Have to ask twice to play Spotify music


Userlevel 2

Everything was working before the update.

I say “alexa, play metallica songs in living room”, and metallica starts to play. I can control volume, pause music, skip songs… no problem at all.

Now I go to the S2 iphone app, and play something different, lets say ACDC in spotify

Then if I say “alexa, play music”, instead of continuing with the ACDC it empties the playlist, shows the metallica song for a second, and then nothing plays. Have to ask again, and metallica starts playing.

Any idea whats going on?

I have tried disabling the skills, removing the playets, reinstalling the apps… everything.


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100 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @Patrikteodor.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us. That is not a normal behavior of a voice-enabled Sonos device. Let me help you out by quoting my recommendation posted above.

Hi @TimBiddulph.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us.

I would like to recommend submitting a diagnostic after the issue re-occurs so we can check what is going on with the Sonos system. Please take note of the diagnostic number. I would also like to ask if we can try removing Google Assistant from the Sonos app and then re-add Google assistant as a voice service. Once the suggestion is done, I would like to ask if we can try it again to observe if it did make any changes and then submitting a diagnostic so we can further check.

Please let us know how it goes. We are always here to help out.

Thanks,

I hope this helps.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

I have the same issue as very well described by godkatt. 

I also have the issue of when asking for the second time it plays to all speakers, when I only want it to play in my daughter’s room. This is despite having the Alexa app set to only have her room as a group and only her speaker is ticked in that group, and I’ve also ticked to not have to specify play [music] in [daughter’s] room. 

I even bought a boost today to see if that helps. It didn’t. 


It is very annoying. We got her a Sonos One so she could play her own music choices in her room without needing an mobile device or whatever. It either doesn’t play or if it does we all get to hear Taylor Swift! 

Please send help! 

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

I hate to pile on, but I have started to notice this issue.   I have to ask Alexa twice to get something to play. I go to check the Sonos app, and the song is usually there but the play button is not engaged.

I have added a lot of new Sonos gear over the past few months.  I also worry that this all gets messy between the Alex app and how it names\manages devices and groups, and the Sonos App.  I am starting to feel like I just to factory reset everything and start clean.

That said, it is clear that many people are experiencing the “have to ask twice” problem.

I have had this problem since September when bought a pair of the new Ones to replace two Play1s. I assumed it was an issue with Alexa, so I’m pleased to find in this forum it is a bug with Sonos. Are the technical team working on a fix, since it seems there are many instances of this problem?

I’ve bought two Echo dots so I don’t have to keep repeating myself repeating myself. 

I think it’s a Spotify connect problem. 

Alexa doesn’t control Spotify as a music service on the Sonos app, rather it goes into the Spotify account and connects to a Sonos network. 

I’m not often in the Spotify app (I tend to just use the Sonos app) but the other day I was and I tried to play to the connected Sonos network and it thought it had, but it hadn’t and I had to click the connect icon again and it worked. 

We seem no closer to a solution. 
 

Userlevel 2

Anyone out there have any luck with this issue?

It’s been on-going for awhile, would be great if Sonos could look into this issue rather than getting us to submit diagnostics and telling us we have wifi issues.

We have 6 speakers spread across 3 access points, they all have the same behavior and spotify always work on the second command.

 

Also have the same behavior of requiring two voice requests to get Spotify to begin playing.  And agreed that the developing consensus of it being a Spotify stream request seems to be correct.  The first voice request seems to cause Spotify to count a second stream, and stop the service.  The second request starts a new stream, since the stream count is now at zero.  I realize that solving these problems becomes trickier as the number of parties increases (Sonos, Spotify, Alexa), but do hope this integration can be worked out.  From this forum, it’s clear that it is a widespread problem, seems easy for the Sonos team to replicate.  I’d recommend that rather than having a Sonos customer service rep spending time telling people to work on their networks, they get the engineering team to replicate the issues and solve the underlying problem.

This is very annoying and happens all the time for me too. I can also recreate it if I have played a Spotify song through the Sonos app. Then open up the Spotify app and attempt to play a song in the Spotify app and select my Sonos speakers within Spotify. The first time I select it goes green for a split second then disconnects. Second time I select the Sonos speakers it always connects and plays. 

Following since I have been having the same problem for months and it’s very frustrating.

Same exact issue here as well. I have to repeat my requests to play music through voice commands as well as Spotify Connect. First attempt says it will play and nothing plays, then I repeat my action a 2nd time and it plays fine.

Even just the simple task of “connecting” (not playing music yet) to a Sonos speaker through the Spotify app (using Spotify connect) requires 2 attempts.

Same problem here, for many months.  So frustrating.

Made an account to pile on. Since a few months I have to ask sonos / google home devices twice to play some music on spotify. I get a response that it will start playing and then silence. Ask again and it works. Never need to do it three times, always two. Hope source of issue can be found as this is pretty annoying. 

 

I have exacty the same issue. As mentioned before, after you’ve asked Alexa twice to play the first song, she then gets into a groove and reacts first time to future requests. I’ve tried all the hints and tips on this thread and others which have not worked. Has anyone found a way to solve this?

As others have been posting, this only started happening with the big app update in 2020

I'm here to report that I experience exactly the same problem.

I even tried different router and network provider, with no luck. Clearly an issue with Sonos. 

Is there a chance to get some feedback from Sonos team regarding this issue as it lasts for a long time already? 

Sadly. That hasn’t resolved it @UKMedia. It was fine for a few hours this morning and just had to ask Alexa three times to play a song before it played. I’d been playing some music prior to that chosen through the Sonos app so not sure if there’s some kind of clash moving from app instructions to voice instructions

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Did you reboot ALL network attached devices? Can you now Disable and then Enable the Sonos skill in the Alexa App.

Have disabled and enabled the skill now. I rebooted every device that is connected to my broadband either wired or Wi-Fi including things like laptops, smart TV, iPhone, Apple Watch etc

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Have disabled and enabled the skill now. I rebooted every device that is connected to my broadband either wired or Wi-Fi including things like laptops, smart TV, iPhone, Apple Watch etc

Let us know know it goes. 😁

Userlevel 4

+1 with this problem. I’ve had this problem of requiring two voice commands to initiate a song on Spotify via Google Assistant for half a year now or so. Definitely is annoying and would love a fix.  

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

+1 with this problem. I’ve had this problem of requiring two voice commands to initiate a song on Spotify via Google Assistant for half a year now or so. Definitely is annoying and would love a fix.  

Please try these steps: Tips & Tricks - Resolving random issues impacting Sonos devices... | Sonos Community

Hi Same issue here. I followed all the step described above but no luck, still have to ask twice for the music to start playing. This is getting very frustrating !

Diagnostic number: 173591240

Thanks by advances for your help.

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

After you've completed those steps, please Disable then Re-Enable the Sonos skill in the Alexa App.

Thanks for your suggestion, unfortunately it didn’t help I’m still having the same issues. Any other ideas ?

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Nope, those actions fixed this problem for me.  Can you submit a diagnostic and post the number in this thread?

I have the same problem with Google Assistant and it started about two months ago I think.