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Intermittent Alexa Voice Assistant.. Sonos Voice Control all OK!

D
Userlevel 2

Hi there!

Treated ourselves to a new Sonos Era 100 for Xmas and have been experiencing a frustrating issue with Alexa Voice Assistant as follows:

  • Issue the wake up call ‘Alexa...’ and intermittently she will function as expected
  • Every now and then she wakes up, performs the task all OK
  • However randomly she will not let me respond and instead returns to the resting state
  • I can’t replicate this behaviour using the Sonos Voice Control only with the Alexa Voice Assistant, so can only assume this issue is specific to Alexa & Sonos and is not a hardware issue..

Also to confirm I have Amazon Echo products in the house working 100% fine with Alexa.

I have a video recording of the issue here:

Any ideas please?

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Best answer by Corry P 27 February 2024, 11:48

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151 replies

J
Userlevel 2
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For what it's worth, German support just confirmed to me that the issue is known and that they're working on a solution together with Amazon. This might take a while though, since they need to pinpoint the problem first. Hope this helps nonetheless!

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @drbabbers et al

We now consider this issue resolved. If you continue to see this issue, we recommend you ensure your Sonos system is up-to-date, and if so, to get in touch with our technical support team for assistance.

We thank you for your patience.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S
Userlevel 1
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I got my Era100 the other day, “upgraded” from an old Play5 (gradually getting everything onto S2), and immediately ran into this issue. Have reported to support and submitted my diagnostics. It has been passed to development.

Hopefully another voice added will help.
 

H
Userlevel 2

Adding two things:

One video showing the issue (led directly goes out again) 

 

In addition I now swapped the location of my ERA 100 and the Sonas Roam (same wifi, same accounts, same system) and the Roam works perfectly. So this points more to an issue in the ERA 100 (either hardware or software).

 

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Just for your information… 

I had another contact to Sonos support team and also told them about the several community threads about this issue. They are aware of them and definitely are investigating the problem after they were able to reproduce it. 
So you can be sure that all the comments over here got an ear. 😎

Ralf
Ken_Griffiths

Okay, I’ve just removed the Alexa Assistant from my Era 100 device (and the SVC assistant too, just for good measure). I also deregistered the Alexa component in my Amazon account and then reinstalled the Alexa assistant back and ‘initially’ it still all worked fine for me, but now I’m occasionally seeing the same issue where the Era 100 status LED lights up and goes out again and the device stops listening. I haven’t tried it repeatedly yet, nor have I tried removing/reinstalling Alexa on any other products, but it certainly is not working as well as it did before.. so something does seem amiss here. Just a software issue, I guess, as it was working fine before I removed/reinstalled Alexa.

Here’s a diagnostic report too: 1086485044

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Hello @all from the german Sonos community. Some other users there including myself can confirm exactly the same behavior. And only Era 100 is affected… the problem first occurred about 2 weeks ago. Imho after an Alexa or a Sonos update. 
I also tried everything mentioned above but nothing changed. All my other Sonos devices including an Era300 work fine with Alexa.

Sonos products are on version 15.11 and Alexa app (iOS) also is on latest version. 
Maybe it’s an regional Alexa problem because an user from Austria also can‘t confirm or reproduce the problem. 
I stay in contact with german Sonos support but there the problem wasn’t known yet. But the last two days the are several users having the same problem. 
 

Perhaps it would make sense to mention the region we are using our Sonos/Alexa systems. 
For Germany I definitely can confirm the problem. 
I there are news on our side or fron german support team, I will share over here. 
 

Best Regards 

Ralf

 

Ralf
M
Userlevel 3
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The answer i just received from support

 

 

C
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

Same issue for me as well, I have two Era 100’s in stereo mode and it always seems always to be the third attempt of using the Alexa wake word that it finally responds. The first two times the light comes on and immediately off again, as others have mentioned.

I’ve had my speakers a while now and they were fine before so it must be a dodgy software or firmware.

i hope they fix it soon ?

C
Userlevel 1

I went through Support today, we confirmed that it is Software bug since Sonos Voice Control works fine and Alexa does not.

Everyone please keep reaching out to Support, and offer your diagnosis code even if they do not ask for it. Lets escalate this for a fix, as support even mentioned they care more about the cases apart from the Forum posts!

H
Userlevel 2

Hey guys,

I also had two calls with support. First one was classic first level but ran me through the usual debug stuff which of course did not fix the problem. The second person seems to me aware of the issue from the get go and knowing something about ITIL process, every formal ticket against a known problem helps to get things moving.

So I think Sonos is by now aware :)

Also I really do not envy the Devs fixing this, random occuring issues especially in a inter vendor scenario are really not something you do easily. 

Cheers,

Matt

 

R
Userlevel 2
Badge

@Hirsel I’m swaying on the optimistic side of a fix being relatively quick.

Working in development myself, and based on the things we know currently:

  1. It’s only an issue on specific hardware: Era 100
  2. It wasn’t always an issue and has only started recently (1-2 months max for me)

Back tracking any firmware changes would be the first start; though the tricky part is if Sonos cant replicate the issue themselves, but hopefully we can help if needed as early BETA testers!

C
Userlevel 1

Hey everyone, I did not want to bump the issue simply with “I have this problem too” but I really do have this problem, and it has frustrated me for weeks so I am glad to have come across this.

 

I am not sure when this issue started occuring to me but it definitely started occuring after a certain interval, because I did not have this issue before, and it is happening to me recently. It is insanely frustrating to say Alexa 4 times to get something in, and it is not about talking fast or slow, Alexa even asks a question to me and immediately stops listening.

 

Hopefully we can make enough noise so this is looked into. Please all push for the support and show this thread if you have to, because otherwise I will be returning the speakers (what a shame)

 

Here is the video of this happening. You can see it just stops listening after being woken up and sometimes decides to listen:

 

M
Userlevel 3
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I assume if many users return the product the issue will take into account seriously by sonos

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

@Ken_Griffiths 

Thanks for the „sacrifice“ and sadly welcome to the club. 😉🙈

I‘m sure it’s a software issue and hopefully this will be fixed soon by Amazon/Sonos. 
If not my daughter will kick Alexa to hell… I won’t tell the names she gave her the last days when the problem occurred. 😅

Ralf
R
Userlevel 2
Badge

Just relax… the problem was identified quickly and seems to be a software issue that will be fixed with an update of Sonos, Amazon or both of them. On your side you don’t need to do anything… just wait. 😉

I’m sadly not as relaxed as you. I have this in my open planned living room / kitchen, and use Alexa heavily; allowing me to control my lights, heating, timers, tv, shopping lists… you name it, she’s controlling it.

Completely understand that other people may just be using it to pause and play music; but for power users like myself, this is extremely inconvenient and more than happy to let Sonos know that a fix would be appreciated sooner rather than later.

So if Sonos could drop EVERYTHING and solve MY problem first, that would be great!😅😋 pretty please.

A

WOO HOO… Alexa seems to be fixed, she’s responding first time, every time. Hopefully that’s it all fixed and no more frustration having to say the wake word 6 or 8 times to get it to respond 😃

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

 

And I really can’t understand why the Sonos mods were answering most threads after new years day but seem to be avoiding any comments to this issue. 😉 

 

We have a saying here in the UK ‘No news is good news’, and also ‘Good things will come to those who wait’

Just my 2 pence 😀

 

Ok… so I cross my fingers and let’s say „just sit and wait“. 😉

 

Ralf
D
Userlevel 2

Sorry to hear that! I hope this issue gets resolved for everyone. In the mean time mine went back to the retailer and am due a refund. I’m still shocked at the timing and general awareness of this issue prior to my post..

H
Userlevel 2

Hi there,

Jumping on the wagon as I do experience the exactly same issue. I also have found a Reddit thread which seems to reference it as wellyl, so maybe not a wide spread issue but definitely you are not alone:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/18tkeap/sonos_era_100_alexa/

I now spent 2h debugging, factory resetting everything but nothing super conclusive but a couple of potential things to check:

I disabled adaptive listening and follow-up mode in the Alexa app in the settings for the 'sonos Alexa' (called name era 100 in the Alexa app) which seems to help a bit.

I played with the sound settings in the Alexa app as well (start request sound and stop request sound) in some cases I get the feeling that it doesn't stop listening properly in some cases and then the next request runs into the issue. 

This can also be made debugable by playing some music and then asking it to do something else (e.g just saying hi) in some cases the music stays muted/lower volume as if it would be listening or doing something in top even after it has finished. In my experience when I then wait till the music is fully back (assuming it fully stopped listening) and then  say the wake word again the chances of getting a correct answer are much higher (but not perfect unfortunately).

In addition in the Alexa voice history I see some audio records which could not be understood and contain background noice.

Also this to me only the behaviour started in the last week's and was working quite well before. So hopefully some one from Sonos looks into it, I will engage with support as well after the holidays.

Cheers,

Matt

M
Userlevel 3
Badge

I have exactly the same issue, see my video on reddit ; https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/18v976u/need_to_repeat_alexa_several_times_on_era_100_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

M
Userlevel 3
Badge

What is odd, is I’m not seeing the same issue here🤔? ..but that said…

In your video @Hirsel, you seem use the ‘Alexa’ wake word really quickly/repeatedly, in close succession, almost giving the device no opportunity to respond - what happens if you slow things down a little and actually ask Alexa a question, something like this…

  • "Alexa, what’s the time” - wait for response, then after the feedback is complete, say…
  • “Alexa, what’s the weather today” - again wait for response, then after the feedback is complete, say..
  • "Alexa, what’s the time” - wait for response, then after the feedback is complete, say…
  • “Alexa, what’s the weather today” - again wait for response, then after the feedback is complete, (rinse and repeat the above)…

…rather than repeatedly keep saying ‘Alexa, Alexa, Alexa, Alexa… as the device is probably (still) listening, but you’re just not asking her a question, but looking for an LED light instead.

Just see what happens when you slow things down a little and ask Alexa a question, after using the ‘Alexa’ wake word. In my case the Era works every time and Alexa always responds.

You can deny the issue Ken but it really exists, see this new example : 

 

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

So you can be sure that all the comments over here got an ear. 😎

‘Ear’ or ‘Era’ ? 😀

R
Userlevel 2
Badge

@Schlumpf Have just replied to Sonos Support with a link to this thread to show its not just a one off.

The fact they have sent me a brand new unit to replace the previous, and it has issues straight away; coupled with the fact that this never used to be a problem, shows that some firmware along the way has caused this.

Will await their response to my email and let everyone know (unless they reply directly in here, which would be appreciated, Sonos 😊).

M
Userlevel 3
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My issue occurs in France

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