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Fyi at some point I could no longer ask my Alexa Dot to “Play Some Music” with it then playing on my preferred Sonos speaker. To be clear I am not referring to commanding the built-in Alexa on the Sonos speaker itself. I am commanding the Alexa Dot with my music choice which is then being re-routed to the preferred Sonos speaker (as to avoid listening to music on the small anemic speaker inside the Alexa Dot).

First step in troubleshooting this issue: I confirmed all Sonos speakers were working as they should via the Sonos app.

In the Sonos app I also confirmed that the particular Sonos speaker I wanted to integrate with my Alexa Dot was indeed logged into the same Alexa/Amazon Voice Assistant Account as the associated Alexa Dot (not sure if this is necessary or not).

I then went through the current list of Devices in the Alexa app and deleted/trashed all existing Sonos speakers.

I then disabled the Sonos skill in the Alexa app.

I then re-enabled the Sonos skill in the Alexa app. This in turn led to a screen where it detected available Sonos speakers, of which all my Sonos speakers appeared. I hit “Done”.

In the Alexa app I then went to the existing Group I had already created which already included the associated Alexa Dot and set the Preferred Speaker to the particular Sonos speaker I wanted to here the Dot-prompted music through. Viola working again!

I seem to need to go through this “Alexa Dot Sonos Speaker Reestablishment Routine” a few times a year.

Just ensure the products (echo dot & Sonos speaker) are held in the same Alexa group. Set the Dot to ‘enable’ the group (1st section of the group) and the Sonos speaker(s) used for playback, are added to the Speakers (3rd section) of the same group  - The one further thing is the groups ‘playback option’ needs to be set to ‘Always’. 

By the way, if more than one Sonos product is added to the speakers section of the Alexa group, then the speakers will also automatically group together too for any playback requests soken to any of the groups enabling devices. See attached ‘example’ of the automatic room grouping taking place in the Sonos App.

Thanks Ken! I did initially ensure both the Dot and Sonos speaker were in the same Alexa group. Still would not work. Would command the associated Dot to “Play Some Music” and it would indeed say “OK, playing some music on Sonos” but associated Sonos speaker would never play back. Went through the procedure I outlined above and it started working again. I have to do this every once in a while randomly. Thanks for the multiple Sonos speakers in an Alexa group option...I did not know that!

Well wouldn’t you know it, I went to command the Echo Dot the very next day to play some music and it started playing through the built in speaker, as opposed to the preferred Sonos speaker. Zero configuration changes in either system since I got it working again the day before. Happened out of nowhere. Sonos working just fine as a standalone system per usual. Fix was to remove the preferred Sonos speaker from the group with the associated Echo Dot, then re-add, then started working again.

Too bad the Sonos skill is still so buggy. I would call Sonos tech support to let them know the issue still persists but honestly just don’t have the time to go through it all. Have done before throughout the years (yes this has been a YEARS issue) and they always take you through a lot of rudimentary troubleshooting steps that lead nowhere, ending the call with the usual “we are aware of the issue and working on it”.

I am an actual Sonos dealer and even with my connections to dealer support this issue has seemingly gotten zero attention. My guess is Sonos would much prefer the customer use their built in Alexa integration (built-in Sonos speaker mic) but that is also very hit or miss. Should prob just remove the Alexa integration at this point. Imagine it is a forced offering they must keep on table to remain competitive with all the other “Alexa-Compatible” tech out there.

Hoping some moderation is done on this forum to draw attention to this continued issue.

Well wouldn’t you know it, I went to command the Echo Dot the very next day to play some music and it started playing through the built in speaker, as opposed to the preferred Sonos speaker. Zero configuration changes in either system since I got it working again the day before. Happened out of nowhere. Sonos working just fine as a standalone system per usual. Fix was to remove the preferred Sonos speaker from the group with the associated Echo Dot, then re-add, then started working again.

Too bad the Sonos skill is still so buggy. I would call Sonos tech support to let them know the issue still persists but honestly just don’t have the time to go through it all. Have done before throughout the years (yes this has been a YEARS issue) and they always take you through a lot of rudimentary troubleshooting steps that lead nowhere, ending the call with the usual “we are aware of the issue and working on it”.

I am an actual Sonos dealer and even with my connections to dealer support this issue has seemingly gotten zero attention. My guess is Sonos would much prefer the customer use their built in Alexa integration (built-in Sonos speaker mic) but that is also very hit or miss. Should prob just remove the Alexa integration at this point. Imagine it is a forced offering they must keep on table to remain competitive with all the other “Alexa-Compatible” tech out there.

Hoping some moderation is done on this forum to draw attention to this continued issue.

Are you certain @koberlin1 that when things initially failed (again) for you, that the Alexa groups playback options were set to ‘Always’ - If it is, but the issue happens to you again, perhaps just see what happens when you include the Alexa group name in your voice instruction.

I am suspecting you may ‘possibly’ have a conflict with devices and groups having the same/similar name in the Alexa App. Maybe ensure everything has a ‘unique’ name - you do not want a group called ‘Lounge’ for example, with a Sonos device and/or lights/smart-plugs etc; called ‘Lounge’ aswell in the Alexa device list …and maybe just check the group playback option is set to ‘Always’. 

I have used Alexa smarthome with Sonos devices for quite a long time (several years) and I cannot personally recall a request for music, suddenly playing on the echo device, rather than the (preferred) Sonos speaker(s) set in the group - so this is quite possibly an issue relating to your Alexa account/device names, rather than a problem with the Sonos Skill, as otherwise I’m sure I would have encountered the issue myself, before now.

Thanks @Ken_Griffiths for the details as usual! Where is the Playback Option setting? I just confirmed that none of the involved groups or Sonos devices have the same names. IE the Group is called “Kitchen” and associated/preferred Sonos speakers (they are AMP units) in that group are “Family Room” and “Living Room”.

@koberlin1, 

It’s at the bottom of the list of speakers.

Goto the 3rd (preferred) Speakers sectio in the Alexa Group, select ‘change’ and when in the list of speakers scroll to the bottom of the page and check/select the ‘Playback Options’ and ensure it’s set to ‘Always’, rather than ‘Only when you say the group name’.

@Ken_Griffiths got it, that was already set to Always. Will report back if issue happens again.

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