Alexa - Pandora - Sonos problem

  • 20 January 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 405 views
N

Hi There,

My setup includes one Echo Dot (in the kitchen), two Sonos Five speakers in a stereo pair (in the living room), and a Sonos Boost connected directly to my router.  The line-in for one of my Fives is connected to a nearby TV.  Both the Sonos and Pandora plugins are added to my Alexa app and appear to be functioning correctly.

 

The problem:

Each evening when I get home I will say something like “Alexa, play Today’s Hits on Pandora in the living room”.

Alexa then replies “Playing Today’s Hits radio from Pandora in the living room” followed by “What would you like to play”.  Nothing is played.  If I ask again, same thing.

 

The work-around:

If (after Pandora fails) I then say “Alexa, play Today’s Hits on Amazon Music in the living room”, music will begin playing on the Fives.  This also works with Spotify.

I then tell Alexa to stop the music and retry with Pandora and all of the sudden Pandora will work again (and continue to work for the rest of the night).

Also, if I open the Sonos app and select a Pandora station or Sonos Station, it will play, and this will get Pandora working with Alexa as well.

Unfortunately I’m back to square one the next evening when I ask Alexa to play Pandora again.  It fails.

 

Solutions?

I have tried restarting my Sonos speakers, Router, Echo, and Boost.  Most times this does fix the problem temporarily, but the problem returns the next evening.

I have tried disabling/uninstalling the Alexa plugins and re-adding them.  Also re-logging into each service.  Again, this works temporarily, but the problem returns the next evening.

I have thought about adding another Echo Dot to the system next to the Sonos Five however this would require the use of the Line-in, which I am already using.

 

Any ideas?  With the work-around(s) above, this is really just an annoyance but one that I would like to fix.

 

Thanks,  Nico

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5 replies

G
Userlevel 7

Try removing and re-adding Pandora in the Sonos app and disabling and re-enabling the Pandora skill in the Alexa app. You could also try setting Pandora as your Default Service in the Alexa app. This would allow you to just say, “Alexa, play Today’s Hits in the living room.”

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Also, please see my post: Tips & Tricks - Resolving random issues impacting Sonos devices.. | Sonos Community

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
N

Thank you for the replies.

 

@GuitarSuperstar, I did what you suggested (removed the Pandora and Sonos apps from my phone and re-added them, then disabled and re-enabled the Pandora skill in Alexa).  This did resolve the issue, as expected, however the real test will be when I get home tonight and test again.  I’ll let you know.  BTW, I do have Pandora as my default music service but I left that information out for simplicity.

 

@UKMedia, thanks for the link however I do not believe this is a connection issue.  If it were, no music services would work, but in my case, only Pandora fails (when started from Alexa).  Other music services such as Amazon Music and Spotify function correctly from Alexa, and Pandora works fine if I start it from my phone within the Sonos app.  I also have a Boost which removes the chance of any wifi related issues.  On the surface, this appears to be a handshake issue with Alexa, Pandora, and Sonos.

 

All the best,

Nico

N

Unfortunately no luck.  I got home yesterday and the same issue occurred.  Again, Pandora is the only service that does not initially work from Alexa.

I suppose I will try contacting Sonos support and see if they have any ideas.  I’ll post back here if I find a solution.

N

I ended up working around the issue by adding an Echo Link to the system.  The Link is essentially a fancy Echo with built-in DAC, multiple outputs and no mic/speaker.  This allowed me to disable the Sonos skill and still get the effect I was after.

I’m convinced the problem was how the Sonos skill communicated with the Pandora service through Alexa.  Perhaps this will be improved in the future.

 

Note: A much cheaper solution would be to add an Echo Dot, connect the Line Out to the Sonos speaker and connect to my TV using Bluetooth.  I initially tried this and it did work however, the TV would constantly loose connection when turned off and I would have to dig through the settings to reconnect Bluetooth. I wanted the transition to be seamless.

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