system skips

  • 12 February 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 2143 views

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I have been reading the tropic of music skipping and my system also does its fair share of skipping. Seems like in the last year is when the problem started popping up, most likely after a software update. I have had my speakers over 6 year and never once did the problems like this pop up.
When I look at the feed back, its never a Sonos software problem! (Its either a wifi or electrical interference problem)
My music skips so I did the following
1, Played music only from my music library (iPad and iMac) skips
2, Played music from Pandora skips
3, Played music from Pandora with one speaker five feet from router skips
4, Change speakers and placed the other one five feet from router skips
5, Changed channels on my system skips
6, Changed channel on my wifi skips

More people would be here if they listened and took notice.

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4 replies

So, the key phrases that hit me were "software update" and "skipping".

If you're a tech trainer, then I'd assume that you know how to set up reserved IP addresses for your Sonos speakers. I'd highly recommend doing that, and I think most of your skipping will go away.
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Hi,

I had my fair share of skipping when I first purchased some Sonos speakers because I blindly ignored the fact that Wifi is not reliable. Wifi is restricted in power and range to not disrupt neighbours and this affect Sonos ability to reach far end. Wifi is handy but it is not reliable transport in my mind.

First thing, I tried to wire the most Sonos speakers I could. Each connected sonos will free up frequency for other Sonos speakers that can be only on Wifi. Also wire anything that can be wired, Apple TV, Rokus, Smart TVs, anything nearby a network switch will help other device that must rely on Wifi. Avoid Wifi repeater if you can and try to put Wifi Router at a center place within your environement and not in a far corner. Sonos Play Sub and surround for Playbar run on 5Ghz so they will less impact the speakers in other rooms that run on 2.4Ghz. We must accept 2.4Ghz is crowded with bluetooth devices, Wifi and so much other devices. Another tips is to put space between 2.4Ghz devices, like you laptop sitting at 2 inch of a Sonos Speakers can cause interference, a bluetooth mouse can cause issue or your WiFi router hugging you Apple TV both on Wifi. Have at least 1 feet+ between radio emitters. I also learned that Philips Hue smart lights, which run on ZigBee protocol, is running on 2.4Ghz and sharing the same frequency of Wifi and Sonos Wifi so I had to consider splitting them appart on the Wifi frequency selection. Here is a really interesting article:

https://support.metageek.com/hc/en-us/articles/203845040-ZigBee-and-WiFi-Coexistence

Also make some testing with this nice utility on each speakers, you can reach them globally by connecting to one of them:

http://IpOfOneOfYourSonosSpeaker:1400/support/review

Look under network matrix to see all connection states and port forward interconnection between speakers and most importantly WiFi noise level. Also this screen is really interesting because it will change over time. I live in condos with a lot of neighbourhood and wifi will get heavily affected when me or neigboors usage rise. So you can test fine at midnight because you can't sleep and want to fix you Sonos skipping issue, but problem will come back next day at 18:00 when neighbourhood fire up his huge ASUS Wifi with 14 antenna to do 4K streaming. Some router are also smart enough to scan neighbourhood and change channel periodically to the less crowded, if all routers do this they all compete and switch frequency often. Try locking your router and SonosNet to a fixed 2.4Ghz frequency and there is good chance that other smart router will stop changing frequency too.

I ended up leaving Sonos on channel 1, set my Wifi in center at channel 6 and Philips Hue on channel 23 (which is higher than wifi channel 11). Connect using network as much as I can and never had a skip since 2 years.

Hope I gave some tips 🙂
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ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION SOLVED! - ONE WORKING SOLUTION FOR THIS YEARS-LONG PROBLEM FOR THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE!
After spending more than ample time with Sonos (including a week-long correspondence and an addition 4 hours on the phone for them to do nothing more than scan my network traffic, which I told them wasn’t the issue), I have identified one method, which has worked for me, to finally resolve this issue. It’s a bit of a crawl though Sonos app, but worth it to eliminate the maddening issue during an *imported* playlist (ie: pulled in from iTunes). This has not been tested on desktop (which doesn’t work for me anyway). However found highly successful results on iPad with no requirement to scour through my network, plus/unplug, re-router, blame the wireless throughput, or any of that other garbage).
I have nearly every Sonos component and do not believe the cut-out issue is related to the components. When Sonos is skipping:
1.) Empty the entire queue currently within the Sonos app.
2.) Fully close the Sonos app (don’t minimize, don’t hide. CLOSE it).
3.) Open a browser on your device. Go to any web site and let the page fully load.
4.) Go back to Sonos app> navigate to Browse> On this iPad> Playlists
5.) Click on your Playlist which goes to another screen>> Look for the ellipsis (three dots) at the very far top-right.
6.) Click the ellipsis and choose> Replace Queue.

I have found this solution to work every time, and with no faults.
I’m no expert in app or hardware component development. However, seems to me, this is an issue with the app communicating across the wireless network. Sonos will run decently when other streaming-type services are not enabled/active (ie: YouTube, Netflix, movies, etc), up to and including if they are running on *any* device (ie: mobile, hard wired, TVs, etc). Sonos seems to highjack the wireless route and if it finds it is not the primary holder, will either shut itself down, or start the skipping (doesn’t seem to want to play fair).

As always, variations in devices, models, app versions may not result the same. But for a very easy fix, its worth a try.

Good luck and best, with wishes for Sonos to get on the ball.
NOTE: Have posted this in multiple places across the web. Deserves to be known considering the myriad of issues out there.
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I also I have the problem with music skipping with a pair of play 1's and a Samsung Tablet. Was working fine prior to a simultaneous update to Sonos App and to android OS.

What I have noticed is if I connect the Samsung tablet to power (i.e. charging it) and play music there is no skipping, disconnect it from power (even with 100% charge) and skipping re-occurs.

Obviously this is not a solution but interesting all the same.