Sonos One, Echo Dot & Group Ducking

• after removing the skill and re-adding as a smart speaker: 92415783
• after factory resetting the Sonos and adding it to Alexa as a fresh device: 1974502977

Having the same problem, and the solution suggested to the OP did NOT work for me either. 

Have an Echo Dot in Kitchen. Added two Sonos One’s WITHOUT Alexa enabled (I like the blue ring confirmation, and I use the Echo Clock regularly). Created a group with the Dot as the input, the speakers as preferred speakers. When I ask to play music it comes through both speakers perfectly, but when I again speak to Alexa while the music is playing, the speakers DO NOT duck, which makes hearing Alexa difficult. 

Full disclosure: I had them added previously with the voice assistant enabled. I disabled the Sonos Skill, deleted the devices from the Alexa app, signed out of the Alexa app. I then signed back in, enabled the app and rediscovered the One’s as just speakers this time.

Any help or insight would be appreciated. 

Hi

You need to add the speakers that you want to ‘duck’ to the Alexa Group.  The Preferred Speaker section is to identify which speakers you want to group for the Audio to be output to.

UKMedia, that’s the way I have it set up, but still no ducking unfortunately. 
 

jhcovert,

When speaking your commands to ‘parlour’ only the kitchen and Sitting Room should be ducking their audio, but what is 'parlour' and 'parlour Connect’? Are there any other Alexa enabled devices nearby besides ‘parlour’ that maybe picking up your voice?

Ken_Griffiths, Parlor is an Echo Dot 3rd Gen, and Parlor Connect is a Sonos Connect. It only shows because it is a potential Preferred Speaker. 

There is no other enabled Alexa device within hearing distance. When I speak, the Echo Dot hears me and issues its answers, but I am unable to hear them because neither speaker (Kitchen or Sitting Area) duck when I speak to the Parlor Dot that is in the same group. 

I suggest that you Disable then Re-Enable the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App and retest.

Disabling and re-enabling Sonos skill had no effect on ducking. 
 

Removed speakers from Alexa, added them back through discovery, and no effect on ducking. 
 

Removed speakers from the group, played music through Dot, then re-added them and played music to them - no change in ducking behavior. 
 

This is maddening: I’m so close to having the system behave in the way I want it to! 

Perhaps try this...

When removing the Sonos skill from the Amazon App, also remove all your Sonos devices… then login to your Amazon Account online via a web browser and goto “manage content and devices” and ensure the Sonos devices are gone from the devices tab, or remove any remaining Sonos devices manually. 

Then goto your Amazon online account settings and scroll down to the section called ‘other accounts/login to Amazon’. Select that to view your sharing agreements and remove the Sonos/Amazon sharing agreement.

Next, setup your devices again from scratch by adding in the Sonos Skill back in the Amazon App. You will also need to add your devices to the “Downstairs” group again.

There are some recent improvements made to Alexa ducking that may improve what you’re seeing here.  These changes will allow only the players in an Alexa Group to duck in unison, even if the input device is an Echo. Which may improve things with Sonos Ones in a group with an Echo Dot even with Alexa disabled on them.

More details on Alexa grouping can be found here. 

Unfortunately I am afraid that Sonos is labeling a bug as a feature here. When you write to support you get the answer that the Sonos One and the Beam only support ducking when picking up the voice themselves.

What you wrote here is simply wrong Ryan. The Sonos One will not duck when you do the following:

1. Put another Alexa device into an Alexa group as the “Alexa Device”
2. Put the Sonos ONE with voice service disabled or enabled, but disabled microphones into the group as a normal group member (This will usually enable the ducking)
3. Set the Sonos ONE or any other speaker as preferred speaker.

If you do exactly the same with a Play:5 it will duck whereas the Sonos ONE will completely ignore that you speak to the Alexa enabled device.

JFYI, I have just bought 4 Sonos One SL instead of normal Sonos Ones because the Alexa integration on the Sonos one is so bad and the fact that the ducking doesn’t work properly.

Hey Seeky, I looked into it and my message above is the experience that’s intended, and is starting to roll out to households. It’s not live for everyone just yet, but should be by the next Sonos software update (assuming no issues come up during limited release). 

Just following up here to say that I could not get ducking to work on the Sonos Ones with voice services disabled, despite trying all the tricks listed here. 
 

Fast forward a couple of weeks and after adding a Sonos Connect to the same group in order to play a turntable, all of a sudden the ducking starts to work. 
 

I don’t know if this is a coincidence or not, but the ducking now also works when I verbally play music from my Alexa to the Ones, without the Connect being in the mix.

Was it the addition of the Connect? Was it a software update? I don’t know, but while relieved and pleased I’m also nervous that it will go as it came - unexpectedly.