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Sonos Move drops audio when I replay after pause (wi-fi only)

  • March 10, 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 1571 views
J

My Sonos move works great on both wi-fi and Bluetooth, except that when it is connected via wi-fi and I am watching or listening to something (on any platform: YouTube, streaming services, VLC, Spotify, QuickTime, etc.) and I hit pause, when I press play again the sound cuts out. This has happened on four different MacBooks, iPhones, iPad, etc. 

The only solution I have found is to manually go to audio controls on the device and change the audio output to the internal speaker, then switch back to Sonos. Then it works again. If I pause a movie a few times that means doing this every single time to get Sonos back.

Is this meant to happen? It’s been like that since I got the speaker and I’ve kind of accepted it as a flaw. This does not happen on bluetooth; only wifi. 

Best answer by Corry P

Hi @joycean 

I posted the following in the above thread that you pointed out:

 

I have done some investigating and found out the following:

  • AirPlay 2 requires that a buffer be filled prior to playback. Airplay 1 does not. As live system sounds cannot be buffered (you’d need time-travelling software code), when AirPlay-ing from macOS system settings AirPlay 1 is always used.
  • AirPlay likely times-out if no data is sent (ie. silence), though I cannot find a figure for this period.
  • AirPlay 1 is not supported by Sonos, but tends to work. Therefore, if you are using AirPlay 1 and sending all system sounds to Sonos, it works, usually, but may have issues like those described here. As AirPlay 1 is not supported by Sonos, we will not be addressing these issues.
  • macOS Applications (like Safari, Apple Music and Spotify) do support AirPlay2, but you must initiate the connection from that application, not the Mac’s settings. The media stream can then be buffered to the speaker and synced for playback.

In our own testing, we were unable to produce this issue when using AirPlay 2. If you experience these issues while using AirPlay 2 (initiated at the application level rather than at the system level), we would very much like to hear about it. Please get in touch with our technical support team if this is the case, as this is something that we would want to resolve (be it a networking or software issue).

It would be interesting if any of you could recreate the issue as you have before, but while having one media paused (YouTube for example), start something else playing over the AirPlay 1 connection - when you restart the paused media, does it play through Sonos immediately? I suspect so, as the second media playing will have kept the connection to the speaker live. I suspect @eldiets1’s fix of having a minimised window does exactly this.

I hope this information helps you all to use your Sonos speakers with your Apple products in a satisfactory way.

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5 replies

Corry P
Forum|alt.badge.img+19
  • Corry P
  • Sonos Staff
  • March 11, 2021

Hi @joycean 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Is this issue happening while using AirPlay from your Apple devices? I’m going to assume so, but please correct me if not. And no, this is not supposed to happen.

AirPlay playback depends on 4 things - the speaker, the source device, the network and the actual source of the media.

As you have the issue with multiple source devices and media sources, we can rule out those. Bluetooth doesn’t involve your network, so Bluetooth not having the problem might indicate a networking issue, though it could still be the Move.

Please switch your WiFi router off for 30 seconds, switch back on and wait 5 minutes or so for your network to come back. While you’re waiting, please also power off your Move by holding the Power button at the back for at least 5 seconds - you’ll hear a chime and the main light will go off. If none of your Apple devices have been rebooted in a while, it may help to reboot these too - considering how easy it is, it’s worth trying.

Once your WiFi is back on, please turn on the Move and wait for it’s solid white light. Once it’s online, please test AirPlay again and try to reproduce the issue.

If this doesn’t help, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system, but please try to recreate the issue before calling as the reboot of the Move will clear it’s logs of what’s happening.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
  • joycean
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • March 11, 2021

Hi Corry, thanks for your reply - yes, the issue is using AirPlay on Apple devices. I’ve tried the wifi fix you suggested but unfortunately it doesn’t work. I’ve looked through the forum and it seems to be a very common issue, e.g.: 

 

J
  • John B
  • March 11, 2021

Do you have any other Sonos Airplay compatible devices (it looks not, from your profile)?  Do you have any other Airplay ‘targets’ such as an Apple TV?

FWIW, you can stream Spotify using the Spotify app when connected to WiFi, without Airplay.  The same is true of several other music streaming services.  That may help to reduce the problem, although clearly it isn’t a solution.  (This assumes that the same thing doesn’t happen with Spotify Connect, but it might be instructive either way.)

Corry P
Forum|alt.badge.img+19
  • Corry P
  • Sonos Staff
  • Answer
  • March 11, 2021

Hi @joycean 

I posted the following in the above thread that you pointed out:

 

I have done some investigating and found out the following:

  • AirPlay 2 requires that a buffer be filled prior to playback. Airplay 1 does not. As live system sounds cannot be buffered (you’d need time-travelling software code), when AirPlay-ing from macOS system settings AirPlay 1 is always used.
  • AirPlay likely times-out if no data is sent (ie. silence), though I cannot find a figure for this period.
  • AirPlay 1 is not supported by Sonos, but tends to work. Therefore, if you are using AirPlay 1 and sending all system sounds to Sonos, it works, usually, but may have issues like those described here. As AirPlay 1 is not supported by Sonos, we will not be addressing these issues.
  • macOS Applications (like Safari, Apple Music and Spotify) do support AirPlay2, but you must initiate the connection from that application, not the Mac’s settings. The media stream can then be buffered to the speaker and synced for playback.

In our own testing, we were unable to produce this issue when using AirPlay 2. If you experience these issues while using AirPlay 2 (initiated at the application level rather than at the system level), we would very much like to hear about it. Please get in touch with our technical support team if this is the case, as this is something that we would want to resolve (be it a networking or software issue).

It would be interesting if any of you could recreate the issue as you have before, but while having one media paused (YouTube for example), start something else playing over the AirPlay 1 connection - when you restart the paused media, does it play through Sonos immediately? I suspect so, as the second media playing will have kept the connection to the speaker live. I suspect @eldiets1’s fix of having a minimised window does exactly this.

I hope this information helps you all to use your Sonos speakers with your Apple products in a satisfactory way.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
J
  • joycean
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • March 17, 2021

Do you have any other Sonos Airplay compatible devices (it looks not, from your profile)?  Do you have any other Airplay ‘targets’ such as an Apple TV?

FWIW, you can stream Spotify using the Spotify app when connected to WiFi, without Airplay.  The same is true of several other music streaming services.  That may help to reduce the problem, although clearly it isn’t a solution.  (This assumes that the same thing doesn’t happen with Spotify Connect, but it might be instructive either way.)

Thanks for your reply, yes with Spotify I can stream directly from the app, which solves the issue, but that doesn’t work with e.g. Netflix since there is no Airplay support, or with any video files stored on my computer.

Corry, thanks for your reply - as mentioned above, with some apps I can get around Airplay 1, but not with others. I don't think you can use Airplay 2 from Safari if the specific website (e.g. Netflix) doesn’t support it. 

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