Does Sonos One (gen2) really work with Macbook (pro)?

  • 1 June 2019
  • 7 replies
  • 1691 views

My problem with Sonos One gen 2 is connection (Airplay) between my Macbook Pro and the Sonos drops if inactivity occurs. For ex, play video on YouTube, or iTune. Pause it for a while 15s, 20s or longer. Depend on how long I pause, when resume, audio only resumes after 30s, 60s or more, or never. Have to switch back and forth to let connection established again. If there is no inactivity, I may be to play it a whole day; rain or shine, no problem.

I had chance to have phone support, as suggested regarding to support ref. number 00810969. But, they could not solve the problem.

I dig the google a little more. Found this on google.https:// https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/speakers-cutting-out-after-airplay-2-update-6809429 Looks familiar? I might be wrong, but it seems that Sonos' never addressed the issue completely.

Honestly, I like how Sonos sounds, so returning it is my last resort.

Is there anyone out there got the issue like me?

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7 replies

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Sounds to me like your MacBook Pro is dropping its network connection when it goes to low power. Have you checked those settings. If you set your MacBook to stay on all the time when plugged in power … does it ever drop then?
Indeed, there are power settings in the Mac's settings area that should help avoid this kind of thing.
Thanks for chiming in.

First of all, I was still actively working on the mac. Secondly, my mac was plugged in all the times. So it went low power might not be the case.

For more info, I tried have both Macbook and Sonos using wired ethernet cables. Still doesn't help.

I have sent multiple diagnostic reports to Sonos, but they couldn't figure the problem.

So, I'm curious if the unit is actually defective? If it's the case, Sonos should have found the issue on multiple reports, right, right?
1) Power settings don't only affect the Mac when it's not plugged in. Those settings can be set for when it is also plugged in. I used to have my hard drive sleep when it wasn't in use, even though my Mac was plugged in all the time. When I started using Sonos, I had to change that setting. If you take a look, you'll see that at the top of the settings area for power, you can choose both on battery, and plugged in.

2) No, a diagnostic can't show everything. From what I can tell based on what I see here in the forums, it can show a lot, but certainly if there's a hardware fault of some kind, there's no guaranty it would show up in a diagnostic. For instance, if you were to stick an ice pick through the speaker grill, and rip the speaker itself, that would never show up in a diagnostic. Diagnostics are useful for things that can be seen, but they aren't able to see everything.
@Airgetlam Bruce, thanks for your response. Is that Energy Saver the Power settings you're talking about? What settings you can select that guarantee connection to Sonos One not dropping? Be noted that I stated I was actively using my macbook, and giving up a connection within 15sec-30sec is something about power saving I've never heard of.

Btw, I think you don't really know what a diagnostic report may obtain. Connection failure and speaker grill are two different things. Even if you did break your grill like that, I would still have a way to find out. Remotely. Of course.
Oh for more info, Sonos support did Teamviewer to my Mac and checked it. Still not found anything.
Unfortunately, while I use AirPlay 2 almost daily, I just don't know as much about it as I do about how the Sonos works. Unless otherwise indicated (like baseball games using TuneIn premium), I always use Sonos' software, which was the original design for the Sonos speakers. And when I absolutely have to have my Mac push to the Sonos (rather than my iPad, which is more mobile), I tend to use a line-in connection on a PLAY:5.

But the settings I've been talking about are indeed the Settings>Energy Saver settings. Both the Battery and Power Adapter "tabs" should be checked. When I used to run my Sonos library from my Mac, for the Battery tab, I would set Computer Sleep to never, uncheck Put hard disks to sleep when possible, and uncheck Enable Power Nap while on battery power. For the Power Adapter tab, I would have Computer sleep on never, uncheck Put hard disks to sleep when possible, check wake for Wi-Fi network access, and check Enable Power Nap while plugged in to a power adapter.

The problem with most of that is that it's designed to make sure that the Sonos, when reaching out to the computer's hard drive, can reach what it needs to. It really doesn't address the data in the other direction. What you're doing is instead of telling the Sonos to "pull" data, as it was designed to do, you're telling the Mac to "push" data. So in effect, Sonos is really out of the equation, except as a radio receiver. So any issues your having are much more likely (but not completely!) to be either on the Mac, or your LAN. The Sonos really isn't doing anything in this process, in comparison to what it normally is doing.

Not sure how a piece of software could determine a puncture in a speaker cone. Problems with electrical components, or software errors, but physical issues would be substantially more challenging. But you're certainly correct, I don't actually know what is in a Sonos diagnostic.