Hi! Wondering if anyone else has encountered this issue, which has only just cropped up for me.
By way of background, we have a total of 14 x Sonos speakers in our home, which for the past 18+ months have been running just fine. They are a mix of Gen 1 and Gen 2, and include 1 x Sub-Mini and 1 x Sub (Gen 3).
Connection is via 3 x hardwired Ubiquiti U6-Mesh access points running off a UDM Pro / 24 port Switch Pro. Speakers are all on the 2.4GHz network, locked to their nearest access point. The broadcast channels are auto-optimised nightly by the network to avoid interference, and all speakers have excellent signal strength. Speakers are paired in most rooms, except two rooms which have a single Sonos One. We mostly stream music wirelessly from our iPhones / iPads, using Airplay, and everything has been working without a hitch … until within the last week or so. I note that very recently there has been both a Sonos system update, plus at least one iOS update.
The Problem ...
Suddenly, none of our iOS devices could connect via Airplay to the speaker pair in one of the rooms. iOS just kept reporting “Unable to connect to ...”. We could still connect fine via the Sonos app, which did not indicate any problems. All speakers have the latest firmware update, and running Sonos OS S2 v15.1.1 Bld 71138240.
The last thing I could think of to try was sparked by noticing that the particular room was the only one where both Sonos speakers were Series A100, Hardware Version 1.21.1.8-2.2. All the other rooms with pairs had at least 1 x Series A200 or A201 as one of the pair.
An Interim Solution ...
So … I swapped one of the A100’s with one of the single speakers, which happened to be a Series A201.
Now - everything connects OK again.
I note that Airplay continues to have no problem connecting to a single Series A100 speaker.
Questions / Thoughts …
I’ve looked at the comparison table for Sonos One Gen 1 vs Gen 2 (Sonos One (Gen2/Gen1) and Play:1 Product Comparison Chart | Sonos Community) and seems to me the one distinguishing difference that may be at the root of the problem is that Gen 2 has updated processor and memory.
Could it be that the Gen 1 processor / memory is no longer able, when paired, to keep up with developments in Airplay 2? Which if true, then ‘breaks’ the indication in the table that Gen 1 and Gen 2 are both fully Airplay 2 compatible.
If so, then that gives me the horrors that ongoing changes to iOS / Airplay, and perhaps the Sonos operating system too, may sooner rather than later make my Gen 1 Sonos Ones a liability within my system. And a very expensive proposition to update.
Hopefully someone in the Sonos Team will read this post too, and be able to offer some informed, definitive comment?