I’m trying to setup my Echo Spot to play music to my stereo pair of Sonos Ones without having to say “Alexa play music on ,” using the Preferred Speaker setting in the Alexa app’s Groups function.
My speaker shows up in the app and I select it as my preferred speaker, but asking Alexa to “play music” as the configuration screen suggests still plays it through the Echo itself.
So far, I’ve tried:
1. Disabling the Sonos skill and removing the Sonos as a device, then re-adding it.
And 2. Setting up the Alexa group both with and without my speaker in it (both scenarios allow me to set the Sonos pair as my Preferred Speaker).
Neither of these have helped. What else should I try? Am I missing something?
Answered
Echo’s setting for “Preferred Speaker” doesn’t work with my Sonos One
Best answer by UKMedia
Amazon have implemented this for Music only - Now you would think this is easy to understand but if I ask 'Alexa, Play BBC Radio 2' the output will be to the Echo Dot, if I ask 'Alexa, Play BBC Radio 2 from TuneIn' it will output to the Preferred Speaker:?:?:?
I'm not sure what streaming service you have set as your default in the Alexa App - I use Spotify and this works fine, albeit controlled from an Echo Dot and not a Show.
Can you try ' Alexa, play [Specific Artist]? Also, there does seem to be some issues if the same device is set as the preferred speaker in multiple groups, so may be worth removing if it is and retesting.
Let us know how you get on.
I'm not sure what streaming service you have set as your default in the Alexa App - I use Spotify and this works fine, albeit controlled from an Echo Dot and not a Show.
Can you try ' Alexa, play [Specific Artist]? Also, there does seem to be some issues if the same device is set as the preferred speaker in multiple groups, so may be worth removing if it is and retesting.
Let us know how you get on.
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Amazon have implemented this for Music only - Now you would think this is easy to understand but if I ask 'Alexa, Play BBC Radio 2' the output will be to the Echo Dot, if I ask 'Alexa, Play BBC Radio 2 from TuneIn' it will output to the Preferred Speaker:?:?:?
I'm not sure what streaming service you have set as your default in the Alexa App - I use Spotify and this works fine, albeit controlled from an Echo Dot and not a Show.
Can you try ' Alexa, play [Specific Artist]? Also, there does seem to be some issues if the same device is set as the preferred speaker in multiple groups, so may be worth removing if it is and retesting.
Let us know how you get on.
I'm not sure what streaming service you have set as your default in the Alexa App - I use Spotify and this works fine, albeit controlled from an Echo Dot and not a Show.
Can you try ' Alexa, play [Specific Artist]? Also, there does seem to be some issues if the same device is set as the preferred speaker in multiple groups, so may be worth removing if it is and retesting.
Let us know how you get on.
At the office now, but I tried both of the BBC Radio 2 phrasings you suggested, and each played out of the Echo. I'll try asking for an artist tonight but it really seems like the setting isn't taking for some reason. I've tried rebooting the Echo as well but that hasn't helped either.
If it still doesn't work, try Disabling the Sonos skill in the Alexa App and then Re-Enabling.
Edit:
I wonder if it's because you've defaulted to two Sonos devices which are paired. I have the ability to select two devices but it only outputs to the first in the list.
Edit:
I wonder if it's because you've defaulted to two Sonos devices which are paired. I have the ability to select two devices but it only outputs to the first in the list.
I’ve tried disabling and re-enabling the skill but will try again.
I was also wondering if the stereo pair was an issue, though because the Alexa app just sees it as one device (the Sonos app represents it that way too), I figured it wasn’t the issue.
I was also wondering if the stereo pair was an issue, though because the Alexa app just sees it as one device (the Sonos app represents it that way too), I figured it wasn’t the issue.
I was also wondering if the stereo pair was an issue, though because the Alexa app just sees it as one device (the Sonos app represents it that way too), I figured it wasn’t the issue.
If it still doesn't work, try breaking the pairing to check - if this works, I'm sure it will be fixed soon.
Tonight I tried unpairing the speakers, removing and then re-adding the Sonos skill, and then creating a new Alexa group with my Echo and one of my Sonos speakers, setting it as the Preferred Speaker. I then asked Alexa to play music, play a specific artist, and everything else I could think of, but every time it still plays out of my Echo. What else can I do/try?
At this point, I'd suggest just forgetting about it for a little bit. This is all very new functionality that hasn't really even officially annouced/released yet, at least from a Sonos perspective. There may be a few bugs that they still need to work out. Try again in a week or so.
I don't even see a "preferred speaker" in the Alexa app settings. When was this introduced?
Edit: Ah, Googled it, have to set up a group. Set up my Office Dot to prefer the Office Play:1 pair. Works great! Wow, had no idea. Thanks!
Off to configure the Show to prefer the Connect:Amp...
Edit: Ah, Googled it, have to set up a group. Set up my Office Dot to prefer the Office Play:1 pair. Works great! Wow, had no idea. Thanks!
Off to configure the Show to prefer the Connect:Amp...
A few days ago. The prefered speaker is selected when you create an Alexa group. So you'll create the group, at the echo device, add your smart devices, and then preferred speaker.
Ha! Works great with a Dot, but with the Show, the music plays on the Connect:Amp, but Show doesn't display what's playing. Oh well. The Home Hub will do this, once Sonos finally implements Google Home...
Also, while it works with music services like Amazon and Pandora, skills like The Jazz Groove and Radio Paradise still play on the Dot or Show.
Also, while it works with music services like Amazon and Pandora, skills like The Jazz Groove and Radio Paradise still play on the Dot or Show.
So the $200 Amazon Echo Link just got a lot more interesting, assuming it can act as the group source. It suddenly becomes a cheap Connect.
So I got it working after trying 2 more things. Not sure which actually did the trick, or if it was both somehow:
1. I discovered that although my Echo Spot was using my account, it was actually “registered” to my wife’s account (same Amazon “household”). I de-registered from her account and registered it under my account. (This looked a lot like a factory reset, but most of my settings seem to have been retained.) At this point I still couldn’t get music to play to my Sonos without asking explicitly at the end of each request, even after disabling and re-enabling the Sonos skill, deleting and re-creating my Alexa group, etc.
2. At this point (and I’m not sure why I tried this), I renamed the Sonos “Echo Dot” that shows up on the Alexa device list so it no longer matches the name of my speaker–recall that I have not enabled Alexa on my Sonos itself–and all of a sudden when I asked for music Alexa said “the device cannot be found.” This was despite all my devices, including the re-names Sonos Echo Dot, appearing as online in the Alexa device list. After renaming the Dot back to match the name of my Sonos speaker, everything started working.
In the end I tried a ton of stuff, some of it fairly random, but eventually everything worked! Thanks to everyone who chimed in on this thread. I hope all this is helpful to someone else down the line.
I've had similar issues for using my sonos speaker as a preferred speaker, but I have found a workaround that may be useful to some people.
I've set up my preferred speaker to be my sonos speaker instead of the echo dot, and it works well for Spotify and non-BBC stations. The non BBC stations play through tunein to the specified speaker correctly. However, if I ask to play BBC 6 music, it plays on the echo through the BBC skill, even if the skill is not enabled. If I ask to play through tunein, or nominate the room, then it plays to sonos correctly. But I don't want to have to specify the room or to use tunein.
My workaround uses Alexa routines. I've added some routines for specific stations I listen too. In the routine you specify what you ask, e.g. "play six music" and then you set it to play music, Choosing "BBC Six music" as the search term, and Tunein at the provider. Now when I ask my echo dot to play six music, it plays the routine, which plays through tunein to the preferred speaker, the sonos speaker.
I've set up my preferred speaker to be my sonos speaker instead of the echo dot, and it works well for Spotify and non-BBC stations. The non BBC stations play through tunein to the specified speaker correctly. However, if I ask to play BBC 6 music, it plays on the echo through the BBC skill, even if the skill is not enabled. If I ask to play through tunein, or nominate the room, then it plays to sonos correctly. But I don't want to have to specify the room or to use tunein.
My workaround uses Alexa routines. I've added some routines for specific stations I listen too. In the routine you specify what you ask, e.g. "play six music" and then you set it to play music, Choosing "BBC Six music" as the search term, and Tunein at the provider. Now when I ask my echo dot to play six music, it plays the routine, which plays through tunein to the preferred speaker, the sonos speaker.
+1I've set up my preferred speaker to be my sonos speaker instead of the echo dot, and it works well for Spotify and non-BBC stations. The non BBC stations play through tunein to the specified speaker correctly. However, if I ask to play BBC 6 music, it plays on the echo through the BBC skill, even if the skill is not enabled. If I ask to play through tunein, or nominate the room, then it plays to sonos correctly. But I don't want to have to specify the room or to use tunein.
My workaround uses Alexa routines. I've added some routines for specific stations I listen too. In the routine you specify what you ask, e.g. "play six music" and then you set it to play music, Choosing "BBC Six music" as the search term, and Tunein at the provider. Now when I ask my echo dot to play six music, it plays the routine, which plays through tunein to the preferred speaker, the sonos speaker.
That was so useful, Thank you that has opened a whole new world. On it now
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