Intermittent Alexa Voice Assistant.. Sonos Voice Control all OK!

I have exactly the same issue, see my video on reddit ; https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/18v976u/need_to_repeat_alexa_several_times_on_era_100_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

What is odd, is I’m not seeing the same issue here🤔? ..but that said…

In your video @Hirsel (and @Minsou), you each seem use the ‘Alexa’ wake word really quickly/repeatedly, in close succession, almost giving the device no opportunity to respond - what happens if you slow things down a little and actually ask Alexa a question, something like this…

• "Alexa, what’s the time” - wait for response, then after the feedback is complete, say…
• “Alexa, what’s the weather today” - again wait for response, then after the feedback is complete, say..
• "Alexa, what’s the time” - wait for response, then after the feedback is complete, say…
• “Alexa, what’s the weather today” - again wait for response, then after the feedback is complete, (rinse and repeat the above)…

…rather than repeatedly keep saying ‘Alexa, Alexa, Alexa, Alexa… as the device is probably (still) listening, but you’re just not asking her a question, but looking for an LED light instead.

Just see what happens when you slow things down a little and ask Alexa a question, after using the ‘Alexa’ wake word. In my case the Era works every time and Alexa always responds.

I have no chance to say the entire phrase because when i speak “Alexa what’s time” i have the same result randomly with the led that turn on and immediatly turn off after.

Have you tried removing/reinstalling the Alexa voice assistant and perhaps also removing/reinstalling the Sonos skill? I see a few users are reporting the issue here now, but it still maybe worth trying that, perhaps?

You can deny the issue Ken but it really exists, see this new example : 

Hello @all from the german Sonos community. Some other users there including myself can confirm exactly the same behavior. And only Era 100 is affected… the problem first occurred about 2 weeks ago. Imho after an Alexa or a Sonos update. 
I also tried everything mentioned above but nothing changed. All my other Sonos devices including an Era300 work fine with Alexa.

Sonos products are on version 15.11 and Alexa app (iOS) also is on latest version. 
Maybe it’s an regional Alexa problem because an user from Austria also can‘t confirm or reproduce the problem. 
I stay in contact with german Sonos support but there the problem wasn’t known yet. But the last two days the are several users having the same problem. 
 

Perhaps it would make sense to mention the region we are using our Sonos/Alexa systems. 
For Germany I definitely can confirm the problem. 
I there are news on our side or fron german support team, I will share over here. 
 

Best Regards 

Ralf

My issue occurs in France

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the ideas. I did indeed perform a full factory reset on the ERA  and removed also manually all the remains of it in the Alexa app and disabled the skill. 

Also usually I do the commands slower in normal use but the light going out means to me it stops listening so for the demo I just tried to keep prompting it every time I see the light going off...

Also when using exact same software and location setup with a Sonos Roam it works perfectly so I would actually nearly rule out the software and wifi related debugging branches.

Maybe there is really some bad batch of ERA 100 around? (Which would also explain the relatively small number of users and others who have it fully working)

@all maybe it makes sense to share serial numbers here to allow Sonos to check if we all belong to some kind of group on the manufacturing side? Mine is

A100 2212CP F0-F6-C1-A0-F1-AA:G (found on the bottom)

And region is Germany as well

Cheers,

Matt

I assume if many users return the product the issue will take into account seriously by sonos

PS: and just to clarify… it’s NOT a problem of how you are speaking. Using and holding the micro on/off button on top does the same job as saying „Alexa“. And doing it that way produces the same problem. 
And I can also confirm that using SVC works absolutely fine. So it’s no hardware issue. 
Besides since a few weeks ago everything worked like it should. So imho it’s unlikely a hardware problem and a replacement won’t make sense.