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Alexa + Sonos has become a total mess – am I the only one?!

  • 13 December 2021
  • 10 replies
  • 591 views

So. Alexa and Sonos, wouldn’t say it has ever worked like a charm, but at least decently. However, a couple of weeks ago, things became absolutely horrible:

 

Alexa would no longer “stop” any music if I tell her to do so

Alexa would often confirm to play a requested Radio Station, only to NOT play anything afterwards

Alexa would often confirm to play a requested song, only to either play nothing at all, or play a completely different song

All my Sonos devices (2x One, 1 Beam) have been re-set and re-installed from scratch couple of times. Alexa was removed and re-added as a voice service. Alexa app was deleted and reinstalled. None of this helped! My father-in-law is experiencing very similar issues lately, so I’m starting to wonder if it’s a more general problem?

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10 replies

UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

The integration between Sonos and Amazon can sometimes throw up annoying, confusing and sometimes completely random issues.  A very large proportion of these issues can be resolved by some very simple tasks.  These have been documented across multiple posts and have remained fairly consistent since the functionality was released.  However, some of my earlier posts are now obsolete due to changes within the navigation and terminology of both the Sonos and Alexa Apps.  As a result, I have compiled an updated set of steps to help users resolve the most common issues.  However, before we start please don’t get phased by the scale of the steps below, they are not all required!  I have tried to list these with the most common and easiest solutions first building to a complete reset.  But before we start, if you are experiencing issues with Alexa, then please check for any outages on this page first: Sonos Status

 

If Alexa is not responding but has in the past, please ensure that the mic hasn’t been turned off by accident – just touch the Mic symbol to toggle the mic on and off.

 

Before we delve down to various resets, please open the Sonos App>Settings>Services and Voice>Amazon Alexa and ensure that your device is shown as Enabled – if not Enable.

 

Please Retest.

 

Duplicate device names – Although Amazon states that Alexa has the ability to know the different actions for different device types, my experience is Alexa prefers that names for Devices, Groups and Scenes are unique,
1.1/ Please open up the Alexa App and press the ‘Devices’ button in the bottom right of your device.  You’ll need to make a note of any duplicate names, a common mistake is to have a Room and a Device with the same name. I personally use the naming standard Room Name + Device type. e.g. Kitchen Sonos, Kitchen Echo Dot, Bedroom Sonos, etc. Although this would appear to make the voice control of devices more complicated, the use of Groups, removes the need to name these specific Device names in most voice commands.  Here is a link to my naming standards: https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/best-practices-for-naming-of-devices-6819283/index1.html;
1.2/ You can then change them in the source app. e.g. Use the Sonos App to change the name of Sonos players.
1.3/ In the Alexa app, select the Alexa Icon in the centre of the row of Icons at the bottom of the screen and ask ‘Alexa, Discover Devices’.

 

Please Retest


Account Linking - Some form of Account Linking or Authorisation has not completed successfully. There are a number of causes for this and it's best to try these steps one at a time and test before moving on to the next step if the problem persists:
2.1/ Open the Alexa App>Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and 'Disable' followed by 'Enable';
2.2/ If you have multiple Amazon accounts logged into different Apps on your device, this can confuse the Amazon Authorisation. Please ensure that you log out of all Amazon related Apps and accounts and then complete step 2.1 again;
2.3/ If the problem still persists, please logout of all Amazon accounts then select the Alexa App>Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and 'Disable. Now power down all Sonos devices for at least 10 secs, allowing for any wired devices to boot before booting the remaining Sonos players. Now log back into the Alexa App>Skills>Sonos and 'Enable'
 

Please Retest


Duplicate IP Address – Please see my Post here: en.community.sonos.com

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
D
Userlevel 1

Hi! Thank you for your help. The list of devices and groups inside my Alexa app was indeed a bit of a mess. Cleaning this up has maybe helped a bit. Alexa would now more often actually play a Radio station when I request it. However, some issues stay: for example, when I request a specific song, it would confirm to play something completely different (not even similar sounding). How is this possible? And does this at all feel like an issue with Sonos + Alexa integration or is that just an issue with Alexa’s performance itself?

UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

The interpretation of the voice commands is undertaken by the Amazon cloud, so this isn't a Sonos issue.

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
D

Same

 Alexa and Sonos worked fine until a few weeks ago. Now it has completely collapsed. How is this not being prioritized by the Sonos engineers? Alexa is why I upgraded my Sonos system, and now I cannot in good conscience recommend Sonos products anymore.

P

I have tried and then tried again to get my Sonos Alexa to work properly and nothing works for more than a week or two.  I give.  Sonos and Alexa are just not a good match. 

UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

I have tried and then tried again to get my Sonos Alexa to work properly and nothing works for more than a week or two.  I give.  Sonos and Alexa are just not a good match. 

Did you try the steps in my earlier post?

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
B
Userlevel 1
Badge

Not a Sonos issue - When I say “turn on pasta” (that is a switch for pasta maker), Alexa almost consistently replied with “There is no such device as Master light”. I changed the switch name to “plug 15” and it started telling me a joke.

Alexa doesn’t always excel in understanding or it’s joking capabilities triumph over mine.

M

I tried just about every “fix” I could find on this forum. None worked. Alexa on Sonos One is completely bugged out to the max. As Alexa functionality is one of the priorities for a smart speaker, I’ll be returning my Sonos One ASAP.

M
Userlevel 3
Badge +5

I have a Roam and the Alexa music request are failing too and it’s been like this for months now, she asks me to enable the skil,   says that the device is offline or simply absolute silence,   there are  stoppages while Alexa is responding to me and a Sonos  skil  reset didn’t make any difference  

La discapacidad visual no es ningún impedimento, a disfrutar Bros
Airgetlam

What did Sonos Support say, when you called them directly to discuss it?

Bruce
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