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.

Show previous replies

melvimbe

I guess my Sonos one must predate the Airplay compatibility as it doest show up on our Airplay list. Does that mean we can only listen through that one speaker?

All Sonos Ones have airplay, although it’s common for people to confuse their Play:1’s (black and grey) with Sonos Ones (all black or all white). If you have a Sonos One, make sure you’re on the WiFi network. Not sure what to tell you after that.

As for your other question, once you use airplay to stream from your phone to a Sonos speaker, you can group that stream with the other speakers in your system.

Danny

jgatie

The easiest way to differentiate a Play:1 from a One is to look at the top; Play:1 has physical buttons, One has touch controls.

B

beni.huber

Lyricist II

That sucks big time. And i understand it‘s not Sonos alone to blame. But still, it‘s also Sonos design & technology decisions to some degree.

In short: I can hop in my car and listen to music on my phone.

at home i need to buy & keep my synology NAS running at all times (or my PC) to achieve the same? Or pay a provider like spotify to listen to music i already own and paid??? WTF???

or if friends come over, they first need to copy their sound to my nas, i need to re-index and then it‘s finally available to play?? what a party!! Hey wait wait, awesome track i want to show you!! just wait ten minutes for it…, oh wait… re-index didn‘t work, i can‘t find it yet…. haha. Seriously????

(i know it‘s BT in my car, thank you...)

not sure how much technology was involved in that decision… or how much music service provider pressure.

Sonos, this is crap!! Bringt that back. It was my primary use case and buy decision for your products.

J

John B

Welcome to the forum.

D

Dave7

Lyricist I

The removal of Sonos’s direct play from iPhone/iPad seems to be an Apple decision. As a result, I know many people like me are pretty unhappy with Apple. I canceled my Apple Music subscription and switched to Spotify because I found the AirPlay option didn’t provide volume consistency between songs and Apple’s music app is simply not in the same league as Sonos’s or Spotify’s. If Apple doesn’t reinstate direct play through Sonos then I plan to also switch from iPhone to Android when I renew. So, Apple has lost my $14/mo subscription and will lose about $1200 more plus other Apple purchase revenue when I renew my phone. I was about to purchase a new iPad too, but am now reconsidering that. I know my individual decisions represent a pittance, but if many other Sonos users react similarly then it will add up. The only reason they’ll change their mind if they know there is enough of a financial or reputation cost. I really like Apple products but this decision has meant that I can no-longer use them effectively in my house.

J

John B

@Dave7 - I am a total Apple refusnik. I have always avoided their products. But I don't think they decided to remove the feature from Sonos and they cannot decide to reinstate it.

Apple made changes to iOS that had the (probably unforeseen) consequence that 'on this iPhone' became unreliable for many users.

I am the last person to defend Apple but I think your presentation of what happened here is wide of the mark.

Airgetlam

I am in agreement with John. This is most likely a by-blow that occurred as a change that was made for entirely other reasons then messing with Sonos and BlueSound, and any other company who was using the same method to use iOS as an NAS device. Quite likely either a power concern, or battery concern, but it’s hard to think that Apple was targeting anyone in particular.

Bruce

D

Dave7

Lyricist I

John B and Airjetlam, I appreciate your comments, and i do not know Apple’s motive (OS incompatibility or business strategy) for removing support of this feature. However programmatically this seems a basic task - making audio files available to the Sonos app for relatively low bandwidth streaming. Airplay does that. So, I’m highly sceptical. Regardless, their action has made their products incompatible with our music systems so my position is still relevant. And I understand reluctance on Apple products - the philosophy of locking everything down is hard to swallow, but the upside is most things work well.

J

John B

In fact 'on this iPhone' worked very differently from Airplay and I suspect that goes to the hesrt of the issue. But none of us knows for sure exactly what happened and so let's agree to differ. The end result isn't going to change.

K

kghostetler

Lyricist I

This extremely disappointing news.

This is the sole reason I purchased over 30 products from Sonos!

This is the only way I use the system.

This was an advertised feature...and the sole reason for purchase.

While the EULA may allow for changes - this is a broken deal by any stretch.

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