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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nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

If the library is on a computer hard drive you can set that up as a Music Library and play from that.

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whygoodcat

Contributor I

If the library is on a computer hard drive you can set that up as a Music Library and play from that.

So i would have an access to my whole music library via iPhone, not just the stuff i have sync’d, right? But you don’t actually upload anything to some Sonos server doing that - meaning i have to be within my Wi-Fi network, correct? And this option requires a Sonos App as a player, not iOS Music App?

Airgetlam

There is no “Sonos” server to upload to. If your phone is on the same Wi-Fi subnet as your Sonos One SL, you’ll be able to use AirPlay 2 to connect to it, in which case any sound coming from an AirPlay 2 app (there are a small few that aren’t, no I can’t point to a list) will play on your Sonos.

In the case of using AirPlay 2, you would be using the Apple Music app, and not the Sonos app, although you could, if you so choose, use the Sonos app to group several Sonos rooms together so they all play the sound you’re sending to the Sonos One SL.

Bruce

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whygoodcat

Contributor I

Ok, thank you for answering my questions guys. AirPlay 2 and “On this phone” appear to be totally different ways to stream, right? I can stream to my One SL - just not with the “On this phone” option, but via AirPlay 2. I guess i just confused these things with each other, i thought Sonos have totally “banned” access to the personal music leaving streaming services as the only option.

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nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Sonos speakers incorporate (in effect) a computer and network interface. The IOS, Android, MAC or PC controllers are just that: devices to initiate play and volume of a music source - a Spotify stream or whatever. You can also set a path to a networked computer location music library where you have ripped your CDs. There is an approximately 64000 track limit.

So, your phone is a controller, to tell the Sonos “computer” what music you want it to play. But, with Airplay 2, the music can also be sent from phone to Sonos.

But, you will need to be on the local network for your phone, Mac or PC to be the controller.

Airgetlam

Yes, they are two completely different things. AirPlay 2 “pushes” the audio content from your iPhone to the speakers. The Sonos system “pulled” the data from the iPhone, treating it as an NAS, not a player. Apple closed that functionality for some unexplained reason, so Sonos, and at least one other company can no longer use that method to get music.

In fact, that is one of the central design things about Sonos. In most cases, you tell the computer on the speaker where to access the music from, it is never “playing” on the controller.

Bruce

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PLPL

Contributor I

Love the thread here… Like our whole family is going to move to Android because of that. Or start subscribing to music streaming service to make use of our 8 speakers. What a load of crap. Goodbye Sonos, you are now useless to me.

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nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Love the thread here… Like our whole family is going to move to Android because of that. Or start subscribing to music streaming service to make use of our 8 speakers. What a load of crap. Goodbye Sonos, you are now useless to me.

Read the options and you’ll see you’ve missed several of the ones available to you.

You need not subscribe to any paid service to play your music.
You need not stream other than from your own network environment.

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PLPL

Contributor I

We have been streaming from a Mac too, but that is not an option to me going forward. I just need to do it from my phone. Anyways, I see this is one of these silly situations where Sonos and their minions are going to explain why this is a good change for me. Bye Sonos, have fun retaining new customers you may get.

106rallye

@PLPL For people affected by this the user experience is worse after this - no question.

You however are not seriously affected: you own a One (or more of them) according to your account, that is Airplay 2-capable.

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