Sonos: Message - "Unable to play Pandora - access is denied"

[josebe]

I am having the same issue.  Have 16 Sonos devices - six Play 5's, ten Play 3's and a connect AMP.  I keep having to reauthorize Pandora every day.  This never happened before until the past two weeks where I have noticed every single day.  I reported the issue to Sonos and sent them a diagnostic.  My setup is perfect.  once I reauthorize Pandora through the Sonos app I am fine.  SONOS techs passed the buck to Pandora as they see no issue on their side.  I use the free Pandora.

Tanner.  I saw this solution posted in the Sonos community forum site and on a follow up it did not address or solve the issue.  

Moderator Edit: Changing title for clarity

[TannerPandora]

Hi @josebe! Thanks for posting.

I've created a ticket to pass on to our engineering team for further investigation. Can you let me more about how you usually connect to stream music on your Sonos?

Are you using the Pandora app or the Sonos Controller app?

If you are using the Sonos Controller app, are you streaming from your mobile device or from a computer?

Thanks!

[josebe]

Hi. I am using the Sonos App.

Regards.

Sent from my iPhone

[josebe]

Tanner...this is a more extensive reply.  Typically I use the SONOS app from my iphone 12.  I also have the SONOS app running on a PC with the latest version of the Windows operating system (64 bit).  I rarely use the SONOS app in windows and rely primarily on the app on my iphone.

As of 7:01 PM this evening I tried to use the SONOS app on my cell phone and got the same message "Unable  to play Pandora - access is denied".  I had the same message this morning but once I reauthorized it I was able to play music all day on SONOS.  I read something on another post in the SONOS user forum about free Pandora having a 4 hour timeout feature?  Not sure if this has anything to do with it.

Ill have to reauthorize it again tomorrow morning.  

Thanks!

[TannerPandora]

Thanks for the follow up, @josebe. I've passed on the details to our engineering team. I don't have any troubleshooting to offer at the moment since I believe that our usual steps will not help in this case. 

I'll follow up in this thread when more information is made available to me. 

Thanks for your patience in the meantime. 

[jgdesigns01]

I have the same problem.  What do I do?  

[josebe]

The solution is to keep re-authorizing Pandora through the Sonos app. That is what I do every day. It is annoying for sure.

Best of luck.

Sent from my iPhone

[josebe]

Update.  I downloaded the Pandora app from the App Store and was able to play one of my stations without any issues. 

Tried the Sonos app and got the message unable to play Pandora access is denied. 

[TannerPandora]

Thanks for the follow up, @josebe! I'll let our team know and reach out to the Sonos team as well. 

[TannerPandora]

Hi @jgdesigns01! Thanks for posting your experience. 

I've included your info on our ticket and will update this thread with new info as it's made available to me. 

It looks like @josebe was able to use the Pandora app with their Sonos device without issue. I would recommend this as a workaround while we continue to investigate. 

Thanks for your patience. 

[josebe]

Just to clarify.  I did not cast the app to the Sonos speakers.  I played music on my phone.  

[TannerPandora]

Thanks for the clarification, @josebe! 🙂

[ptcurzon]

I have this problem too. 😞

[richandsusan]

We're having the same issue. Need to reauthorize every time we turn on our Sonos.

[digitaldan]

Yep, same here, having to re-authorize Pandora every day or two, was working great for years until this last week. 

[josebe]

Agree. Only way around it is reauthorize every day. Sometimes even twice a day. Bummer.

Funny thing is if you download the Pandora app. It’s not an issue. Only occurs with the Sonos app

☹️☹️☹️



Sent from my iPhone

[digitaldan]

Any update?  it seems like the the authorization (token) sonos is using for Pandora is invalidating or not refreshing properly.  This is a major pain as the rest of my household can not play radio stations until i go into a sonos app and re-authorize my pandora account.  This is happening at least daily, if not more frequently. 

[josebe]

As far as I know nothing. I am in the same boat as you. I have the Pandora App on my iPhone and I can play music on it without the reauthorization issue creeping up. The other issue is I have spoken three times with Sonos tech support and they are pointing the finger at Pandora. I have given up on this. I also have to reauthorize several times during the day. I read a post in the Sonos forum that with free Pandora there is Four hour timeout feature? Twenty four hour with the paid Pandora. This is quite annoying.

Best of luck

Sent from my iPhone

[Raweber62]

I am having the same issue using the sonos app on my android samsung S8 phone.  This just started happening a few weeks ago

[ptcurzon]

At the risk of jinxing myself, this *seems* to be working for me now! I gave up re-authorizing and instead disconnected Pandora entirely from within the Sonos app. I then added it back. It’s been working as expected ever since.