Sonos App won't play music

  • 17 May 2021
  • 9 replies
  • 480 views

Hello everyone, my colleague was struggling to reconnect her speaker to the desktop apps (we tried S1 and S2), and I only succeeded in reconnecting when I plugged it into the computer (an HP w/ Windows 10 OS) via ethernet cable. However, now the app won’t play any of the music we select for it. Normally she uses Pandora. The chat bot was unable to identify the issue. Has anyone experienced a similar problem? I suspect the age of the speaker has something to do with the problem. Thanks!


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9 replies

The Desktop Controller App has no system device setup options. It’s used as a remote for music playback only.

To setup a speaker on the local network/WiFi, you will need to use a mobile controller App and once the speaker is setup, you can then use the S1/S2 Desktop App for playback control … see these system requirement links to see the type of mobile device required and ensure you use the correct App for your model of Sonos speaker:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4875

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/126


S1/S2 Sonos App compatibility:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786

Hi Ken, thank you for your reply. The device has long been set up on our office Wi-Fi, it only began having connectivity problems in the last month or so. Is it possible the NIC is beginning to fail? Thanks again!

Hi Ken, thank you for your reply. The device has long been set up on our office Wi-Fi, it only began having connectivity problems in the last month or so. Is it possible the NIC is beginning to fail? Thanks again!

As you have moved the speaker from WiFi to the LAN connection, it might be a local firewall issue. There is a Sonos support page here for configuring Windows PC compatible firewalls, if you think that ‘might’ be worth exploring:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/688

I actually didn’t move it at the time, I just plugged it into the PC. But I’ve since moved it to my office to further investigate a solution. 

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Hi @BMilligan505 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

It would be worth making sure that Windows doesn’t think the network it’s connecting to is a Public one.

Windows Menu » Settings » Network & Internet » Ethernet/WiFi » [Network Name] » Private.

If your PC’s NIC drivers were updated, this can sometimes prompt Windows to ask about your (what Windows perceives as a new) network. If you answer Public, or if you don’t answer and Public is assumed (for safety), then the PC won’t communicate with local devices - only with the Internet. Some Windows Updates, a replacement of the router or a renaming of the WiFi network (if the PC uses WiFi) could also cause this.

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It would be worth making sure that Windows doesn’t think the network it’s connecting to is a Public one.

Windows Menu » Settings » Network & Internet » Ethernet/WiFi » [Network Name] » Private.

Corry, please suggest to Engineering that they actually check the public/private status and give a proper error message. That would save you and you co-support folks a bunch of time.

I did it in my own app and it cut down my “can’t connect” support emails by 95%.

Hi Corry, thank you for your reply. I spoke w/ Sonos support on Friday and they really weren’t helpful. They couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything unless I used a mobile app, which we don’t use in my office. Apparently the desktop app is useless for troubleshooting.

Userlevel 7
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Hi @BMilligan505 

If your network is an enterprise one and not just a home router in an office, then you’ll likely need to talk to your IT department - office networks often isolate WiFi-connected devices from the rest of the network. You can pass the following information on to them:

- IGMP Snooping: This feature “filters” the network so only information intended for a device is forwarded to that device avoiding Network Flooding especially on networks that either have many devices or move high volumes of information. This should be on.

- STP: Some network devices, mainly switches, use this to calculate and arrange the connections, however, Sonos also has it's own STP setting and they could change the values of each other. You would need to adjust the STP of the network so both STP can work together:

Sonos STP Switch Settings

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/2118?language=en 

- Firewall: Configuring your firewall to work with Sonos    

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/688?language=en

- QoS (Quality of service): This can determine how media devices can reach out and could block Sonos. It would need to either be disabled or have no restrictions for Sonos.

- UPnP Multicast needs to be enabled.

- If the speakers need to be whitelisted on the network and you need the MAC Address, you can find the MAC for each Sonos device using the serial number and removing the last character. I.e. Serial number AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF-G, MAC  AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

 

Thanks again Corry, I’m the tech support for the office but I’ll forward this to our IT director.