Now here’s the thing.
In the bedroom I have a Amazon Echo. It answers to the wake up “Computer”. I can say “Computer, turn on the Bedroom lights” and low and behold my Philips Hue Lights glow in wonderful colours.
In the Sitting Room I have and expensive Sonos One. It answers to the wake up “Alexa” (so no conflict with the Amazon Echo). I can say “Alexa, turn on the Bedroom lights” and low and behold (after the annoying beep” NOTHING. Well actually the Sonos replies “Sorry I didn’t find a device called Bedroom lights” or sometimes it replies “Bedroom Sonos does not support that”.
How can a £35 Amazon product work perfectly every time yet after 6 months I can still not get my expensive Sonos speaker to do anything.
It seems, while reading this blog, that many many people have problems and Sonos is unable to resolve or even understand the issues.
Whilst I love your products for their quality and operation via the App I already hate them for their voice control. I worry that Sonos as a company will eventually fail if it does not provide intelligent and timely answers to customers problems.
I would welcome such constructive help with my problem (devices and skills have been removed and added several times without success).
Am I missing some setup instructions? Surely Sonos has produced written set-by-step instructions on how to get the stated features working.
HELP - ANYONE !!
Alexa Works but not Sonos
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Please note that this is a community forum, looking at your issue, your best bet would be to contact Sonos directly.
https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/contact
By the way, love that your wake-word is "Computer", nice Star Trek touch!
https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/contact
By the way, love that your wake-word is "Computer", nice Star Trek touch!
HELP - ANYONE !!
I guess you've named at least two devices "Bedroom". Giving each device a unique name should resolve the issue.
+2We've got four Philip's Hue bulbs in the Lounge. They are paired in pairs named Living Room Ceiling (Ceiling 1 & Ceiling 2) and Living Room Lamps (Lamp 1 and Lamp 2). Also in the lounge is a Sonos Beam with two Sonos One's configured as surrounds and are named as TV. A futher two Sonos One's are located in the Dining Room and Kitchen. In the bedroom is an Echo Spot. All have unique names (TV, Bedroom, Kitchen, Dinning Room).
I can say to any device "Alexa turn on Living Room Lamps". "Alexa set Living Room Lamps to green" . "Alexa turn off Lamp 1". All works perfectly.
In the Alexa App we've created a group call "Everything" into which TV, Living Room Lamps and Living Room Ceiling have been added. You can say "Alexa turn Everything off", and all the lights turn off, including the TV. Great when going up to bed.
Basic question, but is your Sonos One on the same network as your Hue Lights and the Echo?
You might try dissabling and re-enabling the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App.
There is a difference between Alexa commands in the Hue Skill for Rooms and Lights. To be fair, I use the Room cammands and not the light commands. I've not really tried using 'lights' in Alexa commands. I do think it comes down to naming. The Sonos One Alexa integration possibly doesn't know what lights are from any other device/room I suspect. If you've defined a Room in the Hue App called Bedroom, then saying "Alexa turn on Bedroom" would work rather than "Alexa turn on Bedroom lights". The Echo maybe more "intelligent" by virtue of it being an Amazon device. The Sonos One and an Echo are not functionally equivalent.
Last resort, have you tried saying to the Sonos One: "Alexa discover devices". This may help.
I can say to any device "Alexa turn on Living Room Lamps". "Alexa set Living Room Lamps to green" . "Alexa turn off Lamp 1". All works perfectly.
In the Alexa App we've created a group call "Everything" into which TV, Living Room Lamps and Living Room Ceiling have been added. You can say "Alexa turn Everything off", and all the lights turn off, including the TV. Great when going up to bed.
Basic question, but is your Sonos One on the same network as your Hue Lights and the Echo?
You might try dissabling and re-enabling the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App.
There is a difference between Alexa commands in the Hue Skill for Rooms and Lights. To be fair, I use the Room cammands and not the light commands. I've not really tried using 'lights' in Alexa commands. I do think it comes down to naming. The Sonos One Alexa integration possibly doesn't know what lights are from any other device/room I suspect. If you've defined a Room in the Hue App called Bedroom, then saying "Alexa turn on Bedroom" would work rather than "Alexa turn on Bedroom lights". The Echo maybe more "intelligent" by virtue of it being an Amazon device. The Sonos One and an Echo are not functionally equivalent.
Last resort, have you tried saying to the Sonos One: "Alexa discover devices". This may help.
Sorry for the long post but this type of issue is normally down to one of three things:
1/ Duplicate device names - Alexa prefers that names for Devices, Groups and Scenes are unique,
1.1/ Please open up the Alexa App>Smart Home and make a note of any duplicate device names;
1.2/ You can then change them in the source app. e.g. Use the Sonos App to change the name of Sonos players. (I personally use the naming standard Room Name + Device type. e.g. Kitchen Sonos, Kitchen Echo Dot, Lounge Sonos, etc)
1.3/ Once you have changed any duplicate names then please open the Alexa App on a Browser (https://alexa.amazon.co.uk or https://alexa.amazon.com)>Smart Home>Devices and select 'Forget All' followed by 'Discover'. NOTE: This will remove ALL Actions from ALL Alexa Routines! (Only the Browser version has this functionality.)
1.4/ 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
2/ 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 1 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/ Ensure that you don't have multiple Amazon accounts logged into different Apps on your device, as this can confuse the Amazon Authorisation. If yes, then please log out of the other 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 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'
3/ If the problem persists then an entire reset of the Authorisation & Account Linking process is required:
3.1/ In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and then 'Disable';
3.2 In the Alexa app (Browser version), select 'Smart Home>Devices'. Now select 'Forget All' at the bottom of the screen;
3.3/ In the Sonos app (Android or iOS), select Settings>Room Settings and for each of the Sonos One's sign into 'Voice Services' and select 'Remove Amazon Alexa from this Room';
3.4/ If you have any wired Sonos devices, please power down for 10 secs and then switch on and wait for it to boot;
3.5/ Now power down all other Sonos Players for 10 secs then switch them back on and wait for them to boot;
3.6/ In the Sonos app, Select Manage>Add a player or sub' and add the Sonos One's again. This will complete the set-up process again;
3.7/ In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills and ensure the Sonos skill is 'Enabled', if not please 'Enable';
3.8/ In the Alexa app , select Smart Home>Devices>Discover. Ensure that your Sonos One's are displayed correctly and not shown as 'Off Line'.
3.9/ Also check one last time that there are no devices with the same name. Remember, if there is a need to rename any then you'll need to select 'Discover' again.
Let us know how you get on.
1/ Duplicate device names - Alexa prefers that names for Devices, Groups and Scenes are unique,
1.1/ Please open up the Alexa App>Smart Home and make a note of any duplicate device names;
1.2/ You can then change them in the source app. e.g. Use the Sonos App to change the name of Sonos players. (I personally use the naming standard Room Name + Device type. e.g. Kitchen Sonos, Kitchen Echo Dot, Lounge Sonos, etc)
1.3/ Once you have changed any duplicate names then please open the Alexa App on a Browser (https://alexa.amazon.co.uk or https://alexa.amazon.com)>Smart Home>Devices and select 'Forget All' followed by 'Discover'. NOTE: This will remove ALL Actions from ALL Alexa Routines! (Only the Browser version has this functionality.)
1.4/ 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
2/ 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 1 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/ Ensure that you don't have multiple Amazon accounts logged into different Apps on your device, as this can confuse the Amazon Authorisation. If yes, then please log out of the other 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 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'
3/ If the problem persists then an entire reset of the Authorisation & Account Linking process is required:
3.1/ In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and then 'Disable';
3.2 In the Alexa app (Browser version), select 'Smart Home>Devices'. Now select 'Forget All' at the bottom of the screen;
3.3/ In the Sonos app (Android or iOS), select Settings>Room Settings and for each of the Sonos One's sign into 'Voice Services' and select 'Remove Amazon Alexa from this Room';
3.4/ If you have any wired Sonos devices, please power down for 10 secs and then switch on and wait for it to boot;
3.5/ Now power down all other Sonos Players for 10 secs then switch them back on and wait for them to boot;
3.6/ In the Sonos app, Select Manage>Add a player or sub' and add the Sonos One's again. This will complete the set-up process again;
3.7/ In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills and ensure the Sonos skill is 'Enabled', if not please 'Enable';
3.8/ In the Alexa app , select Smart Home>Devices>Discover. Ensure that your Sonos One's are displayed correctly and not shown as 'Off Line'.
3.9/ Also check one last time that there are no devices with the same name. Remember, if there is a need to rename any then you'll need to select 'Discover' again.
Let us know how you get on.
Thank you UKMedia. I will go through this a Step by Step in the next few days. What I do not understand is why, when everything works with my Alexa Dot, does it not work with Alexa on my Sonos One?.
From what I've seen, Alexa seems to try and take context into account. By that I mean that a smart home command may be handled slightly differently, when processed in the cloud, depending on where the command originated from. Obviously, alexa groups factor into this greatly, but I have seen certain commands work for one location but not another when alexa groups are not involved. As pointed out, changing the name of smart device will often resolve the issue.
And I wouldn't pin this issue on Sonos, even though it may look that way on the surface. Your voice commands are all processed in the Alexa cloud, regardless of which speaker you're talking to (unless I'm greatly mistaken). Afterall, your smart home settings are done in the Alexa app, with all the data stored in the cloud.
Well. After a couple of failed attempts everything is now working (Sonos and Hue lights). I think that using a browser (Safari on a Mac) to remove and re-install Devices and Skills may have been the answer. I tried this several times using the Alexa App on my iPad without success. So a big thank you for your help and if you are ever in Cornwall I will stand you a pint or two 🙂
🙂 Glad everything is working.
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