Trending Lyricist III

Alexa breaking groups (yet again)

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
July 7, 2019
32 replies
2634 views

I came back from holiday to find that once again Alexa breaks my Sonos groups (third or fourth time). I have 5 Sonos speakers grouped through Sonos (group created from ‘Living Room’ paired speakers). I also have the same speakers selected as preferred speakers under the Alexa group ‘Living Room’. However if I tell Alexa to ‘play music in the living room’ it only plays through one speaker (bizarrely one named ‘Dining room’ although it is part of the group) and if I go into the Sonos app the group is broken. If I just tell Alexa to ‘play music’ then it only plays through the Alexa device (so the preferred speaker setting is meaningless?)

So far I have checked for an update (there are none), renamed the living room speakers in case there is a conflict, disabled and reenabled the Sonos skill, rerun device discovery (after every change), set the living room speaker as the only preferred speaker (which then works through Alexa) but any Sonos group created is still broken by Alexa. Basically I’ve trawled the forums trying everything I can find to no avail.

I’m going to totally uninstall and reinstall Sonos to see if that works but I'm really getting fed up of having to constantly fix stuff because Alexa and Sonos want to ‘improve the user experience ‘ which adds nothing but breaks everything. I think the app developers just need to justify their salaries. I’m reasonably tech savvy but god forbid if I ever kick the bucket because there is no hope in hell that my wife will ever be able to use this stuff. I’ve now reached the point where I’ve given up on Sonos.

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nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Are you using reserved IP addresses? If not, might the groups be breaking when IP addresses are renewed?

Ken_Griffiths

It is not really helpful having lights called 'Living Room Lights' and a speaker called 'Living Room' as those will likely clash. It is important to have unique names for devices/rooms/groups etc... Note if you have registered Sonos speakers as accessories in Apple HomeKit they will need to be renamed in the iOS Home App.

Smart lights and any plugs can be changed in their native App, like Philips Hue or TP-Link Kasa Apps, just as examples.

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mvoslooAuthor

Trending Lyricist III

Are you using reserved IP addresses? If not, might the groups be breaking when IP addresses are renewed?

No I'm not but I didn't think I had to. I'll give it a try but I think its more likely the recent update broke it again and I'll just have to set SONOS up afresh with Alexa. TBH I'm fed up babysitting SONOS/Alexa this is the 4th time this year.

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mvoslooAuthor

Trending Lyricist III

It is not really helpful having lights called 'Living Room Lights' and a speaker called 'Living Room' as those will likely clash. It is important to have unique names for devices/rooms/groups etc... Note if you have registered Sonos speakers as accessories in Apple HomeKit they will need to be renamed in the iOS Home App.

Smart lights and any plugs can be changed in their native App, like Philips Hue or TP-Link Kasa Apps, just as examples.

They have all been renamed since that post (including the Alexa group). But until a couple of weeks ago having SONOS speakers called Living Room, an Alexa group called Living Room, Hue lights called Living Room and a NEST Thermostat called Living Room caused absolutely no problems whatsoever.

The logic of just having an Alexa group called Living Room and all devices controlled from within that group makes a lot of sense, but only if it works (which unfortunately it doesn't). Instead it screws up all your other smart devices.

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mvoslooAuthor

Trending Lyricist III

It's like a recurring nightmare or maybe Groundhog day...

Every few weeks it seems SONOS has to release an update which immediately breaks my Alexa/Sonos and I then spend a few frustrating days trying to get it all back up and running. And to make things even more exciting, it never works immediately after I delete and reinstall rooms/skill/devices/preferred speakers it waits a few days before deciding whether it will work or not - just in time for the next update to break it again.

I have over £1000 of SONOS devices. I'm also adding an extension and was going to put in another £2500 of SONOS devices but I have now given up on them.

I jokingly asked my wife how she was going to cope with this Alexa/SONOS fiasco if I died and she replied 'I'll just use the Bose...' Maybe she has a point.

UKMedia

It's like a recurring nightmare or maybe Groundhog day...

Every few weeks it seems SONOS has to release an update which immediately breaks my Alexa/Sonos and I then spend a few frustrating days trying to get it all back up and running. And to make things even more exciting, it never works immediately after I delete and reinstall rooms/skill/devices/preferred speakers it waits a few days before deciding whether it will work or not - just in time for the next update to break it again.

I have over £1000 of SONOS devices. I'm also adding an extension and was going to put in another £2500 of SONOS devices but I have now given up on them.

I jokingly asked my wife how she was going to cope with this Alexa/SONOS fiasco if I died and she replied 'I'll just use the Bose...' Maybe she has a point.

I still suspect duplicate IP addresses could be a cause of this issue, fixed IP addresses would solve/eliminate this.

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

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mvoslooAuthor

Trending Lyricist III

I still suspect duplicate IP addresses could be a cause of this issue, fixed IP addresses would solve/eliminate this.

A quick check shows that there are no duplicate IP addresses assigned and the hub uptime is 77 days (I've had to do two SONOS / ALEXA resets in that time). I did try this before and it didn't work but I'll give it another go (clinging to straws here).

But for a lot of people IP address might as well be a foreign language and it shouldn't need this level of knowledge to work. Prior to Alexa groups, this was never an issue which sort of points to Alexa as the cause of the problem, but its the SONOS updates that always break groups.

jgatie

A quick check shows that there are no duplicate IP addresses assigned and the hub uptime is 77 days (I've had to do two SONOS / ALEXA resets in that time). I did try this before and it didn't work but I'll give it another go (clinging to straws here).

But for a lot of people IP address might as well be a foreign language and it shouldn't need this level of knowledge to work. Prior to Alexa groups, this was never an issue which sort of points to Alexa as the cause of the problem, but its the SONOS updates that always break groups.

There is no way to know if you have duplicate IP addresses assigned. By their very nature, they are hidden from the router's assignment table, and thus are unable to be seen on the network.

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mvoslooAuthor

Trending Lyricist III

There is no way to know if you have duplicate IP addresses assigned. By their very nature, they are hidden from the router's assignment table, and thus are unable to be seen on the network.

Thanks I didn't know that. I also ran Fing and that didn't show anything either but I have no idea whether it would or not.

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nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

By Hub uptime do you mean the router? If so, surely the sequence is to shut down the speakers and router, then fully restart router, then the speakers one at a time. Then set the fixed ip addresses.

My apologies if I've misunderstood.

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