Sonos Alexa not smart


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It should be made clear that the Sonos Alexa interface is very limited. The sonos speaker will not control any Alexa smart devices or skills. After months of trying to get 3 Alexa enabled Sonos to work i now have an email from Amazon to confirm that smart devices cannot be controlled using the 3rd party speakers. :-(


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Userlevel 7
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It should be made clear that the Sonos Alexa interface is very limited. The sonos speaker will not control any Alexa smart devices or skills. After months of trying to get 3 Alexa enabled Sonos to work i now have an email from Amazon to confirm that smart devices cannot be controlled using the 3rd party speakers. :-(

Wrong!  I have over 100 smart devices in my home and all can be controlled via Alexa from Sonos and Amazon devices.

Perhaps we should restart this post with what issues you are experiencing and the steps that you have tried to resolve the issue!  It would also make assistance easier if you completed your profile, so that we know your location etc.  Help us to help you!:nerd:

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Here is the reply  from Amazon. Recd today 


Greetings from Amazon. Hope you are doing well!

I'm sorry to hear that you're facing issues while controlling the smart plugs.

I understand that you are unable to control the smart lights when giving the commands from the Sonos speaker.

I've checked and see that currently the smart devices like plugs and lights should be working when its connected to echo devices and given command on echo, but the smart devices cannot be controlled using the 3rd party speakers.

Further, I feel this may certainly be a potential option that we should consider to cater to the many of our customers who may be wanting the same feature as well.

I want to help you with this and I'll certainly share your feedback with our Alexa development team. I know they'll want to hear about your experience.

Please be informed that Alexa is in developing stage, and we are improving its performance by receiving the feedback's from our valuable customer like you. Your feedback helps us improve your experience with Alexa.

I'll put more detail  up if it helps 

Userlevel 7

@Rhinor I just asked Alexa on my Sonos One to turn on my lamp connected to a smart plug and it worked flawlessly. Sonos speakers CAN control smart home devices. 
 

Tell us what devices you are using and maybe we can help you.

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I have eight  techin smart plugs grouped in various  rooms with attached speakers. The echo works flawlessly.

However the 3 sonos alexa speakers although  similarly grouped via alexa dont work. The response  is either " didnt find a divice " or " ok " but then not actually actioning the request. I have  tried controlling individual  devices and groups without sucess.

 

I have set it up numerous time from scratch without success. So i went to Amazon to be told third party speakers dont support smart devices.

Any help greatfully recieved. 

Userlevel 7
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Hi

So I have Teckin smart plugs and they are controlled fine. Can you please confirm the following:

1/ That you have added them to the SmartLife App?

2/ That the plugs are listed as devices within the Alexa App?

3/ All of your Alexa Device and Group names are unique?

4/ Your Sonos One’s are shown as On-Line in the Alexa App>Devices

Rhinor,

I have tp-link Kasa smart plugs and they are working with Sonos Alexa too, so perhaps it’s to do with the teckin ‘skill’ not working with 3rd party devices. I would perhaps speak to teckin and see what they say:

https://www.teckinhome.com/about-teckin

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Thanks for trying to help 

 

1 yes used the smartlife app first with great success 

2 all the devices and speakers are listed  in Alexa 

3 all devices have unique names. Socket 1...to socket 8 speakers  are kitchen, diningroom and livingroom.  Groups are livingroom kitchen Diningroom et al.

4 all devices  are online on the same bthub 2.4ghz 

 

Kitchen gp has one socket. Socket8. Ask the echo to turn kitchen on and it works. Ask a sonos and i get. Kitchen doesn't support that. Or ok and then takes no action. Also i get did you mean livingroom  when i say diningroom or kitchen. 

Bonkers 

Thanks for trying to help 

 

1 yes used the smartlife app first with great success 

2 all the devices and speakers are listed  in Alexa 

3 all devices have unique names. Socket 1...to socket 8 speakers  are kitchen, diningroom and livingroom.  Groups are livingroom kitchen Diningroom et al.

4 all devices  are online on the same bthub 2.4ghz 

 

Kitchen gp has one socket. Socket8. Ask the echo to turn kitchen on and it works. Ask a sonos and i get. Kitchen doesn't support that. Or ok and then takes no action. Also i get did you mean livingroom  when i say diningroom or kitchen. 

Bonkers 

Perhaps try removing the Sonos skill in the Alexa App and give it a few moments and then reinstall it again. Then recheck there are no duplicate devices and try again.

Userlevel 7
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Okay, have you added your Sonos speakers to the relevant Alexa groups?  i.e. Add the Sonos One in the Kitchen to the same group as Switch8 - Kitchen? Have you tried ' Alexa, turn Switch8 On'? 

Error messages like '[Device Name] doesn't support that' is normally an indication that Alexa doesn't know which device to action.

With regards to dinning room, I've experienced issues with Alexa mis-understanding, as she tends to stop listening after dinning. 🤔 

Edit:

I've just noticed that your Sonos speaker in the Kitchen is call Kitchen and the Group Name is also Kitchen. Sonos devices don't support On/Off, so that's why you are getting the error message.

I use the naming standard Room Name + Device Type, so your Sonos device would be called Kitchen Sonos ( you would need to change this in the Sonos App). This would remove the duplicate Device and Group name. 😁

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Right. I've  renamed all sockets and speakers. Disabled and reenabled all the skills.

All of the sockets and speakers listed in alexa app. Groups removed and  reestablised

All Works ok from echo from my phone  and a laptop.

Sonos either  says ok and does nothing or is say i can't find a group or divice "named...."

The sonos will play music general as instructed but can't find any spotify play lists and most frustrating is the fact that any stop requests are just ignored. 

Stop works on echo phone and laptop. 

 

Is there  a profile to edit as one of the replies is can't  find a device called socket 3 in Ryan profile. I asked for socket  7.

 

I'm about to believe the Amazon email that third part smart speakers are not supported. 

I'm about to believe the Amazon email that third part smart speakers are not supported. 

I can understand your believing the evidence of your own experience, but that makes the other contributors liars or fantasists, and i don’t believe that.  I can control my Hue lights from my Arc in just the same way as from my Echo Dots.  @UKMedia says he controls Techin devices from his Sonos devices and i have not the slightest doubt that he does.  There will be a solution to this.

Do you have your smart plugs arranged in rooms in the Teckin app?  Do you have Alexa Groups set up that contain those smart plugs? Do the Teckin rooms and Alexa groups correspond (names, contents)?

Have you set up an Alexa voice profile called Ryan?

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John The gps in alexa and the smart things app are the same. There is no alexa group called  ryan. My profile  is paul ryan? 

After disabling skill and reinstalling everything I'm  no further  fwd. 

It keeps referring to socket 3 in ryans profile even when you  ask sonos for any of the other sockets to be switched. The odd thing  is that the  echo the laptop and android phone all work perfectly. 

 

What happens if you say ‘turn on livingroom’?

What happens if you rename ‘Socket 7 Christmas tree’ as ‘Christmas tree’, put it an Alexa Group by itself and call the group ‘Christmas’.  They try turn on Christmas tree’.  Then try ‘turn on Christmas’.

I could be wasting your time here, but this seems to require some lateral thinking!

You may need to throw in a ‘discover devices’ at some point

I assume that in the product settings for your Sonos speaker you have an entry for Alexa under voice as per this screenshot?

(I think you must do or it wouldn't control the speakers, but clutching at straws)

 

Finally, if you tap the ‘More’ button, then Settings, then ‘Your profile’ what do you see?

Rhinor,

Looking at your Amazon Groups, you have not added the Alexa component to your groups to ‘enable/control’ them.

The sonos speakers have two components - the speaker itself and the Alexa component. You have setup the speaker in the groups, but i don’t see any ‘enabling/controlling’ Alexa component that should appear above your plugs in the first section of the group… see my example attached - (counter one and two are plugs attached to lights) but note the group enabling devices, some of which are Sonos Alexa components.

Hi Ken. I am not convinced that is always needed for smart home devices.  Otherwise how would you control the smart devices in a room that has smart plugs but no speaker?

Hi Ken. I am not convinced that is always needed for smart home devices.  Otherwise how would you control the smart devices in a room that has smart plugs but no speaker?

Yes, you’re correct John, my mistake - as long as the name of the plug is included in the voice instruction it will (should) work anyway.

Hi Ken. I am not convinced that is always needed for smart home devices.  Otherwise how would you control the smart devices in a room that has smart plugs but no speaker?

Yes, you’re correct John, my mistake - as long as the name of the plug is included in the voice instruction it will (should) work anyway.

 

Setting up the Sonos speaker as the Alexa device in a group means that you don’t have to refer to the device by name expliciting in voice commands.  “turn off the lights’  would turn off all devices classified as lights in the group.  But it sounds like Rhinor is explicitly referring to the smart device in his commands, so that wouldn’t be an issue.

Two thoughts on this.  @Rhinor, did you by the Sonos speakers new or used?  The fact that the speakers are referring to a profile you aren’t familiar with, and can’t find you’re own devices, makes me think a previous owner linked the speaker to an Alexa account, and your Sonos speaker is looking to control his devices rather than your own.  Could also explain the issue with Spotify playlists. If that’s the case, it would be wise to do a factory reset  of the speakers to remove the link to a previous owner’s account.  You would need to make sure Sonos is setup with your account, Spotifiy account, and any other streaming account you use.  Spotify needs to be setup on Sonos and Amazon for voice control.

 

The other thought, are your Sonos speakers and Alexa and smart devices on the same network?  Perhaps Sonos is connected to a extender rather than the main/base router?  That could explain why the Sonos speakers can’t see and control your devices, but would not explain the weird responses...at least I don’t think it does.

 

I appreciate I’m having a bad day … but I thought ‘Ryan’ was the OP’s name and it was just his Alexa profile that it was referring to - which would be correct.

One thing I did notice and was wondering about, is that usually in the Sonos App the speakers are often given a room name, like “Living Room” for example - but in the OP’s Alexa app ‘groups’ (screenshot) there is quite an unusual sonos device name (I think) “Livingroom Sonos” ...so I’m wondering if that is ‘perhaps’ part of the issue here? It’s difficult without seeing the Sonos devices and the Alexa devices.

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Thanks all for trying to solve my problem. 

John b "alexa Livingroom on" or similar instructions gets  an ok reply from alexa but no action. If i give an instruction for an individual socket Alexa says did you mean livingroom and then does nothing. 

The speakers are brand-new. 

All devises work as they should via the echo my phone and a laptop app.

Music play when instructed via sonos  but sometimes says "can't find a divice named Spotify " haha.

All use  the same hub and same 2.4ghz channel 

All devices plugs speakers  have been removed renamed and reinstalled.

Ken - the speakers were named "Livingroom " to give speakers unique names sonos was  added.

The profile name i didn't at first recognise is the Amazon prime profile name. And its all correctly coupled to Amazon and Spotify. 

John B More - settings- profile  shows my correct profile .

 

The odd thing to me is that all works fine with phone a laptop and echo. Its almost as if im missing  a sonos settings. 

Thanks for giving your time to try and help.

Think i will probably just have to use my phone. 

Any thoughts on why my sonos will play music on a voice instruction but will not STOP no matter what variation of the instruction. I can change  the music or radio but cant stop or pause??  

Cheers chaps

Userlevel 7
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I wonder if this is a network related issue, although why it works with echo devices, I’m not sure.  Could you have a look at this post:

Tips & Tricks - Resolving random issues impacting Sonos devices.. | Sonos Community

Had this issue all I had to do was re authorise the alexa in the sonos app. Fixed it.

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No success. 

As suggested in the link ( Uk media)Checked the IP addresses for duplicates on sonos  and plugs all unique and sequential. 

Re initialize everything. Again. Including Alexa and started  from scratch  with smart plugs. Still not working.

Its still telling me that there are several devices called livingroom. There aren't.!!! And if it thinks its found a device it says ok and takes no action. Most of the time it can't find device called..…

Its as if the speakers  are on a different hub.

Dissappointed. I'm  now  giving up. :-(🤬

Thanks  all.