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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John B

Jeez. If every listed company that had a share price fall at some point was a failed company. ..

$15 a share gives a market cspitalisation of $1.6 billion, created in under 20 years from zero. I wish I had a failure like that to my name.

Sorry you feel as you do. Good luck with your alternative system.

jgatie

Funny how all these people say “There is a solution” yet none of they say what the solutions is…. All require spending money either for a subscription or new hardware. The people that buy this expensive hardware value their time greatly. When you make them spend time researching issues, they also spend time researching other options, as I will be doing. That is how long term customer leave for good.

Sonos has failed. Their stock came public at $20, dropped below $10 and now sits at $15… I have a friend who works for Sonos, When Sonos was going public, I told them to stay away from the stock. The company keeps failing on the user interface and now this issue. Sonos has failed their customers and is failing as a public company.

A free Google Play Music account costs nothing.

106rallye

@User220667 The solutions are mentioned on the first page of this thread (for your convenience: https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/on-this-iphone-or-ipad-no-longer-available-6829000). One of the first things that is written on the first page of this thread mentions this option:

“1. 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.”

Of course, if playing from your iPhone was your preferred method of using Sonos than your experience is hampered by the end to this function. But if you'd read the first post in this thread your conclusion cannot be that all solutions “require spending money either for a subscription or new hardware". Only in very specific circumstances, for instance no or patchy internet connection (but since also complain about updates this does not seem to be a problem for you) you can't use the free google option, and an investment of 99 dollars looms over your head (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/symfonisk-wifi-bookshelf-speaker-white-80435211/). That is, if your router doesn't support cheaper solutions like an USB option or if you do not own a Play:5 or Connect/Port with an unused line in, to wich you could connect a bluetooth receiver like this: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/bluetooth-audio-adapter

If you have the time to answer to this thread and make a new one complaining about Sonos, maybe you could also invest the time in reading just the first post of this thread.

Ken_Griffiths

User220667,

As jgatie rightly says, A free Google Play account costs nothing. I uploaded my library to the GPM cloud and can play my own music tracks (25000+) on all my Sonos devices including the older Play:1’s. Hasn’t cost me a thing, just a small amount of time to install the uploader/manager, login and point it at my music library. So that’s all 'free of charge' and it works much better than playing some of the tracks from my iPhone, plus it has freed up lots of space on the phone to allow me to install other Apps. I can even switch the phone off completely and the music still carries on playing on my Sonos speakers.

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beni.huber

Lyricist II

Sorry, no retrofit. Upgrade offers only on older Sonos stuff, see https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/30/20939850/sonos-trade-up-program-connect-play-products-discount-offer

Please pay attention: the upgrade will lead to a deactivation of the product you’ve chosen to upgrade/replace. Seeing it’s the holiday season, some better offers may be around. Ikea Symfonisk is still the cheapest option.

Haha. Seriously? During the time of sustainability, waste and resource debates you only offer upgrades when you can destroy older, perfectly running products? How bad is Sonos actually doing?

C

charliec_1

Contributor I

This is so frustrating. I have 2k worth of Sonos products that won’t allow me to play my music or podcasts on. Pure greed by Sonos. They failed to innovate and discontinued one of the top features of their product so you will be forced to purchase new hardware. This absolutely could of been fixed with a software update. Shame of Sonos.

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nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Have you read details of the FREE options? What access to the Sonos software do you have, to state that “This absolutely could of been fixed with a software update”?

I appreciate you find it frustrating, as do many of us, but your statements are, in my opinion, very misleading.

bockersjv

Local Superstar

This is so frustrating. I have 2k worth of Sonos products that won’t allow me to play my music or podcasts on. Pure greed by Sonos. They failed to innovate and discontinued one of the top features of their product so you will be forced to purchase new hardware. This absolutely could of been fixed with a software update. Shame of Sonos.

From the great big book of it never happened! 2k of Sonos products you havnt used for the past few months as this feature went some time ago!

Clearly not read the thread as you would have understood this is something Apple discontinued and has affected other companies, not just Sonos. At least Sonos has other options.

J

John B

Have you read details of the FREE options? What access to the Sonos software do you have, to state that “This absolutely could of been fixed with a software update”?

I appreciate you find it frustrating, as do many of us, but your statements are, in my opinion, very misleading.

Yes most of what this poster has to say is factually incorrect, just as it was for the other dozens of posters who have repeated the same misunderstandings and untruths.

C

charliec_1

Contributor I

This is so frustrating. I have 2k worth of Sonos products that won’t allow me to play my music or podcasts on. Pure greed by Sonos. They failed to innovate and discontinued one of the top features of their product so you will be forced to purchase new hardware. This absolutely could of been fixed with a software update. Shame of Sonos.

From the great big book of it never happened! 2k of Sonos products you havnt used for the past few months as this feature went some time ago!

Clearly not read the thread as you would have understood this is something Apple discontinued and has affected other companies, not just Sonos. At least Sonos has other options.

Everything I’ve stated is completely true. Sorry, I didn’t read an entire 10 page thread. I don’t believe that Sonos could not find a way to resolve this issue. I, for one, never had any “instability” issues. Sonos dropped the ball on this one! They should offer a complimentary trade in option.

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