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biffta
biffta
Headliner I
October 13, 2017
Question

Dot won’t play on Playbar but will on others.

  • October 13, 2017
  • 26 replies
  • 910 views
The Alexa app for my Dot has found all three of my Sonos devices. When I ask it to play, for example radio on the Playbar, nothing happens and the Dot tells me it doesn’t recognise the name Playbar. Thinking it may be confused when I say the name Playbar into it, because of inclusion of the word “play” in the instruction I renamed it TV in the Sonos app. However it’s made no difference. Now when I ask it to play on the TV, as before nothing happens other than it tells me it cannot find anything called TV although it is recognised in the Alexa app as I have rescanned my devices.
Other two devices are okay.
Anyone any ideas please?
Thanks.
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    26 replies

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    biffta
    bifftaAuthor
    Headliner I
    October 16, 2017
    Whilst I welcome the valuable and useful advice previously posted I have to say IMO it’s pathetic that these steps have to be taken in order to get a system working. Imagine if, for example, a TV wasn’t receiving or displaying channels and it was necessary to take the steps anywhere near what has been posted. If it was isolated to a particular make/model of TV it would rapidly be dumped.
    Why do we seemingly have to endure this with Sonos & Alexa integration? It should just work! That’s what we paid for. Unplugging, disabling, re-registering, re-enabling or waiting for things to improve just isn’t good enough.
    jgatie
    jgatie
    October 16, 2017
    IT'S A BETA!!!!! If you want it to just work, don't sign up for a beta, for the very definition of beta is they are asking you to try it out and report back where there are problems in order to fix them for the general release. Betas are not for everyone, and certainly not for those who expect it to work as well as the general release.
      biffta
      bifftaAuthor
      Headliner I
      October 17, 2017
      IT'S A BETA!!!!! If you want it to just work, don't sign up for a beta, for the very definition of beta is they are asking you to try it out and report back where there are problems in order to fix them for the general release. Betas are not for everyone, and certainly not for those who expect it to work as well as the general release.

      Good point, forgot it was still in Beta. But, in my defence, amongst many others I was under the impression, perhaps mistakenly, that full Sonos/Alexa integration was being released in 2017. Therefore I naively though that when my system was updated to permit Alexa, it would work properly. Maybe I should be more patient! 🆒
      jgatie
      jgatie
      October 17, 2017


      Good point, forgot it was still in Beta. But, in my defence, amongst many others I was under the impression, perhaps mistakenly, that full Sonos/Alexa integration was being released in 2017. Therefore I naively though that when my system was updated to permit Alexa, it would work properly. Maybe I should be more patient! 🆒

      Well, it is still 2017. 😉
      biffta
      bifftaAuthor
      Headliner I
      October 17, 2017
      Just checked the year and you’re correct! Seriously when the big long awaited update came, I thought here it is at last after the many postings on the forum. Fully tested, working and ready to go!:(
      jgatie
      jgatie
      October 17, 2017
      Just checked the year and you’re correct! Seriously when the big long awaited update came, I thought here it is at last after the many postings on the forum. Fully tested, working and ready to go!:(

      Amazon only finalized their API at the very end of August, and their full integration with multi-room speaker manufacturers is not due until 2018. This is not to say the development was not concurrent and integrated between the parties, but I really think many people are not aware of how much time these things take.

      As I have stated before, I'm in the middle of a multi-vendor OLTP and POS hardware and software upgrade in which the basic code is already written, it only needs to be customized, and the projected rollout from design to install is over 2 years. You simply cannot know exactly how long something should take unless you are privy to the inner architecture, not to mention the inner machinations between two or more companies, each with their own design philosophies and financial goals.
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