Controlling Sonos Playback With Another Plex App

The ability to control Sonos playback using a regular Plex app (as opposed to using the native Sonos app) is a premium feature. That means it does require having an active Plex Pass subscription on your Plex account. Regular Plex apps which support controlling Sonos:

• Android (mobile)
• iOS

Related Page: Control Sonos Playback With a Plex App

Plex Media Server

You need to be running Plex Media Server version 1.10.0 or newer to use the Plex service for Sonos. You can always grab our current server version from our Downloads page.

Related Page: Download Plex Media Server

Network Access

The primary requirement for using Plex for Sonos is that the Sonos service for Plex needs to be able to reach your Plex Media Server to talk to it. That’s what lets you browse your Plex Media Server library content in the Sonos controller application. So, what do you need to do?

Enable Remote Access

To allow your Plex Media Server to be accessed as needed, you need to enable Remote Access for your server. That’s done under Settings > Server > Remote Access in Plex Web App.

In many cases, it will either already be successfully configured for you or the automatic configuration will work fine. Sometimes things can’t be auto-configured, though, and you’ll need to do something such as manually forward a port in your router/modem.

Successfully enabling Remote Access will give you the best experience with Sonos.

Related Page: Remote Access
Related Page: Troubleshooting Remote Access

What if I Can’t Get Remote Access Working?

Even if you can’t get Remote Access successfully enabled, you should still be okay. So long as you don’t explicitly disable Remote Access, then your server will still be able to set up a “Relay” connection, even if Remote Access isn’t fully configured.

Our Relay feature allows a limited connection to be established to your Plex Media Server even if the normal Remote Access isn’t working.

Related Page: Accessing a Server through Relay

NAT Loopback

Your network router must support “NAT Loopback” (sometimes called “NAT Reflection”, “Hairpin NAT”, “NAT Hairpinning”, or just “Hairpinning”). In very simplified terms, that simply means that if a device on your network (such as a Sonos) makes a network call to your public WAN address, the router knows how to handle that without the network request needing to actually go “out over the internet” and it’s instead handled within your local network.

Nearly all consumer routers will support NAT Loopback by default. If you’ve set up your own router, you may need to ensure that you have the feature enabled. Please consult your router manual/documentation for specific details.

Related Page: Wikipedia: NAT Loopback