Hi. When you use the Sonos app you are using the Sonos system. When you use Airplay you are using Apple's technology.. There is no such thing as "Sonos Airplay".

Hey Sloop,

I get that, but Airplay is a connectivity system offered by some products and not others, right? My TCL TV doesn’t offer Airplay, so I had to buy Apple TV in order to connect it to my Sonos speakers. I use Apple devices and I bought Sonos speakers because they connect through Airplay. That’s kinda the reason for buying them. They promise that connection.

As of right now, all the Sonos speakers in my house have dropped off Airplay again, even though they were all connected an hour ago, they are still connected to the app on my phone, and everything else is working fine. If that’s not a Sonos / Airplay issue then I must be a monkey’s uncle.

Anyway, thanks for replying. I’m desperate for help here...

I can always use my Sonos speakers simply by unplugging them every few hours, reconnecting them, and then using them for a little while before they disconnect from Airplay again and I have to unplug and reconnect. If that’s the standard of service Sonos is offering, I’m not sure it’s worth the money. Frankly, it’s a ball-ache.

I got exactly the same issue when Airplay functionality ceases not long after a reboot and frankly I’ve had a gut full of it. I’m getting rid of it and getting a new HomePod when they are released. This has been a problem for years and there is plenty of evidence online on this forum and many other places that it is a widescale issue, and it has nothing to do with my network stack - I am a network engineer by trade. It’s a buggy Bonjour mDNS software issue on the Sonos that’s the problem. I have about 6 other airplay devices and no issues with any of them. Not all Apple devices either I have Samsung TVs as well that behave with no issues on Airplay 2. I expect sonos fanboys will respond with some snarky comment like they have since this issue was first brought to the attention of the community 5 years ago. 

Samos and Scotty,

I have only had my system a month or 2 and am completly frutrated by seeminly random performance. Yesterday i woke up, opened Apple Music, selected a station, pressed play, and hit Airplay and selected my One in my bedroom.  Worked great.  Today, same process for me, but Sonos could not connect to any of my 5 devices.  Just now hours later its like it never went away, it just works. Anytroubleshooter know how hard it is to find and fix random or intermittent issues.  

I’ve been wanting this system for a long long time and now…….Dream come true or nighmare?  

Mate I gave up in the end. Sold the sonos one and bought a second gen HomePod. Couldn’t be happier - the HomePod ticked a lot of boxes for me:

1. Support as a home automation hub including Matter/Thread radio
2. rock solid Airplay performance. Not a single dropout.
3. siri voice - not as good as Alexa but better support for my home automation setup
4. no Alexa or Google spyware. I trust Apple more on privacy (and pay for that privilege)
5. Temperature sensor built in.
6. Answer calls from iPhone, send messages using voice. 
7. better overall support for the apple ecosystem (as expected really)
8. sound quality on par with the sonos one.

The sonos one would suit people outside the apple ecosystem but I got sick to death of the airplay 2 dropouts and it ended up being a deal breaker.

Since the lot of you (except @John B) have had your fill with Airplay and Sonos. I might suggest you check your iOS devices for an update and that of the Sonos app. Also, make sure your WifI isn’t at fault as Airplay uses it for non-apple devices. Oh...didn’t you know that the reason Airplay works so well with another Apple device (like a HomePod) is because it is a peer-to peer connection? But, wait I’ve wasted my time telling you this...because you’ve either gotten rid of your Sonos or placing it in moth balls. Oh well….

You did waste your time because as I mentioned a couple of comments ago the issue is clearly a bug in the Bonjour/mDNS stack as implemented in the sonos products. Airplay uses mDNS to discover the IP address information of Airplay capable devices. It’s nothing more then a multicast discovery message so unless there is firewalling at play or you use some weird corporate wifi gear like Aruba then there is no other reason the sonos should stop responding to mDNS Bonjour multicast - which it is clearly doing after a period of time of operating normally.

I have used open source implementations of Airplay on raspberry pi’s that are more reliable than the sonos. And no, iOS updates don’t fix the problem.

Source - I am a network engineer and full stack software engineer who knows how to use mDNS discovery and Wireshark… ‍♂️

Same thing happening to me. Driving me up the wall.

I am very frustrated with this issue. I paid such a premium for the soundbar (Beam Gen 2), sub (mini) and 2 speakers (One SL) to have a seamless streaming experience. Yet, it keeps dropping from the Airplay and starts playing again after a few minutes. I have many other devices that work flawlessly in the same room. I can share my mac screen on my samsung tv via airplay without any problem. I am seriously thinking about selling those speaker. Sonos are you considering any update soon or you will keep ignoring it until it kills all your reputation?

PS: I have MacOS 13.4 on Apple M1 Max.

Best thing you can do to get this looked into is to submit a diagnostic and contact Sonos Support (not these user to user forums) so they can start building a case for finding and fixing the glitch.

Forum reports just don’t provide the folks at Sonos with all the needed details.