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Unable to set Sonos Era 100 as Alexa-enabled device in room/group using Alexa app

Today I’ve upgraded my two Sonos Ones with Sonos Era 100s. After adding Alexa to the speakers, I tried to go into the Alexa app to associate them with their respective rooms. I’m able to add them as the room speaker, but I am unable to set them as the Alexa device for that room (allowing for room-specific commands like “Alexa, turn off the lights”, etc).

What’s weird is my Era 100s will show up under the Echo & Alexa devices section in the Alexa app, but they do not show up under Alexa-enabled devices when editing a room/group (see attached screenshots).

I’ve reached out to Alexa support and they were largely unhelpful, they claimed that from their resources Alexa isn’t supported on the Sonos Era 100 (maybe their documentation hasn’t been updated since this is a brand new product?). So they left the conversation there even after showing them that Sonos clearly states Alexa built-in support for the Era 100.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Seems like a bug in the Alexa app, and their support team is unwilling to report the issue up their chain.

 

102 replies

T

I sat through 35 mins on to Sonos support. Whilst patient, utterly useless advice - deleted all skills, started from scratch twice and it just doesn’t work. 

Pretty poor releasing a product that clearly doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. Although, I don’t doubt  that Amazon also have their grubby mitts over not making this work either. 

Ideas welcome especially if it doesn’t involve deleting everything and starting again….again!

K
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

Good to hear our European (and UK) friends are getting fixes! Still doesn’t work for me in the US either. Over here, Era speakers are called “Devices” not “Alexa-enabled Devices”. They cannot control any groups. 

L

@Ken_Griffiths no, that’s not it. It’s not set up as a surround or in another group. I just got it yesterday and am setting it up now in my office.

Ken_Griffiths

@planigan,

I was initially a little confused by your screenshots, but think I have most of the detail now. There are two components for your Era 100..

  • Office Sonos - which is the actual speaker device itself
  • Office Sonos Era 100 (which I assume you renamed yourself) - this is the Alexa component part of your Era 100 speaker.  Renaming it did slightly confuse me - I tend to rename mine too, but would have personally called it "Sonos Office Alexa” to show it was the Office Alexa component. 

Anyhow, it is correct that the Alexa component is embedded within the speaker device in the Alexa App, although there are now options in the new Alexa App to change views and see the Alexa device list in a variety of different ways, which perhaps adds to the complication.

I don’t think your Era Alexa  ‘control’ for a group is correctly working here, but what would help is to provide a screenshot first of all showing all your Alexa groups… to do that see the photo below:

 


It would be helpful to see all the groups you have in the Alexa App. Just carry on then and go into each group and just make sure that "Office Sonos” is not enabling/controlling any of your groups that you have… If it is, then remove it from the group.

Note you are looking for the speaker component only here, not the Alexa component that you called ‘Office Sonos Era 100’ because that is embedded inside the speaker component.

So, if found, remove "Office Sonos" from the first ‘enabling’ section of any group and then see if it will appear as an Alexa enabling device that you can then add to your Office group. If it still will not let you do that, then try removing/reinstalling the ‘Sonos Skill’ in the Alexa App and then give it another go.

Finally, if after doing these things it still will not work for you, then it maybe best to submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and then contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to resolve the matter… and refer them to your post here too.

Hope the above assists.👍

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Thanks, @CesarDzMs!

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

Hi Everyone

If you are still experiencing this issue (which we believed had stopped happening outside of Germany) please submit a support diagnostic and post the given number along with a screenshot of the Alexa app showing a lack of Era units under “Alexa-enabled Devices”, as above. Thank you.

Like so many others I’m having the same issue in the US with a new Era 300. Has there been a solution yet? Diagnostic number: *************. The Era300 works with Alexa, but it’s not showing up in the Alexa app as an “Alexa-enabled device” in the Alexa app so I can’t say general commands for the room/group like “Alexa turn on the lights” I have to use the room name. Has this been solved yet? Screenshots below.

When listing all devices in the Alexa app it shows the Era 300 twice. The first is a default name I didn’t make with the wifi logo, and the 2nd is the era 300 named “New Master Bedroom”

 

  Neither device name for the Era 300 shows up for Alexa Enabled devices: 

 

But the Speaker does show up so I can add it as the speaker in the room/group, just not the Alexa enabled device in the room.

Moderator edit: diagnostic recorded and removed

UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Alexa is broken after the version 15.2 app update. Doesn't work on my Beam.

Please first disable then enable the Sonos skill in the Alexa App.  If the problem persists then have a look at my article: Tips & Tricks - Resolving random issues impacting Sonos devices.. | Sonos Community

 

This hasn't helped and it's actually worse now because I can't reconnect my Beam to Alexa (see screenshot). Why is Sonos so unreliable?

 

Did you follow both the skill and the steps within the article linked?  (At this stage, we don’t know if this is a Sonos or Amazon issue, from the description you’ve described.)

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
N

Hi

The Era 100 are wonderful……….Alexa not supported is rubbish, it is.   You are correct. Had more or less the same problem. Upgraded my Sonos Ones first generation to a pair of Era 100.  Could assign them to the room however Alexa would not play game.  I changed the room name I was using on my previous Sonos ones and the problem was sorted. 

 

V

Today I’ve upgraded my two Sonos Ones with Sonos Era 100s. After adding Alexa to the speakers, I tried to go into the Alexa app to associate them with their respective rooms. I’m able to add them as the room speaker, but I am unable to set them as the Alexa device for that room (allowing for room-specific commands like “Alexa, turn off the lights”, etc).

What’s weird is my Era 100s will show up under the Echo & Alexa devices section in the Alexa app, but they do not show up under Alexa-enabled devices when editing a room/group (see attached screenshots).

I’ve reached out to Alexa support and they were largely unhelpful, they claimed that from their resources Alexa isn’t supported on the Sonos Era 100 (maybe their documentation hasn’t been updated since this is a brand new product?). So they left the conversation there even after showing them that Sonos clearly states Alexa built-in support for the Era 100.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Seems like a bug in the Alexa app, and their support team is unwilling to report the issue up their chain.

 

I have the same issue. As new user of sonos, I’m very disappointed, I had high expectations.

C

Same. Awaiting fix for this Sonos please. 

Airgetlam

Deleted, I was responding to spam, which has been reported. 

 

Bruce
K
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

A big Thank You to all who submitted diagnostics!

We have enough to work with now.

Corry, can you confirm if the developers are actively working on this? And can you please give us a progress update?

Or you just don’t want any more reports cause it’s getting embarrassing now?

R

I find it amazing that I researched buying an ERA 100 to replace an Echo device in my dining room to circumvent an Apple iMusic issue I have with Alexa. The ERA 100 is advertised as being able to function as an Alexa Echo device.  Absolutely zero caveats about that capability. So, I buy the ERA 100. Tout sweet, I run into this problem. I cannot add the ERA 100 to the everywhere Alexa group, or any group of speakers I try to set up, because while it responds to Alexa commands, it is not classified as an Alexa speaker after enabling the Alexa App skill. I then spend 2 days on the phone with both Sonos and Amazon, with nothing being resolved. I talked to at least 3 different Sonos support people. Not one word about this being an outstanding problem.  Instead my time was wasted by resetting and re-installing those 2 days, with a lot of finger pointing between the 2 companies. I give up, and google the issue and find this thread right on the Sonos site! INCOMPREHENSIBLE!  No one told me that this was an outstanding issue with an open ended ETA on a fix, and with more non-productive finger pointing! In 25 years of  working on getting music technology incorporated into my home you people still can’t get it right, especially across companies, and shame on Sonos support for pretending to scratch their heads over this with me like it was something they never heard of.

R

Not a big social media guy.  Among other reasons, folks on social media believe everything is up for debate, often with an unquenchable need to “enlighten” a deluded or misinformed lost soul, like myself :-).  Well, don’t you sound like a lawyer for Sonos.  Interpreting from thin air limitations implied by the advertised “enabled” Alexa compatability.  Because no such limitations are either stated or implied in the description of the “enabled” capability in Sonos documentation.  In fact there is at least one, if not more than one document avainable online that describes how to include the ERA in an Alexa group of Alexa speakers.  Which, again, does not work. Thanks, but I I needed no “clearing up” of my understanding.  I’m quite comfortable with my understanding of my issue. Something Sonos says works, doesn’t.  You got a fix, great.  I’m responding because your uncolicited comments were so off base.  If you feel a need to weigh in with the last word, please do so. I have nothing more to say.

S
Userlevel 2
Badge

Diagnostic is 365694344

In the screenshots:

Recognized as “Alexa capable” and part of an Alexa defined Group is “Nightstand” which is a Sonos ONE.

Also, “Beam” and “”Roam” are listed in the Alexa-enabled section, but not currently being used in any Alexa groups.

NOT recognized as “Alexa capable” are my devices “ARC” (Sonos ARC), “Kitchen Sonos” (Sonos ERA 100), “Lab Era 100” (Era 100).

Also NOT recognized my brand new Move 2 which I just received and installed today.

Note to Sonos support: I had to remove Alexa voice service from the “Kitchen Sonos” because it is in the same open area as an existing Amazon Alexa and conflicting.

Not specifically this bug, but will we EVER get the ability to use any of the existing Amazon alternative wake words (Computer, Amazon, Ziggy, Echo) with Sonos devices for Alexa?

 

N

Same problem here with Era 300.

Works basically well with Alexa, but adding to a group is not possible.

I
Badge

Today I’ve upgraded my two Sonos Ones with Sonos Era 100s. After adding Alexa to the speakers, I tried to go into the Alexa app to associate them with their respective rooms. I’m able to add them as the room speaker, but I am unable to set them as the Alexa device for that room (allowing for room-specific commands like “Alexa, turn off the lights”, etc).

What’s weird is my Era 100s will show up under the Echo & Alexa devices section in the Alexa app, but they do not show up under Alexa-enabled devices when editing a room/group (see attached screenshots).

I’ve reached out to Alexa support and they were largely unhelpful, they claimed that from their resources Alexa isn’t supported on the Sonos Era 100 (maybe their documentation hasn’t been updated since this is a brand new product?). So they left the conversation there even after showing them that Sonos clearly states Alexa built-in support for the Era 100.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Seems like a bug in the Alexa app, and their support team is unwilling to report the issue up their chain.

 

 

I am having the same problem with my Era 100 and Beam Gen 2’s. They are not appearing as “Alexa-enabled devices” per the OP’s second screenshot, and cannot be added to the group on Alexa. The Era 100 was a recent addition to my Sonos System. The Beam Gen 2’s had been around for a while but recently dropped out from “Alexa-enabled devices”. I have tried renaming speakers on both Sonos and Alexa apps, reinstalled Alexa on the Era 100, and reinstalled the skill on Alexa, but nothing works. My Arc and Move remain unaffected as “Alexa-enabled devices”, so I can only conclude that something is wrong with the Era 100, and a recent update broke the Beam Gen 2’s.

 

EDIT: I observed the Beam Gen 2’s dropping out randomly and then going back into their Alexa groups. I’m not sure why. Hopefully it doesn’t drop out again. The Era 100 is still not working with Alexa.

Ken_Griffiths

@planigan,

Oh well it was worth trying those things. I could see from you initial screenshots that ‘Office Sonos’ was not enabling the group, but hoped that checking/removing it from all your groups and removing/reinstalling the ‘Sonos Skill’ might have perhaps corrected the issue. Looking at your last post you’ve done all you can, but I would still report this to Sonos Support with a diagnostic report and a reference to your posts here. I suspect it’s more-likely down to Amazon to resolve this issue so it maybe worth reporting the matter to them too, but see what Sonos Support say first.

Anyhow, I hope it gets resolved for you and everyone else affected by the issue aswell.

D

Unfortunately this still is a problem for me. My Sonos Roam works perfectly, but none of my Era 100s show up as Alexa enabled devices. 
 

Diagnostic ID: 1751975722

 

N

Similar discussion in the German forum:

https://de.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-und-sonos-223393/era-300-alexa-gruppe-hinzufuegen-6755294

It occurs to me, Era 100/300 have the same Alexa-bug.

N

According to this thread concerning Beam gen2 authorization by amazon might be missing?

 

T

Also having the exact same issue here. I got a new Sonos Era 100 to replace one of my Sonos Ones and can’t add it as an Alexa-enabled device to a group. Please fix this!

J

Diagnostics ID: 1265494006

Have the same issue in the US today.  I have updated the firmware on first setup to make sure everything is updated.  I have also reset the device to factory and tried the setup from scratch with the same result.

Era 100 entry in Alexa app doesn’t show any built-in speaker capability whereas Beam does.  This is what I found to be the main difference that’s causing inability to add Era 100 (its speaker equivalent is Main Bedroom whereas Beam’s speaker equivalent is Family Room in the app) as an Alexa-enabled device.  See screenshots.

 

 

 

J

@Ken_Griffiths I was responding to this pinned post by Sonos staff member @Corry P : 

 

As to your question, the “Family Room” speaker is for Beam which is working as intended.  It is added to Family Room.  I was trying to add Era 100 to “Main bedroom” but it’s not showing in the list of Alex-enabled devices; it does show up as a standalone speaker though.  

It looks like Sonos does not have a support email but only has a chat service, so I’ll try their chat on a weekday.

Ken_Griffiths

@Ken_Griffiths I was responding to this pinned post by Sonos staff member: 

 

As to your question, the “Family Room” speaker is for Beam which is working as intended.  It is added to Family Room.  I was trying to add Era 100 to “Main bedroom” but it’s not showing in the list of Alex-enabled devices; it does show up as a standalone speaker though.  

It looks like Sonos does not have a support email but only has a chat service, so I’ll try their chat on a weekday.

Have you checked that the Era-100 is not already enabling a group - it defaults to its own group on install and you may need to delete it from that group to add it to your Main bedroom group.

A device can only enable one Alexa group only, at any one time. If it’s not that, then you can call Sonos Support Staff via the link here (during opening hours)…

https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

Hope that assists.👍

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