Retired Sonos Staff

'On this iPhone or iPad' No Longer Available

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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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PLPL

Contributor I

We own 8 Sonos Play:1 (in 2 houses). Is that compatible with AirPlay?

el rubio

We own 8 Sonos Play:1 (in 2 houses). Is that compatible with AirPlay?

I afraid not. You will need to add a Sonos One to get your music over Airplay and linked to your Play:1 speakers.

salu2.eu

106rallye

We own 8 Sonos Play:1 (in 2 houses). Is that compatible with AirPlay?

Your profile states you own Sonos One, that’s the information I based my post on. An Ikea bookshelf speaker is the cheapest option to bring Airplay into your system (for one user at a time).

Ken_Griffiths

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.

You could perhaps just share the MAC music library, for your iOS mobiles to use to play to any of your speakers, whilst it’s switch on… see this link:

Adding and updating your music library

Or, if you don’t want to use the MAC, just upload the library to Google Play and use the free music service in the Sonos App instead.

So plenty of simple and free options there for you to resolve the matter.

G

GinnyL

Lyricist I

Please offer directions for use of personal music loaded on Apple devices. My primary use of my Sonos system has always been to listen to my personal library and I am frustrated and angry that the option was discontinued with no notice to customers. I own 8 speakers, a Beam and a Port and they are now USELESS to me. How could you do this to your customers?

jgatie

Please offer directions for use of personal music loaded on Apple devices. My primary use of my Sonos system has always been to listen to my personal library and I am frustrated and angry that the option was discontinued with no notice to customers. I own 8 speakers, a Beam and a Port and they are now USELESS to me. How could you do this to your customers?

Sonos didn’t “do this to (their) customers”. Apple made changes to iOS that made it impossible to support this function. In fact, the function is still available on Android; which shows Sonos would support it on iOS if they could.

As to options, they are covered in the first post of this very thread.

G

GinnyL

Lyricist I

Then Sonos needs to work with Apple to get it compatible again. This is a deal breaker. I have invested a lot into the system that worked with my library and now it is gone. I am a very unhappy customer.

jgatie

Then Sonos needs to work with Apple to get it compatible again. This is a deal breaker. I have invested a lot into the system that worked with my library and now it is gone. I am a very unhappy customer.

What makes you think Apple is willing to work with Sonos to allow playing to older non-Airplay speakers (from which Apple gets no income), when Apple gets licensing fees from Sonos’ newer Airplay compatible speakers?

In truth, one could question the coincidence that iOS suddenly became so unstable just as Sonos was releasing Airplay 2 on their newer devices.

Ken_Griffiths

Then Sonos needs to work with Apple to get it compatible again. This is a deal breaker. I have invested a lot into the system that worked with my library and now it is gone. I am a very unhappy customer.

I think you will find Sonos did that, for over a year and part of that resulted in you getting the AirPlay v2 protocol on your Beam and other Sonos devices, to allow you to play your music from your Apple device to any/every Sonos Room when grouped with such a compatible device.

It’s quite odd however, that you only mention this now, as the ‘On this Device’ feature was taken away from iOS devices months ago?

G

GinnyL

Lyricist I

True, it’s been a while. I keep trying to find ways to access and get frustrated and give up. And get more dispirited and sad and angry about it. I appreciate your answering so I now know it’s gone for good. What a huge loss.

I will attempt to set up Airplay protocol. It just doesn’t seem right to put customers through all these hoops.

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