Beam Mic Picks Up "Hey Google" but Not "Alexa"

  • 13 November 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 59 views

Hi everyone,

I primarily use Alexa as my voice control. I've had the Beam (1st gen) for the last 6 months and the mic and Alexa worked just fine.  The mic was sensitive but not too much. Today, the mic sensitivity suddenly plunged. I have to stand directly above the Beam and yell "Alexa" for Alexa to recognize the wake command. 

The only change was last night I added Alexa to my Samsung q60t TV but removed it when I noticed the mic sensitivity drop. 

Google Assistant works just fine with no mic sensitivity issues. 

I've seen plenty of posts regarding poor mic sensitivity on Sonos devices for Alexa and I've done the following:

- remove Alexa from Beam via Sonos App. 

- deregister and delete Beam from Alexa

- deregister and delete Samsung TV from Alexa

- deregister and delete all other Alexa devices (an Echo and Dot)

- Factory reset of Beam

- Repairing Beam with Alexa.

No luck with the above. Called Sonos and they said to call Amazon support.  They offered the same fixes with no luck. 

Wondering if anyone has run into this issue and if there are any suggestions for a fix?

Thank you!


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3 replies

I’ve not run into the issues mentioned, but I do use the Alexa voice assistant on most of the Sonos products here, including a Beam (gen1). Definitely no sensitivity issues, but it seems odd that you are having such issues on your Samsung TV, aswell as your Beam .. and that things work with Google, ‘perhaps’ inferring it’s something local, relating to Amazon services where you are, or possibly an account-based issue. 

Have you considered using a different Amazon Account (temporarily) to see if that makes any difference to what you’re seeing - you will just need to sign out of your Alexa App to log into the temporary account and then setup that login to use with your Sonos devices (Sonos Skill) to see if that solves your issue. At the very least it might help to show/eliminate the matter as being an Amazon account issue.

Thank you for the reply. This makes sense. I will give it a shot and report back.

Problem solved.  (Sorry for the delay for anyone having similar problems).

1. Set up a household account for Amazon (this step can be skipped as long as you have another Alexa account to use)

2. Deregister Beam

3. Hard reset Beam

4. Set up Beam with new Sonos app (used wife's. probably not necessary but did it anyway).

5. Link Beam to Alexa with a different Alexa account (in my case it was my wife's account).

This won't let you use devices registered to your Alexa account though so...

6. Once Alexa is set up and if Amazon Household is set up, ask to switch accounts to your account from the other person's account (this account switching feature is built into all Alexa devices and works if household is set up)

Everything is now working and voice sensitivity is normal on the device. I have full control over all other smart home devices via the Beam. 

 

I don't know what caused this problem but glad it's fixed for now!