Sonos Beam and Alexa not playing nice

  • 20 January 2019
  • 28 replies
  • 4625 views

I purchased my Sonos Beam today, came home to set it up I have spent the past few hours trying to get Alexa to play nice with the Sonos Beam. When I look at my devices on the Amazon Alexa app and website under settings > devices, it will show the Beam is connected however, on the regular devices tab it shows nothing and will not discover the Beam. I have logged out, uninstalled, unplugged, reinstalled, enabled and disabled skills, changed names, stood on my head, did a little dance and I am still not able to get this darn thing to connect to Alexa. The beam is connected to my TV with the optic cable attachment as I don't have an ARC port. I understand that I won't be able to control the TV with Alexa. I would like to at least tell her to play music and work properly..... all ideas, comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

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28 replies

Remove the Sonos Skill from the Alexa App.. and remove all the Sonos devices in the devices tab... there is an option to 'remove all' in one fell swoop via the web version of the Alexa App, if you prefer to do that. Note this will remove all other devices too, like smart-lights, plugs etc. I prefer to remove my devices one at a time, but it’s upto you.

Then using the Alexa App (logged into your Amazon Account) on your mobile controller, reinstall the Sonos Skill, scan and setup your devices and any Amazon Groups (if required).

Also make sure you have installed your chosen music subscription service and set it as the default service in the Alexa App Settings...Music (under heading Alexa Preferences).

Then in the Sonos App Settings/Room Settings, check that your Beam's Room has an Alexa icon in there and that it is authorised on the same Amazon Alexa Account. It will show the Amazon account login email address below the Alexa icon in the voice services section.

Make sure the Sonos App and Beam are running the latest software and that the microphone is switched on... (small light on top of Beam above the LED light), if not tap the mic on the Beam to switch it on. Then see if you then have things working correctly.
Hey Ken! Thanks for the quick reply and suggestions! Heres what I did:

I disabled the Sonos skill, removed the Sonos from the Alexa app by "de-registering". reinstalled the skill and scanned with no luck. I am still not finding the Sonos Beam. Alexa app tells me "no new devices found" as well as the Beam will tell me the same if I tell Alexa to "discover devices".

All accounts are the same, preferred music subscription is added and logged in, mic is on, software is up to date, I have tried the commands in different ways....... I can ask Alexa what the weather is and that works. She even tells me to enable the skill for the Sonos Beam and then discover devices. But then I get "no new devices found" every time. But each time in settings the Sonos Beam shows up as online in settings.
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Sorry for the long post but this type of issue is normally down to one of three things:

1/ Duplicate device names - Alexa prefers that names for Devices, Groups and Scenes are unique,
1.1/ Please open up the Alexa App>Smart Home and make a note of any duplicate device names;
1.2/ You can then change them in the source app. e.g. Use the Sonos App to change the name of Sonos players. (I personally use the naming standard Room Name + Device type. e.g. Kitchen Sonos, Kitchen Echo Dot, Lounge Sonos, etc)
1.3/ Once you have changed any duplicate names then please open the Alexa App on a Browser (https://alexa.amazon.co.uk or https://alexa.amazon.com)>Smart Home>Devices and select 'Forget All' followed by 'Discover'. NOTE: This will remove ALL Actions from ALL Alexa Routines! (Only the Browser version has this functionality.)

2/ Some form of Account Linking or Authorisation has not completed successfully. There are a number of causes for this and it's best to try these steps 1 at a time and test before moving on to the next step if the problem persists:
2.1/ Open the Alexa App>Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and 'Disable' followed by 'Enable';
2.2/ Ensure that you don't have multiple Amazon accounts logged into different Apps on your device, as this can confuse the Amazon Authorisation. If yes, then please log out of the other accounts and then complete step 2.1 again;
2.3/ If the problem still persists, please logout of all Amazon accounts then select the Alexa App>Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and 'Disable. Now power down all Sonos devices for 10 secs, allowing for any wired devices to boot before booting the remaining Sonos players. Now log back into the Alexa App>Skills>Sonos and 'Enable'

3/ If the problem persists then an entire reset of the Authorisation & Account Linking process is required:
3.1/ In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and then 'Disable';
3.2 In the Alexa app (Browser version), select 'Smart Home>Devices'. Now select 'Forget All' at the bottom of the screen;
3.3/ In the Sonos app (Android or iOS), select Settings>Room Settings and for each of the Sonos One's sign into 'Voice Services' and select 'Remove Amazon Alexa from this Room';
3.4/ If you have any wired Sonos devices, please power down for 10 secs and then switch on and wait for it to boot;
3.5/ Now power down all other Sonos Players for 10 secs then switch them back on and wait for them to boot;
3.6/ In the Sonos app, Select Manage>Add a player or sub' and add the Sonos One's again. This will complete the set-up process again;
3.7/ In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills and ensure the Sonos skill is 'Enabled', if not please 'Enable';
3.8/ In the Alexa app , select Smart Home>Devices>Discover. Ensure that your Sonos One's are displayed correctly and not shown as 'Off Line'.
3.9/ Also check one last time that there are no devices with the same name. Remember, if there is a need to rename any then you'll need to select 'Discover' again.

Let us know how you get on.
Hey Ken! Thanks for the quick reply and suggestions! Heres what I did:

I disabled the Sonos skill, removed the Sonos from the Alexa app by "de-registering". reinstalled the skill and scanned with no luck. I am still not finding the Sonos Beam. Alexa app tells me "no new devices found" as well as the Beam will tell me the same if I tell Alexa to "discover devices".

All accounts are the same, preferred music subscription is added and logged in, mic is on, software is up to date, I have tried the commands in different ways....... I can ask Alexa what the weather is and that works. She even tells me to enable the skill for the Sonos Beam and then discover devices. But then I get "no new devices found" every time. But each time in settings the Sonos Beam shows up as online in settings.
You need to remove the devices rather than deregistering them. I think that’s perhaps the issue. So try removing them completely. The devices do need to be registered.
Hi Ken and UK!

Thanks for your suggestions. I really appreciate your time. I am still unsuccessful in getting Alexa to discover my Beam.

Ken- I don't have the option to remove because Alexa isn't even picking it up as a device. I have added a lamp switch just to see if Alexa will discover it and that works just fine. When add it I then get the option to "Forget" but again, it only shows the lamp or nothing at all.

UK- I attempted all the steps you gave multiple times yesterday and this morning as I was looking on past questions to get some help.

The names are as follows (Ashley's Alexa App, Bedroom Stick, Sonos Beam, Main Stick) all are reported as online.

Skills I have enabled include Sonos, Apple Music, TP-Link. I added the TP-Link to test if Alexa would find a lamp and that was set up with no problems.

I have logged off all Amazon accounts and only logged back on when Sonos or Alexa asked.

I have unplugged the Beam and waited and attempted the setup again. The Sonos Beam tells me the speaker has already been set up and flashes a red light at me and then the solid white light comes on and works with the Sonos app just fine. Alexa will speak to me but when I ask to play music Alexa continues to tell me that I need to add the skill and no new devices could be found. However, yesterday Alexa was telling me that "Sonos Beam could not be found", today it is just "no new devices".
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Can you just confirm that you have added the same music services to Alexa and the Sonos App? Also, have you chosen the 'Default Music Service' within 'Settings>Music>Choose default music service'?

Also, can you please confirm the command that you are asking?
UK- Yes, Alexa and Sonos both have apple music as the default.

I have attempted several commands; "Alexa play music", "Alexa, play apple music", "Alexa, play Maggie Rogers", "Alexa, play music on Sonons Beam", "Alexa, play music in TV Room" all of these commands result in "add skill", "discover your Sonos Beam", etc....
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When you look at devices Alexa knows about, do you see your Sonos speakers with a speaker icon or something that looks like an echo (hockey puck)? I ask because starting yesterday I couldn't get Alexa to discover any of my Sonos devices (https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/starting-yesterday-alexa-cannot-discover-any-sonos-devices-as-speakers-but-sonos-devices-accept-voice-input-6819621), despite being to use Alexa through exactly those devices. I'm wondering if you're in the same boat.

Oh, and @UKmedia, thank you so much for the guide! I have indeed walked through it to no avail. But that's my issue, and it may not be the same as this one.
gdgib- it is a circle with lines in it like the wifi symbol.
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Bingo! Yeah, that's the symbol I see too. My understanding is that's the symbol for the Alexa-input half of the device. I used to have a second device which looked like a speaker which I took for the Sonos-output half of the device. Especially since that one was the icon that allowed me to control the TV or play music.

I think we're in the same boat here, I'm sorry to say.

Personally, I'm going to wait for Sonos support on this one. After trying all the wonderfully written and sensible advice I've still gotten nothing but older. What's more I'm seeing several similar posts in the last few days, which makes me suspect this is a new issue.
gbgib- Thanks for checking in! Helps to know that I am not the only one! I'll hold off on returning the Beam until I speak with support. Hopefully they will help!
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Yeah, it’s nice to know I’m not crazy. Well at least not about this!

And yeah, this all worked for me just two days ago so I’ll keep my fingers crossed and I’ll definitely post the moment I get anywhere.
I have the exact same issue. I was trying to simply reset a few things and cannot for the life of me get Alexa to recognize the Beam as a Speaker and TV like it was yesterday. Tried every combination you can think of just shy of a complete Sonos factory reset.
Forgot to mention - it works fine on my One... Not the Beam.
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Yeah, I was there yesterday. Then I tried the factory reset! And nothing changed. Dang.

Am I correct in guessing that you changed the beam, and Alexa lost it. But you haven’t touched the One in weeks and so it’s fine. Did I get that right?

If so my main advice is: don’t change anything about the One until this gets fixed!
I changed both. The One was in the same boat as the Beam, but for some reason I got it working after several attempts. I wrote a tweet hoping that will escalate. I, like you am finding many impacted users. Btw, thank you from saving me the pain of a factory reset.
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Just realized my issue is limited to the beams too. All my standalone ones are just fine. Interesting....
Hey everyone, I'm having the same issue with my Beam as well. My Play 5 is working fine but the Beam I bought yesterday is only showing up as an Alexa Enabled device and not a speaker. Not able to play anything on beam via Alexa Voice Commands. Has any gotten any resolution from Sonos Support on this? I've submitted a diagnostic report via Twitter but haven't heard back yet.
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Nothing yet but you’re in good company! Will post the moment we have something, hope you will too. Thanks for the update, and I’m sorry it’s not working for you. It did work for me on Friday, which is a good sign I suspect.
Hey everyone, I'm having the same issue with my Beam as well. the Beam is only showing up as an Alexa Enabled device and not a speaker. Not able to play anything on beam via Alexa Voice Commands. I ask it to play music and it says to enable the Sonos app on the Alexa app and discover the device but the Alexa app does not discover my beam.
Sounds like there is a major issue going on system wide. Here is the latest response via twitter support

“We're currently investigating an issue with Alexa failing to discover new devices. Our engineers are aware of this and are working to get this resolved as soon as possible. We'll keep you updated once we know more.”
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Excellent news! Thank you for posting that!
I’ve just purchased today the Sonos Beam , and I went mad because I couldn’t set up Alexa to play music ! At least it is a relief to find that it is not my fault ! Thanks for posting that !!!
I'm sure many of you are getting updates too. Here is the latest:
https://www.sonos.com/en-us/support
I was dealing with the same issue and just 'Discovered' and successfully added my Beam (as a speaker).