes the situation, including me. But it exists. We've just offered you potential alternatives until such time as Apple deigns to acknowledge the issue.
Bruce
jgatie
nik9669a...I agree

jgatie...Not sure what you mean by Sonos running a file server in the background. Bluetooth creates a direct personal area network to a device. There is no server. And as I said Sonos already has a combined bluetooth/wifi solution in one of their latest speakers. I respect disagreement, but not someone who feels a need to be insulting. This site is supposed to be a place to share ideas and solutions. Perhaps you can consider that concept next time you post.

That wasn't me,it was controlav.
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