RESOLVED: Airplay to Sonos Broken? Hard crash Mac Studio running 12.4

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Hello, could someone else try this so I can know if this is only a brand new problem for me or a new problem for some/many/all?

Prior to 12.4, selecting the airplay button in Music and then choosing either of my 2 Sonos speakers worked exactly as expected. Now, when I select either Sonos Arc or Move, within about 2 seconds (no sound from Sonos), mouse freezes, screen goes black, then flashes full-screen pink, then reboots. I've tested this over and over and same every time.

I have:

• (well this has) rebooted the Mac (several times).
• rebooted those speakers.
• made sure speaker software was up to date
• tested from another Mac running Mojave and Airplay to those same speakers works normally.
• tested from my iDevices (also .5 upgraded) and Airplay to those same speakers works normally.

So only this "latest & greatest" Mac upgraded to 12.4 does this. It was fine prior to this upgrade. I use this feature often.

Selecting other airplay devices like my receiver still works, so this seems to be isolated only to Mac-to-Sonos. I also tried using the iDevice Remote app for Mac-to-Sonos and same result as doing it directly from the Mac: freeze, black, pink, reboot.

Opened the Sonos app on the Mac and it connects and works just fine. I presume it likely uses Airplay itself or perhaps Sonos has coded its own for its app? I also decided to rule out the Mac music library by connecting to that within the Sonos app and trying to play my own songs through the Sonos app. That works fine too.

Lastly, I tried selecting Airplay in Audio Settings "notification" instead of the Music app and same result: freeze, black, pink, reboot.

So this seems to be narrowed in on Apple Mac Airplay-to-Sonos and I can recreate it over and over by simply booting up the Mac, immediately opening Music, clicking Airplay button and choosing either speaker in the list.

If someone else has Sonos and has upgraded to 12.4, could you please try airplay and let me know if it works for you or if it does the same? Thanks for any help.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

You could try turning the AirPlay Receiver settings on your Mac.

Set up your Mac to be an AirPlay Receiver

Turn on AirPlay Receiver to receive video and audio content from nearby devices on the same network.

support.apple.com

If that doesn’t fix it, instead of using the AirPlay icon inside the music app try using the Output selection in Mac system preferences under sound. This will make everything room your Mac output to whatever speakers you have selected instead of just the music all itself.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Thank you for a quick reply. Airplay Receiver in Sharing is already on and checked. But, if I'm grasping that right, that would be for tossing (Airplaying) something from some other source to the Mac. This problem is the other way: play something on the Mac and toss (airplay) it to either of these 2 Sonos speakers or both of them. That worked fine with the Mac prior to the 12.4 upgrade. Nothing else in my environment has changed.

I just tried selecting Airplay in Control Center on this Mac and same result. I'll try doing it in Preferences, Sound, Output next but I'm pessimistic that will work if those other 2 are not. Will add to this shortly (probably after another crash).

Update: Tried directly choosing a Sonos speaker in Preferences, Sound, Output and same result: immediate freeze, black screen for about 1 second, pink screen for about 1 second, reboot.

So all 3 options:

• Airplay in Music App,
• Airplay in Control Center and
• a direct selection in Preferences, Sound

...all result in the same sequence, crash, reboot.

I just Airplayed from that Mac to an Onkyo Receiver for about 1 hour with no issues. So again, it seems narrowly tied to Mac running 12.4 to at least those 2 Sonos speakers, which worked fine prior to 12.4, as I use them that way often.

Those Sonos speakers definitely are working properly as I can airplay from my other Macs (running macOS < 12.4 and iOS devices upgraded to the .5 latest) and via the Sonos app on that same Mac itself. It's only this ONE way- my most preferred way- that is not working: Mac Studio Ultra to Sonos via Airplay selection.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Interesting. I AirPlay from my iMac M1 and new MBP to a Sonos Amp every single day. Maybe contact Sonos, I know they can run diagnostics remotely and restart the whole system from their end as long as you’re registered with them.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

You are upgraded to 12.4 on those Macs? And have you actually tried it since upgrading?

Because mine were working just as fine 2 days ago and before. The ONE thing I've done since is upgrade from 12.3 to 12.4.

And they are working just fine as Airplay speakers on my other Macs not upgraded to 12.4, my iOS devices upgraded to .5 and via the Sonos app itself running on that Mac Studio Ultra. So it's kind of hard for me to put much suspicion on Sonos.

There's also 2 of them- an Arc and a Move- and BOTH suddenly have this problem at the same time. Both function independently of each other and will lead to the same Mac crash when I try to select only one of them.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Yeah I have them fully updated since the release this week and the Amp seems fine. Definitely interesting your computer is doing all that just from trying to AirPlay something.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Well, thank you for sharing that maybe it is a problem only for me. I have to think that Amp and Arc & Move all lean on the same Airplay technology. So that seems to narrow it to:

• A Mac Studio Ultra running 12.4 as opposed to other Macs (at least yours) running 12.4
• Those specific speakers Arc & Move (again hard to believe as they worked fine this way up until 12.4).

If anyone else reads this with Mac Studio Ultra running 12.4 and ANY Sonos speaker, please try Airplay from your Mac to your Sonos and let me know.

If anyone happens to have either Arc or Move, I'd be interested in knowing if any Mac running 12.4 airplaying to those specifically is working for you.

And then, of course, if someone happens to have exactly my setup, do you have success airplaying to either of those exact speakers after upgrading to 12.4?

Thanks for anyone else chiming in here.

 

[troc]

I have a Mac Studio Max running 12.4 (and just tried with 12.5 too) and I can Airplay to all my Sonos gear without any problems. Not an Arc or Move though.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Thanks for chiming it too. Wow. It's feeling like a local (my) problem from both of your posts. Perplexing:

• all worked perfectly fine before the upgrade,
• made ONE (variable) change in upgrading macOS,
• now crashes every time.

Exact same equipment, network, method, etc. Even the test is super simple: boot up, open music or control center, select airplay button, choose either speaker: freeze, black screen, pink screen, reboot.

If selecting one of the TWO speakers did this, I'd easily be pointing toward something odd with that speaker but BOTH doing it implies it is not a coincidental (timing) issue with one speaker. They are completely separated from each other, as independent as if the other does not exist.

Besides, I have another Mac running macOS < Monterey. No problems. Airplay to them from Music works just fine. I have iDevice upgraded to .5 (latest). Airplay to them works just fine. Given that they work just fine with Airplay from everything Apple I have except this (main) Mac, it's really hard to think the problem is with 2 independent speakers and their Airplay relationship with only ONE piece of hardware from Apple.

The ONE thing that throws some shade on that doubt is that Airplay from Studio Ultra to my Onkyo Receiver works normally... implying that Airplay is not entirely broken in this Mac but- at least through my equipment- isolated to Mac to Sonos speakers.

Anyone else? While it seems less likely to be a problem for some/many now, does someone have Arc and/or Move and can try Airplay to them from a M1 Mac running 12.4? If anyone can confirm no crash to these specific speakers, I start really thinking something is wrong with MY Mac Studio Ultra itself.. but still leave a little room for a narrow issue of the speakers to this one piece of Apple technology while working fine with my other pieces of Apple technology.

UPDATE: To try to eek out any new clue, I thought about ANYTHING else to which I could Airplay. AppleTVs show in the list. So I select my main AppleTV- latest version fully updated- and same as Sonos: freeze, black screen, pink screen, reboot. Tried my other AppleTVs and all of them crash it too.

So I can airplay to a (years old) Onkyo Receiver with no issue, but now Sonos and all of my AppleTVs crash Mac Studio Ultra as soon as I check the box to try to select them. That even more strongly points to this Mac.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

RESOLVED: since the problem seemed local and clearly not a Sonos problem, I barely had anything else I could try. But one thing was maybe mode of connection. I disconnected the ethernet cable and turned on wifi, tried connecting to the problematic Airplay targets and it worked normally (again).

So here's the interesting part: I then switched BACK... exact same ethernet cable plugged back into Mac Studio, turned OFF wifi, tried connecting the problematic Airplay targets and they work normally again too.

How? I don't know... but if someone discovers this thread and is having a similar problem, that may be worth a try to resolve it.

Big thanks to Sheepish-Lord and Troc for chiming in to at least re-focus my attention on local instead of the easy assumption of perhaps a broad bug in 12.4.

 

[troller]

To me the same is happening but no solution so far. I only can connect via Airplay to Sonos if I restart the Mac, in case I go away from the computer and come back 1 later, AIRPLAY to the Sonos again doesnt work until I restart the Mac. WTF?