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I have a Sonos system that consists of two Play:5 (Gen 2) speakers, two One (Gen 2) speakers, and five One (Gen 1) speakers.

The two Play:5 speakers are in a stereo pair and are connected to an Ethernet port in my wall that runs to a UniFi switch.

The Sonos system is on a VLAN that is separated from other VLANs in my network via firewall rules.  The devices (phones and laptops) that run the Sonos apps are on their own VLAN.

My Sonos system generally works well in this setup and always has.  Occasionally, it seems slightly slow or it loses connection to a Plex server on another VLAN.  Also, when I install an update via the Windows app, I always get a message that says the update failed, even though it actually succeeded.  But generally speaking, I don’t have any major issues.

I’ve allowed all of the ports listed on https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/configure-your-firewall-to-work-with-sonos through my firewall rules, except for the Windows Media Sharing UDP ports, as I’m not doing any Windows media sharing.

Does anyone know why the update always says it fails?

I’ve seen this a few times and have learned to ignore it.

The SONOS networking can be somewhat impatient while waiting for a response. I suspect that there are occasional network traffic jams that will delay receiving replies. It’s also possible that the request to confirm the update is not repeated if lost.

My own WiFi environment is very polluted by the number of nearby WiFi networks and some of them are poorly configured. This includes a healthcare facility next door. I’m surprised that I don’t have more issues. Music and streaming video play fine.


I’ve seen this a few times and have learned to ignore it.

The SONOS networking can be somewhat impatient while waiting for a response. I suspect that there are occasional network traffic jams that will delay receiving replies. It’s also possible that the request to confirm the update is not repeated if lost.

My own WiFi environment is very polluted by the number of nearby WiFi networks and some of them are poorly configured. This includes a healthcare facility next door. I’m surprised that I don’t have more issues. Music and streaming video play fine.

Thanks for your reply!

Yeah, I’ve basically just always ignored it since the update actually completes.  I was just curious if others had seen this or if there might be some port I was blocking that needed to be allowed through the firewall.

Considering what you are saying regarding Sonos’ networking being impatient, I could see how routing through VLANs and firewalls could delay things just enough to timeout.  I also have a lot of Wi-Fi networks in my neighborhood.


While my system isn’t as complex as yours, I’ve often found that I need to wait a certain amount of time before I check for updates a second time. While I didn’t have that issue with the last update, which I received a ‘you have successfully updated’, on occasion it seems to help get the ‘you have no updates’ message. I wish I had a time to quote, but as there is no indication when the update completes if it has timed out, I’m unable to suggest anything. In the past, it’s been an hour or so before I have checked, and been successful, but that’s mostly because my attention was drawn away, and I didn’t keep checking after the initial failure. 


While my system isn’t as complex as yours, I’ve often found that I need to wait a certain amount of time before I check for updates a second time. While I didn’t have that issue with the last update, which I received a ‘you have successfully updated’, on occasion it seems to help get the ‘you have no updates’ message. I wish I had a time to quote, but as there is no indication when the update completes if it has timed out, I’m unable to suggest anything. In the past, it’s been an hour or so before I have checked, and been successful, but that’s mostly because my attention was drawn away, and I didn’t keep checking after the initial failure. 

Thanks for your input!


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