"Sorry, something went wrong" response from ERA-100 using Alexa voice service

  • 19 December 2023
  • 68 replies
  • 1606 views
C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Over the past couple or months or so, I have been experiencing a response along the lines “Sorry, something went wrong” from an ERA-100 device in bedroom, with the first command. The second command works fine. I have a ticket open with Sonos Support, unfortunately, they are just asking me to restart devices, re-install skill, move devices, change WiFi channels etc, and not looking at the diagnostics I have been sending them.

I have found out today, that others may be experiencing similar issues, here is an example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/18bgxhx/long_time_user_with_a_new_problem_alexa/

I also see this thread, that maybe related:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/170fit6/fyi_alexa_still_doesnt_work_properly_on_era_100/

Which suggests Sonos are aware of the issue?

 

 

68 replies

Mr. T
Userlevel 7

I have not had the “Sorry, something went wrong” for past 2 days 😀

Haven’t used Alexa for a few days, but first “time” command worked just now with no error.

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

I have not had the “Sorry, something went wrong” for past 2 days 😀

Mr. T
Userlevel 7

Hi @craigski,

Agree, only certain type of requests cause an issue. I’ve only heard the error asking for time/weather.

I know there’s no issue with the device connecting to the internet as it can be playing music when the Alexa error occurs.

“Alexa who am I?“ - “I am talking to XXXX, this is XXXX’s account”

”Alexa what’s the time?” - “Sorry something went wrong”

“Alexa what’s the time?“ - “It’s 9:45AM”

Nothing we can do until a fix is implemented to resolve this issue.

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

This issue is still consistently happening on my Sonos devices. The not understanding why its happing is more frustrating that the actual issue itself 😀

I have discovered that the ‘Sorry, something went wrong” happens consistently with the first request after a period of time (I think about 8-10 hours) of a certain type of request for each user on Alexa.

Example commands that fail first time may have a location requirement eg “Alexa, whats the temperature” or “Alexa, will it rain today” but also some without a location requirement eg “Alexa, what is two plus two”. Other requests are fine.

Here is one sequence example, that is 100% repeatable first thing in morning. Maybe someone else experiencing this issue can try this scenario or similar, I cant remember exact responses, but Alexa did respond with correct response in green.

 

@Mr. T I recall you only have one Amazon person/account on your Sonos, but maybe repeat sequence below one morning?

 

Person2 - “Alexa, stop music” - stops music OK (Streaming BBC Sounds on ERA-100)

Person1 - “Alexa, who am I?” - “You are person 1 ….” OK

Person2 - “Alexa, who am I?’ - “You are person 2, using person 1’s Alexa account...” OK

Person2 - “Alexa, how are you?” - “I’m feeling funny, red nose day is coming up….” - OK

Person1 - “Alexa, wake up” - “Yes, I’m here….” - OK

Person1 - “Alexa, what’s two plus two” - “Sorry, something went wrong” - FAIL

Person2 - “Alexa, what’s two plus two” - “Sorry, something went wrong” - FAIL

Person2 - “Alexa, what’s two plus two” - “Two plus two if four” - OK

Person1 - “Alexa what’s two plus two” - “Two plus two is four” - OK

 

here is a similar example, 100% repeatable:

Person2 - “Alexa, stop music” - stops music OK (Streaming BBC Sounds on ERA-100)

Person1 - “Alexa, who am I?” - “You are person 1 ….” OK

Person2 - “Alexa, who am I?’ - “You are person 2, using person 1’s Alexa account...” OK

Person2 - “Alexa, how are you?” - “I’m feeling funny, red nose day is coming up….” - OK

Person1 - “Alexa, wake up” - “Yes, I’m here….” - OK

Person1 - “Alexa, what’s two plus two” - “Sorry, something went wrong” - FAIL

Person1 - “Alexa what’s two plus two” - “Two plus two is four” - OK

Person2 - “Alexa, what’s two plus two” - “Sorry, something went wrong” - FAIL

Person2 - “Alexa, what’s two plus two” - “Two plus two if four” - OK

 

Its always the first request after a period of time of a certain type of request for each user on Alexa service on Sonos.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @craigski 

Wrongception

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Irony makes me smile. 😀

‘Sorry, something went wrong’ with the forum tagging of the ‘Sorry, something went wrong’ thread.

Apology accepted! 😀

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @craigski 

Apologies - this thread was tagged with a tracking code for another issue. I’ll remove my previous post and un-tag this thread.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Mr. T
Userlevel 7

@craigski - I concur, it’s definitely not resolved.

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

@Corry P The issue was definitely not resolved at around 07:00am this morning. I do have a case open since November where I have been advised Sonos Engineers are working with Amazon on this specific issue, and Sonos support have not advised me this specific issue is fixed.

I can confirm the other Sonos Alexa issue with intermitted wake up on ERA-100 appears to have been resolved.

@Mr. T are you still experiencing the ‘Sorry, something went wrong issue”

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

@craigski @Ken_Griffiths -

For whatever reason, the first voice command after a period of time does not get processed/sent to the Amazon cloud/servers as the command does not appear in Alexa app history.

Snap, the something went wrong command never appears in history.

 

 

 

Mr. T
Userlevel 7

@craigski @Ken_Griffiths -

I also have Virgin Media broadband. Virgin Hub 4 is in modem mode and using an Asus XT8 mesh router with satellite. I don’t think the issue is related to DNS settings as the Echo Dot I have does not act in the same manner with the first request failing. That only occurs on Sonos devices and experienced it on a One, Era 100 and Era 300. First request being either the weather or time, not music related.

Only my Amazon account is linked to Alexa.

For whatever reason, the first voice command after a period of time does not get processed/sent to the Amazon cloud/servers as the command does not appear in Alexa app history.

Ken_Griffiths

Just out of curiosity, what DNS service are you using @Mr. T and @Ken_Griffiths ? I’m using Cloudflare.

Also do you both have multiple Amazon accounts linked to Alexa

I just use My ISP (Virgin Media) DNS Servers with a Plume Router/Mesh setup (6 Hubs). The servers are 

  • 194.168.4.100 (Primary)
  • 194.168.8.100 (Secondary)

Yes, I have my Wife’s Amazon account linked to my Amazon account and we each have our own Alexa accounts. Our home (Alexa) devices just use my Alexa login normally. I have used the Wife’s Alexa account recently though to try to test for this issue… but no joy there.

So I can access/see the Home devices through my Amazon Account via - ‘Manage Your Content & Devices’ off the Amazon main menu.

Just to add, both the Wife and I have been looking out for this issue, but not (yet) ever seen the ‘Sorry, something went wrong issue’ here. Thats checking many of the Amazon/Sonos devices that we have here, particularly first thing in the mornings and when devices have not been used for a number of days - but so far we’ve not come across it.

I’ve mentioned to @Mr. T that I will let him know if I do ever see the issue and will certainly post back to this thread too.

Just wondering if you and @Mr. T  are using the same make/model router, or ISP?

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

My use case, this happens every morning on ERA-100 in bedroom, but also in evening if I have been out for the day, and not used alexa for sometime:

  1. Sonos alarm - BBC Sounds every weekday morning - works fine
  2. 30 minutes or so later, I say ‘Alexa, stop music’ - works fine (now the intermittent issue is fixed)
  3. Then I say something like ‘”Alexa, will it rain today”
  4. Alexa responds “Sorry, something went wrong”
  5. I then repeat command and it works fine.

I can replace the command in (3) with say ‘Alexa, what is two plus two” or ‘Alexa, what is the temperature”, etc same result

I can do multiple ‘local’ commands play/stop music in (2), all work fine before (3)

There must be something different with how type (2) commands (eg Alexa local music control) vs type (3) commands (eg Alexa questions)  are processed, different servers? different networks?

I think my local network is fine as there are no issues with (1) or (2).

Just out of curiosity, what DNS service are you using @Mr. T and @Ken_Griffiths ? I’m using Cloudflare.

Also do you both have multiple Amazon accounts linked to Alexa?

 

 

 

 

Mr. T
Userlevel 7

@craigski - Agree, the “Sorry, something went wrong” issue still persists. Occurred on a One this morning.

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

The intermittent ERA-100 wake up appears to be fixed since last night, but nothing official from Sonos (yet) 😀

However, this morning, the usual ‘Sorry, something went wrong” was the still first response from ERA-100. 😒

 

Ken_Griffiths

@Ken_Griffiths I applaud your tenacity to attempt to break your system 🙌

The problem is the error message “sorry, something went wrong” is so generic, and both Alexa and Sonos are closed systems with no/limited enduser access to debug/log files to know exactly what is going on.

I can reproduce the Era-100 intermittent ‘mic not listening’ issue at any point during the day and initially my thinking was that Alexa saying ‘Sorry, something went wrong’ was perhaps related to that and that’s what initially got me started on this, but I was never able to reproduce the latter and just kept on trying to see if I could make it happen. Then things have moved onto other devices and it’s usually when leaving them stand idle for a while, so I thought I’d give it a try with the Roam and even different account credentials but still no luck at making it happen here.

It’s clear (I think) that it’s not related to the Era-100 ‘mic not listening’ issue and it also seems reasonably clear that it occurs on echo products too, I’m now just a little curious as to why only some Alexa users are affected?

Edit: It is this link that makes me think it’s perhaps more-likely an Amazon issue…

https://www.funktionalhome.com/alexa-sorry-something-went-wrong/

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

@Ken_Griffiths I applaud your tenacity to attempt to break your system 🙌

The problem is the error message “sorry, something went wrong” is so generic, and both Alexa and Sonos are closed systems with no/limited enduser access to debug/log files to know exactly what is going on.

 

 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @elziko 

As you can reliably recreate those symptoms on devices other than the Era 100, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team for some troubleshooting - though I recommend you first try going to the Alexa app and selecting More » Skills & Games » Your Skills (at bottom of screen) » Sonos » Disable Skill and once done, selecting Enable to use to link the accounts once more, then test.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Ken_Griffiths

Further to my last post in this thread, I left the Roam (with Alexa installed) called ‘Voyager’ on its charger and out the way for 48 hours without any use, setup on a new account with my Wife’s Amazon Alexa account, but on testing today and asking for the local weather, Alexa worked first time.

I’ve messaged some additional info. to @Mr. T to show some of my testing. I’ve also tested this on Move and Beam devices under my own account credentials, but I’m still unable to reproduce the ‘Sorry, something went wrong’ issue on any of the Sonos/Alexa devices here. 

I’m not sure why some users see this issue and others, like me, with multiple Alexa devices, never see it.

It’s clearly though a problem for some, even with Amazon’s own echo products too, as can be seen from a general search online. 

E
Userlevel 2

Based on @Corry P’s advice above I am not bothering to problem-solve this at the moment and I haven’t created a support ticket for the same reason. However, I wanted to add my voice to the list…

When I ask Alexa something she replies with “Sorry, something went wrong” in the first instance and then it works for subsequent requests just fine. Then after a short period, we go back to step one where something goes wrong and I have to try a second time.

This happens on my (ethernet) Arc and all my (WiFi) Ones. I have no other issues with my Sonos system and have no noticeable network problems elsewhere.

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

II have given Sonos diagnostics for the “sorry something went wrong” issue and they have confirmed it is a known issue. I therefore await a fix.

The latest update from this week that I have from Sonos support for my case opened in November 2023:

“Please be assured that we are fully aware of the issue and will notify you as soon as a final solution is found.”

Ken_Griffiths

@Mr. T, I’ve just installed Alexa to a Roam called ‘voyager’ (it’s under a different Sonos account and a brand new Sonos Household) and I will leave it in standby on it’s Qi charger for a day, or two.

I have been looking out for Alexa saying these words too, as that was the title of this thread by @craigski I’ve attached a couple of screenshots to show that I’ve started with a new Sonos S2 system to test this as I know it’s not happening with my account, but I’ve put this onto my Wife’s Amazon account.

I will report back what I see/hear.

3 Attachments
Mr. T
Userlevel 7

I’m not convinced that the “sorry something went wrong” is anything other than an Alexa bug that needs fixed between Sonos/Amazon.

It’s possible, but this ’clearly’ also occurs just on Amazon Alexa Echo products too, as that link explains, inferring it’s perhaps more an Amazon issue and a time-out with their local server.

What I don’t understand is why it’s only some devices and often not all products in the same Household.🤔 Nor does it seem to affect everyone.

Either way, I’m still thinking it’s not the same issue as that seen on the Era-100, where it’s mic intermittently stops listening and then works okay at anytime during the day/night.

I’m fairly sure the ‘mic issue’ may turn out to be gremlins on the Sonos side. In this reported instance aswell, it is a Sonos One Alexa assistant.

I have the Era 100 issue and have gone to Sonos customer support with that issue and provided the data gathered, but I’m not able to reproduce the “sorry, something went wrong” issue on any devices here, no matter if I leave the speaker sat idle for days… it’s as though something is sleeping, or timing-out a connection to the local Amazon server, I suspect. Anyhow, that’s why I personally think the two issues are ‘perhaps’ unrelated.

I don’t dispute the error can also occur on Echo products and that link you provided may help them. However, for those experiencing this issue on Sonos devices, when all other aspects of the Sonos system are working correctly, I don’t believe there is anything the user can currently do to resolve the issue.

I also don’t believe the two issues are related but two separate bugs in the Sonos/Alexa integration. If I’m not mistaken, you did not have the mic issue with the Era 100 until you removed and re-installed Alexa on the device. That to me implies the issue is within the current firmware when Alexa is installed on the Era 100. Maybe if you removed an re-installed Alexa on your other Sonos devices, you would then experience the “sorry something went wrong” error.

I have given Sonos diagnostics for the “sorry something went wrong” issue and they have confirmed it is a known issue. I therefore await a fix.

Ken_Griffiths

I’m not convinced that the “sorry something went wrong” is anything other than an Alexa bug that needs fixed between Sonos/Amazon.

It’s possible, but this ’clearly’ also occurs just on Amazon Alexa Echo products too, as that link explains, inferring it’s perhaps more an Amazon issue and a time-out with their local server.

What I don’t understand is why it’s only some devices and often not all products in the same Household.🤔 Nor does it seem to affect everyone.

Either way, I’m still thinking it’s not the same issue as that seen on the Era-100, where it’s mic intermittently stops listening and then works okay at anytime during the day/night.

I’m fairly sure the ‘mic issue’ may turn out to be gremlins on the Sonos side. In this reported instance aswell, it is a Sonos One Alexa assistant.

I have the Era 100 issue and have gone to Sonos customer support with that issue and provided the data gathered, but I’m not able to reproduce the “sorry, something went wrong” issue on any devices here, no matter if I leave the speaker sat idle for days… it’s as though something is sleeping, or timing-out a connection to the local Amazon server, I suspect. Anyhow, that’s why I personally think the two issues are ‘perhaps’ unrelated.

Mr. T
Userlevel 7

Same exact issue here on my Sonos One.  First Alexa gets “sorry something went wrong”, second ask and Alexa works fine.  EVERY TIME!

I’m not (yet) personally convinced that this is the same issue as Alexa intermittently not listening on the Era 100 because this has been reported in the past as quite a well known issue, even with Amazons own Echo devices and is often caused by a temporary loss to Amazon servers.

It can be caused by the router sleeping or powering down overnight, or some network power-saving in general. This link explains the issue in far more detail…

https://www.funktionalhome.com/alexa-sorry-something-went-wrong/

I’m not convinced that the current “sorry something went wrong” error is anything other than an Alexa bug that needs fixed between Sonos/Amazon.

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