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Contributor I
October 15, 2019
Answered

Alexa cannot understand me - over and over and over again!

  • October 15, 2019
  • 15 replies
  • 587 views

Am I allowed to swear in here? Seriously, I’ve gone through all the steps multitudes of times and many of us know how much time it takes do do even a single cycle of resetting sonos controller and alexa etc. It will work for maybe 2 days and then the whole thing starts again! Why can’t Sonos FIX THIS?? Now it seems worse with the last update - as if that was even possible. Now when I try to use the sonos app it tells me one of my speakers is disconnected on an black screen with a ‘room settings’ icon - when I try to press that it simply loops back to the same screen with no results. The only option is to reset the controller. Great - that loops back to you having to log in again and either connect to an existing group or set up new. When you connect to the existing group it recognizes it just fine but then surprise surprise, it sends you back to the black screen saying one of your speakers is diconnected and the whole cycle starts again. If you try to instead start a new group, none of the speakers respond - they all have to be reset through power cycling! That’s very convenient of course when you’ve gone to great lengths to string wires and trying to unplug the power from the bottom of the speaker is even more difficult that the first option. 

SERIOUSLY SONOS - do you have the technological where withall to fix your products or should I just return them to the store? 

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    Best answer by John B

    Sonos' view on hard resets? They achieve nothing. My view too. Whatever the problem is it WILL reappesr after a reset because the cause has not been addressed. And it deletes the diagnostics.

    One question. Does your setup have a wired Sonos device or is it fully wifi?

    15 replies

    106rallye
    October 17, 2019

    I would still urge you to give Sonos a chance to find out what’s causing this behavior. You seem to have exhausted your ways to deal with this. A solution could be letting someone else take a look at your system - preferably someone with knowledge. There are no guarantees here, but calling Sonos would be my first step from here.

    October 17, 2019

    I shall just add one further point.  The ‘everything else works fine on my network’ may well be true but doesn’t really prove anything.  Sonos DOES make greater demands on a network because it involves several devices (speakers and controllers) that have to constantly stay in touch.  Even something like having access points and routers on different wireless channels can disrupt communications.  Running in SonosNet mode (one wired Sonos device) rather than purely WiFi is a way of avoiding that and many other issues, but I suspect that won’t be sufficient to resolve your problems.  (Might be worth an experiment though.)

     

    Ryan S
    Retired Sonos Staff
    October 17, 2019

    Hi @silicone, I just took a look at that diagnostic you posted above. It only partially was able to go through, which usually is indicative of local network trouble. From what I could find there, it looks like there are a lot of wireless networks nearby. Are you in a neighborhood with lots of neighbors?

    Inconsistent system issues that include dropping players, services being unreachable, and music not playing properly tend to be caused by something that’s also variable, such as networking and wireless trouble. Sometimes connections work, and sometimes they fail, which would be the root of what you’re describing.

    Running on SonosNet might be a good test, try wiring in the left side of the pair as that is the one that is in charge. 

    Ultimately, it would be best for you to give us a call and work with a technician to sort out these issues. They’ll be able to help identify what’s going on, just make sure you explain the sorts of insonsistent issues you’ve been having, so that they don’t just try to help with the current one, and take some time to do some network reliability tests.

    Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
    Lyricist III
    October 19, 2019

    Just thinking is your router duel frequency. I had a problem and have split mine so it looks like I have two networks.  From memory sonos doesn't like. 5GHz just a thought

     

    Ken_Griffiths
    October 19, 2019

    Just thinking is your router duel frequency. I had a problem and have split mine so it looks like I have two networks.  From memory sonos doesn't like. 5GHz just a thought

    silicone
    In addition to having differently named SSID’s for the two WiFi bands, also switch off ‘airtime fairness’ on the router, if that feature is available on your router model.