Question

Sonos One problems

  • 23 October 2017
  • 66 replies
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66 replies

Yes , I agree with the general sentiment, very disappointing product.... not as feature rich as an Echo. The killer for me is that spotify doesnt work at all, and any request for music get routed to amazon music....am I the only one that thinks that is a bit too much of a coincidence.

Yeah, Amazon is afraid of losing sales to Spotify so they don't allow Alexa to initiate play from Spotify on Sonos, but they don't care at all about supporting Spotify on the devices they themselves manufacture, and outsell Sonos devices by 100 to 1? Sorry, but the logic doesn't follow.
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I thought the fact I was disappointed with the whole set up/lack of music playing etc was just me.. so glad to see there is a support group for us all 🙂 Like Prembo.. getting my refund.. I expected a better experience overall from Sonos and was genuinely looking forward to trying out Alexa.. but I sent her home yesterday...
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Mine is stuck in mountain standard time north america even though in the app is in europe british summertime and no matter what i do it will not change. I think im gonna send it back as there are to many issues.Stick to the dots. To release this product and not be able to hardley do anything is shocking.
I'm overall pretty happy with it, hoping for little issues to be fixed over time. Although one thing I noted, is that upon setting it up, saying "Alexa, News" initiated "Here's your flash briefing" and then total silence. Later on in the evening, after messing around, now if I say "Alexa, news" it just flashes the light a few times and goes back to like nothing ever happened. Everything else including controlling lights, asking weather, etc works perfectly.
Mine is stuck in mountain standard time north america even though in the app is in europe british summertime and no matter what i do it will not change. I think im gonna send it back as there are to many issues.Stick to the dots. To release this product and not be able to hardley do anything is shocking.

Some have stated that using the Alexa web interface instead of the app lets you change the location properly. Maybe an Alexa app update is needed.
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For the white microphone light, simply use a black sharpie to mark over it. You can always wipe it off later...
Userlevel 3
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Mine is stuck in mountain standard time north america even though in the app is in europe british summertime and no matter what i do it will not change. I think im gonna send it back as there are to many issues.Stick to the dots. To release this product and not be able to hardley do anything is shocking.

Some have stated that using the Alexa web interface instead of the app lets you change the location properly. Maybe an Alexa app update is needed.

Thanks for the reply. I have tried and no it doesn't wont to change.

Thanks for the reply. I have tried and no it doesn't wont to change.


The only recourse now is to submit a diagnostic and post the reference number here so a Sonos tech can take a look.
This is a bit shocking to be honest. There is always a massive delay when asking Alexa to do something, It struggles to understand my wife when she speaks better english than me. Our Amazon Echo which we returned after a 3 week trial because we heard the Sonos was coming out worked faultlessly. I don't think I've been so disappointed with a product in my life! 😞
I disabled the white light in settings and it worked fine on my Sonos One.

I still have a light under the mic that is always on. The option in the setting does work and turns off the light in the centre. Is the light under the mic always on for you?

Other problems found..

- if music is playing I say "Alexa, next track", she says it can only be done when music is playing

- "Alexa, stop" does not work when music is playing

I think I have a dodgy unit :)


I have exact same problem
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Yeah, Amazon is afraid of losing sales to Spotify so they don't allow Alexa to initiate play from Spotify on Sonos, but they don't care at all about supporting Spotify on the devices they themselves manufacture, and outsell Sonos devices by 100 to 1?I suspect that the most likely (and boring) scenario is that it's easier for Amazon and Sonos to get things working initially on a service that is completely within the two companies control. As we've seen already there's a lot to fix and literally adding a third party will slow that down even further. I'm sure some at Amazon will have seen that as a double bonus with their own service being 'exclusive' for a while.

It's clear Sonos have missed several ways already that lots of users want to use the new function and currently isn't supported. It's also clear (to me anyway) that Amazon themselves really need to sort out room support as the current approach is unworkable with Sonos in more than one room.

As for Sonos having launched when it appears to be too early, my guess would be that since Amazon have added new function to play music across multiple Echo devices, Sonos are in danger of losing what has become a core part of their market. Google are also getting involved. Music is the key use of these voice enabled devices right now and Sonos con't compete with Amazon or Google here. No, the Echo's won't be as good as Sonos, but at £89 each in the UK, and if you buy three you get £50 off, you can have voice enabled multi-room music for not much money...

Sonos will want to be seen as a higher end version of that, the trouble is that it doesn't work as well as the cheaper option probably will, and also doesn't work in the way existing Sonos owners expect, so at the moment it's in danger of disappointing new and existing owners which is not good. The reviews are all positive, but I suspect that they are banking on many of the issues being sorted quickly so that when people hit their sites in a few months time they're more accurate. In the mean time there's a bit of a gap between the hype and reality, the pressure is on Sonos to fix issues and respond to owners needs quickly. Amazon I suspect are more focused on their own new devices which launch officially in the next few days. I'm sure someone is going to compare the new Echo against a Sonos One, I'm not sure it's going to go too well at present.
Sadly, I will have to return it if there's no clear roadmap for changing the wake work to "Echo". It was not clearly communicated that this device is not feature-parity with other Amazon devices.

I, like many others, just assumed all the software would work identically to a regular Amazon-branded Echo. Didn't Sonos collaborate with Amazon on this? Aren't they sharing the same base code?
I purchased a Sonos One, thinking the Alexa Software would work with my current Sonos library; Be aware, IT DOES NOT! I spoke with 2 customer Reps who confirmed "it's being worked" on. The Sonos One works as a Play 1 with your current library, and will control the Music Services that are offered. This information isn't can be found on their site only if you investigate. I love Sonos, but this is not their finest product release.
Sure, if by "only if you investigate" you mean prominently displayed in the Announcement section article for Alexa on Sonos, the FAQ on how to use Alexa on Sonos, and the Sonos Blog entry on the introductions of Alexa on Sonos and the new Sonos One, not to mention a giant splash page on the main website stating:

Ask Alexa to play music from these featured music services. Or pause, resume, skip or change the volume with all services available.



Look out for improvements—like fully supported voice control for Spotify, coming later this year.
Is it true that Amazon won't legally allow third parties to use other wake words than "Alexa"? If so, then sadly, this gorgeous thing has to go back...so close, and yet so far.
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@VoiceOfSoftware, as far as I know, there aren't any legal reasons for using just Alexa as the wake word. The reasons are almost certainly technical, not legal. We're currently only using Alexa on the Sonos One, but I'd happy to pass on the interest in others to the team.
Yep, for me it is the performance of the mic array that is the most disappointing - very touch and go and I find I have to shout to have any chance of getting a response. I'm disappointed but I believe that this along with the other niggles that people are reporting will get fixed with a software upgrade - probably fairly urgently. Also,.. I thought voice control for Spotify was coming next year, not later this.
Userlevel 4
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Yes , I agree with the general sentiment, very disappointing product.... not as feature rich as an Echo. The killer for me is that spotify doesnt work at all, and any request for music get routed to amazon music....am I the only one that thinks that is a bit too much of a coincidence.

Nope.

A lot of us months ago thought the same when we found out Alexa couldn’t access our local libraries even though we thought this would be an obvious feature.

Only use for this is if you want to rent,sorry stream, music form amazon. I don’t.
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Sure, if by "only if you investigate" you mean prominently displayed in the Announcement section article for Alexa on Sonos, the FAQ on how to use Alexa on Sonos, and the Sonos Blog entry on the introductions of Alexa on Sonos and the new Sonos One, not to mention a giant splash page on the main website stating:

Ask Alexa to play music from these featured music services. Or pause, resume, skip or change the volume with all services available.



Look out for improvements—like fully supported voice control for Spotify, coming later this year.





Yeah I don’t want to rent music, id like Alexa and solos to work with my local library not Amazon’s library
Userlevel 4
Badge +3
Yeah, Amazon is afraid of losing sales to Spotify so they don't allow Alexa to initiate play from Spotify on Sonos, but they don't care at all about supporting Spotify on the devices they themselves manufacture, and outsell Sonos devices by 100 to 1?I suspect that the most likely (and boring) scenario is that it's easier for Amazon and Sonos to get things working initially on a service that is completely within the two companies control. As we've seen already there's a lot to fix and literally adding a third party will slow that down even further. I'm sure some at Amazon will have seen that as a double bonus with their own service being 'exclusive' for a while.

It's clear Sonos have missed several ways already that lots of users want to use the new function and currently isn't supported. It's also clear (to me anyway) that Amazon themselves really need to sort out room support as the current approach is unworkable with Sonos in more than one room.

As for Sonos having launched when it appears to be too early, my guess would be that since Amazon have added new function to play music across multiple Echo devices, Sonos are in danger of losing what has become a core part of their market. Google are also getting involved. Music is the key use of these voice enabled devices right now and Sonos con't compete with Amazon or Google here. No, the Echo's won't be as good as Sonos, but at £89 each in the UK, and if you buy three you get £50 off, you can have voice enabled multi-room music for not much money...

Sonos will want to be seen as a higher end version of that, the trouble is that it doesn't work as well as the cheaper option probably will, and also doesn't work in the way existing Sonos owners expect, so at the moment it's in danger of disappointing new and existing owners which is not good. The reviews are all positive, but I suspect that they are banking on many of the issues being sorted quickly so that when people hit their sites in a few months time they're more accurate. In the mean time there's a bit of a gap between the hype and reality, the pressure is on Sonos to fix issues and respond to owners needs quickly. Amazon I suspect are more focused on their own new devices which launch officially in the next few days. I'm sure someone is going to compare the new Echo against a Sonos One, I'm not sure it's going to go too well at present.


Launching too early? It was in beta for over 18 months
You can of course use the wake word Blake’s 7 😳
I had these issues after 2 days whereby Alexa stopped playing music. I posted it to this forum along with my fix if you search for posts by me. It involves a few steps of removing the skills and doing the same on the Alexa web app to fully get rid and then setting up again. It’s been working fine since

James
If you have a song playing from any other source but Amazon, Alexa will not work to stop, skip track or pause...
I find if I have songs in queue and Ask Alexa to play a new song, it will say playing new song and then it won’t play.. If I clear my queue it will work again.

The speakers themselves sound great but the software and Alexa are buggy.
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If you have a song playing from any other source but Amazon, Alexa will not work to stop, skip track or pause...
I find if I have songs in queue and Ask Alexa to play a new song, it will say playing new song and then it won’t play.. If I clear my queue it will work again.

The speakers themselves sound great but the software and Alexa are buggy.


It will but at the moment you need to specify the room name in the voice command, if audio was started from the app.
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
If you have a song playing from any other source but Amazon, Alexa will not work to stop, skip track or pause...
I find if I have songs in queue and Ask Alexa to play a new song, it will say playing new song and then it won’t play.. If I clear my queue it will work again.

The speakers themselves sound great but the software and Alexa are buggy.


This should be resolved as of yesterday. The Sonos One targeting for Stop shouldn't be needed anymore.
It will but at the moment you need to specify the room name in the voice command, if audio was started from the app.[/quote]