Question

Spotify - Song Not Encoded Correctly

G
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Recently noticed issues with Spotify skipping songs and showing “Song not encoded correctly” errors.  But when I manually play the song it works.   Other discussion threads suggest this could be a network issue.  Here is my setup:

  • Verizon Fios, 1 Gbps fiber
  • Verizon router with wifi off
  • Eero pro (x3) in bridge mode
  • Sonos Amp is WIRED to a Gbps switch coming off the router
  • All other Sonos devices are wireless (Using SonosNet)

SonosNet was using channel 11, and when I did a network scan I could see a fair amount of other networks on channels 1 and 11 so I switched SonosNet to channel 6 but it didn’t help.

My Verizon router and my Eero system are all using “vanilla” configurations.  I don’t mess around with the firewall, port forwarding, etc.

Suggestions?

 

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21 replies

Airgetlam

As frequently suggested in those various threads you mentioned, you might start with a simple network refresh, by unplugging your Sonos devices from power. Then reboot your router. Once the router comes back up, plug back in your Sonos devices. This will give both your router and your Sonos devices a fresh start, and clean up any lingering potential issues. 

I think you’ve already made a wise choice to change the channel to a less ‘occupied’ channel. 

If the above doesn’t work, I would certainly recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of getting one of these encoding errors, and contact Sonos Support to discuss it.

I usually suggest the phone folks, they have more tools available, and are available Monday through Friday during business hours. Twitter support folks are available 24/7.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution. 

Bruce
J
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I've also been getting this exact issue, and have tried rebooting my router and each of my speakers.

 

Haven’t had chance to submit anything to support yet, but good to know I’m not alone! Only happens with Spotify - but testing Apple Music and that does not have the same problem.

Airgetlam

It is useful to be aware that each streaming service has their own sensitivity to drop outs in the signal, so what is impacting one may not necessarily impact another. 

Bruce
J
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It is useful to be aware that each streaming service has their own sensitivity to drop outs in the signal, so what is impacting one may not necessarily impact another. 

Good to know, but for me the problem even happens on the speaker I have connected to the router via Ethernet (the rest are all on Sonosnet).

 

I’ve tried disconnecting the Ethernet cable and running it on wifi (to rule out the possibility of a bad Ethernet cable) but I get the same issue.

G
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I’ve had this setup for about a year and never noticed a problem until recently.

Airgetlam

Well, it sure seems like it’s a candidate for contacting Sonos directly with some hard information. 

I explained how to do so in my original post in this thread. 

Bruce
G
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Just did and included diagnostics.   I sent e-mail directly to “support@sonos.com” because the website no longer showed an email option.   But I got an auto-response telling me that the e-mail is no longer monitored and contact options are available on the website.   Website gives Twitter or Phone.   Don't have time to sit on hold right now, and don't use twitter.  

Airgetlam

Well, sooner or later, one of the community moderators will be along and hopefully have time to look at your diagnostic, if you post the number here in this thread. Least timely of all the options, but it is doable. 

Bruce
G
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Diagnostic:   822993831

G
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Update:  I’ve had two calls with Sonos and no change in behavior.  They had me do all the usual:

  • Restart router
  • Restart all Sonos equipment
  • Unlink and relink Spotify account from Sonos

One interesting wrinkle.   They had me try using the Spotify app and then “casting” to Sonos from there.   Guess what?  No issue.  This suggests a problem between Spotify servers and Sonos servers.  But then they had me continue to troubleshoot using Sonos app.   They looked at multiple diagnostics and said my system looked fine.  I pressed on wireless interference and they said I was “fine.”

I already had my Amp wired and they suggested wiring a second device in the other part of my home.   So I’ve done that and no change in behavior.   They were working towards a diagnosis of one particular speaker “Office” not having a good connection to SonosNet and they’s why they suggested wiring a second speaker.  (And no I’m not able to wire “Office.”)

So I’ve been trying a few things with interesting results:

  • “Office” speaker continues to have this problem
  • Tried in “Dining Room” and had the same problem (this room is not wired)
  • Tried in “Master Bedroom” which IS wired and bam...same problem.
  • And consistently the Spotify app “casting” to a Sonos device is rock solid.

This all points to the problem not being in my house.

Airgetlam

Makes sense. My guess is they’re continuing to pass information to Spotify so the engineers at Spotify can fix the servers they’ve assigned to the Sonos client. The question is, based on the rather large number of threads about Spotify currently, are the Spotify engineers doing anything? If I were a Spotify subscriber, I’d be complaining loudly and frequently to Spotify. 

Bruce
G
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My guess is that the problem is on Sonos’ end.  And that currently Sonos Engineering is focused on the launch of S2 and not bugs/issues on S1.  Hoping this magically fixes itself after I switch to S2.

Airgetlam

I don’t see how. Sonos doesn’t store or handle the data stream, other than play it on the speaker. Sonos is merely an aggregator on the software side. All Sonos does is connect to a server address provided by Spotify, and play the stream presented to it by that server. Part of the API that Sonos provides is merely the presentation layer you see in the controller, which is interacting with the data on Spotify’s server.

If this was an issue with Sonos’ player software which runs on the speakers, we’d see hundreds of threads from every streamI guess service. The fact that it is only Spotify indicates to me that the issue is at Spotify’s servers. 

But you’re certainly welcome to have a different opinion. 

Bruce
G
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No worries Bruce.

Just thinking out loud it could be something as silly as Sonos (app) not handling a particular response code from Spotify (servers) due to a API change.   The big outage a week or so ago...that could have been due to a breaking API change from Spotify and Sonos using duct tape to get it working again but not covering all the bases and so these pesky bugs are now occuring.  

Airgetlam

Well, since I’m neither an engineer, nor work for Sonos, I’m not certain. But if indeed there was a change, since there has been no firmware update from Sonos on the speakers for many weeks,  it seems much more likely to have occurred in the Spotify servers. But perhaps I have confirmation bias at work. But if you were to force me to bet on one or the other, I would happily place my money, in this particular case, that, given all the other investigation that you’ve done, the issue is on Spotify’s servers. In setting up their service on Sonos, they agree to provide data in X manner. If they’ve changed that, it isn’t Sonos’ responsibility. 
 

I guess we’ll just need to wait and see. If there is a software/firmware update that gets issued by Sonos, then I’m 100% wrong. If it gets fixed without that happening, then we know the issue is on Spotify’s side of things. I’m not a Spotify subscriber, so it doesn’t impact me directly, either way, but I do feel empathy for users who are impacted, like you are. It’s not a great situation, no matter who is at ‘fault’.  

Bruce
D
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I’ve begun experiencing this as well in the last couple weeks.  Nothing has changed and no other services exhibit this behavior.  It’s definitely Spotify and SONOS specific and not something I have control over (i.e. My network or equipment).

- Derek
G
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Upgraded to S2 this morning and problem did not magically go away.  So much for wishful thinking.

Airgetlam

Certainly suggests the issue isn’t in the Sonos side of things. 

Bruce
G
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Well, since I’m neither an engineer, nor work for Sonos

 

Bruce, what’s your issue with having to be right?  Chill.   

P.S.  I’m an engineer and work on systems that stream massive amounts of data.  And I design APIs that are used cross-platform and cross-company.

D
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Bruce, what’s your issue with having to be right?  Chill.   

 

It’s the Internet, our egos are on the line! :)

Still, the problem is between SONOS and Spotify. If this is an important partnership to SONOS, they will work with Spotify to fix this whether it’s their problem or not.

That’s how businesses work.

 

- Derek
G
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I’ve been using the Spotify app (because of issues discussed in this thread), but try Spotify via Sonos app from time to time.   Happy to report that for the past two days Spotify via the Sonos app has been great.  No skipped songs.   And if anyone is wondering I haven’t made any changes to my system or network setup in my home.

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