Alexa forgets Sonos skill

Thanks very much for the reply! I've not allocated a static IP, but I'll give that a try when I have some time to fiddle about with the router.

Your point in the link about duplicate device names was interesting - the two sonos ones I brought in were in place of existing devices, so they took the names of the old devices (which I renamed). So they are all unique now. I've tried doing a forget all, then discover all in case that helps. If not then I'll try some of your other suggestions.

Really appreciate the help!

Skill forgotten again today, although e did have to reboot the router at some point which might not have helped. Looks like I'm going to have to spend a little time with your other suggestions and see if I can get something to work.

I tried allocating fixed IPs a week or two ago, but that didn't help. I finally got round to resetting the whole thing as you suggested. I went straight for 3) if the problem persists and rebooted and cleared everything in the order you suggest. I reregistered alexa. Left it for 2 hours and came back. And Alexa has forgotten how to work with Sonos again.

It's quite frustraitng.

I tried allocating fixed IPs a week or two ago, but that didn't help. I finally got round to resetting the whole thing as you suggested. I went straight for 3) if the problem persists and rebooted and cleared everything in the order you suggest. I reregistered alexa. Left it for 2 hours and came back. And Alexa has forgotten how to work with Sonos again.

It's quite frustraitng.

When you say 'And Alexa has forgotten how to work with Sonos again.' can you confirm the command that you are using and also check the Alexa App>Settings>History and confirm that Alexa heard you correctly?

Sorry I completely missed this reply. You are onto something as I found out something interesting.

I tent to have a long-running playlist which I switch on when I'm in from work and off again an hour or two later. So I'd get into the house and say "Alexa, play" to start up again. And she says that I need to enable the Sonos skill. I then go to the Sonos app and play it manually. I was then going in forgetting all devices, discovering all devices and then a little later I would say "Alexa, pause" and it would work. So I thought the forget/discover thing was working.

But actually it wasn't. It seems that "Alexa, play" doesn't work and just gave me such a confusing error that I presumed the whole thing wasn't working.

So I can have a conversation like this:

"Alexa, play"
>> Alexa replies that the Sonos skill needs to be anabled.
"Alexa, play music by the Fall"
>> Alexa plays music by the Fall from Spotify. (Well I tried this a couple of times - the first time it worked exactly right, the second time she said she was playing it but didn't.)
"Alexa, pause"
>> Music stops

So I think it's literally a bug with "Alexa, play" , I raised a Sonos support ticket but they sent me on a wild goose chase with network settings and the like until I discovered this. Now I have to call them, but I usually resist that kind of thing because it involves hours on the phone. Apparently "Alexa, play" works for them, and it definitely worked for me in the past.

'Alexa, Resume' has a time limit of about 30 mins before Alexa loses the context with the Sonos system. In this scenario, you would need to start the Playlist from the start via voice control or use the app to continue from where you left off.

I tend to use "Alexa, Play" not Resume and I don't think that one ever works. Maybe it's because I'm not starting the music by telling Alexa what to do - I line the playlist up on the app.

But the annoying thing is it did work in the past.

I'm getting the impression that Alexa support is nowhere near prime time. I'm not sure if it's still classed as a beta or not.

Hi

Please see this article for the list of supported commands:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3514?language=en_US

If you start the playlist on the App, please try including the room name in the command if voice control fails.

The Sonos Alexa skill is still in Beta but the stability is good enough for a full release now, although some people get confused between the functionality difference between an Alexa device and an Alexa Enabled device - The Sonos One is an Alexa Enabled device.

I tend to have music grouped so I don't want to play it in a single room.

"Alexa, play" should definitely work as a command in my opinion because since the days of tape decks the control buttons have always been Play and Pause. And not only that, but it definitely did work in the past. Similarlty going into Spotify and mousing over the button it says "Play". (The Sonos app doesn't give me a tooltip at all when I try, but I'm pretty sure it's not a 'resume' button). Also, Sonos support tell me that "Alexa, play" should work.

But regardless of whether it's play or resume, in no other environment does resuming playback ever have a time limit on it. That's nonsense. Being able to stop and start the music properly is surely the most basic command it should know before anything more complicated. I don't think you can say that something has full voice control if it doesn't support stopping and starting the music properly.

But regardless of that, it absolutely should not tell me "the Sonos skill is not enabled" because it is, and that's clearly, blatently, not correct and totally misleading.

I can't see how this behaviour could ever be described as a feature instead of a bug.

I'm also not convinced that Sonos support entirely know what to do with the Alexa skill as they didn't seem able to help me over email, and as I said before sent me on a complete wild goose chase.

Apologies for going a bit into rant mode. I love my Sonos system, but the voice control really doesn't do it for me right now. It's not the reason I bought into it, so it's not a disaster, but it would be nice if it did work.