macOS Catalina can't connect to Sonos

  • 4 November 2019
  • 9 replies
  • 1773 views

Sonos controller app (10.5) on Catalina (10.15.1) cannot connect to my Sonos system (an “old” play 1 and play 3).

I can do the more options thing, which opens the setup dialog. I can press the pause/volume up combo on the speaker and get it to connect. But after clicking ok, nothing.

Interestingly, the Spotify mac app can still connect and play music on the one of the two sonos speakers.

All very curious.


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9 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +26

Hi georgn, that sounds like there might be a firewall preventing the Sonos app from connecting to your system. Can you check that the Sonos app has permission to access the network through any antivirus or firewall software you’re running?

 

Also, if you have a VPN running on that Mac, make sure you have it disabled when you’re trying to access Sonos, VPNs can get in the way as they try to redirect Sonos to your other network. 

Reasonable guesses but sorry, no firewall (it’s off cause I’m a software dev and it’s super annoying to have to enable access each time I recompile my app) and no VPN.

 

That’s exactly what I was leaning towards as well, since I’m not having any issues on either a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air. Both are connecting just as before the MacOS update.

Most curious.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +26

Those are the most common causes of what you’re describing.

Have you used this Mac with the Sonos app before and had it working fine? Was this before updating to Catalina? If so, than we can isolate it to something on the computer or the computer’s settings, network connection. As opposed to network devices that might be causing trouble.

Do you have a mobile device that’s working fine? Is it connected to the same wireless network that your computer is?

Yes, was working fine before the update to Catalina.

Yes, we (partner and I) use the ios version of the sonos app and they also works fine (our i-devices are old and are running ios 12.4.2).

It is definitely weird.

Is there some place I can upload the log file?

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +26

Is there some place I can upload the log file?

You might be able to submit a diagnostic depending on the state the controller is in, if you can, just post the number here.

 

Is your Mac on the same wireless broadcast that your phones are using? Sometimes the router could isolate the 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks, though this shouldn’t have come up with an OS update, unless you changed wireless credentials on the Mac.

 

Otherwise, it’s still most likely something running on the Mac, or a setting controlling network security. Check under Settings > Security & Privacy that Sonos is allowed.

Submission number: 1540487643

Yes, everybody is on the same network.

Very embarrassing… I rebooted my modem and when I came back to my computer my sonos app had figured everything out all by itself.

So I did another submission, this time the number is: 1585020436

(in case you’re interested in the before/after).

Some strange interaction between the sonos app and the router’s upnp state?

Let me know if you want more info… but for now, everything seems to be working again.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +26

Thanks for the update! Glad that you’re working again now. The devices use UPnP for most commands and the app would need it for discovery. Hard to say for sure, but I’ll dig through some of those diagnostics to see if anything stands out. Let us know if this comes back or anything else comes up!