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Why can't I group two rooms?


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Why can’t I create a speaker group containing two rooms in the S2 app? The group option is greyed out and it says I can only create groups when three or more rooms exist. Why does this distinction exist?

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Best answer by 106rallye 3 February 2021, 09:06

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Because you already have a default speaker group containing your two rooms.  It’s called “Everywhere”.

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How do I access that from a convenient button? When I’m playing music on Spotify, either using the Spotify app, or using a voice command to Google Assistant, I then have to manually go into the Sonos app to play it in the other room too. 

Creating a speaker group doesn’t mean you can access it via Google or Spotify.  It’s simply a quick way to group things like “Upstairs” or “Downstairs” without having to individually click on each room.  You still need to go to the Sonos app and click the Group button.  Once you do that, your saved groups are at the top of the grouping screen.  

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So where is the Everywhere group, please?

I believe (but can’t personally confirm) that the ‘everywhere’ group only appears if you have more than two rooms in your system. If you only have two rooms, I believe you only have the option to select the two rooms. 

Not having only 2 rooms, I wasn’t aware of the Everywhere room not appearing for systems with only 2 rooms. 

It wouldn’t save any clicks anyway, there’s no difference between hitting the “Everywhere” button and checking the 2nd room, both are a single click.  And the only reason for saved groups is to save clicks.

Yea, I’ve got the same problem, too many rooms. But thought perhaps that might be why the OP couldn’t find the ‘everywhere’ selection. 

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It sounds like I need to wait for the Google integration to catch up to the Alexa integration, and allow groups of Sonos speakers

It sounds like I need to wait for the Google integration to catch up to the Alexa integration, and allow groups of Sonos speakers

 

Even that isn’t great.  Alexa allows you to initiate play to a group, but there is no on-the-fly grouping and ungrouping of rooms like Sonos is able to do.  If you want to change music from one room/group to another with Alexa, the music has to stop, then restart, and it doesn’t restart where it left off.  

Hi,

I was just about to post on same subject - I am in the same position as OP and am feeling mystified by it as I’ve not knowingly changed anything. It seems to be a new development, and to be interfering with my ability to play off AirPlay, as my old Play:1 has dropped off the AirPlay group and I can’t figure out how to pair it back up again. Very frustrated as I obviously need the piggybacking from my Play:One to make AirPlay work on the older speaker, and it was working just fine.

Screenshot below. To note that there’s no reference anywhere to an “everything” group, just the old two room setup I created in the old app, where I definitely could edit these settings as needed. It all still works from the Sonos app, but I can’t use that for Apple Podcasts and its interface with iTunes isn’t really fit for purpose, so I need AirPlay.

 

Update: having posted about it, now seem to have resolved the AirPlay issue. But find the presumption of “everywhere” as group without a label weird and from a UX perspective don’t think it makes sense at all. Surely there are plenty of people who live in small homes (or have small audio systems) who would misunderstand this and conclude their newly purchased speakers would not work the way they needed.

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If you only have two rooms, grouping “everywhere” groups the two rooms. Seems clear to me - having an extra possibility to group those two rooms would seem a poor solution GUI-wise....

Hello all. I am frustrated as well. So... can I keep the everywhere group so that when I open my T.V. and listen to music the Sonos1 SL will play it automatically as well and I won't need to do it manually all the time?

If you have grouped the two and they aren’t staying grouped then you probably have ‘ungroup on autoplay’ enabled on whatever Sonos HT product you have.  Just disable it. 

This isn’t really the same issue as the rest of this thread.

Because you already have a default speaker group containing your two rooms.  It’s called “Everywhere”.

it is not true, group Everywhere in Alexa is only can group Echo devices, Sonos devices indeed need to have it’s own group.

follow these steps, there are numerous pitfall that could cause the grouping failure.

  1. use the latest Sonos app (gold color) instead of the legacy one (black color), 
  2. update all Sonos devices to the latest version.
  3. for any Alexa compatible devices, make sure the device has Alexa enabled in Sonos App.
  4. no group settings required in Sonos App, if you have one, i suggest to delete it.
  5. open Alexa app, if you have just updated your Sonos app to the gold version i recommend to remove all Sonos devices from the list and rescan… 
  6. for specific Sonos device that have persistent issue in Alexa, remove the device from the device list, remove and readd the Sonos skill, and rescan...
  7. Check the group of the device, if Sonos devices are selected. click “change” in speaker settings, in Playback options > Play music on selected Speaker > select Always.
  8. Test Alexa to play in each room, to see if Sonos devices are working.
  9. Create a new group, group multiple rooms with Sonos devices, i named mine "All Sonos”, if you have a group named “Sonos”, i recommend to delete this and use other name, because Alexa no longer allow us to use the name for unknown reason.
  10. now wait for the configration to propagate Amazon Cloud network, (it could take 1 hour)
  11. test and enjoy your music in multiple room.

Because you already have a default speaker group containing your two rooms.  It’s called “Everywhere”.

it is not true, group Everywhere in Alexa is only can group Echo devices, Sonos devices indeed need to have it’s own group.

 

This thread has absolutely nothing to do with Alexa groups, “Everywhere” or otherwise.   It is about group names in the Sonos app.  

@nevermore I was having the same issue, i only have two devices. Just put them on the same room if you want them to play the same music. Pick living room or something for both of them and it should work.

@nevermore I was having the same issue, i only have two devices. Just put them on the same room if you want them to play the same music. Pick living room or something for both of them and it should work.

Not sure exactly what you are saying here, but it doesn’t sound right.

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Maybe there’s a difference between Sonos rooms (more constricted than a physical room in that it cannot house two speakers except when they are part of a stereo or surround set) and Alexa rooms (more comparable to physical rooms)?

Good grief! Listen to us. Clearly, it’s a UX cock-up of the first order, unanticipated by Sonos as they prepared the software upgrade.

HI, SONOS. HI THERE. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION AND FIX. I easily grouped my two rooms in the latest version of the app. Now I cannot ungroup them, and the app says -- as illustrated above -- that grouping is available for three rooms or more. “Groups” is greyed out. I’m frankly tired of trying workarounds (with thanks to all those who have suggested them). 

“Groups” should not be greyed out, especially after your app allowed a two-room system to group. FIX THIS.

Psst! Don’t tell SONOS, because I really want them to fix the UX cock-up described above. But here’s the workaround to GROUP and UNGROUP rooms that I’ve settled on. NB: I drive Spotify through my SONOS system, and just about nothing else, so your mileage may vary. 

  1. Blow off the SONOS app. The current version, with the gold screen. Exit it.
  2. In SPOTIFY, look to the bottom left of your phone screen. It will indicate, in green, which speaker(s) the music is currently playing through.
  3. Touch that green speaker(s) link.
  4. Now a popup screen appears, with a black background. At the very top, it says, “Listening on” and shows the same speaker(s) link as before. 
  5. TO THE RIGHT of the green speaker(s) link is a three-dot link … for more options. Touch the three dots.
  6. AHA! You’ll see a prompt to “Group Rooms.” Touch it!
  7. NOW the Sonos app will fire up, After an annoying wait of about 10 seconds, it will present a screen with all of your system’s rooms and check boxes for each one. Configure your new Group by checking and un-checking.

And there you have it. SONOS grouping from within the SPOTIFY app. I hate workarounds, but until SONOS reads the above thread and FIXES its UX COCK-UP, this is what I’m stuck with. I hope it helps you!

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@conorb I do not understand what you are saying. What problem do you encounter, that you see needing a “work around” or a fix? Do you have two rooms or more?

Grouping rooms if you only have two rooms can be done by using the button I've circled in the screenshot below:

This is not a work around -  it's the way grouping has always worked. If you have more rooms you can use this method, or (new for S2) make named groups. I would agree calling this feature “Groups” instead of "Named Groups” is confusing - especially if you staate that the feature does not work if you only have two rooms, so people conclude they can't group two roosm at all.

@conorb . Pssst.  In Sonos app, go to the Rooms tab.  Whichever speakers (‘rooms’) you want to play together, tick them. Fundamentally, that’s it.  Then just flip back to Spotify if you would rather use Spotify Connect to play music.

If a user has more than one possible grouping, they can permanently name a grouping to save clicks.  If a user only has 2 ‘rooms’, and wants to group them they just have to tick the box that’s not ticked.

Strangely, I have not found this arrangement difficult or inconvenient.  Would you like to explain why you find it inadequate?  At the moment I am struggling to see in what sense this is a failed UX, and why it needs fixing.

‘Room’ in Sonos terms does not necessarily correspond to a physical room.  It is best thought of as the basic building block of the system.

The Spotify app is the Spotify app and doesn’t really use the Sonos system.  It is Spotify’s responsibility.  Nothing for Sonos to fix.

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The Spotify app is the Spotify app and doesn’t really use the Sonos system.  It is Spotify’s responsibility.  Nothing for Sonos to fix.

I can appreciate your take on this, but it’s not efficient. Given that Spotify is integrating Google Assistant, it is frustrating that:

  • I cannot tell Assistant to play in both rooms at once
  • In Spotify itself, I cannot play in both rooms without going back to the Sonos app. I can appreciate that is most likely a Spotify issue, but if Sonos could announce to Spotify Connect that there was a “grouped” room, and thus play on both rooms that would be wonderful.