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jmstech
Contributor III
October 7, 2017
Answered

Alexa mutes speakers

  • October 7, 2017
  • 42 replies
  • 7530 views
So, I'm upstairs in the shower listening to my morning podcast and it mutes itself every 10 seconds.

Come to find out my wife was in the kitchen using Alexa to make a shopping list.

How do I turn off this muting "feature" for Alexa? Or can I assign the dot to a single room so the whole house doesn't mute everytime someone wants a knock knock joke or the weather.
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      Best answer by Ryan S
      As MikeV said, the volume "ducking" will happen on all players across your system, grouped or not grouped. The only ones which shouldn't duck are those playing TV audio. That said, we're doing some more work on the ducking feature and will continue to improve the entire integration over time. You can expect to see the Alexa skill continue to adapt and move quickly. Thanks for the feedback guys!

      42 replies

      KenS
      KenS
      Enthusiast II
      October 7, 2017
      I'm noticing the same thing, which is particularly annoying when using my Sonos 5.1 setup watching TV.
        jacob_7
        Prodigy I
        October 7, 2017
        Why don't you ungroup the speaker from the kitchen one?
        majalo22
        Lyricist I
        October 7, 2017
        There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how this works right now for me. If I say “Alexa” in one specific room, that same room’s Sonos mutes (really just lowers volume). If I do the same thing in other rooms, whether Sonos speakers are grouped with the first one or not, the Sonos does not mute. Personally, I think the muting of the Sonos when directing commands to Alexa is a great feature (that I wasn’t really expecting) but there should be a way to link a Sonos room/speaker to and echo room/device so the mute function can be limited to the room listening to the command.
          AndrewLovesSonos
          Contributor I
          October 7, 2017
          I have the same issue. Have the Echo Dot in the kitchen with two play 3's. When using Alexa to control the kitchen speakers, other zones in the house are dimmed. This is annoying, is there a setting I am missing to stop this happening? Other Sonos speakers are not grouped when this happens, so they are each playing their own thing. Thanks, Andrew
          jmstechAuthor
          Contributor III
          October 9, 2017
          Why don't you ungroup the speaker from the kitchen one?

          It is not grouped with the kitchen. I can have every speaker in the house playing something completely different and if I ask any Alexa something they all dim.

          We using Alexa so much that this is making sonos almost unusable.
            MikeV
            MikeV
            October 9, 2017
            TV sources on Playbar and Playbase should not be affected by the volume "ducking" that Alexa does. However, any other Sonos speakers (or if the Playbar/Playbase are playing music instead of TV audio) will have their volume reduced.

            There's not any option at this time to adjust how the volume reduction occurs. That's something that Amazon would likely need to implement, not Sonos.
            The S in IOT stands for Security.
              Ryan S
              Ryan SAnswer
              Retired Sonos Staff
              October 9, 2017
              As MikeV said, the volume "ducking" will happen on all players across your system, grouped or not grouped. The only ones which shouldn't duck are those playing TV audio. That said, we're doing some more work on the ducking feature and will continue to improve the entire integration over time. You can expect to see the Alexa skill continue to adapt and move quickly. Thanks for the feedback guys!
              Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
                AndrewLovesSonos
                Contributor I
                October 10, 2017
                On my setup the volume on the TV does dim when I do Alexa commands in the kitchen. My TV is connected to a Sonos Connect Amp.
                Stuart_W
                Stuart_W
                World-Class Superstar
                October 10, 2017
                On my setup the volume on the TV does dim when I do Alexa commands in the kitchen. My TV is connected to a Sonos Connect Amp.

                The Playbar/Playbase does NOT duck. ALL other Sonos components will as per MikeV's and Ryan S's confirmation.

                We know that Sonos are aware that the ducking feature needs some work - For me (as I live on my own) ducking of other speakers not in the same room as I am is not an issue but I do find that it ducks for too long after I complete the command.
                Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, Play 1 stereo pair in Study, Play 1in Bathroom, Sonos Move 2
                dave77
                dave77
                Headliner I
                October 10, 2017
                As MikeV said, the volume "ducking" will happen on all players across your system, grouped or not grouped. The only ones which shouldn't duck are those playing TV audio. That said, we're doing some more work on the ducking feature and will continue to improve the entire integration over time. You can expect to see the Alexa skill continue to adapt and move quickly. Thanks for the feedback guys!

                Eek! That's my Sonos One order cancelled then. Did you guys not consider this scenario? Can't we have a setting on Dot's at least to turn off 'ducking'?
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