Airplay connection sometimes unavailable

  • 24 April 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 29 views

Hi all,

Hope to get some help with an issue we have been having for some time. We operate a yoga studio and have Sonos equipment throughout. Our teachers bring their own devices with their own music so we’re dealing with multiple makes/models and streaming services. Some staff use the Sonos Controller app, others do not.

In one of our studios we have two Play:1 devices (wifi) and a Play:5 (gen 2) device (ethernet). Sometimes we are not able to connect to the speakers via Airplay on an Apple device. I get the “cannot connect” error. This seems to affect mostly the hard-wired Play:5. What I found is that if I can connect one of the speakers, usually one of the Play:1 models, then I can group the speakers via the controller app on my PC and the speakers will immediately work. It’s almost like the controller has a ‘lock’ on the speakers and is refusing the AirPlay connection, even when no music is playing and the previous user has left the building. 

So even though I have a work-around, I’d like to understand what's happening so I can provide guidance to our (not always tech-savvy) staff.

 

PS: forgot to mention the problem seems to pop up in particular when the previous user used the “Line-in” source. Not always the case though….

 

Thanks,

Arno


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1 reply

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @azegerman 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

First off, the Play:1s do not support AirPlay - do you perhaps have Sonos Ones?

I would not suspect Line-In to cause any problems, but if teachers using AirPlay just walk away with their Apple device at the end of their lesson, rather than closing the AirPlay connection on that device, I could see this causing problems - especially if the next teacher is in straight after them. So, the first thing I recommend is asking them to close AirPlay sessions when they finish.

The router can also cause problems - assuming it’s not an enterprise-level device, I recommend you switch it off for 30 seconds and switch back on. You may want to repeat this every couple of months.

Lastly, I recommend that you group Sonos rooms in the app prior to playback - using AirPlay to “group” the speakers may be resulting in addition work for the system and reducing that may help matters.