Question

Sonos One NOT supported on Amazon.co.uk

  • 26 October 2017
  • 11 replies
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The problems I've had include: difficulties with set up, long delays in responding to requests, it thinks it's in Seattle for weather and time, it's not sensitive enough to the wake word. Here's what Amazon UK say:

"I understand from query that the Alexa on the Sonos One is not working as expected.

"After checking your account I could see that the product you are referring to is not displaying in your amazon.co.uk account.

"When I researched further I found the device to be registered on amazon.com. That is the reason when you've try playing on Sonos One, you are facing a long delay.

"As the device was recently launched in Amazon.co.uk, the device skills and features are still under development as per our customers requirement and has not yet been added as a supported device in UK. That is the reason the device is showing on Amazon.com and when you give it any command it is unable to accept it or understand as it would be researching on Amazon.com."

Any comments from Sonos on why this wasn't made clear at the start and when it'll be sorted out?

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11 replies

Well, that is an interesting piece of information!

With my Sonos One I can play radio stations with a reasonable degree of accuracy and consistency. I was extremely disappointed that the Alexa interface couldn't do what my phone or tablet app could do, i.e. play my music library. It's been debated long and in detail in other posts whether this was a technologically reasonable expectation. Regardless of the rationality of expecting such a thing, the fact remains that this new introduction (Alexa) actually stopped me playing music through my Sonos One.

So I ponied up for an Amazon Music subscription (thanks, Sonos). And guess what? Alexa still can't play my music, even now it's been imported/matched in to Amazon Music. I live in the UK, with an Amazon.co.uk account. If the above item from Amazon.co.uk has been written by someone knowledgeable and authoritative within Amazon, it might account for the problems I've seen. Right now, the triangle between Amazon Music -> Alexa -> Sonos is broken and it's not easy to say which or how many of the links aren't functioning.

I would also be extremely interested in an official, knowledgeable and authoritative response from Sonos to help clarify this matter.
I got the same reply from Amazon when I raised an issue with playbar not responding to alexa after initaly working ok.
They replied "This feature by sonos is currently only available in United states, that is the reason it stops responding properly."
I would like to know if the Sonos Alexa integration has the same level of support in the UK as it does in the US?
That sounds fishy, but then again general Amazon support probably knows about as much about this as they know about what garbage bag to recommend. This is not a widespread problem, there are plenty of UK residents currently using the Sonos One with no issues. I would drill down my efforts to the Alexa support team, or wait for the Sonos techs to answer here. Submitting a diagnostic and posting the reference number in this thread can give them a head start on what is happening.
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The Alexa skill and functionality for Sonos is available and supported in the UK, US, and Germany right now. So you shouldn't have any trouble there. The team is investigating an issue with the Alexa app not sticking the region properly in the Sonos One in a few cases, but I haven't seen a large issue on that scale. I'd recommend that you give us a call on our support line so we can dig into this closer with you.
I just got my Play One today, as reported above the time is West Coast USA despite everything being set to UK settings. My music on Amazon Music does seem to be playing ok though. My Play One is also showing up on my amazon.co.uk,account.
I just got my Play One today, as reported above the time is West Coast USA despite everything being set to UK settings. My music on Amazon Music does seem to be playing ok though. My Play One is also showing up on my amazon.co.uk,account.

Some have had better luck changing the location via the Alexa web interface. Try here:

https://alexa.amazon.co.uk/
I have no real idea how to describe my problem other than to say Alexa won't play any music through Sonos One.

Does Amazon Music (web interface, PC app or phone/tablet app) recognise that I've uploaded several thousand tracks? Yes it does, subject to some errors. For example, Amazon imposes its own metadata on many tracks; the phone app doesn't have the same list as the PC app (it is many, many tracks short) etc.

Does Alexa know about Sonos? Yes, it does. I can see the Sonos devices in Alexa. And I've added the Sonos skill to Alexa several times on multiple different phones, tablets and PCs.

Does Sonos know about Amazon Music? Yes, it does. Or rather it says it does. It sees it as a music service and it knows that it is to be the default music service.

Does Alexa know about Amazon Music? Ah, here's a possible break. Amazon's "Alexa" doesn't seem to have any knowledge of what I've loaded in to Amazon's "Amazon Music". When I instruct Alexa/Sonos to play a track, it invariably responds with something like, "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." Or, more accurately "I can't find that song in your library. Would you like to hear a sample of "[song title]" from Amazon Music?"

If this problem lies with Amazon not recognising Amazon that's a crazy situation. But right now I don't know whether there's some other configuration or set-up I haven't completed in any of the apps.

Voice control, it'll never catch on. Just like I said about touch screens all these years ago. And look where that got me.
I’ve also just been told by Amazon that I’m connect to .com rather thean co.uk which is why I cannot get new flash updates.
How do I change to .co.uk? Is this a bigger problem than Sonos are admitting to.
I’ve also just been told by Amazon that I’m connect to .com rather thean co.uk which is why I cannot get new flash updates.
How do I change to .co.uk? Is this a bigger problem than Sonos are admitting to.


First thing I would check to see if your location in your Sonos account info is set to the UK. Login here:

https://www.sonos.com/myaccount

Click on Profile and make sure your country is set properly.

Oh and by the way, there are a couple people here having the problem. This points more towards having registered in the US instead of the UK rather than a widespread problem. There are hundreds of posts here from UK Sonos One owners whose setups went fine.
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I’ve also just been told by Amazon that I’m connect to .com rather thean co.uk which is why I cannot get new flash updates.
How do I change to .co.uk? Is this a bigger problem than Sonos are admitting to.

That's odd. If you check in the Alexa app, you can see what country your Alexa is set at.

As to the flash briefing, that's a feature that isn't quite ready yet on the Sonos One. We're hard at work on it with the Alexa team and it'll be ready soon.
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I have no real idea how to describe my problem other than to say Alexa won't play any music through Sonos One.

Does Amazon Music (web interface, PC app or phone/tablet app) recognise that I've uploaded several thousand tracks? Yes it does, subject to some errors. For example, Amazon imposes its own metadata on many tracks; the phone app doesn't have the same list as the PC app (it is many, many tracks short) etc.

Does Alexa know about Sonos? Yes, it does. I can see the Sonos devices in Alexa. And I've added the Sonos skill to Alexa several times on multiple different phones, tablets and PCs.

Does Sonos know about Amazon Music? Yes, it does. Or rather it says it does. It sees it as a music service and it knows that it is to be the default music service.

Does Alexa know about Amazon Music? Ah, here's a possible break. Amazon's "Alexa" doesn't seem to have any knowledge of what I've loaded in to Amazon's "Amazon Music". When I instruct Alexa/Sonos to play a track, it invariably responds with something like, "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." Or, more accurately "I can't find that song in your library. Would you like to hear a sample of "[song title]" from Amazon Music?"

If this problem lies with Amazon not recognising Amazon that's a crazy situation. But right now I don't know whether there's some other configuration or set-up I haven't completed in any of the apps.

Voice control, it'll never catch on. Just like I said about touch screens all these years ago. And look where that got me.

I've had a similar problem with Alexa before Sonos not playing music I'd uploaded. Have you tried adding "from my music library" to the end of your voice command?