I have had a Sonos system since 2019. Started with two One SL speakers and a bridge to connect a Denon receiver and Polk Audio speakers. Over the years I’ve abandoned the bridge because it was neither reliable or easy to use. I’ve added two more One SL’s, a Move, a Move 2, a One, and a Play, so now 8 speakers.
I stream music off Apple Music. In the past that was reliable and enjoyable. A couple years ago Sonos updated their App and I went through several months of buffering issues. Eventually, after several hours with phone support, we connected an Ethernet cable to one SL speaker and things sorted out.
About a month ago, my system decided buffering was preferable to playing music. Sonos Tech support said delete the Ethernet cable and reboot speakers and mesh network. I did, the buffering persisted. Deco support said their X55 system supports 2.4 and 5 GHz broadband. They walked me through setting up a network that is only on 2.4 GHz and connecting all the Sonos speakers to that. I had to add my iPhone to that network so I could control the Sonos system. The buffering persisted. Currently it cannot play one song without buffering and I am ready to trash all these useless speakers.
I have a Deco X55 3 node mesh system that supplies my internet. I stream all my television through various services, YouTube TV, Disney, Paramount+, and several others, occasionally simultaneously on two Smart TVs.
The issue has to be with Sonos.
I have tried deleting and including the Ethernet cable, powering down all 8 speakers and all three mesh nodes, bringing up the mesh system and verifying it is working properly, then starting the speakers several times. Nothing works.
Is there a way to find out if Sonos recently updated?
Does anyone know a solution to this issue?
buffering issue
Best answer by buzz
When a track terminates early and the.player attempts another track, this is an indication of a more severe communication issue.
When you start play using a SONOS controller, the player will work directly with the APPLE server. This is why you can remove your phone from the area and play continues. You could actually uninstall the controller and music will continue. When using AirPlay the phone is fetching data from APPLE then relaying wirelessly directly to the player, second by second. This can circumvent problems with your network accessing the APPLE server or the players. Issues will leave tracks in the diagnostic.
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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.
When a track terminates early and the.player attempts another track, this is an indication of a more severe communication issue.
When you start play using a SONOS controller, the player will work directly with the APPLE server. This is why you can remove your phone from the area and play continues. You could actually uninstall the controller and music will continue. When using AirPlay the phone is fetching data from APPLE then relaying wirelessly directly to the player, second by second. This can circumvent problems with your network accessing the APPLE server or the players. Issues will leave tracks in the diagnostic.
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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.
+18Can 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.
Can you publish the work around here?
I am a Boomer who ran my own business for 27 years, then my employees bought me out. I never had to deal with tech, so I’m pretty limited on expertise there.
my work around is to go to Apple Music and select the Sonos speakers inside Apple Music. I did that and things play fine. However. I was wrong in saying I can take my iPhone out of range of my WiFi and the system will continue playing. I have a phone and iPad that share my Apple ID. Leaving the WiFi with the phone, but leaving the iPad in the WiFi means the iPad takes over selecting songs. That results in eventual dropping of the music stream too. Why I don’t know, and it can be well over an hour before it drops. Once it drops it will not recover until I manually start it again.
I do have songs in my playlists that Apple Music once had in their library but has stopped offering. It is possible one of them gets chosen but is missing and that stops the stream. An example is John Lithgow and Bebe Newurth (sp?) singing ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’. I think a good rendition of the song, but since ‘me too’ it cannot be found digitally.
+18You are using Apple AirPlay, that uses a connection via your phone. I did not know another iOS device keeps the AirPlay connection up after your phone has left the building though.
Go to this site:
https://www.discogs.com/shop/item/2722197679
You can find a used disc copy of NBC Celebrity Christmas with John Lithgow and Bebe Newuth singing Baby It’s Cold Outside. You can then burn it as a playlist to Apple Music.
Thanks again. I looked up that site for the CD of that song, guess what, I don’t have a CD player any more!
buzz,
is the ‘controller’ you’re referring to the Sonos App? if not, is it hardware or software?
the Apple Music playlists I use are downloaded on my tablet and phone, so, I assume, there is no link to Apple Music when I play Apple Music from am IOS device to Sonos speakers through the Apple Music app. Right? Maybe I didn’t detail that well to you all.
When I played Amazon Music I accessed to app through the Sonos App and was indeed streaming with no buffering.
I have a Denon Receiver that can link my old Polk Audio system to Apple Music through WiFi. I discovered it can be added as a speaker to the Sonos speakers through the Apple Music App. That lets me move a Sonos speakers through elsewhere in the house or outside and expand my system. The Denon piece does not appear available through the Sonos app.
I hope to have time today to run this past Sonos phone support. I will run the Sonos app, access Apple Music, wait for a skip, and run a diagnostic, then call in. We’ll see what happens then,
thanks again everyone.
Thanks again. I looked up that site for the CD of that song, guess what, I don’t have a CD player any more!
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Ha Ha…you don’t need a stand alone CD player. You need a computer with disc burner and appropriate software to create the playlist (which can be the one song or entire disc) for your Apple music.
buzz,
is the ‘controller’ you’re referring to the Sonos App? if not, is it hardware or software?
Yes, it’s the SONOS App.
i think that you should work with SONOS phone support because they have access to your system setup data and diagnostic logs that track communication issues. You can save time by submitting a diagnostic immediately after one of these events. Log the diagnostic number privately, don’t post it here.
+2Given that all your other streaming devices are working fine, I wouldn’t immediately blame bandwidth. In my experience, Sonos and mesh networks can be a tricky combination—especially with multiple nodes. I’d try wiring a single Sonos speaker directly to the main Deco node (not a satellite), disable any old SonosNet remnants, and check whether the speakers are hopping between mesh nodes. The symptoms sound a lot like network topology or multicast issues rather than an Apple Music problem.
Given that all your other streaming devices are working fine, I wouldn’t immediately blame bandwidth. In my experience, Sonos and mesh networks can be a tricky combination—especially with multiple nodes. I’d try wiring a single Sonos speaker directly to the main Deco node (not a satellite), disable any old SonosNet remnants, and check whether the speakers are hopping between mesh nodes. The symptoms sound a lot like network topology or multicast issues rather than an Apple Music problem.
Agree 100%. And said the same thing 10 days ago.
I have been playing music on Sonos speakers through the Apple Music App for a couple weeks. Today (6/6) I decided to try to play Apple Music through the Sonos app.
It’s been playing flawlessly for several hours today. I haven’t done anything different than I had going when the buffering issue started.
today my Sonos app says I am on
Build 85.01.2-release+20260510.b68c3cac6
On 5/22, when I had the buffering going on, the firmware was 85.00.31 updated 5/22.
Glad that you are able to enjoy AppleMusic.
My AppleMusic has not buffered prior to the app update or the one before that or before that that I can remember. Can’t say that it has never buffered but the occurrence is too limited to discuss for any relevance.
The app can’t cause buffering. It’s just a remote to your system. I’ve started streams and deleted the App and music stream has not stopped.
Buffering is a result of local network interference, lack of bandwidth for streaming other than simple stereo or server issues originating at the source.
Full disclosure there can be issues between the App and the Apple API integration. However, those issues in the past have been resolved without an app update. Apple and Sonos typically work together to determine what has broken on Apple’s side with its API.
Finally, Apple Music servers are more demanding than Spotify, Pandora, Tidal and Amazon Music to name a few. It becomes more apparent when streaming Sonos speaker groups which can tax a network.
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