Airplay 2: Existing Sonos One speakers not showing up

Goodness I hope that's the not case, Ones used as surrounds don't work with Airplay 2. I use that surround system the most when not enjoying a movie. Would have saved myself the $ and bought Play:1's instead. Do you remember where you saw that at? If not, would be great if you could share it if you happen upon it again.

Hi ChrisWalsh,

In a Sonos 5.1 setup, the device connected to your TV determines its Airplay 2 compatibility. Due to the way the 5.1 speakers communicate, it wouldn't work well for the rear speakers to handle Airplay streaming for the front channel. If your 5.1 setup has a PLAYBASE or a BEAM for its front channel, you can use the speakers as a target for Airplay 2. If you are using a PLAYBAR, you can't target the speakers for Airplay 2 even if you have Sonos Ones for your rear speakers.

As with all Sonos speakers, you can group the 5.1 speakers with a Sonos One, PLAY:5 gen. 2, PLAYBASE or Beam, and target the group for Airplay 2 streaming.

But assuming that they are Sonos Ones, and not PLAY:1s, they certainly should be showing up, assuming that you have AIrPlay turned on on your iOS or Mac devices.
Bruce makes a great point here.

The Play:1 is not AirPlay 2 compatible. The Sonos One is AirPlay 2 compatible.

Which do you have?

Hi
I have a Playbar , 2 x Sonos One (working as 5.1 in lounge with playbar) and a 2nd gen play 5. I have updated the sonos app on my iPad but can only see the play 5 for use with Airplay 2. Am I missing something please?

When bonded with the Playbar as surrounds, the Playbar is the master unit and thus Airplay 2 is not supported on the surrounds.

Same problem here. It's extremely misleading. I went out bought 2 Sonos Ones and linked them to my Playbar as a surround setup expecting this to enable Airplay on the Playbar. Major frustration when no Airplay speakers appeared. Sonos need to make this crystal clear. Most people adding a Sonos One to a Playbar will be doing it as a surround set-up.

These two speakers are going back to the store.

Yep exactly in the middle of a SUPPORT page. When I buy a new product I don't go to the Support pages first. Most of the material people read before a purchase is on how to enable non Airplay speakers by connecting a Sonos One or other Airplay 2 enabled speaker. The pages even have a pic of the Playbar.

You should be checking the support page for the functionality you are purchasing, because there isn't a company in the world who prominently lists up front what their product doesn't do.

Anyway, my point was that Sonos most certainly makes it crystal clear.

As I said, the marketing material is misleading and no it isn't crystal clear from that point. At the end of the day it's their loss, the speakers are going back.

Goodness I hope that's the not case, Ones used as surrounds don't work with Airplay 2. I use that surround system the most when not enjoying a movie. Would have saved myself the $ and bought Play:1's instead. Do you remember where you saw that at? If not, would be great if you could share it if you happen upon it again.Hi ChrisWalsh,

In a Sonos 5.1 setup, the device connected to your TV determines its Airplay 2 compatibility. Due to the way the 5.1 speakers communicate, it wouldn't work well for the rear speakers to handle Airplay streaming for the front channel. If your 5.1 setup has a PLAYBASE or a BEAM for its front channel, you can use the speakers as a target for Airplay 2. If you are using a PLAYBAR, you can't target the speakers for Airplay 2 even if you have Sonos Ones for your rear speakers.

As with all Sonos speakers, you can group the 5.1 speakers with a Sonos One, PLAY:5 gen. 2, PLAYBASE or Beam, and target the group for Airplay 2 streaming.

Hey guys, sorry but I am not sure if I get this right.

TLDR: Can I have a Setup connected to my TV (Playbar, Sub, 2xPlay:1 as rears) and add an additional Sonos One, to be able to access the whole Setup via Airplay2?

Now the disappointing Background Story:

My Problem: I was super disappointed when Sonos decided not to upgrade their Playbar and offer a newer version that also supports Airplay2 and instead just said to me: buy a beam or a playbase (both sound so much worse than the Playbar, but everybody can judge here on his own ofc).

The offered solution: no Problem, put it in a Group with e.g. a Sonos One and you're all set and airplay will work... I hesitated for long time because its 200 Bucks extra just to get your Setup working with Airplay. My setup was: Playbar, Sub, 2xPlay:1, so no reason for an additional Sonos One at all, but yeah...

So I went for the "cheapest" solution and replaced one of the Play:1 with a Sonos One to have a happy live again. But here it comes: it told me: hey buddy you can't have your rear speakers mixed! You need either 2xPlay:1 or 2xSonos One, nothing in between. Well that was an unpleasant surprise! I do not at all understand why in the world? But yeah...

Next thing is: Got a second Sonos One more or less out of frustration, which really triggered me... just to find out that, if I use them as rear speakers it still does not work. I mean COME ON?! Can you imagine the desparation after reconfiguring and playing around for hours as well as spending over 400 bucks on additional hardware that didn't even solve the problem with the otherwise more than pleasant Sonos experience? Sorry for dumping all my frustration here, but I hope this will help other people to not make the same mistake that I made...

So coming back to my original question: can I still somehow have my setup working with my TV as before, plus bring it into airplay? I couldn't figure out how to do it though. Now I'm running with the 2 Sonos One as rears and running out of time for today after this research...

Same response.

I have a Sonos One, which is working fine otherwise with the Sonos apps and Alexa. It's obviously available/visible on the network.

Might be helpful to Kieth if you were to share the diagnostic number with him, so he can see the specifics of your system, and perhaps point out why it's not showing up.

I, of course, don't have access to that data, but I'd certainly start off testing by power cycling the speaker. Since each speaker is essentially a computer, it doesn't hurt to reset the OS, so to speak, and force it to reboot.

My apologies for you getting sent back to my post, although I'm just a customer, not a Sonos employee, so I don't have much control over Sonos' emails to you.

I'd certainly be interested in the resolution to the problem though. I can't think of a particular reason why you're not able to see your Sonos Ones, so whatever solution you get from Sonos, I'd ask you to post back here, so that others can learn from your experience.

Goodness I hope that's the not case, Ones used as surrounds don't work with Airplay 2. I use that surround system the most when not enjoying a movie. Would have saved myself the $ and bought Play:1's instead. Do you remember where you saw that at? If not, would be great if you could share it if you happen upon it again.

Thanks for the response, Bruce. Diagnostic confirmation #1316626023. I've rebooted/powercycled everything in my network, including IOS devices and router....multiple times for my Sonos One. I will definitely post the resolution if/when one is provided. For Chris, I could be wrong, but in my search for a solution I think I remember seeing something that said that surrounds would not work with AirPlay...but forgive me if I'm providing bogus info.

Hi BMcF,

The only speaker I see in your report is a PLAY:1, which does not support Airplay 2. The Sonos One, however does. It's a tad confusing as the names are similar, but you can tell because the Sonos One has a microphone button on the top while the PLAY:1 does not.

Hi
I have a Playbar , 2 x Sonos One (working as 5.1 in lounge with playbar) and a 2nd gen play 5. I have updated the sonos app on my iPad but can only see the play 5 for use with Airplay 2. Am I missing something please?