Question

Shuffle with loop mode Alexa failure

  • 4 November 2017
  • 21 replies
  • 2147 views

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I am unable to get my Sonos One to both shuffle and loop an Amazon Music playlist using Alexa. The following steps are taken:
1. "Alexa... Shuffle Arnold music" (Arnold is my dog)
2. Sonos One starts shuffled version of the playlist, stating it is playing on the Sonos.
3. "Alexa... Loop Mode"
4. Sonos One acknowledges Loop Mode is turned on.

After that, the playlist does not loop.

Is this a bug?

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21 replies

Userlevel 7
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I'm not aware that is supported yet:

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4343?_ga=2.206312211.1095743978.1506552577-1491669311.1488879254&_gac=1.147015493.1509269737.CjwKCAjw-NXPBRB4EiwAVNRLKifYB44QLgd1rqqidteMMZVgwg-Dm1c-M0Q-E7JQtze3mEMuRjFGtxoC68oQAvD_BwE
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The Sonos acknowledged both commands and if I look in the music playback controls in the Alexa appz it is set to shuffle and repeat. At some point, the Sonos stops playing.
Userlevel 7
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Can you submit diagnostics at the point it stops and post the number here? The Sonos tech team can then pick it up and investigate.
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Can you submit diagnostics at the point it stops and post the number here? The Sonos tech team can then pick it up and investigate.

I assume you mean the submit diagnostics from the Sonos app, correct?
Userlevel 7
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Yes please.
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Diagnostics number: 8051880

This was taken some time after playback had stopped, but with no activity in between. Let me know if i it is critical to get the diagnostic run immediately after playback stops.
Userlevel 7
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Thanks for that diagnostic. It would be good to get one shortly after this fails too.

From what I'm seeing, it looks like it starts to try and loop, but it might be failing out at a certain track. I want to get a better look though first.
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Hey, I was able to get a report within a minute or two of playback stopping. Diagnostic 8051880
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Haha, just reposted the same number as before (guess I should actually look at what screenshot I'm using). Diagnostic 8053414
Userlevel 7
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Thanks. I'd like to confirm a few things, first, does the loop ever work, or does it seem like it always falls to loop?

Have you tried disabling the Alexa skill and removing voice services from within the Sonos app? Then re-setting it up

It looks like you're also using Spotify, does that playlist exist both on Amazon Music and on Spotify? Could you try removing Spotify from Amazon temporarily to test out if this happens with Spotify not around?

Thanks
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So just to be clear, I should disable the Sonos skill inside of the Alexa app, then remove voice services from the Sonos app, then add the Sonos skill to the Alexa app and enable voice services from the Sonos app?

To answer your second question, I don't have a playlist like this on Spotify, just Amazon music.
Userlevel 7
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Those steps are correct.

(You could switch the order of which one is turned off first if you wanted, it doesn't matter for this).
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Hey, I tried that and it is still ceasing playback at some point in the playlist. In the 2 diagnostics that I performed after failures, is the last song played the failure? I'm wondering if the playlist has a "dead" song that it tries to play. I usually shuffle the playlist so I'll try playing it straight through with loop to see if it gets stuck on anything. I'm also going to run it on my original Echo and see if it can stay looping or not.
Userlevel 7
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It's not listing a specific track each time. The error coming up is a connection to server error, which means it's losing access to the stream in general. As a test, would you be able to try wiring your Sonos One into the network with an ethernet cable? This way we can remove any wireless environment variables as a potential issue.
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Ok, I tried with Ethernet and had the same results. No playback after some period of time. What strange was that when I launched the Sonos app to submit diagnostics, it started playback again.

Diag 8069510
Userlevel 7
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Thanks for the diagnostic, I have the team looking into them right now and I'll let you know if they have any recommendations.

I wanted to check how that test with the original Echo you had go. Was loop working on that device or did it do the same thing?
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Yes, loop seems to work fine with the original echo. I will run one more test with original echo this afternoon to verify.
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Ok, I didn't end up running it on my original echo because when I came home at lunch to start it, the Sonos was still playing. When I got home the Sonos had stopped working. 8079811 is the most recent diagnostic run and I will report back on the echo wireless performance
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Hi Ryan,

So I was able to verify that the original Echo was able to play continuously for 24 hours wirelessly. So it seems to be a problem on the Sonos side maintaining a wifi connection (or the ability to reconnect/resume playback after a wifi drop). Any other testing you want me to do?
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This issue has resolved itself. It now plays on and on. Thanks Ryan.
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This problem has returned. Is this a Sonos problem or on Amazon problem?