Alexa Sonos Roam

S
Userlevel 2

Alexa will not connect to my sonos roam correctly- it will respond but then not play news, flash briefing, or music. All of my sonos devices (roam, beam, and move) will not play spotify through alexa. I have called support twice, and already tried the following:

  • On sonos app: disconnect and reconnect devices
  • On alexa app: 
    • Disable sonos skill and enable again 
    • Disable spotify skill and enable again
    • Delete all sonos devices and add again
    • Deregister all sonos devices and register again

None of these things have resolved the issue. I was told to post on beta community but I don’t have any projects open so cannot post on that board.

One of the reasons I bought the roam was for handsfree use of Alexa and to play music with spotify- none of these things are working. 

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64 replies

S
Userlevel 2

Yes- I’m able to play spotify through the spotify app and the sonos app, just nothing works with alexa

B
Userlevel 2

Alexa will not connect to my sonos roam correctly- it will respond but then not play news, flash briefing, or music. All of my sonos devices (roam, beam, and move) will not play spotify through alexa. I have called support twice, and already tried the following:

  • On sonos app: disconnect and reconnect devices
  • On alexa app: 
    • Disable sonos skill and enable again 
    • Disable spotify skill and enable again
    • Delete all sonos devices and add again
    • Deregister all sonos devices and register again

None of these things have resolved the issue. I was told to post on beta community but I don’t have any projects open so cannot post on that board.

One of the reasons I bought the roam was for handsfree use of Alexa and to play music with spotify- none of these things are working. 

 

Same here. My other Sonos products are working with Alexa OK (well, as OK as Alexa ever gets...) but my brand new Roam is utterly useless with Alexa. Like you, she says she’s understood and is going to play something, but…. nothing. Radio, Spotify, everything is hopeless. Maybe connects one time in 10 attempts. And if I give a new instruction while she IS playing something, all that happens is that the volume drops right down for a minute or so, then the original content keeps playing. Spent 2 hours on the phone with support this morning. Couldn’t fix it. They sent me a long email of instructions. I did everything with great care. No good. This is rubbish!

R

Did you get this working. I have a similar issue where Roam won’t read me the news or play my Audible book using Alexa. It says it’s going to, but nothing happens. Both these things worked fine on my Sonos Move (and my Amazon Echos). It just seems to be Roam that’s not happy. It does play music from my Amazon account though using Alexa - so it half works! 

G

Solved my problems eventually by disabling Sonos skill on alexa and then re-enabling.

Maybe that will work for you (but I wouldn’t bet on it - hold the cigar).

I’ve got lots of older sonos kit and I’m now struggling to set up the sonos 1 app to use it.

 

nothing is ever easy with Sonos!

 

S

Same here - one of the main reason I bought Roam was to hear my flash briefing in the bathroom. Why is this not fixed yet?

C
Userlevel 3
Badge +3

Thanks, I’m in Australia. Sonos confirmed three weeks ago this was a fault they could replicate. I asked a week after that if it was fixed (it wasn’t) and I asked a week after that, and now again this morning.

 

Asking Alexa on the Move “What’s my flash briefing?” has a response saying “Here’s your flash briefing” and then nothing. No error, no explanation just silence.

 

Asking again Alexa replies “you’re already up to date”.

 

so flash briefing is not working still. 
 

And yes unfortunately I’ve done all the standard enabling and disabling and resetting which sadly is a common requirement between the Sonos skill and the app and the Alexa integration.

 

 

F
Badge

Wow - I have several Sonos products in my home. I bought a Roam to use during a 4week vacation and shipped it ahead of time to my destination. Set it up yesterday and have the same problems; no news, flash briefings, etc. I found this thread and have to say that it is disappointing that there is no fix. The product is virtually useless to me now and rather not carry it around on my vacation if I can’t use it. What is going on here, Sonos?

P
Badge

My Move wasn't working with Flash briefing yesterday and i’m based in the UK. One part of Sonos said no time frame for a fix and another part spent the last two months telling me it was my system configuration at fault.

As this fault is introduced with Sonos software releases and only exists on their bluetooth products I think the “we’re working with Amazon” is misleading. Amazon’s attitude is going to be that Sonos complies with Amazon’s  software not that Amazon will change to suit Sonos. Easy fix. Remove the part of the last S2 release that caused the problem. My Move worked for the period before the May21 S2 release. 

R
Userlevel 6
Badge +2

Came here to report the same problem.  On my Roam when I say “Alexa, flash briefing” she says “Here’s your flash briefing” and then I only get silence.  Asking Alexa to play an album works.

 

K
Userlevel 1

I am in New York and have an Alexa enabled Arc and move and am experiencing the same issue, so not limited to just Bluetooth devices. Super frustrating as both had been working since September of last year just fine until sometime in May/June. Bought an Echo dot and it works as expected so agree that something in the last release broke all the news/flash briefing. This is a core feature of Alexa, how Sonos released something that broke this and won’t give a timeline to fix instead of rolling back is bizarre. 
 

Also I spent about 6 hours on the phone with Amazon and Sonos, finally Sonos escalated to an engineer after I did all the previous mentioned steps on this chain dozens of times. Only to have an engineer tell me, “no need for a phone call we know about this and no eta.” So why wasn’t I just told that from the start when I called Sonos? Why is Alexa still green and “operational” on their status site when their engineers agree it isn’t operational?

I agree, roll back the release. They didn’t test enough. 

S

Alexa and BBC Sounds. What is going on? Per the script: “Alexa, open BBC Sounds”. She then asks which radio station, show or podcast would you like to hear? You tell her, she confirms and says “Playing BBC Radio 6 Music” then nothing, silence. I’ve tried Disabling the Skill then re-Enabling it. Nothing, What a frustrating and useless App….

Ken_Griffiths

I’m one of the many out there that face the same critical issue with the Alexa feature. Spent a lot of time trying the various workarounds over and over but without any luck. The speaker consistently fails to play requested songs despite acknowledging the command. This is highly frustrating as I specifically invested in the Roam for its Alexa functionality.  It is so disappointing to see this persistent issue without a conclusive resolution or official updates after all this time (noticed thread is 2 years old). For context, I also own a Sonos Beam with Alexa, which has not encountered similar problems, highlighting that this is a specific concern related to the Sonos Roam...

My two Roams are working fine with Alexa here…? It’s rare that they fail to play the requested audio. I have Amazon Music Unlimited set as my default music service FWIW.

Maybe check you have unique device names (and groups too) in the Alexa device list/App and that the device components (Speaker and Alexa component) are not duplicated in the Alexa App device list. Sometimes Alexa ‘enabled’ groups can be similarly named and give rise to the issue. 

It’s perhaps also worthwhile, removing and reinstalling the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App aswell, after removing, or renaming, anything Sonos-related within that App.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @CovertDirt 

Thanks for reporting this - we were able to reproduce the issue ourselves. I’ve asked for it to be fully investigated.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S

Same problem here. My Roam won’t play my flash briefing. But it will play music, tell me the weather,  and play podcasts just fine. My other Sonos device (Sonos One) plays my flash briefing. So not sure why the Roam won’t …..?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @CovertDirt 

Sorry - I’ve nothing more to share at this point, but we are working with Amazon on resolving this as quickly as we can.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
V

Same here with my brand new Roam. It plays music, but no news. When I ask to pause the music or whatever its playing, Alexa acknowledged, but no further action, it keeps playing whatever she’s playing.

Ken_Griffiths

After four days of attempting the suggested workarounds, including enabling and disabling the Sonos skill in the Alexa app, clearing devices and groups, I've only managed to get Alexa to work twice. Both times, it stopped functioning without any apparent reason after a while—no changes to the network, Alexa or Sonos app, and without closing the speaker (in fact, I disabled battery optimization to keep it active as much as possible). This is incredibly frustrating and appears to be a critical issue affecting a substantial number of customers, as one can see by searching the issue online. It's particularly surprising for a product of Sonos' quality, especially considering I don't encounter similar problems with other Sonos speakers I own (Beam, One). I eagerly anticipate an official update from Sonos on this matter, as it is a crucial problem that urgently needs resolution. Come on, Sonos...

If you’re not able to sort the matter then it maybe best to quickly reproduce the issue and then immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and then contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to resolve the matter or of course you could speak to Amazon Customer support. In my own case, everything is (and always has been) working fine here. Still works first time, every time, but maybe you have a hardware, or account fault. Give the customers services a call.

R
Userlevel 6
Badge +2

Hi @Razorhog 

As mentioned by the original poster, @sbg89, we are aware of an issue whereby Alexa will not play the flash briefing on a Sonos Roam. We are working with Amazon on a fix for this, but as yet we have no time frame to share. There is no workaround that we know of.

 

Any other issue with Alexa on Sonos will normally be resolved by the steps that @JimB004 took:

update… I have managed to get it to work again, I de-registered Sonos Roam in Alexa app, then disabled skill, then on Sonos App, removed Alexa voice assistant. Then added Alexa again on the App, connected to Amazon and it is now working again

Full, detailed instructions can be found on our Alexa commands not working on Sonos help page (under Advanced Fixes).

Thank you for the response. 

S
Userlevel 2

When I ask my move to play spotify (“alexa play spotify”)- it says “to play spotify enable the skill and link your account”. I have done both things but still not working.

G

Did you get this working. I have a similar issue where Roam won’t read me the news or play my Audible book using Alexa. It says it’s going to, but nothing happens. Both these things worked fine on my Sonos Move (and my Amazon Echos). It just seems to be Roam that’s not happy. It does play music from my Amazon account though using Alexa - so it half works! 

I’m having similar problems with my Roam.

if I ask the time I get the time.

if I ask for news/music it acknowledges the request but then nothing.

My echo dot and flex, when I ask, will respond with time/news/music correctly.

D

Same here. Spotify works, however for news, it acknowledges the request and nothing happens.


Followed the various “solutions”, i.e. de-register and re-enable but no cigar.

D

Same issue here, same error message. None of the suggestions in this thread have worked. I hope @sonos will respond and fix this quickly. 

F

I have the same problem with a Sonos Move, Alexa's flash briefing stopped working months ago and I tried the fixes mentioned with no luck. Super annoying, hope at some point they fix this...

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi everyone!

I’m a little late as I have been off for a couple of weeks, but the issue of Roam not playing flash briefings has been resolved.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S

Same problem here. Still not fixed. Have followed all troubleshooting steps. Alexa works on other Sonos devices, just not Roam. @sonos, any ETA?

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