I call them "Soundscape Skills" - like "Relaxing Nature Sounds", "Ambient Sounds: Cricket Sounds", "Rain Sounds", etc. There's hundreds of them. On my Sonos One, perhaps only one in ten works properly. If a Soundscape Skill doesn't work properly, the symptom is that I hear nothing at all. Evidence seems to point to the fact that Alexa thinks that the Soundscape is playing, but nothing whatsoever is audible at any volume level. I tried dozens upon dozens of these late last night, and only found a handful which worked properly. Alexa otherwise seems to be performing perfectly well.
I am working with Sonos tech support on this, but since the diagnostic reports look absolutely fine, it's difficult for support to troubleshoot this problem. My question is, am I the only one with this symptomatology?
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No routines is another thing. My skills work for most things except what I want it to work for:(. None of the sleep or meditation skills work. None
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Sry, not sure what "routines" are. Do you mean skills?
So do the routines not work either ?
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Just sent the following to Sonos Support after working with them unsuccessfully for the better part of the past week. I've changed the tech's name - he was great, actually, and I don't have any problem with him directly. His management let him down:
Ok, well, Ivan, it's a perfect storm of badness. You can see here [I linked this Sonos chat page] that I put out a question to the Sonos forums soliciting information from anyone who was having the same problem (standard Alexa skills not responding correctly). I waited for several days, and as you can see I got no response from the community - that is, until I posted that I just made return arrangements for my Sonos One. Then, suddenly, I find that this *is* a known problem shared universally and ostensibly on all Sonos Ones. Now a question for you - this obvious glaring known problem wasn't discussed among the support team? Don't answer that - I probably won't like what I hear.
So anyway, I've got a new one coming today, only to finally find out that it's going to have the exact same problem. Which means *another* return, unless you can assure me that Sonos is on the problem. I'm less than pleased - can you blame me? What's not working is *core* functionality for an Alexa device. It's pretty much the sort of thing you buy an Alexa device *for*. I'm gobsmacked that Sonos has released this product, and this core functionality doesn't work.
Ok, well, Ivan, it's a perfect storm of badness. You can see here [I linked this Sonos chat page] that I put out a question to the Sonos forums soliciting information from anyone who was having the same problem (standard Alexa skills not responding correctly). I waited for several days, and as you can see I got no response from the community - that is, until I posted that I just made return arrangements for my Sonos One. Then, suddenly, I find that this *is* a known problem shared universally and ostensibly on all Sonos Ones. Now a question for you - this obvious glaring known problem wasn't discussed among the support team? Don't answer that - I probably won't like what I hear.
So anyway, I've got a new one coming today, only to finally find out that it's going to have the exact same problem. Which means *another* return, unless you can assure me that Sonos is on the problem. I'm less than pleased - can you blame me? What's not working is *core* functionality for an Alexa device. It's pretty much the sort of thing you buy an Alexa device *for*. I'm gobsmacked that Sonos has released this product, and this core functionality doesn't work.
Using Sonos one. Skills Sleep and Relaxation.. command Alexaopen sleep sounds. It shows up that it's open and acts like it will but nothing plays
Userlevel 7
+20
Hi sarjeah
What source and voice command syntax are you using?
Just bought and none of the ambient sound skills are working
I have been in multiple contact with both Sonos and Amazon on this.
I believe it’s an across the board lack of support for third party audio (with the exception of flash briefing and the Sonos skill)
Guided meditation will introduce the meditation but the meditation never plays.
I hope this is adressed as something that will be fixed or they simply do not plan to support and if they don’t plan to support it they really need to work on their marketing rebate that says the Sonos with Alexa can run all the skills, etc.
I believe it’s an across the board lack of support for third party audio (with the exception of flash briefing and the Sonos skill)
Guided meditation will introduce the meditation but the meditation never plays.
I hope this is adressed as something that will be fixed or they simply do not plan to support and if they don’t plan to support it they really need to work on their marketing rebate that says the Sonos with Alexa can run all the skills, etc.
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Ok, it's a "wrap". I've just made arrangements to return it as defective.
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@UKMedia, yes, it seems to be only this genre. Alexa otherwise seems to function perfectly - at least as good as Alexa gets. I put this question out to determine the possibility that I might have a dysfunctional Alexa device. This purchase is less than a week old, and I'm considering the arduous task of sending it back for a replacement - in fact, leaning in the direction, because no one is citing similar problems with their Sonos Ones. As they say, always check the physical layer.
Userlevel 7
+20
Yes but normally it is fixed by the approach I described. Is this problem only encountered on this genre?
+1
Ok, UKMedia, I acted upon your suggestion on about a half dozen or so Soundscapes, all with a consistent result. If I leave off the word "Playlist" as I have been doing, Alexa blinks a bit (as if complying with my request), then nothing. If I use the term "Playlist" at the end of the command, Alexa's response is always the same - "I can't find a playlist with that name". A good thought, but it doesn't look like it's going to be my particular solution. Do you sometimes have the same symptoms I'm experiencing? Does adding the word "playlist" produce a desired result for you?
Userlevel 7
+20
I've tested this and I think the issue may be that some are playlists (Which will only work when the word 'Playlist' is added to the command) and other are Albums (Which won't work with the word 'Playlist' added to the command). Can you test your Soundscapes again, with 'Playlist' included and omitted?
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