"network connection speed insufficient to maintain playback buffer"

[chrisss]

Hi,

I'm afraid that I'm another sufferer with this problem, if I switch to lower bitrate streaming service then it plays OK, but for normal Flac, when it fails it fails completely, as it has again just now and won't play any flac files. Checking on the network matrix each time, signal strength and noise floor are all good. I keep reporting instances to Sonos Support, and latterly to beta support, but in the case of the beta programme, feedback on submitted problems is zero. As disappointing as the failures are, the lack of communication is almost worse.

Cheers
Chris
PS latest diagnostic is 2112261 and I've submitted a ticket as well.

[chrisss]

Well, a few hours later and another complete meltdown, and I think I'm with restinbeast, I'm done! I've struggled with dropouts since August last year, and after many months of trying different network topologies, optimising zoneplayer position for maximum signal strength, swapping out components etc etc, the system got briefly to a position of semi reliability and now this "network connection speed insufficient..." bug has just destroyed usability and any pleasure that we might derive from our Sonos. Time to get the CD player out of storage and get back to just listening to the music.

Cheers
Chris

[sorjai]

I actually didn't have this issue prior to 3.8, but strangely, I got it this morning even after I had already updated to 3.8 (which is when I did a search on Google and found this thread). Power cycling the router and sonos devices got it working again, but I wonder why it appeared in the first place. I didn't have any change in my network configuration and there wasn't (or shouldn't be) any conflicts in IP address since I have my Sonos devices on static DHCP and they have their own pool of IP addresses.

Anyway, whatever it is, I'm confident that Sonos will get it resolved eventually like they usually do. The system has worked for the most part and everyone who has it is pretty happy for the most part. Why gripe about it when it fails once?

[chrisss]

Hi sorjai,

I agree that occasional issues are to be expected, but in my case I've had what I would estimate to be well over a hundred such failures since the 3.7 update. As I said in a previous post, the system has become unusable for me, and I make no apology for sharing my experience.

Cheers
Chris

[John - Sonos]

chrisss and others,

This "Network connection speed..." error was present for some music services until version 3.7 when it was made into a global error message for all playback sources other than Internet radio. It means that the player was not able to receive audio from the source fast enough to keep the buffer filled and maintain playback. Previously, the condition would've resulted in an audio drop but the Controller would've indicated that music was still playing. Now, this error is returned and the system will move on to the next item in the queue (if playing from a queue and not another source).

We have no indication at this time that there is any sort of bug in Sonos playback on version 3.8. While a problem was introduced in version 3.7 with grouped players, it was not related to this message. However, the grouped playback problem did sometimes generate the "Network connection..." error, so I can understand how this was misleading.

From your posts, it sounds like there have been a number of issues over time but that things have gotten worse recently. Additionally, you're now seeing this error message instead of simply getting audio dropouts which was likely happening prior to version 3.7.

Our team will continue to work with you to identify the cause of these problems with high bitrate FLAC files. If you haven't received our latest response, please check your email or send me a PM.

Thank you for raising the issue and I apologize for any confusion this has caused.

Note: for anyone else reading this thread and experiencing similar problems, please see our FAQ here for basic troubleshooting steps:

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/309/

Best Regards,

John

[chrisss]

Hi John,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post, I also received a mail from Gordon about a week ago, but I’ve been unwell and haven’t had time to respond until now. (I’ll be responding to his e-mail after this post)

Your response actually makes some sense of the problems I’ve been having, given I’ve been having problems with dropouts for many months now, but it would have been helpful if the information about the change in error messages had been made available earlier. For me at least it was extremely frustrating to have struggled through over 6 months of dropouts and attempts at remedial action and then to have what seemed to be a new error begin with the release of 3.7.

It’s also worth noting that the “Insufficient network speed…….” error was manifested somewhat differently to the earlier dropouts which certainly reinforced the impression of a new problem being introduced into the system. Those earlier dropouts would occur at any point in a track and playback might resume OK for the next track or occasionally playback would fail altogether, whereas the “Insufficient network speed…….” error would always trigger at the beginning of a track and continue for every track of the album that I had queued.

Gordon has mentioned that there seems to be a problem with the speed of data transmission from my NAS, which is quite different from all the feedback I’d had in the previous months, where external wireless interference was presumed to be the cause. I’m not entirely sure that the NAS is at fault, it is a ReadyNAS NV+, I did a speed test today and it’s still transferring data at a rate I would presume is sufficient for music streaming, I’m getting about 20MB/s. However, the disks are getting quite full, I’m using about 85% of available storage and this can impact on performance apparently. My guess though is that if there is a bottleneck it’s more likely the router (I’ve already replaced all the relevant cables as part of earlier troubleshooting) and I’m happy to swap that out as a test.

Some of the errors that are being shown in the logs may in fact be related to the fact that I have the NAS set to spin down the disks and the first time I try to play a track when the disks are spun down always results in an error, although that error is “unable to browse music”, not the “Insufficient network speed…….” error.

As you might have gathered from an earlier post, I’ve been getting pretty frustrated with all this, and I did get my CD player out of storage a week ago. It’s nice not to have dropouts, but it would be even better to have my Sonos performing how it used to.

Thanks again for your feedback, I’ll work with Gordon on this and hopefully we can get it resolved.

Kind Regards
Chris

[zaatari]

Thanks John for the tips. I had this problem with my Play 3 since the 3.7 update BUT once i unplugged the 2.4GHZ telephones nearby, all problems were solved!!!!

[Canadaboi]

I too have just come across this issue. I have had a PLAY:5 for over 7 months now and have had no issues playing my iTunes library over WiFi.

I just bought a new PLAY:5 yesterday, for a different room, grouped the two speakers and when I play music through my iTunes library I get the "network connection speed insufficient to maintain playback buffer" message.

My Sonos system has the most up to date software. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have already powered down my network and reset it.

[Kumar]

Originally Posted by Canadaboi

I too have just come across this issue. I have had a PLAY:5 for over 7 months now and have had no issues playing my iTunes library over WiFi.

Is the device that holds the ITunes music files connected by ethernet wire to any of the play 5 units? It needs to be, going by Sonos recommendations. Wireless may work, but isn't officially supported for the first hop.

[Canadaboi]

Originally Posted by Kumar

Is the device that holds the ITunes music files connected by ethernet wire to any of the play 5 units? It needs to be, going by Sonos recommendations. Wireless may work, but isn't officially supported for the first hop.

The external HD that has my iTunes library is connected to my MacBook Pro which connects to the internet and my local network wirelessly. That's how I've used my original PLAY:5 for the last several months without any audio drop outs until I added a second PLAY:5.

I find it surprising that my setup is not supported. When I read about SONOS on their site, they advertise the system as being wireless - and even in their diagrams, they show the system setup by simply plugging in the bridge to your router and plug any additional speaker in any room. No where was it shown that the source of your iTunes library needs to be hard wires to the router.