Airplay from macOS can not connect to Era 100 from

I can AirPlay audio from my MacBook Pro M3 to a stereo pair of Era 100s and a Sub Mini.

Are you Airplay’ing to the group? So far the only workaround I have found is if I group my Era 100 with my Port, and then Airplay specifically to the Port.

The stereo pair of Era 100s and Sub Mini are not grouped. They are all in one zone or room.

​@gimball  I’m having the exact same issue. Cannot airplay from macbook to era 100, but can airplay to other sonos products, and can airplay from other apple products to the era 100.

markus

Try this solution:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/s/gOAoknSTTC

Thanks ​@GuitarSuperstar but that wouldn’t explain why we’re able to airplay from other devices. I have no issues airplaying to Era 100 from iphone, ipad etc. Only MacOS. And I can airplay from MacOS to my other SONOS devices (non Era 100s). 

I just want to say that you’re not alone. I’m also experiencing issues using AirPlay from my Macs to any of my Era 100s. Simply put, they don’t work. The Macs detect the Era 100s, but the connection fails 100% of the time, always showing the error: “Could not connect to ‘Room.’”

My Sonos system includes 2 Beams, 2 Sub Minis, 1 AMP connected to 2 in-ceiling speakers, and 3 Era 100s. While I’ve had glitches in the past, my system more or less worked—until now.

What does work:

    •    AirPlay between any of my iOS devices and any Sonos speaker, including the Era 100s.
    •    AirPlay between any of my Apple TVs (Apple Music) and any Sonos speaker.
    •    AirPlay between any of my Macs and my Sonos Beams.
    •    AirPlay between any of my Macs and my Era 100s, but only when they are set up as surrounds for one of my Beams.
    •    The Sonos iOS app with any Sonos speaker.
    •    The Sonos Mac app with any Sonos speaker, including the Era 100s.
    •    AirPlay between any of my Apple TVs, iOS devices, and Macs to any of my HomePod Minis.

Essentially, every combination works—except for what I actually want to do: AirPlay from my Mac (using Apple Music) to my standalone Sonos Era 100s. They just don’t work.

I have a myriad of devices on my network, including home automation devices, multiple operating systems, various set-top boxes, speakers, cameras, and more. Everything works flawlessly—except for the Sonos Era 100s. I regret buying them.

As for Sonos, I’ll get whatever use I can out of my current system, but I won’t be investing any more in the Sonos ecosystem. For me, it has crossed the threshold of being more trouble than it’s worth.

If it’s any comfort, Sonos escalated my case to a higher support level after extensive troubleshooting. Waiting to hear back from them. More than likely we will be waiting for a firmware update from Sonos. 

If it is an issue with all Era 100s, then how am I able to use AirPlay with my Era 100s from my MacBook?

I never claimed it was all Era 100s and all Macs, but it is all of my Era 100s and Macs. It appears to work for some users while not working for others. For me, it never works. I suppose that’s just the nature of software bugs—the cause could be any combination of macOS version, Mac hardware, running apps, Sonos firmware version, and so on.

Maybe one day, I’ll get a Sonos or Mac software update, and they’ll miraculously start working. Until then, I’m stuck with over $700 worth of Sonos paperweights. I have no intention of adding to my Sonos paperweight collection. Instead, I’ll be trying some different AirPlay speakers.

A short update for others considering Sonos ecosystem: the L2 support agent cancelled the appointment (after being late already) and now I am stuck waiting to figure out if another appointment will go through this year.

I’m sorry to hear about the support cancellation. Please keep us updated.

I decided to experiment with another solution since my three Era 100s are currently completely inoperative with Mac AirPlay. I purchased a Denon Home 150NV, and it AirPlays perfectly from my Macs, as do my Sonos Beams and HomePod minis. There appears to be a Mac-to-Sonos Era 100 AirPlay issue.

Just checking in to see if there is any news. I’ve connected my Era 100s to my MacBook using bluetooth and it works well though audio quality is crap for short periods once in a while. 

​@gimball ​@PascalDog : what kind of Macs have you tested this on? I’m on a Macbook Pro 14-inch Nov 2023. 

What kind of Macbook do you have, ​@GuitarSuperstar ?

MacBook Pro M3

L2 support will continue troubleshooting after a long but unsuccessful session.

I have this issue across 2 M2 MacBooks and an older Intel MacBook Pro. Bluetooth, direct play via Spotify and the Sonos app from the MacBooks work fine. It’s specifically Airplay from macOS to the Era 100.

Thanks for the updates. Just to be clear, I’m also on a Macbook Pro M3. 

I have two MacBook Air M2s running Sequoia 15.3. AirPlay between the Macs and my Era 100s does not work. However, the Macs AirPlay without issue to my HomePod minis and Denon Home 150 NV.

Still no follow-up or communication.

Last meeting with L2 was 3 weeks ago.

Issue persists even after the latest updates (both Sonos and macOS).

At this point I am considering returning the Era 100 because it’s pretty useless to me if I can’t AirPlay from my laptops.

This is, by the way, functionally the same thing. Your Sub Mini is just carrying on the Airplay for your Era. Try putting the Era 100 as a completely standalone speaker and Airplaying from your Mac.

You are incorrect the sub mini is not carrying the airplay signal for the Era 100’s. The sub mini is bonded to the Era 100 stereo pair from which it receives its instructions not vice-versa. Besides you can’t setup any Sonos sub as a standalone speaker.

​@gimball 

Below are my specifications for my Mac’s and the test procedure I used to try and reproduce your issue; which I could not. I ran the tests on each of my Mac’s. Airplay was successful in each test scenario. There’s obviously a network, software or version issue that is preventing you from using AirPlay to an individual Era 100 from your Mac. 

 I ruled out that the WIFI is turned off for the speaker as you say you can reach it via Airplay from your other device. I might ask if you have any Range Extenders on your network and/or if WIFI is disabled on your Mac?

Range Extenders can be problematic and yes they may affect one device and not another.  Also if you have a Mesh WiFi make sure that the satellites do not have DHCP rights to create/assign IP addresses.

Sonos does have the ability to do a screen share session wherein they can see your setup in real time. If you haven’t been offered such by Sonos; I would request it. 

Apple Music ver. 1.5.2.56

MacOS Sequoia 15.2

• Mac Studio_M1
• MacBook Pro 16 Inch_M2
• MacBook Pro 14 Inch_M3
• Mac Mini_M4

I removed Era 100’s as surrounds to a bedroom Sonos system which resulted in Era 100’s reverting to separate rooms (Sony 2 and Sony 3)

Using the Airplay speaker selection icon in Apple Music:

1. Airplay to each individual Era 100 as a stand-alone room by checking the individual box
2. Airplay to Era 100 simultaneously by checking the room box for each
3. Stopped Airplay to one Era 100 by unchecking the room box and leaving the other room box checked
4. Reversed #3 above

All tests successful 👍

Good luck to get your issue resolved.

Edit: You may need to contact Apple support for assistance as Airplay is their product and you may have a corrupted MacOS. Apple Advisors can also screen share in real time. One more possibility the Network Interface Card (NIC) could be failing on your Mac

I have already had an L2 session with Sonos who pulled a lot of logs. They seemed to be in agreement that this is a speaker issue and would have to investigate further.

But now I finally had the time to sit down and test this more extensively, and I am more convinced it’s some kind of issue with the network stack of the Era 100 controlling Airplay. This is based on the system and network logs from my laptop.

The Era is discoverable without issue in macOS. And initialization of Airplay works:

IP 192.168.1.200.56380 > 192.168.1.70.7000: Flags [S], seq 2697771256, win 65535
IP 192.168.1.70.7000 > 192.168.1.200.56380: Flags [S.], seq 3849195894, ack 2697771257

 Then, the speaker actively rejects PTP traffic:

IP 192.168.1.200.320 > 192.168.1.70.320: PTPv2, v1 compat : yes, msg type : announce msg
IP 192.168.1.70 > 192.168.1.200: ICMP 192.168.1.70 udp port 320 unreachable

IP 192.168.1.200.319 > 192.168.1.70.319: PTPv2, v1 compat : yes, msg type : sync msg
IP 192.168.1.70 > 192.168.1.200: ICMP 192.168.1.70 udp port 319 unreachable

Connection attempts cause flag changes in mDNS advertisements:

# Initial state
"flags=0xc04" "model=Era 100" "fv=p20.82.3-60160"

# After failed connection
"flags=0x404" "model=Era 100" "fv=p20.82.3-60160"

Given that:

• Airplay from this laptop to other Airplay 2 Sonos speakers (Port, Beam gen. 2) works;
• Spotify direct play (very similar) from this laptop to Era 100 works;
• The exact issue persists across networks (I set up the speaker and laptop on an entirely new hotspot network);
• The issue persists across Mac laptops with different OS versions (2x M2 laptops and an older Intel laptop).

It’s highly unlikely that this is anything other than some kind of issue with the speaker. Seeing as you allegedly do not have any issues, and others including myself have the exact same issue, I can only guess that some batch of Era 100s have this botched stack.

For fun, here's some output from Console showing this behavior:

# Initial discovery and setup works
[0x6276] Prefer Infra for connection
[0x6276] Connect over Infra with "Era" ( preferredConnection = Infra, isInfraAvailable = 1, isAWDLAvailable = 0, isNANAvailable = 0 )

# AirPlay setup (port 7000) succeeds
Connect success: CID 0x80C10000, Peer NULL

# PTP rejection occurs
error: httpconnection_asyncConnectionConnected:1408: got error -6722/0xFFFFE5BE kTimeoutErr

# Speaker indicates timing synchronization failed
error: apsession_ensureStartedInternalStage1StartTransaction:2729: got error -6722/0xFFFFE5BE kTimeoutErr

# Speaker actively rejects PTP
TimeSyncClockAddUDPv4EndToEndPortAndGetIdentity(0x7949c9c80, <private>, 192.168.1.70, ...)

Here’s hoping I can get this message to the L2 team / whoever from Sonos that cares.

Unfortunately, my other post is being queued for review by mods (I don’t know why), but my network logs shows that the speaker itself is rejecting the Airplay connection. So it has little to do with my Mac or network setup. I also tested this across different Macs and an entirely separate network.

Out of curiosity, I just tested MacOS M4 mini, Apple Music Airplay is working to Era-100.

Windows 11 PC (Intel), Apple Music Airplay to Era-100 doesn’t work.

IIRC Airplay can use multiple methods to establish a connection, including Bluetooth and Direct WiFi, bypassing the LAN?

Checking here, Amp, Port, Arc, Beam, Five, Move, One, Ray are listed, but Era-100 is not listed, maybe its not fully certified for Apple AirPlay yet?

https://www.apple.com/uk/home-app/accessories/#section-speakers

https://www.apple.com/uk/home-app/accessories/#section-receivers