The controller is just that, a remote control. It doesn’t relay any music. It only reflects what is going on inside your Sonos device. Even when playing ‘local’ music, the controller is only telling the Sonos device where to get the data stream. 

Perhaps more succinctly, when a Sonos device is playing music, that device is reaching out over your network to the location of the music to play it. There is no ‘controller’ in the middle of that. The source (where the music is stored), the network between the two, and the Sonos devices need to be powered on. 

If your controller is showing ‘unknown’, that suggests several possibilities. The most likely is the source doesn’t have its meta tags appropriately set (especially if the source is local). Less likely, there could be something blocking the ability of the data to reach the controller. Clearly, the music is playing, so at least some of the ‘data’ is reaching the speakers. 

Have you called Sonos Support directly to discuss it?

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Stop the bus!  I answered part of my own aforementioned issues.  I “Scanned for New Content” in the Settings/Music Library tab and, voila, I now have the song/artist names showing in the bottom tab of the mobile app but...

...with that being said, the music still has issues with skipping. So, if anyone has a potential solution for that, I’d appreciate it.

Note: As I’m still figuring out this mobile app, I’m going to turn off the fully functional downstairs computer and see if things in my upstairs office continue to funtion - albeit skippity-like.

Happy weekend, All.

Brad

Skipping is most often an indication of a bad network connection. Most frequently, and especially after an update from Sonos, a bad IP address. 

Unplug your Sonos devices from power. Reboot your router, and wait two minutes for it to finish rebooting fully. Then power back on your Sonos devices. This will force ‘new’ IP addresses for your Sonos from a refreshed router. 

Thanks, Bruce. I knew I could get an answer from you. Ironically, I had to unplug/replug my router and the pods this morning as I didn’t have any wifi signal upstairs. Do you think I could get away with just unplugging the two Play 1s to reset those or, go through the entire protocol?

Heh. Ask me an easier question. It is possible, certainly, and worth the effort. My answers tend to be a little ‘generic’, since I don’t have access to all the data, and doing a full system reset is always ’the best policy’. 

You could, with a little more effort on your part, set up reserved IP addresses in your router for all your Sonos devices, which does the same thing, more permanently. Once I read the instructions in my router’s (well, the old one) manual and did a couple, it went from intimidating (what the hell am I doing) to pretty damn simple, and I ended up setting up reserved IP addresses for most ‘permanent’ things on my network, leaving the floating IPs for things that come and go, like my phone, tablets, and friend’s devices. 
 

Reserved IP addresses would be difficult for me. Late last year, wanting an increased WiFi signal, I had a “new” router/modem installed - which ended up being worse than my old one.  The local provider came back and installed pods to help.

I just ran SpeedTest in my upstairs office and I seem to have plenty of signal.  I then tried Sonophone and it’s running into the same skipping issues so, it’s not the app and, apparently on my end. Somewhere.  I’ll try unplugging the speakers later this afternoon and see how that works out.

Thanks again, Bruce.

Brad

Speedtest basically tests the speed from the machine it is running on, and the server that it is reaching out to. It doesn’t test (much) your internal network, which is what IP addresses are on. For 99.9 % of cases, Speedtest is useless for Sonos discussions. 

Frankly, IP addresses have nothing to do with signal strength either. It is like saying “there’s lots of traffic running on the street outside my door, but nobody pulls in to my driveway”. 
 

Easy way to check your Sonos Net info: Sonos Net

Again, I learn something nearly every time I visit this forum. Your analogy was hilarious. So many cars but, so lonely at the same time. I hope my Play 1s aren’t excessively lonely.  I’ll apply your previous suggestion re: resetting router and speakers.  Thanks again, Bruce.

Thank you, SDK… I’ll look into Sonos Net and see if that’ll help as well.

So, I went to the SonosNet Channel in the app and there are three options and mine is set to Channel 6.  Is there a more optimal choice?  1 or 11?

There is lots of data to look at before deciding which channel is ‘best’. It has to do with overlapping broadcasts from other devices, and making a choice from there. 1, 6 and 11 are the only channels that don’t overlap with each other. In general, if your local router is on 1 or 6, then you should choose 11. But it also has to do with the wifi interference you experience from other sources. For instance, I had a new neighbor when I lived in Texas, who set up their (powerful, or so it seemed) router on channel 1, so I needed to move my SonosNet to 6 or 11, and ensure my own routers WiFi didn’t interfere with the SonosNet channel.

Effectively, SonosNet is just another radio signal, and is equally affected by wifi interference. Care needs to be taken, it isn’t a ‘silver bullet’ that fixes everything by not being affected by other things. 

Thanks very much, Bruce. I started by unplugging the Play 1s in my office and am testing it now. I have 1 minute and 15 seconds to see if this song survives without stuttering.  I can try switching SonosNet channels if necessary though.

What happened though after resetting the speakers is that on the tab at the bottom of the mobile app, the music playing is “Unknown.” After Scanning for New Content yesterday, it began showing the artist and song name. I’m assuming, since I unplugged the speakers, I may have to Scan for New Content again.

Another anomaly I encountered months ago was that, after app updates, all of the music I’d curated in the AIFF format were literally unplayable. I had to convert them all to FLAC. Luckily, it didn’t take long after I found a converter.

Thanks again, Bruce.

(Note: Song #2 just started skipping.  Hmmmm.  I’m switching to Channel 1 and see it that helps)

(Note #2: Channel 1, so far, seems to have done the trick. I’ll see what effect it has on our TV/Family Room zone later)

A useful tool to choose the best channels is a free phone app called WiFI Analyzer. Here is a screenshot I just took of my own set up. Interestingly the 2.4 shot shows no usage in channel 1 but just moving two rooms away it found loads. I live in the UK.

And here is a screenshot of the 5Ghz band for my setup.

Teedouble… So far, the switch to Channel 1 is working but, for future reference, does one have to manually choose the 5Ghz option or, does that happen automatically.  I’m assuming that’s a router/modem setting that may require digging into the software for the hardware.  ??

All routers are different. My BT router allows me to choose individual channels or let it pick what it thinks is the best one. I can also switch off 5Ghz if I want. As I understand it, and I may be wrong, is if the device the router is connecting to is able to use 5Ghz it will automatically switch to it. But 5Ghz signals operate over shorter distances than 2.4Ghz so if you go out of range it will revert back to the lower speed. I’m no expert in this so if anyone can else can add or contradict the above please do.

The best method for choosing the right channel may just be ‘guess and check’.  I mean, there are only 3 options, and if the one you are currently on isn’t working, your odds of picking the best one is 50%, and better to pick one that is good enough.  I seems like once a year, either a neighbor switches channels, or my main router switches automatically, so I’ve gotten in the habit of changing channels by guess fairly regularly.  A channel switch has always removed the drop outs.

The local provider gave me an updated router with pods and, in checking the app that accompanies it, there’s not a tab to manually swap between 2.4Ghz and 5.  Oh well. Thanks a lot for chiming in.  I appreciate it.

Just to mildly refute the statement above (and no insult intended), I don’t think all routers prefer the 5Ghz channel. It may be that some do, and it may also be an aspect of ‘Airtime Fairness’ or some other router setting. As you say, though, 2.4Ghz is much better at penetrating substances, and goes a bit further than 5Ghz. And given the amount of speed and bandwidth needed by streaming music, in most cases 2.4 GHz works just fine.

The challenge, as personally experienced by both myself, and apparently ​@melvimbe, is outside influences to the area in which the WiFi signal exists. Which is likely why, at least in part, Sonos published the wifi interference FAQ.

I’m by no means a WiFi network expert, but there are a lot of things that can impinge a connection. And more specifically, Sonos, since it’s not (usually) a single device, but each device connects to every other device of Sonos on the same subnet, in order to maintain the ‘multi-room’ aspect of their system. Synchronizing up to 32 devices takes some effort, important, but is built in to the Sonos OS. And I think one of the reasons Sonos has so much trouble with mesh systems that spread across multiple ‘same SSID, but different subnet’ devices. People just don’t understand (me included, fully) the difference between subnets and SSIDs, they’re just not ‘thought about’ much for those of us who aren’t network geeks. 

Thanks, Bruce.  Again, I’ve learned a bit more than I knew yesterday. I think melvimbe has something with his advice on changing channels if necessary. I’m pretty sure this particular issue lies with our internet provider and their “updated” router/modem unit.

Thanks, Gentlemen…

Brad

After updating to the latest mobile app this morning, I thought I’d do some more testing today in my upstairs office playing music on my Play 1s. This is the Room that doesn’t have an operable S2 Controller due to an outdated iMac operating system.  So, after watching “Becoming Led Zeppelin” last night, I thought I’d put some on.  (Note: Previously, I’d switched from Channel 6 to Channel 1 to alleviate music skipping during playback.)

The first song played without skipping.  The second was allllmost done when the skipping started back up. I switched to Channel 11 and tried it again after closing and reopening the Sonos mobile app.  I started the song again, hit play, and went downstairs to grab a cup of coffee.  I figured I’d test the WiFi and hit Pause while in the kitchen. It paused. I hit Play and it started back up.  After several minutes I get back up to my office and see that the song had about 1:37 left.  It began skipping again.

It was about 10:20am here and, I’m assuming, there wasn’t any excessive WiFi traffic in the ‘hood since many people in our circle work.  Up until I lost access to the S2 Controller on this iMac I assumed that I needed an operable, running desktop controller in order to make the connection between my Library and the speakers. I’d always used the desktop controller up here but now, I use my iPhone to control everything. The downstairs iMac - with the fully updated and functional desktop controller - is off and, while playing music up in my office, the tab at the bottom of them mobile app reads “No Content” but, plays the music until… it starts skipping.

Apologies for the long post.

Brad

I’ll ask…have you, after getting this skipping, submitted a diagnostic and called Sonos support? They should, I would think, be able to tell you why there was skipping, but not necessarily where it was from, if it was externally produced. I’d imagine there is a lot of data that shows in that diagnostic, unfortunately we’re not exposed to it, only Sonos employees have access to it. 

While I’ve never needed to do it with Sonos, I wouldn’t be afraid to call back until you get a more knowledgeable rep. Training and understanding likely varies, although hopefully not much. I’ve needed to do this with other companies before. The challenge is, in my experience, that CS is usually a gateway job, and gets a lot of minimum wage folks, whose focus may be elsewhere. 

I totally agree, Bruce. I was just telling my wife that I need to do just that. I also reacquainted myself with the location of the Submit Diagnostics tab in preparation for the call.  Thanks, again, Bruce.  Brad

I called Sonos Support this morning and was lucky enough to get help from Hugo in Costa Rica. What a nice guy. I told him about the stuttering music and was able to replicate it over the phone so he could hear it. Long story short, after a couple of diagnostics, he could tell that the WiFi signal to my Play 1s was weaker than it should be - even with one of those new pods right outside the door. He asked me to take the Play 1s down near the router to test his discovery.  So, I took ‘em down into the office the router is located in, waited for them to boot up and then played the same song that had previously skipped.  This time… no skipping/stuttering.

As a solution, he suggested that I run an ethernet cable from the pod outside of the office door to one of the Play 1s.  I took the speakers back up to my office and, as a test, I relocated the speaker furthest from the door so that, now, it’s right next to the door with that miserable pod on the other side of the wall.  The speakers are now both behind me instead of both being off to my right side.  I probably should have done that long ago.  This seems to have done the trick although, I’m not getting comfortable too quickly.  If this doesn’t work, I’ll grab a 25’ ethernet cable to link the pod and the nearest Play 1.

One last thing that we did and, honestly, I feel like a dolt. We updated the desktop controller (S2) on my old iMac that runs on the old operating system.  I was totally wrong in thinking that my OS was no longer supported.  My Mac OS is 10.14.6 and, Hugo told me that Sonos supports back to OS 10.12.  I installed it, and… it worked.  I was hesitant to try it and assumed that it wouldn’t.  Instead, I was settling instead of solving.

Thanks to all associated with this most recent thread in helping me end the skipfest when playing music to my geriatric office set-up:  Airgetiam, TeeDoubleuDee, SirDigitalKnight and, melvimbe.  I’m hoping that I can give everyone a break for a while as I know I get quite verbose/wordy in here.

Brad