Retired Sonos Staff

New to Sonos or Alexa? How to set up

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
October 3, 2017
194 replies
139172 views

So you have an Alexa device and Sonos players, where do you go next?

1. Make sure your Sonos and Alexa devices are all powered up and connected to the network.

If you're new to Sonos, this means Installing the Sonos app, and going through the steps for Setting up Sonos here.

If you're new to Alexa, install the Alexa app (currently only available in the US, UK, and Germany) and make sure your Alexa device(s) show up. They will be listed under Settings > Devices. Amazon has a setup guide for the Echo Dot here.

2. In the Alexa app, search for and add the Alexa Skill for Sonos.

3. Follow the on-screen prompts to authenticate your Amazon account, then your Sonos account.

4. Finally, inside your Alexa app, select discover devices under Smart Home or on the Sonos skill page.

You are now ready to try out some commands! There’s a great, comprehensive list here.

Wondering how it all works? Check out the How it works thread.

If you run into any trouble, please feel free to take a look here to start, or ask any question in the Amazon Alexa and Sonos forum.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

M

maxf

Lyricist II

Ok even more bizarrely it will work from a different echo device on both sonos devices - however both echo devices appear to have the same software version.

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

When Alexa is controlling a room it doesn't know the state of that room's grouping situation in Sonos. So if your players are all grouped together through Sonos, they'll all start playing when Alexa tells them too.

Making groups or separating them up isn't something Alexa knows yet, but we'd like to add that one day.

Is there a command to start music playing on all speakers?

We're hoping for an "Everywhere" command, but not quite yet.

Also, do all the services that will play on Sonos via Alexa also have to be set up on Alexa (as in your Pandora example), e.g. Spotify? Does this mean there's not an incantation to play Apple music playlists?

Yes, and you're correct, no incantation for that.

Is there a way to start something in "Sonos Favorites" playing?

Not at this time. Alexa don't know what your local library looks like or your favorites. If either one is queued up you can start playing and change tracks though.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

I have the original Echo. All of my Sonos players are synced up beautifully, but is it correct that the music WILL NOT play on the echo at the same time - it's just there to accept the voice commands? Is that why the Sonos One was introduced?

That's correct, you can tell the Echo to play with it's own commands too, but if you're using a service with stream limitations like Amazon Music you will run into that issue.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

E

EssBee03

Lyricist I

Thanks, Ryan!

Darn - I was really hoping to be able to play from my library on the Echo and the Sonos at the same time. I guess I'm getting a Sonos One!

F

FriethMan1957

Lyricist II

Fantastic news..... am playing with the integration and it works pretty good (for Beta software anyway).

I do seem to have a few problems with albums that have numbers in them.
For example Play Six Wives of Henry VIII by Rick Wakeman in the Study is proving too much for the integration.
I tried with several other albums with numbers in them and provided that there isn't more than 2 numbers it seems okay - for example Play 21 by Adele in the Study works fine, but another album I have with a 200492 in the title, has no chance.

I realise this may be a tough ask but thought I would let you know.

S

smgerken

Lyricist II

Hello, does anyone know the solution to the issue i'm having? I have updated both the controller and all speakers..

Thanks

Ryan SAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

@smgerken, think you can submit a diagnostic from your Sonos system and reply back with your confirmation number?

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

S

smgerken

Lyricist II

@smgerken, think you can submit a diagnostic from your Sonos system and reply back with your confirmation number? Hi Ryan its 7913401. Thanks

M

mark-m

Lyricist I

I like the voice control, however, unlike willkon who posted earlier, I haven't been able to make any of my playlists play using Alexa. It correctly hears me (checked through Alexa history) and then plays an Amazon playlist with a vaguely similar name instead of one of mine. I have tried renaming my playlists but this hasn't made any difference. Any suggestions (apart from starting the playlist using the Sonos app)?

F

FriethMan1957

Lyricist II

I like the voice control, however, unlike willkon who posted earlier, I haven't been able to make any of my playlists play using Alexa. It correctly hears me (checked through Alexa history) and then plays an Amazon playlist with a vaguely similar name instead of one of mine. I have tried renaming my playlists but this hasn't made any difference. Any suggestions (apart from starting the playlist using the Sonos app)?

There does seem to be a strange one where the album that is chosen may come from Amazon or from my Sonos Music Library. It doesn't seem to have any logical pattern though - sometimes it picks from the correct location (Sonos Music Library) sometimes from Amazon.

Any ideas anyone?

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community