I've done EVERYTHING possible. NO MATTER WHAT Sonos Connect keeps interrupting playback


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OK.

 

I posted a while back about this but out of desperation I tried a few things including:

 

Purchasing a 2nd CONNECT that is S2 compatible, AND

Moving the music library drive to a different host, AND

Downloading and installing S2 to all hosts, and yes EVEN…

Copying the .music library to a NEW standalone drive; I have tried that on the regular host as well as another host PC on the network.

Oh, I even rebuilt two operating systems thinking that maybe there were some files that had been corrupted. That’s right, I actually completely rebuilt the O.S. on two machines and reinstalled all software that I had previously installed on them. ALL of this in an attempt to make these two pieces of electronic excrement work reliably.

 

NOTE: This DOES NOT happen with streaming services. However, I have a broad record / CD collection that is in-house, and I like having them available rather than a possibly somewhat compressed stream version. The fact that this doesn’t happen with streaming does not, in any way, make this less annoying.

 

No matter what I do... either player - when playing alone, together, or different files (and this is ALL from my music library) will cease playing, there will be 2 - 10 seconds of silence, and then playback will continue. I have tried everything...checking firewall, turning off VPN, all manner of system checks over, and over, and over.

 

It is SUCH a downer when I have people over, because it kills the vibe. Also, as an audio professional it reflects poorly upon me. I have to admit I was a fool to purchase the first CONNECT. I should have

 

I can’t believe that I thought switching to S2 would fix the issue. I feel like a chump. I should have just purchased a real, reliable playback device; all of the hours (yes, hours) would have been avoided with a reliable system.

 

For all the geeks out there, yes, I reset the gateway, I reset the switches, I verified all switches were Connect-compatible.

 

Do you know what’s REALLY AWFUL? I had the interruptions before running S1 (with an S!-only CONNECT and an S2-compatible CONNECT) but they were actually less frequent.

 

That’s right...by spending more money on Sonos products (a used S2-compatible CONNECT) and the time to set up the system once more things are now actually WORSE.

 

The ONLY thing that seems to be consistent? Once my girlfriend downloaded S2 on her Android phone the issues seemed to start again; for a while I heard none of the interruptions. Maybe it’s coincidence (almost certainly).

 

Oh, and before anyone asks whether I have tried running wired instead of wireless, that’s how they have been set up since day one; I’ve never used wifi to get the music to the CONNECT units - always an Ethernet cable.

 

I’m DONE with Sonos. I know there are some much more expensive units out there. I don’t think I will sell these - why should some other person have to deal with crap hardware? I may just take all of the units (three of them now, two S2 “compatible” and one S1 only) to the recycling station.

 

I have been bounced around by Sonos support so many times, and each time it’s the same raft of pull-down menu questions to ask - EVEN AFTER I EXPLAIN THAT I HAVE DONE ALL OF THAT UP FRONT. All this time wasted on something that should bring happiness.

 

As an engineer nothing frustrates me more than unreliable equipment.

 

What an enormous disappointment.

 


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36 replies

Did you ever eliminate the GS108 switch to see if it was playing any part in your issue?

Also I would at least try your locally stored music library on a gigabit Ethernet-linked NAS too, (even if you have to borrow one to try from a colleague, if necessary) at least that will eliminate other network issues around your USB connected storage.

That's a sad story. It must have been very frustrating. One thing that doesn't surprise me is that moving from S1 to S2 made no difference. Given the nature of the problem there is no reason to think that would help.

If streaming lossy music works OK then there are really only two things that could cause the issues;

1. Getting the music from local drive to router.

2. Network not coping with larger lossless files.

(I should mention that my Sonos plays lossless FLAC streamed or local faultlessly,  so the equipment is up to the task.)

Do you experience the issues when playing through the Connect only or just when grouped?

If you provide more information on what you have connected to what then someone on here might be able to help.

PS. What happens if you stream lossless? Or play local mp3s?

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The entire library is .flac; I keep the 320 kbps mp3 library separate (a copy of the .flac, just more portable as it were for other devices and also other PCs (ironically still running windows media player which CONTINUES to work)). The other PCs are not pointed at the flac library,

 

I don’t have my mp3 and flac files in the same library; the entire point of buying the CONNECT was native .flac support.

 

This “hiccup” happens when:

  1. I am playing only one of the two CONNECT,
  2. I am playing both of them (grouped), but I almost never do this as the main unit feeds a whole-house analog balanced line distribution system. The 2nd CONNECT is only for the Subterranean Playground.

I have tried having the music (albeit a smaller version of the library) on a local internal drive. Same issue.

This happens with albums and playlists. I almost never play only one song so I can’t really address that use case. ALSO...playlist length does not matter - whether 30, 258, or 900 songs, the hiccup will occur.

The hiccup does not seem to be a function of the file size either; something this happens with short songs but other times it happens with long songs. Absolutely no consistency.

I have checked my main Audio processor (to which the whole house CONNECT is connected) when the fault happens to see if maybe the TOSLINK-out was hiccuping. The audio processor never loses sync, so IF there is a hardware fault it’s in THAT Sonos CONNECT - perhaps it’s losing blocks of data somehow. That said, the output is always silent when this happens - never Gaussian noise etc, just silence.

The ONLY thing left that I can think of would be to take the analog outs into the processor (the output of the processor feeds the whole house analog distribution system). I suppose it’s possible that there’s a flaky DAC but that said, I don’t know if the S/PDIF is served from the same digital location (i.e. pre DAC) as the TOSLINK. So yeah, that’s the only thing left - take the analog signal and see if the hiccuping stops. Ironically I just wanted to use the digital out and let the audio processor handle everything. HOWEVER this happens on both CONNECT units, and on the 2nd unit I am NOT using a digital out, so it seems once more not related to the DAC etc.

Again, I’ve fully reset the gateway more than once. I’ve checked every LAN connection to every switch. I’ve powered-down the switches, and yes, even tried a USB to CAT6 connector on the odd chance there are issues with the NIC on the main PC. That, too made no difference. All PCs and CONNECT units are on the same gigabit switch so there’s no real heavy lifting for one to see the other. I’ve rebuilt OSs and run all manner of diagnostics.

Ironically, the PCs around the house can all see and play flawlessly the mp3 versions via media player.

I’m sick of all of this. I head that NAD makes a beautiful but pricey unit. The problem is that I need two, and they are WAY expensive.

So, so, so frustrating and made all the worse by the pull down menu support personnel in chat etc. I’ll never ask them for help again. Even after submitting diagnostics they still couldn’t tell me anything apart from what’s in the pull down menu help tree.

 

 

 

 

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Did you ever eliminate the GS108 switch to see if it was playing any part in your issue?

Also I would at least try your locally stored music library on a gigabit Ethernet-linked NAS too, (even if you have to borrow one to try from a colleague, if necessary) at least that will eliminate other network issues around your USB connected storage.

Yes. Switches were compliant. I also swapped a different mfgr gigabit switch. Made no difference.

Am I correct that you have two SONOS CONNECT’s? Have you physically swapped the units?

We cannot rule out hardware fault.

An orderly Mute typically occurs when there is a communication fault that starves a unit’s data feed. It’s difficult to determine exactly when data starvation started because there is a data cache of several seconds. When the cache is empty, the unit will Mute.

Have you checked the Network Matrix to verify that the unit is wired to the network?

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Am I correct that you have two SONOS CONNECT’s? Have you physically swapped the units?

We cannot rule out hardware fault.

An orderly Mute typically occurs when there is a communication fault that starves a unit’s data feed. It’s difficult to determine exactly when data starvation started because there is a data cache of several seconds. When the cache is empty, the unit will Mute.

Have you checked the Network Matrix to verify that the unit is wired to the network?

Yes, I have two SONOS CONNECT. Prior to last week I had an S1-compatible and an S2-compatible running on the S1 application. However, since I replaced the S1-compatible unit with a new (used) S2-compatible unit I upgraded to the S2 app. I had to.

Each of the two CONNECT units has its own CAT6E connection; each connection is physically and electrically OK; I do not run WiFi (though I have enabled it while troubleshooting just to see if that would make a difference. It didn’t and it still doesn’t..

Each unit halts playback / continues - that is this problem happens with both CONNECT units, whether running independent streams, whether when only one is running, and when both are grouped (which I almost never do). That said, prior to me REPLACING the downstairs unit (S1-compliant unit only) I never once heard THAT unit have the issue. Ironically after buying a replacement S2-compatible CONNECT for the downstairs unit now THAT unit also has the issue. I cannot recall swapping the units when the S1-compatible unit was on the network.

I have even checked the network cables within the house on the odd chance that there was a wire or two loose in a CAT6E termination. No luck - all network lines are OK (I verified these with a DMM that allows pin-to-pin integrity of a cable to be checked along with a CAT6E cable long enough to get to both ends).

The first set of audio players that I owned was the Turtle Beach Audiotron. Clunky interface and a limit of 32,768 songs is what caused me to buy the CONNECT, and for a long while I was quite happy as this problem didn’t start until a year or 18 months ago. That said...THEY ALWAYS WORKED - I never had playback skip or halt. Not once. And...I had five of them around the house and they were all access a .wav library rather than /flac because there was no codec support for flac in those units. I think they were early 2000’s vintage. Again I would like to point out that despite their clunky interface THEY. ALWAYS. JUST. WORKED.

One thing that I DID love about the Audiotron was that you could assign the units a static I.P. (which I did) as well as dial-in how much buffering was desired to make sure hiccups didn’t happen etc. Thus I could always ping the IPs as I had assigned them in blocks of .5 and blow the start of the gateway’s DHCP address span. There were a LOT of user-accessible settings (which made it tough for non computer types to deal with it). I had really hoped that the CONNECT would have offered the end user the same kind of control, but I also understand that Sonos went for a much broader market and put what seems to be about 99% of such settings outside the access of the user.

 

I just want reliability. This feels to me like having a really nice car with the “fun” feature of having the engine simply shut off for anywhere from two to ten seconds before restarting itself. Can you imagine how you would feel driving such a car?

 

As a man once said “Just give me something that works. Consistently”

Since the older unit is S1 only, you only have one CONNECT in your system.

Am I correct that you have two SONOS CONNECT’s? Have you physically swapped the units?

We cannot rule out hardware fault.

An orderly Mute typically occurs when there is a communication fault that starves a unit’s data feed. It’s difficult to determine exactly when data starvation started because there is a data cache of several seconds. When the cache is empty, the unit will Mute.

Have you checked the Network Matrix to verify that the unit is wired to the network?

Yes, I have two SONOS CONNECT. Prior to last week I had an S1-compatible and an S2-compatible running on the S1 application. However, since I replaced the S1-compatible unit with a new (used) S2-compatible unit I upgraded to the S2 app. I had to.

 

So, you have three CONNECT’s. One is S1 only and two are now S2? While you are fussing with this I recommend keeping the S1 unit powered down.

Do you experience any issues with only one CONNECT powered? We have not ruled out any hardware issues. A defective CONNECT can create some “turbulence” on the network.

Submit some diagnostic confirmations here. Factory Reset destroys all diagnostic data for the reset unit. Reboot destroys most of the data. Fine diagnostic data begins to scroll out of view at about 20 minutes. SONOS staff has access to the diagnostics.

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Since the older unit is S1 only, you only have one CONNECT in your system.

Am I correct that you have two SONOS CONNECT’s? Have you physically swapped the units?

We cannot rule out hardware fault.

An orderly Mute typically occurs when there is a communication fault that starves a unit’s data feed. It’s difficult to determine exactly when data starvation started because there is a data cache of several seconds. When the cache is empty, the unit will Mute.

Have you checked the Network Matrix to verify that the unit is wired to the network?

Yes, I have two SONOS CONNECT. Prior to last week I had an S1-compatible and an S2-compatible running on the S1 application. However, since I replaced the S1-compatible unit with a new (used) S2-compatible unit I upgraded to the S2 app. I had to.

 

So, you have three CONNECT’s. One is S1 only and two are now S2? While you are fussing with this I recommend keeping the S1 unit powered down.

Do you experience any issues with only one CONNECT powered? We have not ruled out any hardware issues. A defective CONNECT can create some “turbulence” on the network.

Submit some diagnostic confirmations here. Factory Reset destroys all diagnostic data for the reset unit. Reboot destroys most of the data. Fine diagnostic data begins to scroll out of view at about 20 minutes. SONOS staff has access to the diagnostics.

Since the older unit is S1 only, you only have one CONNECT in your system.

Am I correct that you have two SONOS CONNECT’s? Have you physically swapped the units?

We cannot rule out hardware fault.

An orderly Mute typically occurs when there is a communication fault that starves a unit’s data feed. It’s difficult to determine exactly when data starvation started because there is a data cache of several seconds. When the cache is empty, the unit will Mute.

Have you checked the Network Matrix to verify that the unit is wired to the network?

Yes, I have two SONOS CONNECT. Prior to last week I had an S1-compatible and an S2-compatible running on the S1 application. However, since I replaced the S1-compatible unit with a new (used) S2-compatible unit I upgraded to the S2 app. I had to.

 

So, you have three CONNECT’s. One is S1 only and two are now S2? While you are fussing with this I recommend keeping the S1 unit powered down.

Do you experience any issues with only one CONNECT powered? We have not ruled out any hardware issues. A defective CONNECT can create some “turbulence” on the network.

Submit some diagnostic confirmations here. Factory Reset destroys all diagnostic data for the reset unit. Reboot destroys most of the data. Fine diagnostic data begins to scroll out of view at about 20 minutes. SONOS staff has access to the diagnostics.

 

No. Not three connect units; the S1 can’t “play nice” on the S2 application and was replaced with a new (used) CONNECT that is S2 compatible. The Old S1-compatible now just sits on a shelf. I don’t know if I will sell it on or merely recycle it. So while there may be three CONNECT units in my domicile only the two S2-compatible variants are connected to the network. The upstairs unit was the first unit that I bought.

Again, PRIOR to swapping the old S1 variant it was the only one of the two units that did NOT have this issue - always the newer-hardware S2-compatible CONNECT upstairs. That is, my original CONNECT was/is S2-compatible (but I wasn’t running S2 until about a week ago) and was the one that would always hiccup while the old S1-compatible one never hiccuped, again both running S1. Now the new (used) S2-compatible unit also hiccups.

Ironic because when dealing with Sonos support one of the first things suggested was to upgrade to S2, and like I said, I did all of this in good faith, so much as even finding another unit to buy (which now feels like throwing good money after bad) that I knew to be S2-compatible...and now things are WORSE.

I am not sure about any issues with only one of the two connected; Having only one unit is a colossal drag because it is quite often that I play something entirely different in the subterranean playground than what’s playing on the whole house CONNECT. However, these two units (running under S1) were fine for years without the hiccups - there was a time when both units could run at the same time without hiccups (sync’d or not) as well as running separate files in each unit, at the same time or having only one operating and there were no hiccups.

IF it happens that running only the whole house unit “solves” the problem then I guess I’ll just stop using the 2nd unit and rely on my laptop pointed at my .mp3 library via windows media player. That’s a sad state of affairs - to make one product work you have to stop using the other.

When you say submit some diagnostics here how do you mean? Is it possible to simply submit diagnostics in another fashion? That is, can I create a diagnostics file and drag and drop here in this discussion? I thought that Sonos frowned upon submitting diagnostics unless first asked by someone from Sonos to do so.

Submit diagnostics and post the confirmation number here.

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Submit diagnostics and post the confirmation number here.

120604493

I just submitted them. However, the units have not been played much (if at all) today. I can always wait until the next fault. generate that diagnostic report, and then post THAT number here, right?

 

Anyway, thanks for the help.

 

Yes, please. Much if not all of that diagnostic data is for the previous ten to fifteen minutes, it’s thought. You’d be better off catching the error data within 10 minutes of the issue occurrence.

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Submit diagnostics and post the confirmation number here.

OK. It JUST did it.

As an aside the music JUST halted and restarted about seven seconds later (on the Whole Lotta House Connect - the only unit playing music when this happened). The Subterranean Playground Connect has two songs in its queue but the unit was not playing them when this happened

NOTE: the halted / resumed music fault occurred when my girlfriend attempted a web search on her Samsung Galaxy S9; she’s running S2 on her phone and had loaded “Tumbleweed Connection” from the S2 application on her phone from my .flac library, so to be clear NOT a streaming service.

Anyway, the confirmation number is: 1560385625

When playing from the NAS the players fetch music directly from the NAS. The controllers can be shut down or uninstalled and music play will continue.

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When playing from the NAS the players fetch music directly from the NAS. The controllers can be shut down or uninstalled and music play will continue.

I don’t run a NAS. I have a flac volume (and a duplicate connect to another host) that’s connected to a host PC and likewise with the other .flac volume.

I have tried using a) the same volume on different hosts, and b) unique volumes on unique hosts to see if that would stop the temporary halt of playback.

That is, I have tried moving the main .flac volume to a 2nd host (Dell M6500 with 20 GB RAM) host (that’s on the same GS108 switch), clearing the library pointer in S2 and letting S2 re-learn the library attached to a different host. That attempt did not stop the halting / resuming playback.

Likewise, I have tried using the 1:1 copy of the .flac volume connected to a 2nd host (Dell M6500 with 20 GB RAM). This did not fix the issue.

Also, I have tried using the 1:1 copy of the .flac library on the main host (Dell T7500 with 40 GB RAM) and having S2 re-learn the library. This also has not solved the problem.

I’ve reset the gateway numerous times, reset all switches, and have put the two hosts and the two Connect units on the same switch (it was like this pretty much from the start).

I have rebuilt two of the three O.S. on the machines that are typically in use but I’ve not done the T7500 because a) reinstalling the O.S. on the other machines didn’t fix the problem and I’ve so much that I would have to reload on the T7500 that rebuilding the O.S. and doing all the re-installations is going to take considerable time.

I’ve got various anti-virus, I routinely scan for malware etc, and the S2 has been configured to “play nice” with the windows firewall on all machines. I’ve used several variants of malware and spyware removal, tried to clean the registry in the T7500 and so on; that this doesn’t work properly is not for a lack of trying on my part.

I’ve gone into power settings to make sure things stay at max performance etc.

I just don’t know what to do at this point. I’ve no idea what’s in the diagnostics file (but I would like to see) so that’s a shot in the dark for me because it’s nothing I can see and say “OK, what’s changed from a “clean” diagnostic report”. Too bad that there isn’t a means by which the diagnostic file could be written to a local machine and then viewed by the user.

So frustrating.

It almost feels like if S1 / S2 were never installed on her phone and I ran them strictly from a host or a tablet the problem would not exist. I have no hard data to support this BUT it seems to me that after I upgraded the 2nd CONNECT and upgraded to S2 it worked without incident for about 10 days. Then when my girlfriend asked why her phone was pushing her to install S2 I explained why, and she did so. As I recall the temporary halt issue started again shortly after she updated her phone to S2.

Frustrating.

Sorry I started reading but I didn't understand much. Your problems have nothing to do with the app. I suggest you get a NAS and join the rest of us playing our music libraries without a hitch.

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Sorry I started reading but I didn't understand much. Your problems have nothing to do with the app. I suggest you get a NAS and join the rest of us playing our music libraries without a hitch.

You say it’s not related to the application, but is this your opinion or is it a matter of fact? Do you know for a fact that the issue is not due to the application? Personally I think it’s either a fault common to both S1 and S2 OR a fault in BOTH units that causes this? The network connections work fine for everything else in the house and as I mentioned in a prior post I even checked all of my LAN connections for integrity. No problems found.

I never really stated that S1 / S2 were causing the issue, rather I have been reporting that which I have tried and what the results were. I have no idea if the problem was / is within the Connect units OR a function of the app or something else (and I’ve poured way more work into trying to fix this than I should have to).

The product is designed to work with NAS or any discoverable hard drive, which was one of the reasons that I purchased it as I didn’t have a NAS nor did I sense the immediate need for one especially since it was designed to see music on otehr valid shares - it was even marketed as such. The mapped drive has worked for years for me. Years. If the intent was never to allow shared drives’ contents to be mapped and reliably accessed then why do it in the first place? Why not make it NAS only?

Other network players out there support NAS but also shared drives; maybe their code is simply more reliable than that of Sonos.

You see, I’ve already spent money on a 2nd Connect (used) that’s S2-compatible and now I should go out and buy a NAS and populate it with new drives on the odd chance that this might fix things? Is the NAS a guaranteed fix or is this another “try this and see if it works” kind of thing? I mean if someone from Sonos proper were to say “the only way for this to work without ANY incidents is to use a NAS with these specified compatible drives” that would be one thing, but frankly not hearing that directly from Sonos makes me wonder. Honestly were I go to through the time and expense to set up a NAS only to discover that the problem persists that might be just enough to take the Connect units out to the driveway and chock them behind the rear wheels of my car and then put the car into reverse.

If buying a NAS and drives doesn’t fix the issue are the good people at Sonos going to reimburse me for an expensive purchase that I didn’t really need to make? I doubt it.

Again, it worked for years, two units - one S2 compatible and one not (running under S1) pointed to a host on the same switch with a drive attached to it. Is it too much to ask that a product be stable?

If I add it up and especially my time I’m really at the point of diminishing returns. It’s especially frustrating not getting any “Aha!” messages from Sonos based on submitted diagnostics. Instead I sense a sea of shoulder shrugs as to what it might possibly be.

@immersifi,

Just to mention here that it won’t be the Sonos App, or the mobile device if you are playing music from a library share on your PC, as the App is not a ‘player’ it’s just a ‘remote’ for your speakers.. once the music starts you could actually close the App and switch off the mobile device altogether. 

The issue therefore lies with/between the library share (source volume) on the PC & the actual Sonos Player and of course the wired network in-between those two. 

Admittedly I initially thought it might have been the Netgear GS108 switch, as the earlier model is shown on the Sonos ‘incompatible hardware’ list, but as you’ve ruled that out and the wired connection, I would perhaps now look closer at the method you are using to host the library and perhaps try a NAS box, that’s if you can get a mate, colleague, or other family member, to maybe lend you theirs for a day or two, to test.. I would also bypass the ‘switch’ too (just for good measure).

Using an unrelated music playing App installed on one computer, try playing music stored on the other computer.

Personally, I never wanted my computer to be involved in playing music. I avoided attempting to play music with consumer grade kit because it was under powered and unreliable. If the computer was tasked with playing music, it would slow. Consumer operating systems are not very good at real time tasks. Also, I tend to get into software development and if the computer goes down the music would stop. In 2005 SONOS introduced a system that did not require any real time involvement with my computer and I got on board. I have not experienced the chronic issues that you are struggling with. There is some issue unique to your setup.

When in diagnostic mode if one assumes that the issue must be [...] or cannot be [...] one is likely to be blindsided. I’m suspicious of both your network and your computers. And, we haven’t ruled out hardware failure.

Have you investigated the PING times to your computers and SONOS players? Do they vary from time to time?

@immersifi,
The issue with any PC hosting the local music library is often all the scheduled background tasks for OS updates, file search-indexes, disk checking read/writes, defragmentation, power saving features, screen savers, antivirus, malware scanning, background installs, firewalls etc; to name but a few things that could be causing this type of intermittent issue.

So a wired NAS box has to be worth a try here, IMHO, just to eliminate those sort of issues that can clearly come with such a library-hosting device.

I certainly choose to use NAS boxes here for my local SMB library shares and often have music playing all day with no interruptions. 

Anyhow it’s just a suggestion for you to maybe think about.

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@immersifi,
The issue with any PC hosting the local music library is often all the scheduled background tasks for OS updates, file search-indexes, disk checking read/writes, defragmentation, power saving features, screen savers, antivirus, malware scanning, background installs, firewalls etc; to name but a few things that could be causing this type of intermittent issue.

So a wired NAS box has to be worth a try here, IMHO, just to eliminate those sort of issues that can clearly come with such a library-hosting device.

I certainly choose to use NAS boxes here for my local SMB library shares and often have music playing all day with no interruptions. 

Anyhow it’s just a suggestion for you to maybe think about.

Again, I have tried moving the library volume to another host. I have managed updates to be at very, very late hours of the morning.

I can’t see buying a NAS just to see if it works; this already feels a lot like good money after bad. After all, as I have stated many times, I have rebuilt O.S. on the machines so they are squeaky-clean save for the T7500, but as I mentioned, setting up the share on a different machine with a brand new and updates O.S. doesn’t fix the problem either..

Again, I ask the question...if it worked all this time (years) why does it not work now?

 

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Using an unrelated music playing App installed on one computer, try playing music stored on the other computer.

Personally, I never wanted my computer to be involved in playing music. I avoided attempting to play music with consumer grade kit because it was under powered and unreliable. If the computer was tasked with playing music, it would slow. Consumer operating systems are not very good at real time tasks. Also, I tend to get into software development and if the computer goes down the music would stop. In 2005 SONOS introduced a system that did not require any real time involvement with my computer and I got on board. I have not experienced the chronic issues that you are struggling with. There is some issue unique to your setup.

When in diagnostic mode if one assumes that the issue must be [...] or cannot be [...] one is likely to be blindsided. I’m suspicious of both your network and your computers. And, we haven’t ruled out hardware failure.

Have you investigated the PING times to your computers and SONOS players? Do they vary from time to time?

Ping times are normal.

I can play the files just fine from another non Sonos app across the network (windows media player). There’s never a glitch.

As far as computers being slow I’m not sure why you say that. I have several machines all of which have DAW software on them which I use to mix and render music / recordings; these tasks are FAR more CUP and memory intensive than a simple file stream, especially audio which is a fraction of the size of a video stream.

I’ve checked the anti-virus / malware setting and they are set for very early morning updates rather than when the machine(s) is / are likely to be in use. Again, this HAD worked for years, with two players, with the same library on the same host serving files to two connect units running under S1. I’ve checked the RAM on all machines, rebuilt the O.S. on two of three.

I’ve done everything that I can think of but if I am going to buy a NAS and drives only to find out that it doesn’t fix the issue I’m not going to be happy, but I guess the bright side is that should it come to that at least the NAS can be used with a more modern device that is better engineered. I would be willing to buy the NAS and try it if I could take everything back should it not work.

I find it odd...Clunky old windows media player...32-bit at that...can play files without any such issues whether the music being accessed is internal, local, or network. No issues whatsoever. That requires no NAS.

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@immersifi,

Just to mention here that it won’t be the Sonos App, or the mobile device if you are playing music from a library share on your PC, as the App is not a ‘player’ it’s just a ‘remote’ for your speakers.. once the music starts you could actually close the App and switch off the mobile device altogether. 

The issue therefore lies with/between the library share (source volume) on the PC & the actual Sonos Player and of course the wired network in-between those two. 

Admittedly I initially thought it might have been the Netgear GS108 switch, as the earlier model is shown on the Sonos ‘incompatible hardware’ list, but as you’ve ruled that out and the wired connection, I would perhaps now look closer at the method you are using to host the library and perhaps try a NAS box, that’s if you can get a mate, colleague, or other family member, to maybe lend you theirs for a day or two, to test.. I would also bypass the ‘switch’ too (just for good measure).

I never assumed that the app was the “player”. What I was driving at was that something might be happening when the control of the connect units gets handed off to a mobile (with Android O.S.) device - or some other app on said mobile device causes the S2 app on said mobile device to go wonky.  I say that because after the S2 update things did work OK for about ten days, until my girlfriend loaded the S2 app on her phone (becauseS1 was no longer viable). Shortly after she installed S2 and started using it the system did the whole interruption thing. However, this could most certainly be coincidence.

That said, I have seen it happen at least three times where (either with S1 or S2 installed on her phone) she picked up her phone, or attempted a web search that the interruption happened. It’s never happened with my phone. Maybe there’s something in the way the app handles requests via wifi (i.e. Android devices) that an issue occurs. I have tried staying logged on and logged out (of S1 and later, S2), but that seems to make no difference.

Also, I have no Sonos speakers; the Connect units merely act as playback units that feed either the whole-house analog distribution system or a separate audio system downstairs. That’s their sole function. Once the signal is back in the analog domain it goes about its way to other amplifiers / self-amplified speakers. In other words the I/O “overhead” for the Connects is minimal - no wireless network being used, no Sonos speakers to which the connect units speak. There are no “bridge” units and so on - strictly wired-only.

Re the switches...I even replaced one of the GS108’s with a Netgear gigabit switch and the malady persists. The switch that I replaced (more money down the drain) was the one that had both main hosts and both Connect units connected to it.

The gateway has four ports; one is tied to the DVR leaving three open; to make the Connect units work w.o switches would mean having all other wired gear hanging off of one port on the gateway and rewiring all of the switches. I suppose that’s worth trying (I suppose) but really, should I have to? I mean...nothing has changed in the network all these years. Nothing. The Connect units have always been wired through switches and they worked for years.

I suppose that I could try moving the Connect units to different switches; I would have thought that having them all on the same switch would be the optimal solution, but perhaps not. The otehr devices on said switch are not used for heavy I/O stuff like on-line gaming and such; the biggest CPU tasks they do are processing audio files in a DAW (reaper and CuBase) but almost never am I running those DAW packages while I am playing music to the house.

So exasperating. It worked for years...everything was just fine.

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Submit diagnostics and post the confirmation number here.

OK. It just did it again on The Subterranean Playground unit.

Playing a playlist, in random. Whole Lotta House Sonos was inactive.

Anyway, here’s more grist for the mill:diagnostics confirmation number is: 998872726

BTW just checked both hosts for corrupt windows files. Both are squeaky clean. This time I was running The Subterranean Playground Connect via S2 on the M6500 that’s downstairs.

I think this makes the third diagnostics session that I have submitted immediately after the fault occurred. Is there any insight from Sonos yet?

Is there any commonality between the previously submitted two diagnostics report and this one?

I’d REALLY like to know if the diagnostics are at all useful in any way, or if I’m merely doing this with the idea that someone is checking.

 

@immersifi,
To get your diagnostic report feedback, you can in fact speak/chat online with Sonos Support Staff via this link here below and refer them to thread here (and your earlier thread) so they can see the complete picture…

https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

HTH

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@immersifi,
To get your diagnostic report feedback, you can in fact speak/chat online with Sonos Support Staff via this link here below and refer them to thread here (and your earlier thread) so they can see the complete picture…

https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

HTH

Yeah, I chatted with them via chat window and have a case number so that I can call later once my phone gets some charge. I did this once before a few months ago as I recall; nothing positive came from it. I’m going to pour myself a drink before I call. This time in chat I gave them all three submission numbers so that they could reference them as well as the URL for this thread. How I HOPE that I don’t get “Pull-Down Menu Pete” who suggest that I do everything that I have already done and documented in the thread.

I had hoped to be able to use this (CONNECT) with client files (recordings), that is, have them audition their finished work in the critical listening area of The Subterranean Playground but I can’t risk it; if a client’s work starts and stops it will kill the mood not to mention making me look like an idiot. I’ll just have to be at the laptop and run either VLC or Windows Media Player (32-bit no less) when I have clients in to hear their work. It’s 1995 again!