Question

Sonos Ignores Command to Stop Playing News on Amazon Echo..


Hello,  I have a mix of Sonos Ones, Moves, and a Beam.  My problem is that when I use a Sonos device to start playing news through Alexa with either “Play my Flash Briefing” or “Tell me the news” Alexa behaves erratically.  Usually it will start repeating the lead story three times.  And then the most annoying thing is when I say “Alexa stop” it will semi-mute for a second (indicating it heard me) and then just keep going.  And we’ve tried all the variations of Pause, Stop Playing the News, etc.  What does work is if we ask Alexa to play music and then the system will do that and then we can stop the music via voice.  Obviously the button on the speaker works too.  We use the NPR skills on Echo.  I know it’s tempting to blame the skill but this skill works flawlessly on the Amazon Echo speaker we have.  It is just the Sonos devices that don’t work.  I spoke with Sonos tech help on the phone and they acknowledged the problem but I’ve received no follow-up.

I just upgraded my components in the spring.  I have eight total now.  I am still running S1 until those bugs get ironed out.

I’ve unplugged and replugged in my system but that hasn’t helped.  And I’ve powered down and up router as well.

Any help would be appreciated.  I used to recommend Sonos to my friends but I can’t until this issue is fixed.

 

Thanks,

Peter


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14 replies

Userlevel 6
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Hi @User242124.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us.

I would like to recommend the following steps based on the order it is provided. Here is the complete guide on how to perform the steps below.

  1. Log out of ALL Amazon-related apps which is and not limited to the following. (Amazon Prime, Amazon Shopping, Amazon Alexa, etc.) 
  2. Open the Amazon Alexa app and disable the Sonos Skill.
  3. De-register any Sonos product on the Alexa App.
  4. Open the Sonos App.
  5. Remove the Alexa Voice service.
  6. Force close Sonos app.
  7. Force close the Alexa App.
  8. Reopen the Sonos App. Add Alexa as a voice service.
  9. Open Alexa app Add Sonos as skill
  10. Register Sonos speaker
  11. Add music service.
  12. Test to check if it works.
  13. Submit a diagnostic to capture all information performed on the Sonos devices.

Please let me know how it goes. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

Thanks for the response.  I have done some of those at various times.

I have one question.  For step #1, do I need to log out just on the device I will use to do the other steps?  Or do I have to log out of ALL the devices I use to control Sonos, which would be a real pain.

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @User242124.

Thanks for the feedback and reaching out.

That’s a good question, we just need to log out on all Amazon related apps on the devices we are going to do the steps provided. I would recommend to force close the Sonos app on other mobile controller and these steps needed to be done in one go. 

Please let me know how it goes. We are always here to help out.

Thanks,

Thanks again.  Some notes from doing this:

  1. You want me to log out of Alexa in step 1 but I really can’t do that until I complete step 2.
  2. Also in step 2, I can deregister the Sonos speakers, but they pop again automatically.  I have to go back and then disable them and then delete them with the trash can.  And the non-Alexa ones can only be disabled and deleted, not deregistered.
  3. When I logged back in Alexa, the Sonos skill was already enabled, perhaps because Alexa was discovering the Sonos devices right after I enabled them in the app.
  4. Also, the speakers were already registered in Alexa too.

So the result was that NPR is not repeating the top story three times again, but I still have the issue whereby I cannot stop it with a voice command.  Have to either use the button on the speaker or ask it to play music and then stop the music.

I’ll submit the diagnostics.

Thanks.

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @User242124

Thanks for the feedback and immediate response. 

If that is the case, I would suggest the following guide to be followed accordingly. Making sure all other Sonos apps on other controllers are force closed.

  1. Log out of all Amazon related apps. excluding Amazon Alexa.
  2. Open the Sonos app
  3. Remove the Alexa Voice service.
  4. Open the Amazon Alexa app and disable the Sonos Skill.
  5. Remove all registered devices to Amazon Alexa however the process may be (deregister, delete with the trashcan) as long as the Sonos devices are removed from the device lists.
  6. Log out/sign out of the Amazon Alexa app.
  7. Force close and re-open the Sonos app.
  8. Add Alexa as a voice service.
  9. Double-check Sonos skill on the Alexa app by opening the Alexa app Add/enable Sonos as a skill.
  10. Double-check Sonos devices on the Alexa app by adding devices/registering Sonos speakers on the Alexa app.
  11. Test to see if it works.
  12. We want to make sure from the start to the end of this process no other Amazon-related apps are opened or signed in.
  13. Submit a diagnostic to capture all information performed on the Sonos devices.

Please let me know how it goes. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

Hi - I did the step above but still have the problem.  And as others have mentioned, I also have the issue where I will start a Pandora music service and the Sonos will play one song and then revert back to the NPR news feed on its own.

I submitted diagnostics.

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @User242124.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us.

I would like to share with you the details contained on the diagnostic submitted, the diagnostic indicated that the Sonos system is detecting an incorrect/mismatch of music from the music source and it also shows that the beam is not detecting any connections from a TV audio source (HDMI or optical adapter none). The diagnostic also shows multiple access points/router with the same WIFi name as the Sonos system is connected to. I would suggest calling our phone support for a more in-depth troubleshooting steps on this issue. 

Please let me know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

Thanks.  I appreciate that you looked at the report.  The Beam is connected to a TCL TV via HDMI and works fine.  I have a four story townhouse so I do run an additional access point on the third floor to help the router which is on the ground floor.  Both are on the same SSID.  The problem of ignoring voice commands to stop happens on the One, Beam, and Move all over the house.

And I have previously called phone support.  The case number is 01937383.  We did some trouble-shooting and I was told this was a known issue and it was being worked.  I posted on this board when I hadn’t seen any progress or received any feedback.

I’ll call again but I’d rather not start from ground zero.  Can you put me in touch with someone who’s familiar with the steps I’ve taken so far and has the diagnostic info?

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @User242124.

Thank you for your immediate response and the details of your current and up-to-date situation.

I would like to advise, for the call not to start from scratch, I would recommend providing the email address / Sonos account associated with that case id number for the technical support rep to be able to read through the previous notes and just continue where you have left off from the previous tech support rep. 

In addition to what you have mentioned, If this is already a known issue as you were informed, I would suggest subscribing to this topic and to our announcement thread for you to be updated for all the details for any upcoming updates, bug fixes, resolved known issues, etc that we may have. Otherwise, you may have been already informed by the tech support rep who assisted you on that call that you will not personally receive an update regarding your issue. This is a known issue, once the issue has been resolved, a bug fix patch might be one of the solutions that Sonos may have.

I hope this helps.

Please let me know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

Userlevel 3
Badge

I am also struggling with this issue.
The instructions above don’t work for me.

I have found that I can fix it by factory resetting all my sonos kit and starting again, but then within a couple of weeks, it happens again.

Really frustrating!  I will subscribe to this thread in the hope that someone will find a solution.

Userlevel 3
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Spent 3.5 hours (really) on amazon chat support only to be told that Amazon doesn’t support alexa on Sonos.  Sonos support told me they don’t support alexa.  Great.

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @PotemkinMcNasty.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us.

I would like to share with you Amazon Alexa’s supported countries through Amazon’s website and Amazon Alexa’s support on Sonos.

I hope this helps.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

Userlevel 3
Badge

Thanks for that. however three and a half hours on chat support with Amazon left me completely clear: they plain refuse to support Alexa on anything other than their products e.g. Echo.  They were very specific.

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @PotemkinMcNasty.

Thanks for the immediate response.

I would like to clarify, if you live in the United States, yes Amazon Alexa will work on both Amazon and Sonos Voice-enabled devices. If you live elsewhere, you may check out their page as they also have supported countries for Amazon Alexa and so as with Sonos.

I hope this helps.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,