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lmoreau
Contributor I
May 18, 2018

Alexa won't play anything on Sonos, but will stop/pause etc if something already is playing

  • May 18, 2018
  • 19 replies
  • 934 views
I have a lot of Sonos speakers and also have a lot of Echo devices. I just signed up for Spotify to give it a try and linked it all together. I will say for example "Alexa, play Tina Turner on the Kitchen" and she'll say "Okay, playing music by Tina Turner on Spotify on the Kitchen." then nothing happens. I'll say "Alexa, play workout playlist on kitchen" and same thing "Okay, playing workout playlist from Spotify on the kitchen." and nothing happens.

If I open the Sonos app on my computer, it will show (?) beside playing on the kitchen speaker. If I go to my library and start playing a song, THEN if I say "Alexa" the Sonos goes quiet throughout the house and I can say "stop playback" etc and it works. But as soon as I try to request something she doesn't play.

The alexa.amazon.com site shows her understanding exactly what I said, and showing that she's controlling Spotify but it never actually works. This is a brand new setup, I've wiped the Echo's and set everything up from scratch.
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19 replies

bockersjv
bockersjv
Local Superstar
May 18, 2018
Have you asked Alexa to "Discover devices" then try again.
lmoreauAuthor
Contributor I
May 18, 2018
I have yeah and just tried again. The Alexa app clearly shows the Sonos speakers under devices. She clearly will say "Playing music by Tina Turner on the Kitchen speaker." But if I make one up like "Alexa play Tina Turner on the Bathroom speaker" she says something about "I couldn't find a device or speaker named Bathroom that has the capability to play music, use your Alexa app to yadda yadda."

Again she clearly sees the speaker because if I have music playing, she'll pause or control it, or even just saying Alexa lowers the volume of the music. She just doesn't seem to actually play anything I ask her to, whether it's a playlist etc.
Ken_Griffiths
Ken_Griffiths
May 18, 2018
imoreau,

Have you set Spotify as your Amazon Alexa default music source in the Alexa App settings?
lmoreauAuthor
Contributor I
May 18, 2018
Yes I did, it's very strange. Everything acts like you would expect it to, it just doesn't control the Sonos. I have a new Play:1 I'm going to try and set up now and will test on that. It's very weird how I can just say Alexa pause the kitchen and she does.

If you check here you'll see she seems to understand:

https://imgur.com/a/1cGnLSq
lmoreauAuthor
Contributor I
May 18, 2018
Not sure if this changes anything but I just said "Alexa start Spotify" and she goes "Your Spotify account does not support streaming on this device."
Ken_Griffiths
Ken_Griffiths
May 18, 2018
imoreau,

There are a few things I would try ...

1. Reauthorise the Spotify Service in the Sonos App.

If that fails then ...

2. Remove all the Sonos Rooms in the devices section of the Alexa App and then disable/re-enable the Sonos skill, link the Sonos account with the Amazon Account associated with the Alexa echo devices ..and finally rescan for devices.
lmoreauAuthor
Contributor I
May 18, 2018
Thanks I'll try it again. Quick update for what I've tried since my last post:

1) I added a new Sonos speaker to the account and to Alexa.
2) I tried to control the new one, but same issue doesn't respond.
3) If I manually start playing a song on the Sonos I can say "Alexa turn up the volume" or "Alexa next track" and that all works fine.
4) If I say play this artist or this album etc, she responds saying playing on spotify in the kitchen, but then does nothing.

So it's very odd that she controls already playing music but not new stuff. I'll try your 2 suggestions in a bit to see if that might work.
bnasns
Lyricist II
May 18, 2018
Also I've had "confusion" issues with the naming of the echo devices names vs the sonos speakers (room name). So for instance I've used bedroom 1 for echo device and master for the sonos speaker. Haven't tried the drop-in intercom function yet.
lmoreauAuthor
Contributor I
May 18, 2018
No luck, tried both your 1 and 2 suggestions, same issue. This is disappointing as it looks like it would be a really cool feature. What I don't get is that she will control music that's already playing, she just can't make music START playing lol.
lmoreauAuthor
Contributor I
May 18, 2018
If I go to the Now Playing section of the Alexa app and pick either Sonos speaker, it shows what is playing on it which matches the Sonos app, and I can play, pause, skip tracks etc. So everything seems to be authorized, the Alexa just doesn't seem to be able to play specific music.
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