Volume commands stopped working

  • 19 November 2017
  • 38 replies
  • 6591 views

Using an Echo Dot to control 3 existing Sonos speakers.

Have speakers set up as Kitchen / Dining Room and Bedroom

Can start and stop music fine 'play blah blah in (or on) Kitchen'.

Volume commands, for example 'turn it down in the kitchen' and Alexa responds with 'that command does not work on device kitchen.'

I've disabled and re-enabled the Skill to no avail.

Am I doing something silly or is it a bug; should I try deleting all the devices and resetting?

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38 replies

Userlevel 2
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It's still quite random. Sometimes it'll consistently work and others not at all.

Customer service have come back and suggested it may be a network issue, giving me some instructions for testing.
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
It's still quite random. Sometimes it'll consistently work and others not at all.

Customer service have come back and suggested it may be a network issue, giving me some instructions for testing.


Let us know if you manage to fix it?
Hi - I’m having the exact same issue. Got my new echo dots this week, volume control worked fine. Then today tried it (turn up in kitchen/ turn volume up in kitchen), either said not supported or not responding as per other comments in this thread.

Play/Stop etc work absolutely fine. I’m using Spotify as the music service, one amazon account.

If others are experiencing this issue, it must be a bug surely?
I'm getting the same issue. I assumed that it would be ironed out pretty quickly when Sonos / Alexa integration improved but no such luck. Pretty annoying.
Userlevel 7
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There was a Spotify outage today:
https://en.community.sonos.com/music-services-and-sources-228994/spotify-connection-6795783/index1.html#post16176028
Exactly same issue...I have echo dot and sonos Play1 and there is no way to change volume..Play, stop never fail but volume no way. Any idea when this bug should be fixed pelase?
Anyone got anywhere with this? I have exactly the same as above will do anything but change volume, same for both my sonos rooms “that command doesn’t work on device....” what ever volume command I use, so frustrating.
So, my issue is similar but my error is different I think. Same symptoms though, play/pause always works, but volume does NOT work if I issue a command to another device and then quickly try to change the volume.

Example: "Resume in the Living Room" Works. "Volume up in the Living Room" Works. "Turn on the Patio Lights" Works. "Volume up in the Living Room" does not work "Living Room is not responding." Have verified in history my commands are heard correctly and have actually removed all skills and restarted from scratch with just the Sonos skill and a single light to test.

Here's the weird part. If I take the same exact scenario above, but wait say 15 seconds and then issue the "Volume up in the Living Room" command again, it will work.
I'm getting the same issue. I assumed that it would be ironed out pretty quickly when Sonos / Alexa integration improved but no such luck. Pretty annoying.

I *think* I might have discovered a pattern in volume commands not working. When saying “turn down volume in living room” it seems to work; when saying “turn volume in living room down” it says that the command doesn’t work. I think the problem is using a split infinitive in the command.

I’d be interested to know if this solves the issue for others.
@jimwallace This worked for me! Thank you! This is definitely a bug that needs to be worked out.
I have exactly this issue. Very annoying.
Userlevel 7
Badge +19
Hi there, Jon_15. Make sure you are using the commands listed here to control Sonos with Alexa. If you continue to have problems please let us know the details. The more details we know the better we can assist. Thanks!
New to Alexa and have been trying a few things. I’ve managed to get her to play Deezer music through my Sonos speakers but there’s a couple of minor issues, one of which relates to this thread.

1. When I say ‘Alexa , turn up the volume to 7’ or whatever, she doesn’t do it, the volume stays the same. She hears the question as the volume goes quiet but when it returns a few seconds later, the volume is the same. Does she only turn up volume when the music is being played via an Echo device or am doing something wrong with the Sonos?

2. When I say “Alexa, play favourite tracks’ she always plays my Deezer Flow. Tried that a few times with the same result.

After having read through the thread, I suspect I have duplicate Sonos speakers. If I go to all devices, My speakers are listed there with a speaker icon, but there’s also other devices with an Echo Dot icon with the same name as the Sonos speakers in that room. A tthe moment, the only room where there’s an Echo Dot and a Sonos speaker is the kitchen diner. The Sonos speaker is called ‘Kitchen Dinner’ and the Echo Dot is called ‘Kintchen Diner Echo Dot’. I think when I’m trying to change the volume, Alexa is changing the volume on the duplicate Echo Dot speaker rather than the Sonos speaker it’self.

The obvious solution would be to delete the duplicate Echo Dot Speakers but I can’t see an option to do that in the Alexa app.

Any possible solutions would be most welcome, thanks.

Otherwise, things have gone pretty well. Loving the Dot and Spot so far. So much so, I’ve ordered 4 more Dots and 4 Amazon smart plugs and faved £160 in the process as part of the Black Friday deals.