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Amazon Alexa and Sonos Only Working In Some Rooms

  • 18 October 2017
  • 15 replies
  • 1941 views
Rwbennet
Hi All,

I am having a problem, that after searching the support community nobody seems to be having so I am hoping you can help.

My System

Bedroom (2 x Play 1’s set up as a stereo pair)
Kitchen (2 x Play 1’s set up as a stereo pair)
Portable (1 x Play 5)
Living Room (1 x Playbar, 1 x Subwoofer, 2 x Play 3’s set as surrounds)


I have 3 echo dots, one in the Living room, bedroom and kitchen.

I have set up my sonos system on the Alexia app and all rooms are seen in the devices section of the app and all account linking went as it should have.

When a ask Alexia to play music in the Bedroom or on Portable all voice commands work as they should but if I ask Alexa to play music in the kitchen or the living room she replies in exactly the same way as for the Bedroom or Portable but no music plays. I have done all the usual, rebooting everything including the router, disabling the skill in the app and setting it up again but I have exactly the same outcome, could you please advise if there is anything else I could try?

Kind regards

Richard

P.S. I have submitted a diagnostic report and email to Sonos so will update this topic if I get a reply.
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Best answer by Ryan S 24 October 2017, 23:38

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15 replies

C
I have just logged a very similar issue, one device works and another doesn't. They both used to work during the beta program.
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
If you change the room name for a room that doesn't work and re-discover, does it start working again?

The reboots and skill toggle are great starts, they tend to help with device discovery.

@Rwbennet, you'll be getting a reply via email too, so please feel free to follow up there if you've tested some more things out.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
Rwbennet
Hi Ryan,

Thank you for your suggestion and I can see where your going with the possibility of naming issues / conflicts. So I change the Sonos kitchen group name to Den and I have checked that I have no other smart / non smart amazon devices with that name on my network, then forgot all devices then discovered all devices in the Alexa app and tried to play on Den and as before, she understands and responds correctly saying "Shuffling songs by Adele on Den" but still no sound.

So just to double check / prevent naming issues I have now changed the three echo dots and the three Fire TV boxes from the "Room name" Fire TV / Echo Dot to just Fire TV / Echo Dot "Number" then I forgot all devices and then discovered them again but still the same outcome.

I have done further testing, so if I give Alexa the command to start plying something in the Living Room which she confirms with the correct response but nothing plays then ask her to play something in the Bedroom she will say Amazon music is streaming on another device and ask if I want to stream to the new device and if I say yes it will then start playing in the Bedroom. It appears Alexa believes she has routed the stream correctly but the Sonos is not playing it.

So to re-cap I can do exactly what I want to do using the "Portable" (Play 5 speaker) or "Bedroom" (2 x Play 1's Group) and you can see the play status changing on the Sonos app on my PC for the different rooms including album art and artist information in real time just not on the Living Room Group or the Kitchen group.

I am happy to try anything else you may have to suggest, or please call on one of my account contact numbers if you prefer.

Kind regrads

Richard
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Thanks for the details Richard. I just pulled up the diagnostic you submitted and the first thing really standing out is that your wireless environment is having a lot of trouble. This might not be the cause of the issue you're having, but it definitely is something we should address for the future. Have you tried changing the wireless channel for Sonos?

Also, version 8.1 just launched, so I'd suggest updating your system, then tell Alexa to discover devices.

Let us know how it goes.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
Dirk_7
Userlevel 2
Badge +1
OK, I figured it out. I had the same problem - Alexa would not control 3 of my 6 Sonos-equipped rooms, but played the others fine. Problem was my rooms called "Bedroom", "Media Room" and "Living Room". In each of these I have a cheap Kindle Fire that I use as a remote controller / display for my Sonos there. And I called them...you guessed it, "Bedroom", "Media Room" and "Living Room". I renamed my Kindle Fires to be something else, and now Alexa finds my Sonos systems in those rooms and can control them. You're welcome!
Airgetlam
I suspect this will be a repeating story for the rest of time. I had the same problem (two Kitchens, two Bedrooms, two Computer Rooms). Took some finagling and thought to come up with different names for all devices.
Bruce
D
One other thing to try. Open your Sonos App on your Mac, PC, Phone etc and check that nothing is queued or playing. Clear the queues and see if that solves the problem.
S
Userlevel 7
Badge +15
I'm really struggling getting it to play consistently in a room I select. I can look in the Alexa browser and the command it shows is usually exactly what I've said but it usually plays from the Dot. One thing I've found out is it really doesn't like rooms with 'Play' in the name. eg I only have one Play 3 so the device is called just that. When I tell it to "Play Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd on the Play 3" it has never worked. Changed the device name to Living Room and it's fine.
I have another called Adam Play 1 and it won't work to that. Or to Adam 1.
Interesting that songs or albums added via voice are not added to the queue. 😞
Rwbennet
Hi Ryan and everybody else who has joined in.

I have do some further investigations.

After installing version 8.1 there was no difference, until I rebooted all the Sonos hardware then forgot and re-discovered the Alexa devices again, now all will play in any rooms.

It is obvious naming is an area where Sonos and Alexa hardware must not overlap.

However I am able to make the system fall over if I try and stream to more than one room from the Amazon service. It appears that when Alexa asks if you want to stop the stream from the old device and start on the new one it sometimes works and shows in the change in Sonos app but on other occasions it does not show in the app then just does not play. If it is showing in the queue in that room you can end session and then try again which sometimes works but if that fails I can get it all working again by restarting the Sonos hardware, forgetting and discovering the devices in the Alexa app.

Ryan, I have switched to channel 6 in the Sonos app, could you tell me anymore about the issues you are seeing on my wireless network? I have recently swapped out my old free router for a TP-Link Archer VR2600 dual band router which has made a difference to other hardware on the network but is it cause interference on the Sonos network, if so should I connect my Sonos system using the WiFI setup?

Here is the report number for the diagnostics since the update 7983363 also my email to technical support who have answered also [Incident: 171018-001241]

Many thanks to all.

Kind regards

Richard
N
I have a similar naming issue, however I get dirrent results to th eabove. I have two echo dots, one called 'Bar' and one called 'Cinema'. I have two Sonos Play 3's, one called 'Bar' and one called 'Cinema'. When I say 'play music in the bar', it plays through the dot, when I say 'play music in the cinema', it plays through the Sonos. Whats up with that?!

Ive tried renaming and rediscovering, but always seems to play any cinema request through the Sonos, but a Bar request through the dot....
Rwbennet
Hi,

I would recommend you name the Sonos speakers as the name of each room, then name the echo dots, dot 1 and dot 2.

Then in your Alexa app, forget all the devices, restart all your Sonos hardware then discover the devices again and all should work just fine.

Good luck.

Richard
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
That channel is definitely getting a lot of interference, it might be good to try running Sonos on the wireless if you want to give that a shot.

For troubleshooting purposes, it's best to keep everything in one place, so maybe update that email ticket you have and you can work with the technician there. That might be for the best.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
N
I have the same problem, kitchen sonos will not play... I have 3 fire tv devices but none of them are named kitchen, I've rebooted, disconnected the skill several times but no luck.... Worked fine before the update, I was on the beta
Diagnostics ref. 7998065
Keith N
Userlevel 7
Badge +19
Hi there, Neil Cooper. Thanks for the diagnostic report, the system is looking great on our end. I suspect it has to be something to do with the Amazon Alexa account and the Sonos devices registered. One thing you may find success with is working with one of our technicians on the phone. They can set up a remote session and the two of you can go to the alexa.amazon.com website and look at your device registration.

Our contact information can be found here.
N
I have the same problem, kitchen sonos will not play... I have 3 fire tv devices but none of them are named kitchen, I've rebooted, disconnected the skill several times but no luck.... Worked fine before the update, I was on the beta
Diagnostics ref. 7998065
One of my sonos ZP80s didn't have the correct location and time zone set, fixing this in the alexa app seemed to solve the problem, strangely, it was the ZP80 which was working correctly which didn't have the time zone set... but this fixed my problem
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