Alexa reduces ability to use play/pause physical button?

I've experienced the same issue. This morning I directed Alexa to "play channel 7 on SiriusXM in kitchen". Channel 7 did start playing. I then stopped the music by pressing the play/pause button on the kitchen speaker and the music did stop. Shortly afterward, I pressed the play/pause button on the kitchen speaker to resume channel 7 but no music played. While watching the Sonos app on my iPad, I again pressed the play/pause button on the kitchen speaker. Again, no music played and the following message briefly appeared on my Sonos app- "Unable to play 70s on 7 - the file cannot be found". This scenario only happens when I start music from Alexa. When I use the Sonos app to start music, the play/pause button on the speakers start and stop the music, as has always been the case. It's only been since the Alexa integration that the play/pause button has had no effect when trying to resume playback.

Sounds familiar but it seems not always to be the case. I wonder if Wi-fi interference might be to blame sometimes? I have been advised to use bridge mode where one speaker is wired to the router and this extends a dedicated network for the other speakers (I have 3). I haven’t done this yet and the system seems mostly stable at present.

Hello, Robert1351. I was unable to reproduce that same issue here at the office. Here's what I did:

Asked Alexa to "play Coolio in the Garage" // Starts Pandora Radio - Coolio
Asked Alexa to "stop music in the Garage"// music stops
Hit physical Play button on top // Pandora Station restarts with different song

Does this sound about right?

We may want to start off by submitting a diagnostic report and replying with the confirmation number it gives afterward. This will help me to get a closer look at the network. Much appreciated.

srs911: Welcome to the Community, as well! Please submit a diagnostic report and reply with the confirmation number it gives at the end. This is likely to give us helpful information as to why the station was unable to begin playback. Thanks in advance.

Hello Keith. Thank you for your post. It was literally minutes before your post that I stumbled onto the solution to my problem. I have 2 SiriusXM accounts and was logged into account 1 on the Alexa skill and logged into account 2 on the Sonos app. Once I used the same account on both everything worked fine. I can now use either an Alexa command or the physical button to start and stop music. Thank you for welcoming me to the Community!

Hello again Keith N. My earlier post this evening might have been premature. I am again not able to restart music by pressing the physical button or clicking on play in the Sonos app after starting music with an Alexa command. Here is the chain of events.

Asked Alexa to "play 60s on 6 from SiriusXM in Kitchen" // Starts SiriusXM 60s on 6 in Kitchen
Asked Alexa to "stop in Kitchen" // music stops
... about an hour later ...
Hit physical play button on top of speaker to resume 60's on 6 // no music played
While viewing Sonos app on my PC, hit physical play button on top of speaker // again no music played and the following message appeared in app "Unable to play 60s on 6 - the file cannot be found".
Tried to restart music by clicking on play button in Sonos app on PC // again no music played and the same message appeared.

Submitted diagnostic 8094905.

To get the channel to play again, I had to select 60s on 6 in the Sonos app.

In my 3 years of enjoying Sonos speakers, it has been my experience that when a SiriusXM channel is started from the Sonos app, the physical button always stops and starts that channel, regardless of how much time passe between the stop and start. In my testing tonight, the physical button worked to stop and start a channel initiated by Alexa as long as it took place within minutes of the Alexa command. This behavior reminds me of when Custom Channels were added to the SiriusXM music service. At that time, if a custom channel was started from the Sonos app and allowed to play for awhile, and then stopped, that channel would not restart by hitting the physical button on top of a speaker. And I seem to remember seeing the same "file cannot be found" message. I would have to use the Sonos app to get the custom channel to play again.

Thanks for your help!

I’m still investigating potential wireless interference in my setup so can’t reliably comment. Have to set up boost mode but have had problem moving my router to where I want the speaker to be so I can connect using Ethernet cable. This is because my Wi-fi setup is slowing my overall speed. Will try again when that has been solved but my experience has matched that of others in this thread, yet not consistently.

srs911: Thanks for the new diagnostic report. It seems at this point, it'd be the best course of action to give our technicians a call so they are able to troubleshoot with you in real time. They can set up a remote session with you and ensure everything is set up not only on the Sonos side but also on the Alexa side. Our contact information can be found here.

Robert1351: Thanks for the update so far. Keep us in the loop. We'll be here.