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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Airgetlam

Odd. Most of my Sonos speakers support AirPlay 2. Only those that were manufactured before the standard existed lack the hardware necessary to receive that signal. I use AirPlay 2 rather frequently with my Sonos, and group my older speakers with the newer ones so that I can get that signal on all speakers.

Bruce

D

Duksauce

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.*

I feel for you Heems. I completely understand your point and it seems the responders are Trolling you. There is no way they don’t understand your argument.

Also, why is Sonos the only speaker (ok someone mentioned 1 other I’ve never heard of) that stopped allowing AirPlay? I have tons of other speakers that still work. Seems insane for folks to be defending Sonos turning this product into an expensive brick. Are they super Sonos fanboys or something? My guess is haters of Apple.

Unboxed my Play 1 yesterday to learn it’s a brick.

melvimbe

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.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1230?language=en_US

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.

Sonos does not sell Play:1s anymore. They stopped selling them before airplay 2 came out.

You can play local audio files from a PC, Mac, NAS, or Android. You can’t play local files (without airplay or bluetooth) from a iOS device basically because Apple doesn’t allow it.

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

You said you received your play:1 as a gift. I assume it was used.

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.

Maybe ask questions or do a little research before you come to inaccurate conclusions?

Danny

melvimbe

Also, why is Sonos the only speaker (ok someone mentioned 1 other I’ve never heard of) that stopped allowing AirPlay? I have tons of other speakers that still work. Seems insane for folks to be defending Sonos turning this product into an expensive brick. Are they super Sonos fanboys or something? My guess is haters of Apple.

Unboxed my Play 1 yesterday to learn it’s a brick.

Sonos has never stopped supporting Airplay 2. When it was announced, Sonos implemented it on every Sonos speaker they ever made that had the hardware capability to support it.

This thread is not actually about airplay, but Sonos own feature that allowed people to play audio files stored on their iOS device using the Sonos app. The feature no longer function properly after Apple made changes to iOS, effectively blocking the feature. This all happen years ago around the same time Airplay went live.

Danny