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Unable to play X - and the song is not encoded correctly


I was getting this error from time to time, but now I'm getting it on 3/4 of songs... Seems random, as sometimes a song that was working fine would refuse to play and start showing this error (or vice versa). 

My music source is YouTube Music. I've tried rebooting the speaker, reinstalling te app, rebooting the Wi-Fi router, etc. Also tried using an ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi. Nothing seems to work. 

Diagnostic number : 1167656549

Screenshot :

Thanks in advance! 

 

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Best answer by Annazel S 22 January 2021, 22:23

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Hi @kubulozaurus.rex.

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the community! Let me check it for you.

Upon checking the diagnostic report, transport errors and symptoms indicative of interference have been detected on one or more Sonos components running on the WiFi. Commonly, this issue can come as a result of wireless interference, this article will help you reduce wireless interference around your Sonos products. 

You may try to refresh your network, please follow the steps accordingly:

  • Unplugged your Sonos device from power
  • Reboot router
  • Once the router boots up, plug back in the speaker 
  • Test and see if that resolves it.

 

If the above advice was followed and the issue persists, please submit a new diagnostic report, and reply with the confirmation number so I can review your system further and see if there’s anything else causing this issue.

 

Let us know how that goes.

Hello! Thank you for the advice.

Unfortunately it didn't help much... 

Over the last few days I've tried most of the solutions mentioned in "reduce wireless interference". I've changed the Wi-Fi channel of my router, tried it out, then next day changed the channel of my speaker, etc. Also, I've tried to move things around in my flat and I've disconnected some Wi-Fi-using devices that were close to the speaker. But, as I live in a small apartment the middle of Paris, there is a lot of Wi-Fi networks around and a lot of connected devices close by, and there will only be more. So in the end I've just connected the speaker with an Ethernet cable to my router.

(BTW I've been regularly rebooting both the speaker and the router during all this).

The results are a bit underwhelming... At some points (e.g. after connecting the Ethernet cable) it was working better for some time (I don't know if this was just random or some strange real effect), so I thought that the problem was solved, but after a while it got back to the old behavior:

Could you please provide other options for dealing with this issue? 

BTW, how is it possible to have "wireless interface" when my speaker is now wired (Ethernet cable)?... 

Here are 2 new diagnostic numbers:

- 2094634783

- 122505127

Thanks in advance :) 

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Hi @kubulozaurus.rex.

Thanks for your response and update.

Upon checking the diagnostic report, errors that we observed on the initial diagnostic are still showing and the Android controller’s WiFi connection is ‘unknown’.

We appreciate the time and effort you've spent troubleshooting with us, but at this point, it would be best to reach out to Sonos Support so we can take a closer look at this in real-time and expedite the process. I suggest our phone team for they have more resources available on their system for advanced troubleshooting, and the tools our agents can use would be very useful in this case, there can be an advantage if they need to remote into the controller to see what's going on.

 

​If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know.

OK. For anyone else experiencing similar issues, here’s what I found out.

After around two hours spent actively investigating the problem with the Sonos Support, this is the final answer I got (copy-paste from the transcript):

J'ai réussi à vérifier votre anomalie sur YouTube avec un des nos ingénieurs et nous souhaitons vous informer que le soucis que vous avez sur YouTube  c'est un problème général dont nous sommes conscients  et nous travaillons activement avec Youtube Music pour le résoudre. Il sera résolu dans une future mise à jour du logiciel, mais nous n'avons pas de délais à partager pour le moment. 

 

Basically:

  • This is a general and known problem.
  • Sonos engineers are working with YouTube Music to solve it.
  • It will be solved in a future software update.
  • No time frame for the solution is currently known.

I’ll write here when (if?) the problem is ever solved.

(I must say that I’m quite unhappy about lack of any concrete assurance from Sonos after all this. I’ve asked what if the problem is not solved in 6 months and I was only told again that I should wait and that no time frame is available.)

The way I interpret that is the issue is on YouTube’s end, and the Sonos engineers, while helping the YouTube engineers, don’t know exactly when YouTube will release a fix to the YouTube Music servers. 

The way I interpret that is the issue is on YouTube’s end, and the Sonos engineers, while helping the YouTube engineers, don’t know exactly when YouTube will release a fix to the YouTube Music servers. 

Actually the Sonos Support person told me that they didn't know if the technical responsability was on Sonos' side or YouTube’s side.

That seems odd, since the Sonos player software is the same across all streaming services. I’d think if there was any particular issue with the Sonos side, it would manifest itself across other streams as well. But the Sonos support person would have better information than I. I can only assume they were trying not to throw a partner under ‘the bus’, or I’m completely wrong. 

BTW I've tried using 3 other music sources and only YouTube Music has this problem... 

Maybe it's the YouTube side that "caused" the problem (there was the migration from Google Music to YouTube Music in the last few months) maybe it's Sonos (the new version of the Sonos app was rolled out in the last few months), maybe it's both, difficult to say... 😐 

I have had this problem periodically with serius/xm as well.  Usually closing the app and giving it a few mins and it works fine

Same "encoding error" on almost all my Amazon playlists. I think it has to do with Amazon introducing HD, but why are people seeing the issue on YouTube? I don't know, but all my playlists are ruined!

Yep same for me, most of Amazon music will not play!

I’ve had the same exact issue over the last day or so with Amazon Music. Based on our recent posts, there must have been an issue either with Amazon introducing HD (like eworthi said), or with some other software update. However, I just unplugged my Sonos bridge, unplugged and restarted my router, and then plugged Sonos back in, and so far (fingers crossed) it seems to now be working.

Good luck!

 

Just as a note, if you can, you should retire your BRIDGE. Either replace it with a BOOST, or just wire an Ethernet cable into one of your speakers. At this point, the power supply on the BRIDGE is known to go bad, and cause all sorts of hard to trace issues. 
 

I replaced mine with a BOOST, which can run either S1 or S2. The BRIDGE, much older tech, can only run S1. 

Thanks for the tip, Bruce.

 

I’m having the same issue. This just started 2 weeks ago and I’ve been using the alarm for 2 years with no issues. I’ve tried sonos radio, Amazon music, and all radio stations … none have worked. I’ve tried disabling and enabling WiFi in the app and I’ve tried. What was suggested above of rebooting Sonos unit and router. Nothing. I wish someone can figure this out. It’s so nice to wake up to music vs. the Sonos chime. The only thing that just worked is Pandora > My Stations but the artist I selected isn’t being played. So strange. 

Same problem here with Sirius and Google play music which morphed into the crappy YouTube music. I have had the not encoded message for years but is getting worse as time moves on. When it disconnects the wifi is still available so I find it hard to believe it is a wifi router issue. I actually got a new router because I thought it may be the problem but no, it still exists. This is undoubtedly a Sonos issue as the cross service problem shows. As I said it is now happening 5-6 times in 6 hours and if there isn't a fix soon I will selling my Sonos and go elsewhere

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Been getting the same here too for the last week or so with Amazon Music, but mostly only with my Sonos Playlists that have tracks from Amazon, but I can play it find if I browse Amazon Music to the same album I added it from

The same for me with Spotify. As one track is finishing I get the not encoded correctly message for the next so it skips every other track.

I am having the same problem.  All of the playlists that I have taken so much time to develop will not play and I get the “song is not encoded correctly” error. Very frustrating.  I primarily use Amazon.

I am having the same problem.  All of the playlists that I have taken so much time to develop will not play and I get the “song is not encoded correctly” error. Very frustrating.  I primarily use Amazon.

I seem to recall another Amazon Music user posting here in recent weeks with a similar issue, but in their case they had added some tracks to their ‘continuing’ playlists whilst they were subscribed to Amazon Prime Music, but later had updated their subscription to Amazon Music HD/Ultra HD and some tracks had changed - I believe the user contacted Amazon and the Support Staff we’re trying to resolve the matter with them, but I think they still had to recreate some of their playlists in the Sonos App, albeit it was an Amazon issue... not sure if the same thing may apply in your case  but if it does and you have switched music service, it might be worth speaking to Amazon Support about the issue.

Same problem on SXM. Just stops out of the blue and gives me this message. After a few minutes it works again. 

I have the same problem when I play BBC Radio 1,  music stops randomly

I will echo the previous posts. Any play list created via Amazon Music will not play. The songs are no longer encoded correctly. 

I will echo the previous posts. Any play list created via Amazon Music will not play. The songs are no longer encoded correctly. 

I’ve just tried several Amazon Music Service Playlists including one called ‘Easy Hits’ …and as you can perhaps see (screenshot attached) they’re working okay here, but it might be a local issue.

The Sonos status page isn’t showing anything at the moment, but maybe keep an eye on that for any updates. 

Sonos Services Status Page

I will echo the previous posts. Any play list created via Amazon Music will not play. The songs are no longer encoded correctly. 

I’ve just tried several Amazon Music Service Playlists including one called ‘Easy Hits’ …and as you can perhaps see (screenshot attached) they’re working okay here, but it might be a local issue.

The Sonos status page isn’t showing anything at the moment, but maybe keep an eye on that for any updates. 

Sonos Services Status Page

The issue I have (sounds like it is similar to others on this thread) is that playlists or songs from Amazon that I saved a while ago are now not playing and have an error saying the song isn't encoded correctly.  Current playlists will play. Seems maybe the playlist points to a file that has been changed on Amazon.  Really could do with a quick way to re add songs to playlists in order to get the 'new' song location.  Or for it to be fixed within Sonos or Amazon. I've also tried re-adding Amazon music in the app, but without success.  Songs in the playlists that are saved locally still play, it just skips any that are streamed from Amazon.