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Alexa will not stop playing or pause

  • 3 August 2019
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94 replies

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7
Hi Disco Stu

I'm gong to respond to your issue but not in the same order as you posted.

Also, the Beam is working properly but in the Sonos app, I don't specifically see the Beam listed as a speaker. I think it might simply be labeled "Living Room?" I'm not sure if I should see the Beam specifically?

Just exactly what are you seeing in the Sonos app for Living Room? Are there any question (?) marks present.

All had been working well but suddenly, Alexa will not stop or pause playing by voice command. I can say "Alexa, play NPR" and it will respond properly. I can say "Alex Louder" and "Alex Lower" and the volume will adjust. But when I say "Alexa Stop" (which is what I've been saying since day one) or "Alexa Pause" it will simply make the command chime and keep playing.

Have you tried voicing the stop or pause command by saying..."Alexa stop (name of service here)" or "Alexa pause (name of service here)".

Let us know. Cheers!
Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
J

Hey all,

I'm having the same issue but, for me, it seems to be specifically when listening to NPR. I've tried all of the "fixes" in the thread and the only one that seems to work is playing the specific station. I'm new to the Sonos world and am eager to build out my home system but these little, crazy annoying bugs make me pause at spending the money. The sound is great but the voice commands should f-ing work on a high-end device, amiright?

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7
Hi Disco Stu

Sorry about the confusion with the instructions. Your comment "I have a Sonos Beam in my living room in a group with two Gen 1 Sonos One speakers and a Sonos Sub." threw me off. I should have realized that you meant the Beam was bonded with the Sonos Ones and sub.

As the Beam controls all speakers bonded to it you are correct that the Sonos app had nothing to connect to. Had the Sonos One's been independent it would have found them as they were still plugged in. The Beam being unplugged would not have prevented the app from connecting

Group means that you have speakers that are independent and only brought together (i.e. grouped) when you want them to be.

At this juncture I suggest you submit a diagnostic, post the reference ID in this forum and then call Sonos or contact them via Twitter.
Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
D
Userlevel 1
Badge +2

Alexa won’t ‘Stop’ my Sonos music either (two different Beams) but saying ‘Alexa Cancel’ seems to pause it.  Why Sonos can’t get this figure out after TWO YEARS should embarrass someone…. 

D
Userlevel 1
Badge
Sorry for the confusion, as I'm not 'm not familiar with the vernacular specific to Sonos.

How do I "submit a diagnostic, post the reference ID in this forum and then call Sonos?"

I do not have a Twitter account nor will I establish one.
jgatie
Sorry for the confusion, as I'm not 'm not familiar with the vernacular specific to Sonos.

How do I "submit a diagnostic, post the reference ID in this forum and then call Sonos?"

I do not have a Twitter account nor will I establish one.


Diagnostic:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/141?language=en_US
S

Just got a Sonos one today and I have the exact same problem with Alexa. She will play NPR but will not stop with any combination of cancel, stop or pause. I have tried removing the skill, disconnecting Alexa in the Sonos app and restarting the speaker to no avail. Very annoying for a first time use of the product. I am glad I found this forum post via google search. I have uploaded diagnostics with id 776055293. I hope I can get some help and get this fixed. If not I will just return it and move on. 
 

 

T

Hi!

 

My Sonos One does not respond to anything that belongs to stopping or pausing playback.

I have read the whole topic about that Problem and I tried everything, even resetting my One entirely.

Could someone please help me, Sonos devs?

I now Uploaded a diag -> 1329131319

J
Userlevel 1
Badge

Problem still exist. If I reboot my play 1, it will start working for a few days and then it acts up again and won't stop Amazon music. It's extremely frustrating as we use the Sonos to listen to music while getting ready and are use Alexa to stop the music quickly (as we're mostly in a rush). 

The fact is that there is a problem and multiple people are experiencing it (whether Sonos chooses to address it or not). I should not have to jump through a flaming hoop every week to get my device working properly. The Play 1 that I referenced is not within easy reach and unplugging/replugging requires moving the bed.

P

Hi JRM523,

 

My problem has gone away. I had a local radio station app installed on alexa and once removed my sonos devices work as expected. I now play the local radio station via tune in.

 

I will say for the most part Sonos support were useless, one guy had me plugging and unplugging devices and then decided my internet connection was not good enough. The last person I spoke with had a better idea and I took from the conversation that some 3rd party apps cause problems and its essential to complete all updates.

T

Hi!

 

My Sonos One does not respond to anything that belongs to stopping or pausing playback.

I have read the whole topic about that Problem and I tried everything, even resetting my One entirely.

Could someone please help me, Sonos devs?

I now Uploaded a diag -> 1329131319


Ok i now completely disconnected my One from Alexa app and from Sonos.
I then uninstalled both apps and resetted my One.

 

I actually got two One’s. I then installed them both at the same step freshly in sonos app.

I connected amazon music and alexa in the Sonos app.

I installed alexa app and activated the sonos skill and let it discover my devices.

At first only one “One” was found but after a second search i found my second One.

 

Now Alexa works fine (Play, Stop, etc).

(Im from Ger, so my commands are in german lang)

 

Im scared of rebooting my One’s because im expecting that Stop-Problem to come back..

If i do not reply within the next couple hours, this can be considered solved! (at least for me)

D
Userlevel 1
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Diagnostic Reference ID Number:

1442781379
M

I have a Sonos beam grouped with two One SLs grouped as surround sound for the television. Alexa was fine until i invested in two Sonos Ones for the kitchen and breakfast room - which are grouped. Alexa then refused to respond to the stop command on what seemed a random basis across the devices. The pause command however, did work. Attempting to address the problem via the suggested solutions (complex and tedious)  has simply made matters worse. The main issue now is that whilst i can invoke services on the tv group it is impossible to terminate them with any command and Alexa claims not to understand what pause means! have spent hours on this and finally admitted defeat. Sonos tout Alex as a major feature for their products. It does not work. Fix it please.

 

SkiBuddy
Userlevel 1
Badge +2

Stop, Pause, Cancel would not work this weekend for me either when playing from Amazon Music to a Sonos One (Gen I). Light flashed white but then music just continued playing. Pressing the Play/Pause button on the top did stop the music. In a different room on a different Sonos One the music did stop but when asking Alex to play or resume she stated that “resume is not supported on this device”. Two things seemed to work, firstly “Alex Stop in Livingroom” and secondly power cycling both the devices. Strange, but that’s software for you.

Good thing no cheap, cheap thing no good.
SkiBuddy
Userlevel 1
Badge +2

Update: Resume only works if I say Alexa “Resume on <Room Name>” otherwise I get the message “resume is not supported”.

Good thing no cheap, cheap thing no good.
V

*!!!Thanks Firewater,*** your process help me solve the issue with took me the whole day to figure out.

“ step 1: in the Sonos amp remove amazon music.

step 2: disable Sonos skill in the Alexa app and remove all sonos speakears froms your groups

step 3: either using the amazon app or the webpage go to device and contents section and deregister each Sonos device found those three steps takes about 1 min.

step 4: factory reset all devices all but one. (This will make added devices back quicker)

step 5: in Sonos app go to settings>system>add device add all speakers. Then Factory reset the last speaker and add it back (for me this took about 4 mins for three devices)

step 6: add amazon music back in Sonos app

Step 7: add Sonos skill back in the Alexa app

step 8: run discover if the Alexa app didn’t do it. You can do so by voice command or via Alexa app.

You should be able to test the system now. This error is possibly an issues between Sonos systems and amazon servers. The factory reset forces a new connection between Sonos and amazon servers. I’m not sure if a software update can do it alone. This could be sonos’s fault but could also be Amazon’s fault. “

D
Userlevel 1
Badge
I have found a work around:

I spent a lot of time on the phone with Sonos tech support, who was not able to resolve the issue.

After speaking with Sonos, I experimented and determined that if I ask Alexa to play a specific NPR station (eg "Alexa, play WNYC"), the the station will play and the "Stop" command will be recognized.

If I say simple "Alexa play NPR" the same station will play but the "Stop" command will be ignored.

I have no idea why this is happening but requesting the station call letters is the only semi-solution to the problem I've found.
G

 

hi Alex, I am using 2 Sonos Play One speakers. I have disabled Alexa on one and uninstalled and installed Alexa on the other.

 Stop used to work. It works for timer still. I tried Stop ABC RN and Stop ABC Radio National but neither work. Alexa says playing ABC RN on Tunein Radio app when I give the command.

Just to clarify. I meant when I give the command to ‘play ABC RN’ or ABC Radio National Alexa responds saying ‘playing ABC Radio National On Tune In app'’ and the station is played but  Alexa will not respond to stop or stop abc rn or other similar commands . Alexa responds to stop when the timer goes off.

 

R

Alexa “STOP” is a crucial command for all Alexa enabled Sonos products and the “STOP” command is working fine in all my (8) rooms with a separate Amazon Echo device. However, the “STOP” command does not work on my (3) kids Sonos One Gen2, but voice commands like “PLAY” & “MUTE” ++ works fine.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the reason for not fixing the faulty product or giving this community a real explaination about the problem, is due to the poor cooperation between Sonos and Amazon - not the best partnership maybe? 

I planned to upgarde all my devices to Gen2, but without a real and honest feedback from Sonos and a promise for a permanent fix for the above bug, flaw, fault (including fix date), I will not. I’ve heard the same from other Sonos users as well…

 

 

P

Same issue here wrt inability to stop/pause/cancel. Like everyone else this has worked flawlessly for 12-18 months and in the last 30-60 days completely flaked out. Extremely disappointing, I hope Sonos dev is treating this as a high priority issue and working on resolution, this is needless to say core functionality of the system.

jgatie

Factory resetting of Sonos devices is NEVER needed except in very special circumstances, and it erases important diagnostic information.  A reboot will suffice. 

 

Factory Reset: What you need to know

 

 

P
Userlevel 3
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This started working on most of my Sonos speakers after upgrading to the new Sonos 2 app.  Some still refuse to accept the commands, however

D
Userlevel 1
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I started this thread 7 months ago.  There has been no fix.  I have gotten in the habit of saying “Play WNYC” instead of “Play NPR.”

 

I’m not a Sonos engineer but saying “Play NPR” seemingly uses some kind of “skill” that is flawed and will not allow the user to stop or pause play.

 

Saying “Play WNYC” apparently uses TuneIn to stream the station, and pause and stop work as they should.

UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Hi.  Okay, can you submit a diagnostic and post the number in this thread?

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
F
Badge

Done - from the mobile app.

Ref. number: 1646197812

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