buffering issue

User117655, I am not versed well enough in this process to confidently attempt that stuff.  My son will be visiting soon, I’ll see if he wants to try. 
however, I called Apple Support today to ask about this there.  They suggested abandoning the Sonos App and just accessing my Sonos speakers through the Apple Music App.  My mind was blown!  I never knew that wa a possibility.  They did a screen share to let this dinosaur see how, and I got silence at first.  We decided to shut off the screen share and end the call, see what happens.  
SUCCESS.  
they called back and the music kept playing while I thanked them for the help.  Screen share shuts off the music, but with that shut off, the music plays fine through Sonos speakers and the Apple Music App.  
it’s played several songs now without incidents of buffering.  
I do hope Sonos & Apple get together and figure a way to get those platforms to cooperate, but for now,I’m will not be using the Sonos App.  

​@Warminup 

What Apple Suppot didn’t tell you was that playing through the Apple app to Sonos was using Apple Airplay. Nothing new as Sonos has been capable of utilizing Airplay for years. FYI, the latest version is Airplay2 vs Airplay (Gen 1).

Also, Airplay 2 still requires a stable network as it piggybacks on your home WiFi.

As far as I’m aware, the ‘server’ that the Apple Music is generated from is different for the Apple Music app on your Apple device as the one that Sonos is told to connect to. There’s also extra bandwidth involved, as your Apple device is now receiving the music, and broadcasting it to your Sonos via AirPlay 2. Rather than Sonos grabbing the data directly from the Sonos servers…so one extra ‘hop’ locally, but you do get the benefit (if you like it) of using Apple’s interface for music playback. 

When a SONOS player mutes for a while, then continues later in the same track, this usually indicates local or remote network interference. When a track is started, a buffer is built. If there is a momentary network lag, music is pulled from the buffer until the network issue passes. Network issues usually last for milliseconds. If multiple, longer network issues occur and the buffer becomes exhausted, the unit will mute. At this point the unit will make a judgement. If the network issue seems to be a short transient, the player will mute and wait for the network issue to resolve, then try again. But this can be similar to a car caught in a traffic jam that seems to be clearing any second, but then there is another jam, and another … . You should be using another route, but this one is almost OK and keeps fooling you. The net result is that you are not making any significant progress.

SONOS phone support should be able to help you diagnose network issues. Submit a diagnostic immediately after experiencing one of these events and keep the diagnostic number in your notes (don’t post it here). Network issues leave tracks in the diagnostics.

Thanks for this.  
buzz, when the music stops in Sonos, it randomly jumps to a different track.  It’s impossible to predict when this will happen or what track it will skip to.  
I may try a diagnostic again if I get issues with Apple direct.  For now, I’ll just go that direction.  
 

airgetlam, 

to play direct from Apple, I launch iTunes from my phone or iPad, select the speakers I want active, and select a playlist.  Then play.  I can leave the house with my device and when I return it’s still playing.  I don’t think the phone or iPad are ‘hosting’ the show, it’s somehow hosted online.  

I think your iOS device is ‘hosting’ the show (if there’s more than one data set). But it could be the Apple server, depends on what the stream consists of. 

But what I was saying is that by using AirPlay 2, there’s a data stream coming from Apple to your iOS device, and then your iOS device is sending the data to your Sonos device. That’s two local streams (use of bandwidth on your local WiFi). When you’re using Sonos (via the controller), it tells your speaker where to get the data. So only the Sonos is streaming, and your controller isn’t. So there’s one stream on your WiFi, not two. Your iOS device is no longer ‘part’ of the stream. 

My son will be here this weekend.  I’ll have him read through this string of questions and replies.  For now, I found what I consider a workaround and intend to use it.  

Can you publish the work around here?

My guess, if Amazon Music and Apple Music via AirPlay are working fine, but the Sonos Apple Music Service is dropping packets, is the Sonos Apple Music Service is using more bandwidth than the network(s) are capable of. There have been several posts in the past of users artificially restricting bandwidth on their network(s) to force Sonos Apple Music service ABR to use a lower bit rate.