Alexa News/Flash briefing Stopped Working

  • 9 August 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 1250 views

Userlevel 1

Up until about a month ago Alexa worked fine. Now she says “Here is your news” or “here is your flash briefing” and then silence, everything else works: smart lights, Spotify, etc. This is on both my Arc and Move. I bought an echo dot to test if it was an Amazon issue or Sonos issue and the dot works as expected (and Sonos used to) by giving the news/flash briefing. I have disabled/re-enabled the skill about 30 times, removed the speakers from the Alexa app and then added them back, removed them from my Amazon account and then added them back, did a factory reset on every 5.1 speaker and the move and then recreated the whole system. NOTHING works. I spent over 4 hours on the phone with 4 different Sonos support people only to get escalated to an engineer who said “we know it’s broken and have no ETA on when it will be fixed” which was INFURIATING. Why is Alexa marked green and working on the status page if it’s known it is broken and why did I waste well over 4 hours of my time with support only to be told upon escalation they know it is broken and can’t do anything. A tech could have said that from the beginning and saved me all that time. I primarily got Sonos for the integration with Alexa and to tell me the news in the morning. When will this be fixed and why did it stop working in the first place? If this is a known issue why is it happening for some people and not others? Really just want to return the whole thing if Alexa is no longer fully supported and get better quality speakers for less money and some echo dots. 


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7 replies

Perhaps if you also missed it, see this linked thread below, in which the Staff seem to infer there may still be an ongoing issue with the Alexa ‘Flash Briefing’ on Sonos in some areas, which is being investigated:

It looks like everyone thought initially that the matter was fixed, but some users are still experiencing some issues, it seems. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Userlevel 1

Thanks for the reply. I am experiencing this on my Move and Arc and do not own a Roam. Has this also been observed?

Thanks for the reply. I am experiencing this on my Move and Arc and do not own a Roam. Has this also been observed?

Yes, other devices, like the ‘Move’ are mentioned in the posts too. The thread is perhaps at least worth monitoring for Staff announcements, once the matter is fixed.

I have news flash working on my Roam but not on my arc. As others have reported Alexa says “Getting your flash briefing” and then nothing plays. I think the issue relates to the arc being part of a 5.1 setup, because my roam in the same bedroom but not part of that setup works fine

I have news flash working on my Roam but not on my arc. As others have reported Alexa says “Getting your flash briefing” and then nothing plays. I think the issue relates to the arc being part of a 5.1 setup, because my roam in the same bedroom but not part of that setup works fine

Yes I’m having the same issue here… it’s probably Amazon updating things, perhaps? I’m just going to wait a while to see if things begin working again later today.

I doubt it will. This issue started before the system went down a few days ago. By the way, I have the latest software and have gone through all the usual things like disabling and re-enabling the Sonos skill. Removed Alexa from device and re installed it. Power cycled device. Power cycled router. Still, no flash briefing from Sonos Arc

If things do start to work I will certainly post it here, but looking through this forum there are reports of this dating back for 3 years 😳