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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:


  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.
  2. 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.
  3. Streaming the catalog from a music service. There are more than 100 music services available on Sonos, many with several millions of songs.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

I assume that since those tracks are important to you they are backed up somewhere, not stored just on your phone?
Yes they are on Dropbox as well as on my shared Apple devices( that may be changed with Catalina and IOS 13
I'm not an Apple user at all but if the music is on a Mac why not point your Sonos music library at that?
My iMac is not with me. I grabbed one of my Play 1 speakers, as I always have when I travel for more than a week. I have my iPad Pro(2019) which has all my music on it, as well as access to my a DropBox and the iCloud. I usually practice my band’s music by playing through the Play 1. Can’t do that now.
rhech,





If your music is uploaded and stored in Apple iCloud, as you mention, then can’t you simply play it through your Apple Music service subscription via the App?





https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205629
To play from a phone to a Play:1 you need a network. The Play:1 is not designed as a portable speaker. But I used to take one with me when I travelled, along with a £30 travel router and a USB flash drive with 50GB of music on it. (The router had a USB port.)





How haveyou been playing from phone to Play:1 up to now when away from home network?
I have a Wi-Fi system where I am located so that is not the issue, and I am not a subscriber to Apple Music and don’t want to be. When I mentioned the iCloud, I am using that for all my document files and shared music with my family.





Even with local Wi-Fi, I am not able to play the music from my iPad on my Sonos system anymore. I can use the other Sonos services like Pandora and Spotify, just not my own music.
Traven router and USB is best bet then, if you don't want to use GPM.
Or copy the music to an Amazon Fire tablet. It's a hassle I know but there are solutions.
Or sell the Sonos if none of these options is acceptable to you.
I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Sonos does need to fix this as one of the great things about Sonos has always been their ease of use and setup. I have spent over $2000 on Sonos products, and they need to focus on solutions not bandaids.
It’s Apple that forced this change, it was not a choice taken by Sonos.
Another person who has spent over $2000. That is a familiar figure for those ranting that Sonos must change Apples decision.
I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Sonos does need to fix this as one of the great things about Sonos has always been their ease of use and setup. I have spent over $2000 on Sonos products, and they need to focus on solutions not bandaids.


Rubbish frankly. These are not bandaids they are the ways the rest of us choose to use the system . Good luck with whatever you decide.
I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Sonos does need to fix this as one of the great things about Sonos has always been their ease of use and setup. I have spent over $2000 on Sonos products, and they need to focus on solutions not bandaids.








Most of those "bandaids" were around long before "On this iDevice" existed and were the original use case for playing your music. Also, this is Apple's doing, not Sonos. Otherwise, why remove it from iOS, but keep the same functionality on Android devices?



I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Sonos does need to fix this as one of the great things about Sonos has always been their ease of use and setup. I have spent over $2000 on Sonos products, and they need to focus on solutions not bandaids.Rubbish frankly. These are not bandaids they are the ways the rest of us choose to use the system . Good luck with whatever you decide.
I’d like to know what you are saying. Was it constructive?
There’s been lots of attempts to help but they seem to have fallen on deaf ears.





You’re entitled to be annoyed but to ignore the solutions available does not help you get music from your $2000 spent.
There’s been lots of attempts to help but they seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

You’re entitled to be annoyed but to ignore the solutions available does not help you get music from your $2000 spent.

WE NEED A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGainst SONOS

There’s been lots of attempts to help but they seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

You’re entitled to be annoyed but to ignore the solutions available does not help you get music from your $2000 spent.

WE NEED A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGainst SONOS

🤣🤣🤣   This is an Apple change. But never mind, clearly your determined not to understand the situation and are just trolling.  I’m out. 

Honestly - this sucks. I have playlists I like on my phone. It was the one “free” way to use Sonos without the pay services. 
 

I have a dozen Sonos devices, but I can only play from my phone on airplay on two of them. 
 

yes - I’ve read the thread. None of that is practical or convenient. What is convenient is being able to play music from your phone. 
 

not happy - hope they fix this crap!

You can still group either of the two AirPlay 2 capable speakers with any of the rest of your speakers, and get the AirPlay 2 signal to them. 

Thanks - I’ll give that a go… rather they just fix the app to allow it straight from there instead though. 

Thanks - I’ll give that a go… rather they just fix the app to allow it straight from there instead though. 

It’s not a case of fixing the app. Apple have disabled the feature so there is no fix available unfortunately 😦

And AirPlay 2 is a connection between your Apple device and the speaker, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Sonos controller app, which is, essentially, only a remote control. 

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