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Ducking not entirely working yet?

S
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  • Seeky
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So as I understand the new ducking possibilies which rolled out some months ago, all speakers within an Alexa group should duck.

I have the following speakers:

  • 1x Play One SL stereo pair
  • 1x Play:5 stereo pair
  • 1x Play One
  • 1x Echo Dot 2nd Gen

All three Sonos are in a group, and also selected as “Preferred Speaker”

The Sonos One and the Echo Dot are selected as Alexa enabled devices.

 

When I talk to the Dot all speakers duck, when I talk to the Sonos One only the Sonos One ducks?

That does not seem right. Due to another bug i have undergone a full factory reset of all speakers, so it probably is an issue everyone is having? Can anyone confirm?

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Best answer by Ryan S 11 June 2020, 19:54

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47 replies

L
Userlevel 2

I have a Play 5 in the kitchen and an Echo Dot (both included in Kitchen Group). The Play 5 no longer ducks when I speak to Alexa or she speaks to me and I can’t hear what she’s saying. It used to work fine. Can you help please. I’ve tried everything. 

Ryan S
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Hey @Ryan S well done guys, can confirm that the ducking works now :hugging:

The other bug I’ve mentioned is still there though. When you try to issue commands while it’s currently announcing the playback of some music, it won’t accept any commands and tell you to activate the skill.

I’m checking in on that other one and I’ll let you know when I hear more.

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Ryan S
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The ducking issue should be all fixed now for everyone. So go ahead and set up your Alexa groups as you want and the Sonos One should duck devices as expected.

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S
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Hey @Ryan S well done guys, can confirm that the ducking works now :hugging:

The other bug I’ve mentioned is still there though. When you try to issue commands while it’s currently announcing the playback of some music, it won’t accept any commands and tell you to activate the skill.

Ryan S
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Hi @Seeky, the fix for this issue will be Alexa cloud based, not Sonos software, but I’ve heard that some changes that should resolve this are rolling out this week. I don’t have an official all clear yet, but I’ll let you all know when I’ve heard that you should be set.

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S
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Hey @Ryan S I’ve seen that the issue with skipping tracks has been resolved. Do you have any update on this issue here as well?

@Ryan S Unfortunately the S2 update has not resolved the issue. The Arc does not duck other speakers either, like the One doesn’t.

Do you have any progress to share? I got the impression we have a key feature not working here.

S
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Hey @Ryan S I’ve seen that the issue with skipping tracks has been resolved. Do you have any update on this issue here as well?

Ryan S
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I think so, but I don’t have a timeline, just being positive :)

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S
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Just to update you, the expected behavior is as I mentioned, that the One should cause the other devices to drop in volume as well. Seems there’s a bug preventing that from happening correctly and the team is looking into it now. I’ll let you know when I hear more.

Hey @Ryan S I’ve preordered the new Arc, do you think the issue might get fixed for the launch of the S2 OS?

Ryan S
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I’ll mention it to the team for you, Seeky!

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S
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Thanks Ryan.  Good to know that that is how it should be and no doubt will again be the case.

I wondered whether this could be linked to the other current Alexa issue of not skipping tracks. Seems unlikely though, as that arises only where Alexa was used to initiate play, whereas the ducking issue seems to arise irrespective of how the play was started

 

I think it’s not related. I first discovered this issue in february when I changed my room setup. The issue most likely exists quite a while already. The skipping issue started two or three weeks ago.

 

@Ryan S I don’t wanna be greedy or anything, but since your developers are opening their workspaces to fix two Alexa issues already, maybe they can have a look at another issue?

When you ask Alexa to play a song, and then ask to play a song again, while the speaker is answering what is going to be played you’ll receive the answer : “Hmm to do that enable your Sonos Skill in the
Alexa app, After enabling the skill just say, Alexa discover devices.”  It also happens if you ask to play music while there is any other speech output.

This is 100% repdroducible, maybe there is an easy fix, it’s quite annoying. Thank you :wink:

J

Thanks Ryan.  Good to know that that is how it should be and no doubt will again be the case.

I wondered whether this could be linked to the other current Alexa issue of not skipping tracks. Seems unlikely though, as that arises only where Alexa was used to initiate play, whereas the ducking issue seems to arise irrespective of how the play was started

Ryan S
Userlevel 7
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Just to update you, the expected behavior is as I mentioned, that the One should cause the other devices to drop in volume as well. Seems there’s a bug preventing that from happening correctly and the team is looking into it now. I’ll let you know when I hear more.

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S
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Hey guys, I’m checking in with the team right now to confirm what the expected situation should be, just to make sure I get you the correct information. I believe that currently the Sonos One should also be ducking devices in that group, though it doesn’t sound like it is right now. I’ll let you know for sure if that’s the case though when I hear back from the team.


Thanks so much Ryan, helpful as aways :sunglasses:

Ryan S
Userlevel 7
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Hey guys, I’m checking in with the team right now to confirm what the expected situation should be, just to make sure I get you the correct information. I believe that currently the Sonos One should also be ducking devices in that group, though it doesn’t sound like it is right now. I’ll let you know for sure if that’s the case though when I hear back from the team.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
S
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Hmm okay, I’ll open a support ticket and ask them for clarification. Now it’s kinda easy to explain what does not work

 

Sonos does read these threads.  I would be surprised if they don’t chime in sometime today.


My last hope usually is @Ryan S 

The experience with support for me usually was “you did something wrong, remove all and re-add it, and if that doesn’t work make a factory reset”

Never had the impression they actually tried to reproduce a bug with their own hardware.

 

Well, it’s 7:30 AM in Ryan’s timezone.  I think he might need a couple more hours to wake up. 

Won’t be an issue, the reply from support was that they have too many mails and need 72 hours to answer. They suggest to post here instead anyway ;)

melvimbe

Hmm okay, I’ll open a support ticket and ask them for clarification. Now it’s kinda easy to explain what does not work

 

Sonos does read these threads.  I would be surprised if they don’t chime in sometime today.


My last hope usually is @Ryan S 

The experience with support for me usually was “you did something wrong, remove all and re-add it, and if that doesn’t work make a factory reset”

Never had the impression they actually tried to reproduce a bug with their own hardware.

 

Well, it’s 7:30 AM in Ryan’s timezone.  I think he might need a couple more hours to wake up. 

Danny
S
Userlevel 4
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Hmm okay, I’ll open a support ticket and ask them for clarification. Now it’s kinda easy to explain what does not work

 

Sonos does read these threads.  I would be surprised if they don’t chime in sometime today.


My last hope usually is @Ryan S 

The experience with support for me usually was “you did something wrong, remove all and re-add it, and if that doesn’t work make a factory reset”

Never had the impression they actually tried to reproduce a bug with their own hardware.

melvimbe

Hmm okay, I’ll open a support ticket and ask them for clarification. Now it’s kinda easy to explain what does not work

 

Sonos does read these threads.  I would be surprised if they don’t chime in sometime today.

Danny
S
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Ryan’s comments seem to me to refer to using Amazon devices for control, not Alexa-enabled Sonos devices, so i don’t think anything we have found contradicts what he said.

But I think in the third bullet point above the intended meaning of ‘Alexa-enabled device’ is ‘Amazon device’, because it is contrasted with ‘Sonos devices’.

 

I am not sure what you are trying to say. Do you mean they wrote “Alexa-enabled device” but meant “Amazon device” instead?

I was sure I purchased an “Alexa-enabled device” when buying the Sonos One, so I’d expect this feature to work as described in the knowledge base.

Indeed you did.  I can only speculate as to what Sonos meant, but I don’t think what is written here is correct.  Either that, or we are all doing something wrong.

Hmm okay, I’ll open a support ticket and ask them for clarification. Now it’s kinda easy to explain what does not work

melvimbe

Indeed you did.  I can only speculate as to what Sonos meant, but I don’t think what is written here is correct.  Either that, or we are all doing something wrong.

 

I’m not doing anything wrong!  :slight_smile:

Danny
J

Ryan’s comments seem to me to refer to using Amazon devices for control, not Alexa-enabled Sonos devices, so i don’t think anything we have found contradicts what he said.

But I think in the third bullet point above the intended meaning of ‘Alexa-enabled device’ is ‘Amazon device’, because it is contrasted with ‘Sonos devices’.

 

I am not sure what you are trying to say. Do you mean they wrote “Alexa-enabled device” but meant “Amazon device” instead?

I was sure I purchased an “Alexa-enabled device” when buying the Sonos One, so I’d expect this feature to work as described in the knowledge base.

Indeed you did.  I can only speculate as to what Sonos meant, but I don’t think what is written here is correct where the device is a Sonos device.  Either that, or we are all doing something wrong.

melvimbe

Thanks for your test, at least it’s confirmed now.

Would this not be an issue if you added two One SL as rear speakers to your beam now?
I’d expect them to duck too, but as it seems they won’t?

 

No, rear speakers are bonded to the Beam and will always do whatever the Beam is doing.So when the Beam ducks, they will as well.  Same for bonded Sub.  I have play:1s as rears and Sub with my Beam, so easily confirm this.

 

However, it’s worth noting that when a Beam (or playbar/playbase/Sonos Amp) is playing TV audio, it will never duck.  I can see where users may not want this, but it would be a nice option.  

Danny
S
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@melvimbe

I suspect you can reproduce it like this:

  • Put the Show and the Beam into a group, both as controllers
  • Set the Show as preferred speaker
  • Mute the Shows mic and activate the Beams mic
  • Start music on the Show
  • Speak to the Beam, if we are right the Show won’t lower the volume, but it kinda should….

 

I did a slightly modified test. 

  1. Added a nearby Sonos room (pair of Sonos Ones) to the group (Show, Beam, Ones) - preferred speaker.
  2. Turn off mics on the Show and Ones
  3. Music playing on Beam and Ones
  4. Gave voice command, and the Beam responded, but the Ones did NOT duck.

That seems to confirm what you’re saying.  Sonos devices can receive ducking commands but are not sending them out.

 

Assuming this is actually what’s happening, I can see it as a bug, but also as a low priority feature. The majority of people who have a Sonos speaker (or stereo pair, etc) in a physical room are going to have music play from that speaker only, or at least not at the same time as an echo other Sonos speaker in the same room.  Thus ducking would rarely be needed.

Thanks for your test, at least it’s confirmed now.

Would this not be an issue if you added two One SL as rear speakers to your beam now?
I’d expect them to duck too, but as it seems they won’t?

melvimbe

@melvimbe

I suspect you can reproduce it like this:

  • Put the Show and the Beam into a group, both as controllers
  • Set the Show as preferred speaker
  • Mute the Shows mic and activate the Beams mic
  • Start music on the Show
  • Speak to the Beam, if we are right the Show won’t lower the volume, but it kinda should….

 

I did a slightly modified test. 

  1. Added a nearby Sonos room (pair of Sonos Ones) to the group (Show, Beam, Ones) - preferred speaker.
  2. Turn off mics on the Show and Ones
  3. Music playing on Beam and Ones
  4. Gave voice command, and the Beam responded, but the Ones did NOT duck.

That seems to confirm what you’re saying.  Sonos devices can receive ducking commands but are not sending them out.

 

Assuming this is actually what’s happening, I can see it as a bug, but also as a low priority feature. The majority of people who have a Sonos speaker (or stereo pair, etc) in a physical room are going to have music play from that speaker only, or at least not at the same time as an echo other Sonos speaker in the same room.  Thus ducking would rarely be needed.

Danny
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