Question

Youtube Premium background play does not work while airplaying to the Sonos one


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The title says it all. The music stops as soon as I close the Youtube app. This only happens while airplaying to the Sonos one. If I play the music trough the iPhone speakers, the music continues when I close the Youtube app. I pay for Youtube premium just for this feature and it does not work with Sonos.

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25 replies

Userlevel 5
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Sounds like you may be signed into the wrong account.
Happens to me all the time on my computer.

You could try adding Youtube Music as a music service to Sonos too. No need for Airplay.
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Which wrong account do you mean? I am in my Youtube Premium account on the iPhone. As noted, background music works when I play the music through the speakers of the iPhone, but not when I use airplay to Sonos. Is this a bug in the Sonos airplay, Airplay itself or the Youtube-App?

I also added Youtube Music as a music service to Sonos, but that is utterly useless as I have to manually select each and every song to play on the phone and can't play whole playlists or set up a playlist to play automatically without having to get the phone and open the app every time. I already made a post about this but got no reply so far: https://en.community.sonos.com/music-services-and-sources-228994/play-youtube-likes-playlist-6821380
Prefect,

Are you actually closing the YouTube App by sliding up screen, or just minimising the App to the background?

If you AirPlay music from another App, like Apple Music for example, does the music also stop playing in that case when you close that App?

I think testing those things, will possibly help you to know if this is an issue with the YouTube App or AirPlay on Sonos.

Then to take things a step further, if you have another type of AirPlay device, like an Apple TV, Airport Express, or a HomePod etc; try also Airplaying the YouTube music stream to that too and see what happens.. That may just help to eliminate if this is a Sonos issue or not. I suspect it isn’t, but perhaps try to run those tests and see, that’s if you have any other devices you can use.

I thought personally that a YouTube Music Premium account subscription simply allowed the audio that is playing locally on the device itself to run in the background on that device, rather than having anything to do with the Airplaying to another linked speaker, but you may have to ask Google Support that question?
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OK I tested this extensively.

It is a Sonos problem.

I swipe the YouTube app up to go to the home screen, I don't remove it from memory in the task switcher.
How would you minimize an app on the iPhone? You always slide the app up.

When I use Airplay to stream music and video to my apple TV and close the app the music and even video keeps playing.

If I do the same with the Sonos the music stops.

It is really hard to use that speaker at all. No proper Airplay function, no Youtube playlist support, no function without having the phone with you.
It's probably best to recreate the issue and then submit a diagnostic. Post the number here for support to see or some other mothod of contacting support.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/141?language=en_US


At the very least, they should be able to tell you whether your Sonos One suddenly stopped receiving an airplay signal, or if there was some trigger than caused Sonos One to stop playing even though it was still receiving an airplay signal.
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OK I sent the diagnosis info but I really really doubt that that would help in any way. How would they see that the youtube app can't stream to the sonos in the background in the diagnosis information? That makes no sense.

Who is going to check up on that diagnosis now? 1837945848
OK I tested this extensively.

It is a Sonos problem. [...]

No, it isn't. The benefits of having YT Premium don't apply when YT content is being streamed from a mobile device via Airplay to a third-party sound system like Sonos.
You're correct it's not going to answer that question. However, if the issue is with Sonos as you suspect, it would have to be that the One is still receiving an airplay signal but not playing it from some reason. If the airplay signal stopped, then the issue would have to be with either Apple or Google. You could then address the issue with one of them. Sonos may even be able to report the issue themselves.

Sonos staff read these threads, and typically respond to threads where people have posted diagnostics within a few hours.
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@Smilja:

What you said is wrong.

It does work when I stream to other airplay devices like an apple tv. And it even works when I start the playback again in the control center after I closed the youtube app. So after hitting play there again, youtube premium background streaming works even with the sonos. But that workaround isn't a fix.
@Smilja:

What you said is wrong.

It does work when I stream to other airplay devices like an apple tv. And it even works when I start the playback again in the control center after I closed the youtube app. So after hitting play there again, youtube premium background streaming works even with the sonos. But that workaround isn't a fix.

Yes, that's "Youtube TV", the sound does not get "unhitched" from video. According Google's TOS it's not permitted to seperate audio from video. You'd be better served asking Google Support.


P.S. YouTube Premium supported devices
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That's not my job to do. It's Sonos responsibility that stuff like this works. Or else they should not advertise that the Sonos one has full airplay compatibility if it hasn't the same features as an apple tv.

And why does it work when I hit play in the control center? Then everything works as it should anyways.

I bought the Sonos one to listen to the music I liked on youtube, without having to use my phone to start the playback. Nothing works so far, this speaker is pretty useless so far..
P.S. YouTube Premium supported devices

Offline and background play are only available on the YouTube, YouTube Gaming, YouTube Kids, and YouTube Music mobile apps. Learn more about using YouTube Premium benefits.



Airplay is being carried out on your iOS device, whereby Sonos is only seen as an Airplay target.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208728
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Which wrong account do you mean? I am in my Youtube Premium account on the iPhone. As noted, background music works when I play the music through the speakers of the iPhone, but not when I use airplay to Sonos. Is this a bug in the Sonos airplay, Airplay itself or the Youtube-App?

I also added Youtube Music as a music service to Sonos, but that is utterly useless as I have to manually select each and every song to play on the phone and can't play whole playlists or set up a playlist to play automatically without having to get the phone and open the app every time. I already made a post about this but got no reply so far: https://en.community.sonos.com/music-services-and-sources-228994/play-youtube-likes-playlist-6821380


I didn't try Youtube Music on Sonos yet, but doesn't it allow to play personal playlist or complete cd's from your library (as does Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer) ? That surprises me. But don't get me wrong, I don't know.
But, if it does work, it makes any (inferior) airplay functionality obsolete or at least less important. Right ?

There are some things unclear to me. You always need to open your iPhone to start music,no matter the music source (your ios device or the Youtube music streaming service) ?
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[
Airplay is being carried out on your iOS device, whereby Sonos is only seen as an Airplay target.


That's not an excuse for not working. If I can't use the sonos speaker to play my music over airplay, they should not advertize the speaker as airplay-speaker.
@pjotr12, the TO refers to Youtube the video platform rather than Youtube Music; those are different services.
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@pjotr12. Youtube Music seems to just be a webview loaded into the sonos app. I can only play single tracks or add single tracks to the my sonos list. But I can't play playlists, can't add playlists and can't set up the speaker that it automatically plays the likes-playlist when I hit the play button on the speaker. Nothing works as expected. Even Alexa does not work as good as on the Echo Dot.
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@Smilja So yeah we are still in the same place. It just does not work. And that's annoying. I can't use the sonos speaker as intended like this.
Userlevel 2
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@pjotr12, the TO refers to Youtube the video platform rather than Youtube Music; those are different services.

Are you sure ? It's clear it won't work with Youtube, but the TO mentions Youtube Music :

I also added Youtube Music as a music service to Sonos, but that is utterly useless as I have to manually select each and every song to play on the phone and can't play whole playlists or set up a playlist to play automatically without having to get the phone and open the app every time.
@pjotr12, the TO refers to Youtube the video platform rather than Youtube Music; those are different services.

Are you sure ? It's clear it won't work with Youtube, but the TO mentions Youtube Music :

I also added Youtube Music as a music service to Sonos, but that is utterly useless as I have to manually select each and every song to play on the phone and can't play whole playlists or set up a playlist to play automatically without having to get the phone and open the app every time.

Yes, I am sure.


OK I tested this extensively.

It is a Sonos problem.

I swipe the YouTube app up to go to the home screen, I don't remove it from memory in the task switcher.
How would you minimize an app on the iPhone? You always slide the app up.

When I use Airplay to stream music and video to my apple TV and close the app the music and even video keeps playing.

If I do the same with the Sonos the music stops.


It is really hard to use that speaker at all. No proper Airplay function, no Youtube playlist support, no function without having the phone with you.
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why did you quote me and bolded some text?
why did you quote me and bolded some text?
Because @pjotr12 is / was not sure whether you're referring to Youtube the video platform or to Youtube Music.
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OK so it really does not work. I really expected Sonos to do these things which I find the absolute basic stuff to do for a smart speaker. Play my playlists without the need for the phone and work as a fully working airplay speaker. Nothing works so far.
If I Play Apple Music and 'send' the App to the background using the 'Home' button on the iDevice, my AirPlay stream carries on playing to Sonos Speakers whilst I’m then using a variety of other Apps, including Safari etc.... it’s exactly the same with YouTube Music premium. YouTube Music does not stop AirPlaying to Sonos, when allowed to run in the background, it only stops when I slide up-screen, which on my iDevice closes the App completely.

If you are using an iPhone with no Home Button, you slide part way up screen presumably, and then either select another App or the Home Screen ... don’t slide all the way up screen of hit the 'X' as that simply closes the App.

Anyhow the 'YouTube Music' App is working fine for AirPlay here and it definitely runs and Airplays in the background. I don’t think YouTube video is allowed to do this, because of certain restrictions imposed on them by Apple, where the audio cannot be separated from the video ... you can do this however when streaming to Apple TV, because the video is still shown on a screen, which is the point that Smilja is trying to make here, I believe. If you can’t see the accompanying video, then the audio will apparently stop AirPlaying. At least, that’s how I understand it.

As far as I can see the Sonos implementation of AirPlay is working exactly as described and expected.
In fact jgatie mentions in this thread below that it is the Google Developers 'Terms of Service' that prevents the video and audio from being separated. So presumably if you move a playing video to the background process, the AirPlay stream will simply stop.

https://en.community.sonos.com/music-services-and-sources-228994/playing-youtube-via-sonos-on-android-6816212/index1.html#post16312830

It’s a matter therefore for Google, it appears and absolutely nothing to do with Sonos, as far as I can tell.
I too have the same problem. This seems like something Sonos could test, and confirm what’s going on.