Retired Sonos Staff

'On this iPhone or iPad' No Longer Available

Related content:Software

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Starting today, the ‘On this iPhone or iPad’ feature will no longer be available in the Sonos app. There are still many ways to play your locally saved music library to Sonos and control it from your iOS device, including some good free options.

We first launched ‘On this iPhone or iPad’ in 2012 as an option to play locally saved content from your iOS device before Apple AirPlay was available on Sonos. The way this feature was originally designed has become unreliable with newer versions of iOS and Sonos.

The best way to play the music stored on your phone to Sonos is now by using Apple AirPlay 2 on compatible Sonos speakers (Sonos One, Amp, Beam, Play:5 (Gen 2), Playbase, and SYMFONISK WiFi Speakers). Using AirPlay 2, you can send the audio to one of these products and use the Sonos app to group it with any other Sonos rooms to have them all playing in sync. You can find more information about using AirPlay 2 with Sonos here.

For people who don’t have AirPlay 2 capable Sonos products, additional options to play tracks that are stored on your phone to Sonos include:

Uploading your tracks to a music service with a storage feature, such as Apple Music or Google Play Music. These services will store your library and allow you to stream it anywhere. This is a great option if you have songs that aren’t available on a subscription based streaming service. Also, Google Play Music has a free account option that allows you to upload 50,000 tracks and play them which works with Sonos.
Setting up a Music Library share on a Computer or Network Attached Storage drive. You’d need to have the computer or local drive available when you want to play music, but your library would be easy to transfer to these devices, if it isn’t already on them.
Streaming the catalog from a music service. There are more than 100 music services available on Sonos, many with several millions of songs.
Android mobile devices will continue to have access to the ‘On this device’ feature. If you have an Android phone or tablet, ‘Playing music stored on your Android device’ to Sonos is a great option.
If you have a Sonos Play:5, Connect, Connect:Amp, or Amp, you'll have a Sonos player with a Line-In connection. Using that Line-In, you can play music directly from any device connected to it, to any player around the house. You could even look into connecting a Bluetooth or AirPlay receiving device to that line in to use your mobile device without needing to wire it in to the line-in. See more about 'Using the Line-In on Sonos' here.

With the first three options, your phone doesn’t need to be turned on to listen to your music, and the music will keep on playing even if your phone is off or leaves the house. There are also alarm and Sonos playlist features that are available for most music sources that aren't available from 'On this iPhone'.

More about how to ‘Play music stored on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch’ is on our support pages.

We'll continue to support everyone through this change, and will help them set up the necessary workarounds to keep listening to their favorite tracks on Sonos.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

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jgatie

Bluesound has airplay 2, well Google says they do.

Their Airplay enabled devices came out quite recently, whereas they eliminated the “On this iDevice” function last year.

R

RUBIX2

Enthusiast I

Bluesound has airplay 2, well Google says they do.

Their Airplay enabled devices came out quite recently, whereas they eliminated the “On this iDevice” function last year.

They announced the hardware October 2018, released Feb 2019. Like Sonos IMO, new hardware to sell to the users who can use airplay 2. Not critical, they need to make money.

jgatie

Bluesound has airplay 2, well Google says they do.

Their Airplay enabled devices came out quite recently, whereas they eliminated the “On this iDevice” function last year.

They announced the hardware October 2018, released Feb 2019. Like Sonos IMO, new hardware to sell to the users who can use airplay 2. Not critical, they need to make money.

It has nothing to do with selling new hardware. The functionality had been degraded long before the release of Airplay enabled speakers.

D

Davowhite

Lyricist III

So - the solution of connecting via airplay to a newer Sonos speaker and then grouping that music with others Sonos 1 speakers sucks too. It doesn’t play constant and cuts out for no friggen reason. Honestly - Sonos NEEDS to think of their customer base and loyal fans and not just about the music providers and other app developers.any of us bought all in on Sonos and invested Thousands or dollars. I pay for Sirius XM and Pandora. I’m not about to pay for Apple Music too just to get Sonos to be able to play from the damned library I own.

again - this sucks!!!

D

Davowhite

Lyricist III

Clarification - the airplay solution does work. It doesn’t work like Sonos does normally however! You must silence your phone some that other notifications (email, text, ring, etc...) don’t interrupt the stream of the music. Ironically, it doesn’t impact the stream on the main speaker that was connected - only those that were grouped in the so or app. Head scratcher. Found a work around but still liked the way it was before better.

Ken_Griffiths

So - the solution of connecting via airplay to a newer Sonos speaker and then grouping that music with others Sonos 1 speakers sucks too. It doesn’t play constant and cuts out for no friggen reason.

Honestly - Sonos NEEDS to think of their customer base and loyal fans and not just about the music providers and other app developers.any of us bought all in on Sonos and invested Thousands or dollars. I pay for Sirius XM and Pandora. I’m not about to pay for Apple Music too just to get Sonos to be able to play from the damned library I own.

again - this sucks!!!

There will definitely be a good reason that your AirPlay audio is cutting out on your network. It works just fine for many other folk here. That sounds very much like a local network issue.

You certainly do not need Apple Music subscription to stream your locally stored music, I don’t understand why you 'mistakenly' think that?

J

John B

Ken is right. Where did you get that idea from? Absolutely no need for an Apple Music subscription. Please see one of the dozens (hundreds?) of posts refuting that claim.

Ken_Griffiths

Clarification - the airplay solution does work. It doesn’t work like Sonos does normally however! You must silence your phone some that other notifications (email, text, ring, etc...) don’t interrupt the stream of the music. Ironically, it doesn’t impact the stream on the main speaker that was connected - only those that were grouped in the so or app. Head scratcher. Found a work around but still liked the way it was before better.

Yes, many of us liked the way it worked before and no doubt so did Sonos, but Apple unfortunately changed it all when they introduced AirPlay-2. Your gripe should really be with Apple. Sonos and other companies like Bluesound were left with little option, other to make these changes.

D

Dustman

Contributor I

Bought speakers for every room to play off my iphone...this is infuriating.

I dont have a PC, am not joining a streaming service.

Now what????

Airgetlam

What speakers did you buy? Your profile doesn’t say, but if it’s one of the more recent Sonos speakers, you could easily use AirPlay 2 to send your iPhone data to the Sonos.

Bruce

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