Question

Sonos One + Alexa not working - want to literally throw it out the window!


Long time Sonos and long time Alexa user here.

First time I setup my Sonos One, it took hours to get Alexa + Spotify + Flash briefing working. Not sure how I got it working in the end, but it was a lot of removing devices, adding them, removing skill, adding skill, clearing app logins, clearing cookies, etc. Very painful.

I believe overnight there has been an update to Sonos overnight as my software says 10.1 as this page exists:

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/software/release/10-1

Yet...

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/software/release/10-2

Throws a 404. I can't find much else for 10.1.2 update, other than some forum posts in German. Seeing as this is a patch release (.2), and not a minor or major (.2 or .11), maybe Sonos don't share their release notes or change log? But I would expect that for a patch release that it DOESN'T BREAK MY GOD DAMN SONOS ONE.

Since the update (if it was an update - definitely since overnight). Sonos One Alexa flash briefing and playing Spotify on itself does not work. I can play Spotify on other speaker groups, just not on the Sonos One itself. Flash briefing says nothing.

I expect a higher rate of quality from Sonos, this feels like beta, not for general consumers. I have zero idea how to troubleshoot this. I have done everything I can find to no avail!

Any help appreciated.

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10 replies

Maybe this has something to do with it?

https://status.sonos.com/

It is now working again after disconnecting everything, from Sonos, from Alexa (the Sonos skill), deleting all devices, logging out of all Amazon apps on my iPhone, deleting all Safari/web cookies/data on iPhone, rebooting iPhone, then resyncing everything up.

This has happened twice now and I still don't know what magic I used ?‍♀
Here's another helpful guide:

https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/resolving-the-majority-of-issues-with-alexa-on-sonos-6798039
See here.
It sounds as if you possibly had the misfurturne of trying to add your Sonos One during a rare outage.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/voice-services-and-direct-control-outage-1st-of-may-2019-6825025

I wouldn't do anything until this outage is resolved. Then check to see if all the features are working properly.


First time I setup my Sonos One, it took hours to get Alexa + Spotify + Flash briefing working. Not sure how I got it working in the end, but it was a lot of removing devices, adding them, removing skill, adding skill, clearing app logins, clearing cookies, etc. Very painful.


The vast majority of setups are very straightforward. I've doe this quite few times without issue. And some of your comments don't make any sense. Removing devices? Clearing cookies?

This document describes all you should need to know and only taking about 10 minutes to complete at most. https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3517?language=en_US


I believe overnight there has been an update to Sonos overnight as my software says 10.1 as this page exists:


More likely the outage mentioned above.


Since the update (if it was an update - definitely since overnight). Sonos One Alexa flash briefing and playing Spotify on itself does not work. I can play Spotify on other speaker groups, just not on the Sonos One itself. Flash briefing says nothing.

I expect a higher rate of quality from Sonos, this feels like beta, not for general consumers. I have zero idea how to troubleshoot this. I have done everything I can find to no avail!

Any help appreciated.


I'd advice waiting till the all clear. However, I'm not sure how you can play spotify on other speaker groups (Sonos), but not the Sonos One. Are you initiating by voice command or through the Sonos or Spotify app? All of your Sonos devices are setup under the same account, correct?
Thank you! What is Spotify Direct Control? I was able to play Spotify on other Sonos products (not Alexa enabled) but not on the Sonos One itself. Everything seems to be working now (flash briefing/news, playing Spotify on itself, etc).
Thank you! What is Spotify Direct Control? I was able to play Spotify on other Sonos products (not Alexa enabled) but not on the Sonos One itself. Everything seems to be working now (flash briefing/news, playing Spotify on itself, etc).

You can play to your Sonos speakers from the Spotifiy app, if you prefer that interface to Sonos. You can't do Sonos room groups and such from Spotify, but basic playback features are supported.
The vast majority of setups are very straightforward. I've doe this quite few times without issue. And some of your comments don't make any sense. Removing devices? Clearing cookies?


If you Google online, there are endless posts on this forum and others regarding Sonos One, Alexa and getting things to work as expected/smoothly. Re: devices - all the devices that appear under alexa.amazon.co.uk under 'devices', and cookies in regard to cookies which would be cached when doing the app-to-app (Sonos-Alexa or vice-versa) authorisation for consent/permission between Sonos + Alexa.

From years of working in software engineering, I believe there is some cached data either (1) server side or (2) client side/app side which is why logging out/logging it, and connecting the auth journey from scratch works vs trying to go around in circles doing it with an existing consent.

If you look at issues on this very forum, a lot of people have found success just by delinking the Sonos skill and re-approving it.

I'd advice waiting till the all clear. However, I'm not sure how you can play spotify on other speaker groups (Sonos), but not the Sonos One. Are you initiating by voice command or through the Sonos or Spotify app? All of your Sonos devices are setup under the same account, correct?


No use of Spotify app. Purely through voice to Sonos One. I could play on any group in my home, just not natively on the Sonos One (by asking it to play music) or by specifying the room itself the Sonos One is grouped/named in (so 'Alexa play music on kitchen (which is the Sonos One device friendly/group name).
As already stated - twice - there is currently an outage with Alexa.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/voice-services-and-direct-control-outage-1st-of-may-2019-6825025/index1.html#post16332158
As already stated - twice - there is currently an outage with Alexa.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/voice-services-and-direct-control-outage-1st-of-may-2019-6825025/index1.html#post16332158


Right, but the outage is just today. Nor do I think the specific outages are related to the issues I saw, as noted above. Also, it doesn't explain why the first time I set up my Sonos One (weeks/months ago) I had the same issue and why hundreds - if not thousands - of other users have experience similar issues with Sonos, Alexa, Spotify and Flash Briefing not working as smoothly as it should.


If you Google online, there are endless posts on this forum and others regarding Sonos One, Alexa and getting things to work as expected/smoothly. Re: devices - all the devices that appear under alexa.amazon.co.uk under 'devices', and cookies in regard to cookies which would be cached when doing the app-to-app (Sonos-Alexa or vice-versa) authorisation for consent/permission between Sonos + Alexa.

From years of working in software engineering, I believe there is some cached data either (1) server side or (2) client side/app side which is why logging out/logging it, and connecting the auth journey from scratch works vs trying to go around in circles doing it with an existing consent.

If you look at issues on this very forum, a lot of people have found success just by delinking the Sonos skill and re-approving it.


I agree that removing and adding the Sonos skill can be helpful. It's also helpful to logout of the Alexa app then log back in. Both appear to clear cache on your local device (logout-in of Alexa app) or on the Alexa server (re-linking Sonos skill) in some way. I don't really think of that as removing devices or clearing cookies though...perhaps semantics.

As far as there being a lot, these forums are essentially a hospital. People don't come here often to say that everything is great, they come with issues. So polling the volume of issues reported here doesn't really give you an accurate sense of how often setup goes without issue for the typical customer.

That's also not to say that Sonos has had more systemic bugs that needed to be addressed for a significant segment of their customers. This isn't one of though. The outage is for sure, not the Sonos One setup.



No use of Spotify app. Purely through voice to Sonos One. I could play on any group in my home, just not natively on the Sonos One (by asking it to play music) or by specifying the room itself the Sonos One is grouped/named in (so 'Alexa play music on kitchen (which is the Sonos One device friendly/group name).


Right, it's Alexa voice control that currently isn't working.