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Airplay 2 mutes (no sound) with Mac Mini

  • 14 September 2021
  • 13 replies
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I have a new Sonos One, gen 2.

 

I have hooked it up successfully using wifi. I have the app on my Android phone and can play Sonos radio no problem.

 

Running OS 11.4 on my Mac Mini. Downloaded the Sonos desktop app. I can see the Sonos One and play music via Sonos radio.

 

I can see the device in my volume drop down and in system prefs, both as airplay.

 

But when I go to Youtube or Zoom and want the sound to come out, nothing.

 

The Sonos shows that the app (YouTube) is sending something to the Sonos. But despite changing the volume, nothing.

 

Help is appreciated. Thanks.

 
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Best answer by Airgetlam 17 September 2021, 21:32

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13 replies

Perhaps see if the things mentioned in this earlier thread may assist …

 

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Yes, it’s an M1, and I just restarted, thanks for the idea, but no, it didn’t make any difference.

 

Everything is up to date, the Sonos app can see that I’m playing Youtube, the Sonos app can easily play the radio, so we know that the mac is talking to the app and the app is talking to the Sonos One, but what is broken is that only Sonos media can be heard, native Mac sounds are muted.

 

thanks!

 
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here are the relevant screenshots

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TP43A8VD1NjYpeoa7

 

here are the relevant screenshots

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TP43A8VD1NjYpeoa7

 

I can see your ‘Airplay’ audio output, but you mentioned you were using both the ‘Zoom’ and ‘YouTube’ Apps, what is their audio output showing? Note with the YouTube App it has to be a paid subscription to play the Airplay audio on 3rd party devices when the video is not displaying on screen… at least that’s how it works on iOS devices. 

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Thanks!

 

To be clear, what I’m looking for is for the normal sounds that come out of the Mac to come out of the Sonos instead.

 

I could buy a speaker with an audio jack and simply plug it in, but my understanding was that supporting Airplay2 meant I could route audio from the Mac to whatever was hooked up to Airplay, similar to how Bluetooth works.

 

And it acts as though that’s precisely what’s happening.

 

Sonos recognized where the signal is coming into the app, it shows it in the screenshot.

 

But it mutes it instead of sending it over.

 

Is that supposed to be a feature? feels like a bug.

 

Does the Sonos still work with other “apps” using AirPlay on that Mac, and it’s just a specific set/app of sounds? I’m not clear from reading your posts if some apps are working, and it’s just system sounds that are quiet (or muted? There’s two meanings of that phrase, unfortunately)

For instance, not all (although the great majority) of apps have implemented the AirPlay 2 API, so they don’t actually connect with the Mac’s OS to send a signal out.

And given the linked issues from that thread, which appear to be M1 related chipsets, it might actually be something that we’re approaching wrong, i.e. the Sonos side can’t fix it if the Mac isn’t sending it. It may be something you need to deal with the Apple CS folks. 

I don’t think Zoom is one of those apps that works with AirPlay, in general (although I’ve not tested it) because there’s no microphone on the Sonos to send data back to it, for instance.

 

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Thanks Bruce. Sorry if my shorthand isn’t helpful.

 

Youtube, plain old Youtube, running in Safari, makes sounds. There’s also a little airplay logo on the video.

 

The menu bar, up top, has a volume icon, and it allows me to choose the output.

 

When I have safari running Youtube, and change the output of the Mac to the my airplay device (labeled “office”) I can see that Sonos understands that this has happened. The screenshot shows that it is seeing input from Youtube.

 

If I’m in Zoom and choose my output to be “same as system” and then change the settings in system to airplay, Zoom responds with a message that my output has been changed to Airplay.

 

In this case, though, the Sonos app on the mac doesn’t say “zoom”.

 

But in both cases, Sonos is muted.

 

So, to summarize--in Safari and in Zoom, it THINKS it’s sending a signal to the Sonos.

 

The Sonos app acknowledges the signal in the case of Safari.

 

But the Sonos One makes no so sound.

 

It has no problem playing Sonos Radio when that’s turned on in the Mac, though.

 

Do you have another Airplay device, like a HomePod speaker, you can test to see if that works any differently - or perhaps if the audio is output to Apple TV, if you have one of those available and listed on your Airplay list of devices?

Two separate things then. Sonos Radio is the software on the Sonos device reaching out to get the stream and play it, it has nothing whatsoever to do with AirPlay 2. You seem to be having issues with getting an AirPlay 2 signal over, but not an issue with connecting the Sonos remote control contacting the software running on the Sonos. 

It sounds as though the M1 Mac is not making a full connection from the Mac across your network to the Sonos using AirPlay 2.  The link provided by Ken goes over a lot of ways to help work on that, but bottom line, try rebooting all devices.

Most of those ‘visual cues’ your seeing in the interface are not designed for confirmation purposes, I.e. they are only showing you half of the equation, in this case that Apple ‘thinks’ it is sending a signal to AirPlay 2, and not that the device that is supposed to be playing it actually is receiving and playing that signal. 
 

 

I don’t have a MAC device here to test, but I do use iOS (iPad Pro/iPhone/Apple TV) devices and Airplay2 links into various ‘compatible’ Apps like ‘YouTube’, Apple Music etc; but the connected speaker doesn’t play the system ‘clicks’, or ‘sounds’ from my devices - it only works with the Apps that have Airplay2 built-in. The other sounds still play on my device speakers. (A ringtone or system sound for example from an iPhone - never plays on the Airplay connected device) - so just wondering if that’s the same with the MAC mini ..and that’s what maybe happening here.. er .. perhaps🤔?

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thanks Bruce, except for the visual cue that the Sonos app shows that it is seeng YouTube and even knows the name of the track.

 

It seems to me that the bridge between the Mac and Sonos is complete as soon as Sonos announces that it’s seeing the track.

 

I have a call with Sonos exec support in two hours. I’ll report back for the record.

 
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It’s a bug.

 

Sonos should take responsibility, because they advertise it’s compatible with Airplay and don’t disclaim the M1.

 

And they should post on these threads and not have people waste time on their bugs.

 

And they shouldn’t spend a lot of time on the phone pretending they’re going to fix it.

 

Just got off the phone with Sonos exec support. They confirm that it’s a bug.

So, Sonos is responsible for the fact that Apple has changed the AirPlay 2 signal that all other Apple products use, except for the M1.

Seems a bit much to me, but as you say, they do advertise compatibility, so I’ll hope that Sonos adds a disclaimer to their marketing materials in the short run, and are able to get information from Apple as to how the protocol has changed, and work that new change into the Sonos code base so that the M1 Macs work properly, in a future release.