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

They can do the SAME EXACT thing with AirPlay:2 tomorrow with the newer products.

This definitely wins the prize for the dumbest comment of the year so far on this forum, perhaps any forum.

I’m not sure; there have been some pretty dumb ones. But it’s certainly a strong contender.

H

Heems

Lyricist III

They can do the SAME EXACT thing with AirPlay:2 tomorrow with the newer products.

This definitely wins the prize for the dumbest comment of the year so far on this forum, perhaps any forum.

Me monkey. Me have no argument. hooohhhhooo! Me throw feces at people. hoooohahah!

Talking about a dumb ass... Guess what monkey boy? I am still not buying a Sonos and telling every one to stay from them. They have zero brand loyalty. Suck on that banana.

H

Heems

Lyricist III

It’s not a view, it’s reality.

If Apple decides to cancel airplay 2 tommorow, there is nothing Sonos can do about it. This is the reality that requires integration between two different products. If one of them changes, it doesn’t work anymore. You would have a point if Sonos just cancelled airplay and Apple was still providingit, but that is not the case.

@melvimbe What is the purpose of a networked speaker? Is it so that jerkoffs like @John B and @jgatie can have something to do in their miserable lives on product forums? Nein, it’s simple. It’s to play music. It’s not rocket science. And pray tell, what is the source of the digital music the speaker is meant to sound? Some computer on the network. And do we live in 1999 when everyone had their digital music on a Napster server at home? No. The primary way is people have their music on mobile devices and the iPhone is a flagship product that many users play / store music on. So, when you go and decide to chop off the main artery of your product - i.e. play music off a phone - as a product manager and as a company you gone and *****. Period. I don’t care what the reasons are. The raison d'etre for the product is gone. Might as well sell a **** box. So to throw your hand up to the paying customer and say “Sorry, not our problem. Apple did it” without providing a fair solution is not right. Now what’s a fair solution you ask? Maybe a discount to upgrade to another product that actually plays digital music over the phone? Sure. Maybe a free upgrade? Even better. Maybe enable AirPlay on the device (and pay Apple whatever fee)? Even better yet. Point is this was not a little feature that got yanked. It was THE reason for the product for something like 98% of buyers. Sonos was blind to that and offered zip, zilch. “Good luck. Apple did it”. Well that’s their choice. I am sticking to mine: Won’t buy a Sonos ever and will tell others to stay away. This can happen again and Sonos will hang them dry. Maybe some of you here are ok with that. I am not.

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

106rallye

As mentioned on this forum according to Sonos most people use their system to stream music from Spotify etc. In no way the “the primary way is people have their music on mobile devices". Of course having taken a feature that to you is an important part of your use case, is not funny.

I however do believe that there was no way around this for Sonos when Apple took away the capability to play from an iPhone. And, though I have not checked, I believe Sonos is in their right to do so. You have the right to hold it against them and not buy any new Sonos devices. Just be prepaired that the same issuses will crop up on any connected system. If you do not want this, your only path is to buy an old fashioned CD-player and amp.

J

John B

I think it's time to stop feeding the troll. I am sure that @Heems is far too intelligent to actually believe the arguments he is putting forward. This topic has been dead for two years. Let it rest in peace.

jgatie

“It’s not that people are ignorant, it’s that they know so much that just isn’t so.”

Paraphrased from Ronald Reagan

% of people who stream their own content on Sonos - Less than 10%.

% of people who streamed their music from an iDevice - Less than 50% of that 10%, because Sonos is split approximately 50/50 Android/iDevice, and the original usage of Sonos was to stream from a library housed on a computer or NAS.

Also genius, any product which doesn’t have Airplay already gives you an automatic upgrade discount, and you get to keep the product.

So, how’s that for a jerkoff?

melvimbe

It’s not a view, it’s reality.

If Apple decides to cancel airplay 2 tommorow, there is nothing Sonos can do about it. This is the reality that requires integration between two different products. If one of them changes, it doesn’t work anymore. You would have a point if Sonos just cancelled airplay and Apple was still providingit, but that is not the case.

@melvimbe What is the purpose of a networked speaker? Is it so that jerkoffs like @John B and @jgatie can have something to do in their miserable lives on product forums? Nein, it’s simple. It’s to play music. It’s not rocket science. And pray tell, what is the source of the digital music the speaker is meant to sound? Some computer on the network. And do we live in 1999 when everyone had their digital music on a Napster server at home? No. The primary way is people have their music on mobile devices and the iPhone is a flagship product that many users play / store music on.

Wrong. Do you honestly think that the majority of people are storing music on their phones? I have a hard time believing you. None of your friends that you say you’ll talk about Sonos to use streaming services?

So, when you go and decide to chop off the main artery of your product - i.e. play music off a phone - as a product manager and as a company you gone and *****. Period. I don’t care what the reasons are. The raison d'etre for the product is gone. Might as well sell a **** box. So to throw your hand up to the paying customer and say “Sorry, not our problem. Apple did it” without providing a fair solution is not right. Now what’s a fair solution you ask? Maybe a discount to upgrade to another product that actually plays digital music over the phone? Sure. Maybe a free upgrade? Even better. Maybe enable AirPlay on the device (and pay Apple whatever fee)? Even better yet. Point is this was not a little feature that got yanked. It was THE reason for the product for something like 98% of buyers.

So you think 98% of Sonos customers have iphones that are not airplay compatible or don’t have Sonos speakers that are airplay compatible, and they play music stored on their phone?

Sonos was blind to that and offered zip, zilch. “Good luck. Apple did it”. Well that’s their choice. I am sticking to mine: Won’t buy a Sonos ever and will tell others to stay away. This can happen again and Sonos will hang them dry. Maybe some of you here are ok with that. I am not.

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

As long as Sonos has no control over what Apple and Google does with their software, then yes, it absolutely could happen again. I’m ok with that, because it’s just the reality of the situation. It’s no different than the reality that Apple/Google could decide they no longer want to support bluetooth, which means all my bluetooth headphones and speakers would no longer work. If that were to happen, I wouldn’t blame the people who made the headphones/speakers, I’d blame Apple/Google.

Danny

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philippe44

Avid Contributor I

If I may: peace folks, there are just speakers, we don’t need to kill each other upon such topic! I’ve made AirConnect so that you can still have both, so enjoy this rather.

Jeffrey_35

Headliner III

I just don’t understand what the big deal is on this. Most of my music I played is through streaming services. I uploaded all my CDs ages ago to Apple Music and pay the $25 a year to access it anywhere.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

D

Duksauce

Lyricist III

This forum sounds to be full of folks who dislike Apple. Admittedly I am all in on Apple products.

Why does Sonos not have AirPlay but every other speaker does? ...sounds like Sonos not stepping their game up.

I curate my only music library and don’t use any streaming service and was just gifted a Sonos Play 1. Imagine my surprise in learning it’s just a brick unless I decide to setup a NAS or pay a streaming service.

Insane to me to sell a speaker than can’t just play your music.

This has made me make the jump to iTunes Match, which hopefully will work once it’s done processing.

Overall amazed how inane it is to sell a speaker than can’t play anything local.

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