Alexa no longer working with Sonos

Although it also happening with Google Assistant as well suggests its with Sonos, the same problem is also happening to Bose speaker users which might suggest it’s the Amazon platform at fault.

I’m having issues with both my Sonos setup and echo’s. I can get an echo device working until I add it to a group, then it’s “sorry im having trouble please try in a little while”. So I suspect it’s more an Amazon/Alexa issue as opposed to Sonos.

Smart speaker skills for two different brands likely share lots of Amazon components - the complexity involved in making an Echo work with a smart speaker via the cloud is easy to forget until it all goes wrong.

But the error message we get from Alexa is not at all helpful as everyone will have wasted a lot of time before finding out it’s a common issue.

Other places to post

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/echo-family

https://uk.amazonforum.com/s/echo-family

I have the same issue !   So annoying worked happily for years 

echo dots are working fine 

please fix it!! 

If you try on a normal echo, on the everywhere group you get same issue. It’s a bug with grouping 

Been on to Amazon who acknowledged issue ‘eventually’ and the Alexa team are working on a fix, they said allow 24-48hrs to resolve.

I have found that I can get my Sonos devices to play BBC stations by going through the Sonos app and clicking on “BBC Radio 4 Tunein Station” for example. Useful until they fix it. 

Will not turn off via voice of course. 

Yeah, on echo’s you can also play to the group via Amazon music app. Or split the device from the group

Same issue on all of my Sonos devices.  Alexa has been down for two days now.  Google Assistant, works fine however.

In that case and given that Bose speakers have the same issue it looks like its the Amazon handling of Alexa smart speaker actions at fault - possibly not something Sonos can resolve.

Same issue here in Germany, making me crazy since the non-Sonos Alexa simply works…

I have the same issue on All five Sonos products

Same here in NZ, after 48 hours. Very disappointing level of support and comms. Alexa was a key feature in the purchase, particularly since Google Assistant isn’t supported here by Sonos. 

Mine has started working this morning so I think they have fixed the problem 

Working this a.m.  Last night they sent a push notification trying to sell their HD radio service, but never a notification regarding this outage.  I like their products, but this has been a real goof up in communication and customer service.

It does seem to be fixed and also for Bose users so it probably was an Amazon issue.

Most of how Alexa works is cloud based and many features of devices like the Echo Show seem to rely on cloud data so they’re vulnerable to the level of testing software releases have these days. It’s best to have fallbacks for home automations.

There are Amazon forums to post on but the advice will be disable/enable, or their chat might send a new device, neither helping with software issues like this.

Alexa is now working, but no connection to radio station streams. Maybe another restart…..

So now if i say ‘Alexa, play bbc 6 music’ she says ‘playing bbc radio 6 music’, then the bbc sounds jingle plays and Alexa jumps in saying ‘sorry I’m having trouble’…. 

Has anyone else had this and have restarts done anything for you?

My Alexa started working a few days ago, although I have not tried any radio commands yet. 

The issue we had was Alexa stopped working with smart speakers like Sonos using the Sonos skill and also Bose speakers. Local playback through the Echo speaker was still OK. A BBC Sounds skill issue would be something different -  but its working OK with me.

BBC 6 wont play on Sonos due to the issue created by BBC a couple of years ago when they stopped allowing BBC radio on Tunein which is the way most stations work on Sonos when using Alexa. Alexa only casts a URL to a smart speaker - audio isnt streamed from an Echo to a speaker like with Bluetooth.

BBC Radio 6 is working here for me on Sonos - the ‘BBC Sounds’ skill plays the station on my Sonos devices - I just tried this on the Roam via Alexa ("Alexa, Play BBC Radio 6’), unless that’s because I’m located in the U.K? … but it works here.

I dont want to take this thread too far off topic but https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/listening-on-a-smart-speaker/sonos mentions it working on a Sonos One presumably as that’s an Alexa enabled speaker and is working locally. I’d assumed casted BBC via Tunein hasnt worked for a couple of years. 

With my Echo Show and older Play:1 if I try ‘Alexa, Play BBC Radio 6’ it plays OK locally on my Echo with the Sounds skill, If I try  ‘Alexa, Play BBC Radio 6 on <sonos name>’ I just get “BBC Radio 6 is currently unavailable on Tunein”

that makes sense thanks - I’ve reinstalled the skill, all good.

This still isn’t resolved??

the only information I can add to my issue is I am unable to view the Music Services. When I tap on the option in the Sonos app, it switches to the alexia app and continues to display the three resizing dots but doesn’t list anything 

Chris