Unable to play whole album

  • 5 October 2017
  • 25 replies
  • 8310 views

Have recently set up Alexa with Sonos and it works OK, but if I ask Alexa to play an album (play album name, by band and where I want it played), it just plays (queues) the first song in the Album. None of the other songs in the album appear in the queue on the Sonos app. Do I need to word the question to Alexa in another format?

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

25 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Hi Chrisager,

Can you try the following steps and let me know how it goes:

  1. Power off all Sonos Players (You may only need to power off the Player that was targeted for playback)
  2. Disable and then re-enable the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App
  3. Power on the Player(s)
  4. After the Player(s) are powered back on they may need to be re-discovered in the Alexa app if they do not show up
  5. Attempt to playback the tracks and let us know if it continues to play after the first track.
Hi Ryan. Thanks for the response. Have tried your suggestion this morning but without success. Have also tried different combinations of using the word album , all tracks from album ,etc., but the problem persists. Any other ideas? Thanks
I am having the same issue, I ask Alexa to "play songs by artist in living room" to which she replies "shuffling songs by artist in living room" but only 1 song plays. This is true of my Playbase (living room) and Play 1 (bedroom)
Identical thing happened to me. I have a system with two 5s and two 1s. I had an Echo Dot next to one of the 1s. I could only ever get it to play one song at a time. I tried artist on Amazon Music, album on Amazon Music, and then artist radio on Pandora. Same thing. One song each time.

I will try to shut down and restart everything and see how it goes.
Well, it seems that I have it working now. I may have spoken too soon. I was expecting all the tracks from the album to appear in the queue in the Sonos app, but they don't when you use Amazon Music as the source. They play one after the other, but in the Sonos app you can only see the track that is currently playing, not what may queued up behind. I'm not sure if the original solution that Ryan posted actually resolved the issue, because yesterday it definitely only played one track and stopped (i.e. went quiet and no further tracks were played). Give it a go em00jie.
I tried it with just the one speaker and it didn’t work. Same thing just playing one song. Will try it for my whole system.
Well, it seems that I have it working now. I may have spoken too soon. I was expecting all the tracks from the album to appear in the queue in the Sonos app, but they don't when you use Amazon Music as the source. They play one after the other, but in the Sonos app you can only see the track that is currently playing, not what may queued up behind. I'm not sure if the original solution that Ryan posted actually resolved the issue, because yesterday it definitely only played one track and stopped (i.e. went quiet and no further tracks were played). Give it a go em00jie.

Sadly still not working for me, still stops playing after just 1 track regardless of requesting Alexa to play an album, shuffle songs or a playlist. The App just shows the current song like you said, no queue, but after the track is finished nothing else starts and the app continues to show the same track.
Badge
Same exact problem for me. I've tried shutting down all the Sonos players, all the Echo Dots and disabling then re-enabling the Sonos skill in every combination. Still won't play more than one track. It will pause music by voice command, but won't resume it. If I ask it to skip tracks, I get a voice message 'I can alter the playback mode only if music is playing'. Very frustrating having waited so long for this feature.
Seems that there is further investigation required into this Ryan as per the other comments above. As it's still in Beta, I guess there are further bugs to iron out. Sorry I can't say for certain what has resolved my issue if it wasn't the solution Ryan provided - could have been the force Alexa app option to close in my Android device (after re-enabling the sonos skill), I also had to re-register my Sonos devices again using the sonos app (settings > my sonos account) with my email rather than the wife's. Good luck.
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Thanks for the updates guys. I'm passing it on to the team investigating this one. It seems to be a trend with some systems that will only play one song like this. They're narrowing it all down right now. Those steps above are the suggested "fix" for now, but they're investigating what's causing the issue and how to fix.

We wanted a large beta for this for a reason, helps find the bugs and issues quickly. Sorry for the interruptions.

If you're able to, try testing out another service to see if that one has the same issue.
I tried deleting the Alexa app, reinstalling, and then unplugging the play 1and the Alexa. Wouldn’t play Amazon at all. Just one song from Pandora.

Will try unplugging all Plays next.
No luck. Followed all the instructions above. My one song on Pandora stopped halfway through. Amazon Music just played the one song.
Badge
I had exactly the same issues, and contacted SONOS support, The diagnostics showed some anomalies with my ethernet connection. I played around with it, and my Alexa functionality is now nearly perfect.

Basically, I had a wired ethernet connection into my Player speaker from my router, I also had an ethernet cable running OUT of the Playbar into my Sky TV box - I was effectively using the Playbar as a hub. I unplugged the OUT cable so my Sky box wasn't using the ethernet run through he Playbar. Instantly, all was working with Alexa and Sonos (except my bedroom Play 1, which worked fine after a power down cycle). When I plugged the Sky box back into the ethernet on the Playbar, there was no detrimental effect on the Alexa/Sonos functionality.

Very happy camper now. Hope this might help some of the others - I'm very pleased with the way it all works now.
Userlevel 5
Badge +11
I have noticed that wireless only tends to behave better, still throws wobblies, than those speakers that are ethernet conected.
I'm having the exact same issue. My new Echo Dot when asked to play X, says it is "shuffling music by X" but only plays 1 song - very disappointing!:@
Badge
Any update on this from Sonos yet? This is happening to me too.
I found that this tended to occur (Alexa just playing the one song then stopping) when I had previously gone in via the Sonos app on the desktop and shuffled songs from my local music library. (Don't know for certain the one causes the other, but thought I would share just in case.)
I'm having this issue with non-sonos gear as well. May be an Alexa/Echo issue.
Hi Sonos Team, any further insights to this issue? I have tried powering off my Sonos One and remove/added Skill but still encounter same issue - Alexa stops playing after 1 song even though its meant to be shuffling songs for a particular Artist, and it can't locate my playlist in Amazon music. Something is fundamentally faulty here -Either the source (of music) or the product itself. This needs a permanent fix quick, I am a Sonos fan but this is a bit disappointing......
Userlevel 5
Badge +6
In my case, I found that the albums that I tried to play using Alexa only had 1 or 2 songs available through Amazon Prime Music, but the entire album available through Amazon Unlimited music. So, I suggest if not paying for Amazon Unlimited you may want to see if the album is even available for Alexa to retrieve.
Badge
I have similar problem if playing classical albums from Spotify on Sonos Alexa. It treats the four movements of a symphony as separate"songs" and shuffles them. Also, if I just ask Alexa to play, say, music by Haydn it always starts withe the same piece and plays them in the same order. Very annoying.
In my case, I found that the albums that I tried to play using Alexa only had 1 or 2 songs available through Amazon Prime Music, but the entire album available through Amazon Unlimited music. So, I suggest if not paying for Amazon Unlimited you may want to see if the album is even available for Alexa to retrieve.

Yes I have seen this too... but I have also made the mistake of thinking I’m requesting/playing an album, but in fact I have accidentally chosen a track from the album, which has the same title name.

Example:

“Alexa, Play Wish you were here by Pink Floyd in the Kitchen”... this will just play the single title track from the album also called ‘Wish you were here' and not the whole album as I initially intended.

Obviously, I very quickly realised my mistake and changed the voice command to:

“Alexa, Play the Album, Wish you were here by Pink Floyd in the Kitchen”... this then queued the whole album to play.

I mention this, just briefly, in case someone else here maybe making the same 'silly mistake' that I made. There must be many many more examples where I have done this and forgot to include 'play the album' in my Alexa voice command and ended up with a single song in my queue.
Badge
I have the same issue with echo dot & Sonos playbar, I ask alexa to play an album & she plays one song then nothing. I have disabled then enabled sonos skill, disabled device & re-enabled, powered off playbar & echo dot but still only one song playing.....have tried this several times but she still only plays the one song.
I have this exact problem too. Come on Sonos, it’s been 6 months since the first report of this problem and the only advice you can offer us is to “turn it off and on again”. Can you update us as to what you’re doing to fix this.
Have you all tried calling Amazon to see what they ahve to say?