Song Not Encoded Correctly

  • 26 March 2016
  • 87 replies
  • 37198 views

Good evening. I've had my Sonos Play:1 for a few weeks now and just started having issues with songs skipping completely. The error log reads 'song not encoded correctly.' I'm not entirely sure what this means, considering all of the other songs on the album play without issue. Is it a connection issue? Like I said, I've only had it for a few weeks, but this is the first time I've had a problem. Thank you!

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87 replies

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After last Sonos upgrade I am getting intermittent "not encoded correctly" from amazon albums that previously played perfectly. Please don't make some stuff up about this being my problem or information packet loss (implying the problem is my connectivity). This is just another of many disgusting arrogant technerds problems with the sonos system. Fix it !!! please.

BTW, to you newbies or disgusted oldies, I find that a good pair of Lenovo computer speakers for about $100 sounds 98% as good as a $400 pair of Sonos, and can play anything anywhere that your computer can broadcast. I am a classically trained pianist, not some dufus who doesnt have sensitivity to sound quality. There are great classical performances on Youtube for which a $200 TV soundbar is perfectly adequate.
(see Bernstein conduct Bruckner's ninth, or collections of Sibelius tone poems.).

I really do like sonos sound quality, but they desperately need quality control over their engineers..the quality
control at sonos is hapless..and the controller app is disgusting (dark grey on black slidebars, no file system, no bluetooth capability .... etc etc_
a simple 3rd party app I use on Linux is so much better)
I no longer recommend sonos to friends.
Userlevel 7
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Confirmation #: 5608326

Hi TheB1NG,

There's another wireless network in close range that is running on the same channel as your home network. This is causing your Sonos system to lose connection to your network and also causes the error you've described. Please change your home network's wireless channel from 1 to 11 and see if that helps.
Userlevel 5
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Hi @TC1,

I’m glad its working again! 

I can’t take credit for the fix, sometimes a good round of turning it all off and turning it back on again does the trick. 

Please respond in this post if it goes sideways again and I’ll be happy continue looking into this!

Hello @perosb,

I hope you are doing well and thank you for getting your system into the ideal set up for testing. 

It does look like the skipping issue you have been experiencing matches the issue that we are now working on based on the data you have now sent us.. 

Please keep an eye and an ear out here for updates regarding this problem. 

I would like to double check that this playback skipping is only happening when you are using YouTube Music and that everything else behaves itself, correct? 

Sounds great @Jean C. !

Yes, I’ve been playing Google Play Music all night instead without a glitch. (without sonosnet/wired)

 

Hello out there??? Sonos? Anyone?  I’m having this “song not encoded correctly” issue when trying to play Sirius XM.  Had this problem months ago and then the problem went away.  NOW IT’S BACK!!    

BTW my connectivity is great with plenty of bandwidth.

Any help out there? Thanks.

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Hi @rbrown thank you for that. 

I’ve been over on the other thread that you linked to regarding playback issues and this looks like an issue that we are already working to fix as we mentioned. 

Hopefully there will be an update on this soon. Keeping the Wi-Fi operational on each player will help these two devices work together better and can effect playback overall. 

This issue seems limited to one particular service and we are working to resolve it.  

Userlevel 5
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Glad that we could help out @rbrown. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with other questions about this or any other issues you might experience. We’re all happy to help out. 

Userlevel 1
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This is happening to me a lot with YouTube Music playing on Sonos.  Sometimes a song works, and sometimes it doesn’t, so its definitely nothing with the encoding of the song since its intermittent with the same track.  Very frustrating.

Userlevel 1
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Hi @rbrown From where I’m sitting the issue could very well be the switch. If the switch is managed, please check the settings to make sure that it is compatible with Sonos. 

Can you re-enable the Wi-Fi interface on your Beam and then detach the Ethernet cable and run a test with your players directly on Wi-Fi rather than a partially wired set-up?

How far would you say the Kitchen player is from the Router and could it be wired as a part of any further tests if necessary?

The switch is a Mikrotik 941-2nD, I’ll check tomorrow to ensure its compatible.

I can certainly enable WIFI and disconnect the ethernet yes, I’ll do that and report back.

The kitchen player is 4m from the router line of sight.  I can wire it for tests yes. 

I’ll report back tomorrow with the Beam on WIFI, and check out the switch settings.

I am having the same problem, but this happens only a few of the tracks, and the same ones every time, any suggestions
All the sudden I'm getting the "not encoded correctly" on every song, but it plays the song anyway.
Userlevel 5
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Hi @rbrown thank you for the update and the additional information. 

If you have your Sonos players on the the WiFi network then you will want to keep your access points on the same channel.

If you have a player wired to the network then you will want to keep the Wi-Fi enabled on that player so that the the two speakers can communicate through direct routing to each other.

The fewer jumps the data has to make between the router and the speaker, the cleaner the playback will be in general.

I’ll keep an eye out for an update on your playback and any additional diagnostic reports from your system.    

Userlevel 5
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I’m working on it @TC1, I just got here. :) 

I’m working on it @TC1, I just got here. :) 

You got it, and I apologize for pushing!  I hope you’re well and safe...

Userlevel 7
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With a multi AP network or one with a lot of new features you give up a lot by dialing it back to be compatible with Sonos gear. I’ve been much happier with wiring at least one Sonos device to my main LAN and moving from Standard (using your WiFi) mode to Boost (using the SonosNet wireless) mode.

That lets me exploit my WiFi system’s full capabilities with no Sonos restrictions. I do only use two channels for my APs though, keeping the best quality one open for my SonosNet connectioins.

A similar behavior stated on a single radio station that I am listening to. all other stations are fine.
Userlevel 5
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Hi there @rbrown . Are you still getting the "track not encoded correctly" error when playing back audio from YouTube Music? If so, please submit a diagnostic report from your Sonos system ( Settings > Help&Tips > Submit Diagnostic ) Please include the confirmation number in a response so that I can take a look at what is going on here. 

Thank you for your patience @perosb and for trying the different configurations with your wired set-up.

Is it possible to keep your Beam wired into your network? To resolve the playback issues it’s important that we don’t have one of the bonded surround Play:1s acting as the first-wired player. In these playback tests, were there any changes in the music service playback?

Still happening @Jean C. .

1968691738 210745265 445259253

Userlevel 5
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Hello @perosb,

I hope you are doing well and thank you for getting your system into the ideal set up for testing. 

It does look like the skipping issue you have been experiencing matches the issue that we are now working on based on the data you have now sent us.. 

Please keep an eye and an ear out here for updates regarding this problem. 

I would like to double check that this playback skipping is only happening when you are using YouTube Music and that everything else behaves itself, correct? 

Userlevel 5
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Hello @Aaron B. Binkley,

Are the tracks that are giving you errors consistently from the same source, e.g. yourMusic Library or Amazon Music?

Do you edit the playlists by removing the problematic tracks before adding them to the playlist again?  

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The errors are from all sources. Sometimes I remove the songs before adding them again, and sometimes I just re-add them to the end of the list. It doesn’t seem to matter either way. When there is an error, it just skips to the next song until it hits one that it can play.

Userlevel 5
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Thank you for confirming that for me, @perosb . 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions, concerns or just to bounce ideas around. 

I hope we have this sorted out soon!

Userlevel 5
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Hello @quadrrem,

If this issue is only occurring when you use YouTube Music and a full network reboot does not resolve this than it fits the description of a know issue that we are working to resolve. 

Please keep an eye out here for updates on this playback issue.  

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@Aaron B. Binkley

Are you getting the specific “not encoded correctly” error or just a general playback error?

Have you rebooted your router and all of your Sonos players since submitting the most recent diagnostic report?

If you have not, I would suggest unplugging your Netgear and your ISP provided modem/router from power for about 1 minute each.

Once your network is back online, please unplug each of your Sonos products from power for about 10 seconds each and then power them back on.

Once your system is back online, please test playback on the Play: 1 currently wired to your network alone. If possible test individual sources before testing the playlists. 

If you are still getting an error code, please try to get a screen capture of message itself and then follow up with a new diagnostic report. 

Include the results in your reply and hopefully we can find something definitive.    

I have the same issue, but only with YouTube Music. All other services run without issues (Google Play Music, TuneIn Radio, PocketCasts).
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