I've set up two Sonos Ones in the house for our kids. Each speaker is linked to the same Sonos household account, so both show up in our list of household Sonos speakers (we have several). Each speaker is uniquely named. Each speaker is also linked to a separate Alexa account (each Alexa account is an adult-family share Amazon account), and each Alexa account is linked to its own Spotify account (each Spotify account is also a family share account).
One Sonos One works perfectly with Spotify. The other doesn't. It will start playing a song, but it won't respond to any music commands after a song starts. But it will respond to other Alexa commands. So, once a song starts, you can only stop it by, for example, telling alexa to set a 5-minute timer to stop the music, but "Alexa, pause/stop music" doesn't work. Neither does "Next song." Both speakers are set up exactly the same way, other than the accounts.
Both speakers are brand new. I've factory reset both speakers several times and set them up again. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
Alexa/Sonos One/Spotify
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Are both Spotify accounts added to the Sonos app? The accounts must be defined in both the Sonos and the Alexa app.
Thanks for the suggestion. Both Spotify accounts are logged in on Sonos, and I'm afraid that's not the problem. And, whether or not the Spotify accounts are logged in on Sonos, I can play music from the different Spotify accounts on each speaker independently. The two Spotify accounts are add-on accounts to a master Premium family account. The only problem is that Alexa doesn't recognize commands when the one speaker is playing Spotify (i.e., it's not an issues with accessing Spotify from Alexa).
By process of elimination and trial and error, I think the problem may be with the Amazon-Alexa account. When I log the non-working speaker into the same Alexa-Amazon account as the working speaker, everything works fine (even when I change between Spotify accounts on the working Alexa-Amazon account). When I switch either speaker back to the other Alexa-Amazon account, neither works. We, in fact, have three Amazon accounts, and only one works (I tried the other two, and they both share the same problem).
I can't figure out why one Alexa-Amazon account would link to Spotify correctly, but the others won't. Also, to clarify, the Amazon accounts are independent accounts. They are not adult accounts under the new Amazon Household plan. Not sure why any of that should matter, but truly I'm flummoxed.
BTW, all other music services work fine on both speakers, regardless of Alexa-Amazon account.
By process of elimination and trial and error, I think the problem may be with the Amazon-Alexa account. When I log the non-working speaker into the same Alexa-Amazon account as the working speaker, everything works fine (even when I change between Spotify accounts on the working Alexa-Amazon account). When I switch either speaker back to the other Alexa-Amazon account, neither works. We, in fact, have three Amazon accounts, and only one works (I tried the other two, and they both share the same problem).
I can't figure out why one Alexa-Amazon account would link to Spotify correctly, but the others won't. Also, to clarify, the Amazon accounts are independent accounts. They are not adult accounts under the new Amazon Household plan. Not sure why any of that should matter, but truly I'm flummoxed.
BTW, all other music services work fine on both speakers, regardless of Alexa-Amazon account.
I finally figured this out. Here’s what I learned, if anyone else is having problems connecting more than one Sonos One in a household with the intent to have them operate independently of each other.
1. Only one Alexa account can be associated with one Sonos account. One Alexa account cannot be associated with more than one Sonos account, and one Sonos account cannot be associated with more than one Alexa account.
2. Only one Spotify account can be associated with one Alexa account. The same Alexa account cannot be associated with more than one Spotify account, and one Spotify account cannot be associated with more than one Alexa account.
3. For each Sonos One, set up a separate Sonos account, and create a separate Sonos network for that account and the Sonos One. Associate an Alexa account (with desired Spotify account) with the Sonos account.
4. When setting up a new Sonos account, disconnect the other Sonos One, and don’t set up the speaker (even if it is discovered by Alexa) in Alexa. Only set up one Sonos One per Alexa account.
Note that this set up worked with a Premium Spotify Family plan, and the kids’ Spotify accounts connected to their respective Sonos Ones with no problem. I saw some threads elsewhere suggesting only the primary Spotify account could connect — this isn’t true. There appears to be no limitation on connecting more than one Spotify family share account to multiple Alexa accounts (which makes sense).
Also note that the Alexa accounts used in this set up were independent Amazon accounts and were not part of the Amazon household plan. Note also that you can’t use Alexa with Amazon household child accounts, per Amazon’s website.
I also recommend going into each Alexa AND Amazon account and deregeristing and deleting all devices not intended to be associated with the applicable account(s).
Finally, if the intent is simply to have multiple Sonos Ones operating off the same Alexa account (and by association, the same Spotify account), then just add all of the speakers to the same Sonos account, and log in with the same Alexa account. The above set up is only intended to allow independent Sonos One set ups.
For what it’s worth, I figured this all out (painfully) on my own. I never found any instructions on Sonos, Spotify or Amazon websites. Good luck!
1. Only one Alexa account can be associated with one Sonos account. One Alexa account cannot be associated with more than one Sonos account, and one Sonos account cannot be associated with more than one Alexa account.
2. Only one Spotify account can be associated with one Alexa account. The same Alexa account cannot be associated with more than one Spotify account, and one Spotify account cannot be associated with more than one Alexa account.
3. For each Sonos One, set up a separate Sonos account, and create a separate Sonos network for that account and the Sonos One. Associate an Alexa account (with desired Spotify account) with the Sonos account.
4. When setting up a new Sonos account, disconnect the other Sonos One, and don’t set up the speaker (even if it is discovered by Alexa) in Alexa. Only set up one Sonos One per Alexa account.
Note that this set up worked with a Premium Spotify Family plan, and the kids’ Spotify accounts connected to their respective Sonos Ones with no problem. I saw some threads elsewhere suggesting only the primary Spotify account could connect — this isn’t true. There appears to be no limitation on connecting more than one Spotify family share account to multiple Alexa accounts (which makes sense).
Also note that the Alexa accounts used in this set up were independent Amazon accounts and were not part of the Amazon household plan. Note also that you can’t use Alexa with Amazon household child accounts, per Amazon’s website.
I also recommend going into each Alexa AND Amazon account and deregeristing and deleting all devices not intended to be associated with the applicable account(s).
Finally, if the intent is simply to have multiple Sonos Ones operating off the same Alexa account (and by association, the same Spotify account), then just add all of the speakers to the same Sonos account, and log in with the same Alexa account. The above set up is only intended to allow independent Sonos One set ups.
For what it’s worth, I figured this all out (painfully) on my own. I never found any instructions on Sonos, Spotify or Amazon websites. Good luck!
This is really helpful - thanks for documenting. I just couldn't get any of the other suggested workarounds to work so I'll try this. I also tried Sonos support and was told that I would not need to setup separate Amazon accounts but I had no luck with Amazon Family and Spotify Family - Alexa would only ever use one of the Spotify accounts, never two simultaneously. Is it working reliably for you now ?
Thanks for your reply, and I hope this works for you. And, yes, this set up has been completely reliable since I set it up almost two weeks ago. Note that to set up two separate Sonos accounts, I think you have to have them connected to two separate WiFi networks in your home. We have one main WiFi network and one guest network, so one Sonos account is registered to each network.
I see - do you know if separate Amazon Accounts, Spotify Family but one shared sonos account will work - I think from reading your notes it likely wont ?
You are correct. That shouldn’t work. You can only use one Amazon account with a Sonos account. It’s a little confusing because when you add more than one Sonos One to Sonos, each time the set up process asks if you want to connect to Alexa — even if you already connected a prior Sonos One to Alexa. This leads you to believe you can connect each Sonos One to a different Alexa account. It’s a flaw in the Sonos set-up process. I finally figured it out when, after I had connected both Sonos Ones to Sonos, I went back into the Sonos settings and checked the Voice Services setting. When you click through the Voice Services setting, it becomes obvious you can only connect one Alexa account to the Sonos account. The Sonos set up protocol should automatically connect any new device to an already connected Alexa account without prompting you to add a new Alexa account — but it doesn’t.
But you can connect a Spotify account (or sub-family accounts) with multiple amazon and Sonos accounts. Even if shared, though, a single Sonos account (or a sub-family account) will only play on one device at a time, unless the Spotify device(s) is set to play offline (ie, the Spotify songs are downloaded and the device is offline).
This would all be more easily explained with a diagram ?
But you can connect a Spotify account (or sub-family accounts) with multiple amazon and Sonos accounts. Even if shared, though, a single Sonos account (or a sub-family account) will only play on one device at a time, unless the Spotify device(s) is set to play offline (ie, the Spotify songs are downloaded and the device is offline).
This would all be more easily explained with a diagram ?
One correction, I’m not sure a Spotify account can be shared among different Alexa accounts. I realize I gave contradictory guidance on this in two of my prior posts. I actually don’t think I ever tested this, so I apologize for the misinformation.
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