Reluctantly, I disabled the Alexa skill for Sonos today. The whole house ducking was causing too many complaints form everyone in the house. Ducking a Sonos speaker in a room so far away from the person using Alexa just doesn't make sense. I really would like to use voice commands with Sonos; but I guess I will have to wait even longer for Sonos to correct this problem. I have three Echo dots connected to Sonos either through line-in jacks or Connects. This was originally done to work around the Audible issue. The bonus of doing this was that all output from the Dots sounded great going through the Sonos speakers. Even, simple things like: "Alexa, what is the weather?" sound very good. Well, they don't with ducking, because you can't hear them at all now. Perhaps the long-term fix is to assign Alexa devices to specific Sonos products. A short-term fix would be to add the option of turning ducking off. I would be willing to accept that Alexa might not be able to hear me with this option.

Ducking | Sonos Community

You don’t have to disable the skill.

Enable the skill.

Then go into alexa app. Go to smarthome section. Click on non-Sonos one speaker and hit the trash can top right to delete it. Delete all your non-Sonos one speakers this way. Now only the Sonos One speakers have the skill and others will not duck.

Except that Alexa automatically rediscovers those speakers on a schedule — they don't stay gone. It's even mentioned by Sonos employees higher up in this very thread.

https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/ducking-6792257/index1.html#post16161897

Never noticed happening but I beleive you. Hopefully we see next release addressing very soon.

Given that it's been months so far with no response from Sonos I'm not holding my breath.

Good grief please get the 'fix' to this out. With 12 Sonos and 8 Alexa devices this is no fun. It's a real buzz kill when music you are enjoying ducks. Ands it's worse if you are using the new Alexa ability to do follow-on commands (currently US only) as the ducking stays on until Alexa is certain you have no further commands.

Hopefully we see something soon. Sonos has publically stated they wish to resolve this correctly

With the proliferation of Alexa devices, this ducking has become a major annoyance. We have five Sonos zones including one Sonos One, two Echo Dots, and now an Ecobee Switch+ with Alexa. Our family room TV plays through a Sonos Connect:Amp. So if the kids are watching TV, and I ask the Swtich+ in the bedroom about the weather, the sound on the TV ducks. Very, very annoying. I understand that Alexa doesn't know where each Sonos is, so it just ducks them all. But it can't be that hard to group or link a Sonos zone to a specific Alexa device, so the ducking is tied to that device?

Not hard but requires pieces to be done at both Sonos and Amazon levels in order to provide functionality and the facilities to make that grouping. And they have said they are working on just that.

If Sonos is contemplating fixing this, it needs to be flexible. I have five Sonos devices and four Echo devices across four rooms. Because Sonos won't allow streaming of SiriusXM to more than one group, I often have to re-group my Sonos devices, depending on where i need to listen. Really, there should be some association between an Echo device and a Sonos device (or devices) so that the concept of physical location is maintained, otherwise any solution would be useless to me, and I'd have to keep this skill disabled.

If it is anything like the other associated groups on the Alexa app, you should be able to assign an Echo device to a Sonos device (or devices) and only they will duck when Alexa is used on the Echo.

@jgatie:

Nope - doesn't work, but yes, you can group devices in "Groups". Has no effect on the ducking issue - talking to Alexa in the kitchen ducks Sonos in the bedroom. Thanks for pointing out the grouping, though. Will be useful if Sonos (or Amazon) ever fixes this.

I wasn't claiming that it would work now. I was just saying that is the mechanism by which Alexa assigns default devices to particular Echos now.

Frankly I would like the option, at Sonos Speaker level to enable or disable Ducking completely. this could either be through the Sonos or Alexa App. the value of Ducking is significantly reduced given that she does not reply via the Sonos system anyway. so if i ask about the weather only the Echo devise can answer, so likely i need to be in that room. Please address ASAP

I haven't visited this topic in a while. Has there been any update on a fix for ducking?

Hi there, mwiseman. Thanks for checking in. No news to share regarding this just yet. In the meantime, be sure to keep current on Sonos Controller app updates!

I will be sure to update this thread with any new information as it becomes available.

Really would be useful. Cheers

Is ducking fixed?

Not that I've seen. And I've had ticket response as recently as today saying "We cannot inform on any work being doing in this regard, but I can setup your feedback as a feature request."

So I too am disabling the Alexa skill.

I have also posted reviews on several sites disclosing this. I think the only way we'll see movement here is if the community starts to reflect this in the reviews. Clearly after 9 months it's not a priority for Sonos and Amazon.

Count me in as someone who disabled Alexa integers tip. due to the ridiculous, music-hating, experience-killing ducking of the entire house no matter the purpose. I can't stand it, and it makes me feel like I wasted money buy going with a Sonos One (yes, there are other benefits -- you know, like the AirPlay 2 support that killed my lock screen controls).

Sonos was the amazing system for the rest of us, the ones that wanted something that sounded great and gave us the whole house experience in a manner that just worked. The more and more Sonos integrates with third parties beyond the music services themselves, the more compromises there are. It really bums me out.

It is bizarre that the skill was released with such an obvious flaw. A time frame to a fix would be nice, but that never seems to be sonos's way, worse than my industry (nuclear) at letting people know what's going on.

Probably need to badger Amazon as well, I'm sure they have a big part to play in the delay.

For those who missed the automation news, the new Sonos integration with IFTTT allows some voice control without using the direct Alexa integration and its horrible ducking problem. Using IFTTT to mix Alexa with Sonos is not nearly as flexible, but it's gotten my family a fair chunk of what we wanted from Alexa voice control of Sonos. Plus it supports some things the Alexa integration doesn't, like playing a Sonos Favorite consisting of music from your local collection.

See the recent item named "If This Then Sonos" in the Announcements category for more.

It's frankly disgusting that after nearly a year they can't fix this. Count me as another user for whom Sonos has dropped from being something I'd actively recommend to now a system I'd advise people to avoid.

And now Amazon have announced their sub option for Echo's, I hope Sonos lose out big time in sales as their products don't deserve to succeed currently.

Hi there, mwiseman. Thanks for checking in. No news to share regarding this just yet. In the meantime, be sure to keep current on Sonos Controller app updates!

I will be sure to update this thread with any new information as it becomes available.

I accidently accepted this answer. I don't think that this thread should be marked as answered yet.

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