on phone play music

It also affected a company called Bluesound, who ended up doing the same thing, i.e. restricting the ability to play music stored on an iOS device. Possibly there are others, who leveraged the same process.

As near as I can tell, Apple closed the ability for an iOS device to act as a NAS, causing the device to cut connections from outside the OS when the device “sleeps”. Android has not cut off this ability, yet.

Since the Sonos system uses a player program that runs on the speakers, the controller app is merely reporting data changes on the speakers, and not actually “playing” the music itself. So when the screen locks or the device goes to “sleep”, all outside connections are dropped, including the data stream to the speakers. If the player was on the phone as part of iOS, rather than on the speakers, then the connection wouldn’t drop, since it would be purely internal, which is why you can use Apple’s music player to feed your headphones, even when the screen locks or the device goes”sleep”.

What I don’t know is if Apple did this as a power saving thrust, or as a device security concern, or some combination of both.....or for some other reason. Apple hasn’t explained the reasons for this change in any forums that I’ve seen.

thank u bruce for that very clear response.
indeed a sad turn of events. that feature will be
missed by many. m

Indeed, I certainly agree. And doubly so because so many people take the assumption that it is Sonos’ fault. And I assume there was equal backlash at Bluesound, although I don’t frequent their boards.

It is, however, the nature of software, this constant change, as companies try to optimize for their own strategy for success. And the price we pay for having speakers that are controlled by an inboard computer.

At the very least, I am pleased that there are so many other options available, which require a little mental energy to change my habits, but still provide me the opportunity to use my iOS device as a controller. I would have been really sore if Apple had blocked that part as well.

Indeed, I certainly agree. And doubly so because so many people take the assumption that it is Sonos’ fault. And I assume there was equal backlash at Bluesound, although I don’t frequent their boards.


I haven't looked on the Bluesound forums often, but I don't think they have the sales to build up an active forum, an I'm not sure they allow open, potentially negative, discussion the way Sonos does. Overall, I'd say it's a little difficult to tell what Bluesound customers think of the change, at least when using their forums as a resource.

Yeah, I see there are options but...

• At the more elegant end they are costly and require some mental energy & possibly support to make work.
• many of my customers are elderly. they like what they like. they are truly pissed that they have to sign up for ANOTHER service and convert. some of them don't eve use iTunes on a PC. They use the iCloud to backup their phone. They have been buy songs off of the itunes store download them to the phone and play them from their phone. until now...

With that said, I can see why Android OS built-in the ability to stream from the phone- in the background-
even when the phone interface is closed. However, I can't fathom why Apple wouldn't have done the same. I would think there are many other Apps that would need to take advantage of this functionality and stay running when the phone is in stand by. You have said it is so.. just hard to believe.

has development considered using the AirMusic app u can put on your iphone to stream itunes music to any DLNA complaint device?

can sonos be a DLNA target?

i was just streaming my iphone local music thru AirMusic to my receiver without issue.

would this work? if not, why not?