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Sonos and Alexa in two houses

  • 14 October 2017
  • 53 replies
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I have Sonos speakers and Echo dots in two houses. I activated the Sonos skill in the first house and all is good for using Alexa to control the Sonos speakers in the first house When I go to the second house and search for devices, the Echo dot does not find the Sonos. Is it not possible without using a second Amazon account?
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Best answer by Keith N 18 October 2017, 20:50

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53 replies

Same issue. Alexa works with Sonos in my primary home, but cannot find Sonos units in my vacation home. Can Sonos help us?
It won’t work at both places simultaneously, at least not yet. You need to disable the skill, then re-enable and rediscover the devices when you are in the house you want to use Alexa with Sonos in.
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glennsonos & drammelt: Thanks for reaching out about this. Getting Amazon Alexa to work across multiple houses can be tricky with Sonos. You will need to have a separate Sonos ID to keep Alexa from controlling the wrong house. The best way to do this with just one Amazon account would be to create a separate Sonos ID for the vacation home and then:

- disable the Sonos skill in Alexa app
- ensure you are signed into the proper Sonos ID (if you are at the vacation home, sign into that account)
- re-enable the skill and re-discover (at this point you may see your speakers from both locations)

In most cases where people have multiple houses, the best success is found when you treat each house as a different "person". This means a separate Sonos ID and a different Amazon Account. This keeps you from accidentally controlling your main home from your vacation home.
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Do they plan to address this? Creating two separate account for each is not an answer, you can eliminate confusion by just giving the devices different name in each house. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to do this.
Please fix this.
This is really disappointing. So I would need to logout of one Sonos account and login to another when I reach the weekend home? I know you don’t like giving dates for software enhancements, but can you confirm if this is likely going to be addressed in 2018 or not?
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I agree different houses should be addressed with an easy and elegant solution. Please let us know when it is on the road map
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Do they plan to address this? Creating two separate account for each is not an answer, you can eliminate confusion by just giving the devices different name in each house. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to do this.

I completely agree with this. I really don't want two accounts to fix a software limitation, not to mention those accounts end up getting used for other marketing/nefarious purposes so I try to avoid as many accounts as possible.
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I agree different houses should be addressed with an easy and elegant solution. Please let us know when it is on the road map

Alexa already supports location information as when I'm at my vacation home and ask about the weather I get the correct forecast for the area. Seems sonos could do the exact same thing?
Userlevel 2
I agree with everyone. Should be an easy fix. I named each SONOS item a different name.
Please fix!
Userlevel 7
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You can force both houses onto the same household id within Sonos. Then the same account should work.
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I have SONOS and Echo Dots in two houses. The SONOS systems are on the same household ID. Both of the Dots only see the SONOS system in the first house to which Alexa was linked. I cannot see the second SONOS system on either Dot.

I would like to be able to control both SONOS systems from either Dot.

Also, quite curious to know what would happen if a SONOS ONE (with Alexa built in) was to be added to the second house system. Presumably it could only be used to control the SONOS system in the other house!!
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At the second house you need to ask Alexa to discover devices.
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No actually I beleive all your Alexa’s and the Sonos One will actually control both houses on same house id. In theory you could turn on music at one home from the other.
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At the second house you need to ask Alexa to discover devices.

I've tried that Chris. No succsees so far.
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No actually I beleive all your Alexa’s and the Sonos One will actually control both houses on same house id. In theory you could turn on music at one home from the other.

That (for me) would be good.
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Are the Alexa’s in the second house in the same amazon account. They would need to be same account as well.
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Mynalexas at both homes are on the same amazon alexa account so to me they don’t know they are even in different houses. If I drop in on a room in one it will to other house. If I issue a command to turn on my lights (via smartthings) in one House it will do it in the other house.
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Are the Alexa’s in the second house in the same amazon account. They would need to be same account as well.

Yes they are.

I can see house 1 from dot in house 2.
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It under smartphones in alexa app it only shows the Sonos units in house 1 and hitting discover doesn’t find them when in house 2. Maybe while in house 2 disable and reenable the Sonos skill in alexa then try discover.
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It under smartphones in alexa app it only shows the Sonos units in house 1 and hitting discover doesn’t find them when in house 2. Maybe while in house 2 disable and reenable the Sonos skill in alexa then try discover.

So, I have just tried that. Whilst re-enabling the skill, having entered SONOS account details, I am then asked which system do I want to control with Alexa - both SONOS systems are shown correctly, It seems to be either / or though. The systems definitely have the same SONOS Household ID.
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Are you sure. Did you check under settings ... about my Sonos when connected to each Same Sonos id. They sound opposite.
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Are you sure. Did you check under settings ... about my Sonos when connected to each Same Sonos id. They sound opposite.

Absolutely sure the SONOS ID is the same. The whole system was originally in house 1; some of it was then moved to house 2. I have just checked the SONOS ID again at both houses....
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Huh. I’m stumped.
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Are you sure. Did you check under settings ... about my Sonos when connected to each Same Sonos id. They sound opposite.

Absolutely sure the SONOS ID is the same. The whole system was originally in house 1; some of it was then moved to house 2. I have just checked the SONOS ID again at both houses....