Contributor I

Answered

Preferred speaker function in Alexa no longer working after latest Sonos update

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
May 3, 2019
29 replies
5301 views

The preferred speaker function in the Alexa app no longer works after the latest Sonos update. It has always worked perfectly. I have disabled and reabled the Sonos function in the Alexa app and that didn’t work.

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Best answer by cbinwnc

Well, magically, it started working again just fine. I made no changes, and it just started working again. Interestingly enough, I got an email from Sonos (in the app) explaining this "new" functionality yesterday, even though I've been using it for months. Something was definitely up with the update. All is OK now. Thanks for the replies.

Show previous replies

Ken_Griffiths

I just set mine starting with the Sonos Boost set at 192.168.7.200 and the rest I then set in sequence 201, 202, 203 etc... I have 21 Sonos devices in all, so it takes me longer than most to set things up, but once done then that’s it and I “back-up” (export) the router settings to a protected file, just in case I have to ever reset the device and that saves me ever having to do it again, well until I decide to upgrade the router, that is.

I found reserving the addresses has sorted a good many issues with Sonos updates.

My wife perhaps would not have an interest to do these things either, but then again I wouldn’t have a clue to do some of the things that she does with sewing machines, or washing machines, etc, well not without reading their manual, at least.

It’s a case though if say a sewing machine wasn’t working correctly for me, I would at least try to read and find out some of the answers for myself first, before complaining, or giving up on it. I don’t think I would let it defeat me, particularly if other users were telling me that their sewing machines were working okay for them.

My Sonos devices, with Alexa groups, are certainly working okay here for me with the latest App updates.

M

mvosloo

Trending Lyricist III

It's taken 2 days but.....

Unfortunately BT Smart Hub 2 is very tempermental about setting 'reserved' IP addresses. I managed to move 5 out of 7 devices out of the server address range but 2 remained stubbornly within and 1 still wants to stay with DHCP.

To do even this I had to make the SONOS network wireless (previously the SONOS Beam was wired so the whole network was wired).

I set up everything again in Alexa (deleted relevant groups, set up groups again with no SONOS devices, deleted all SONOS devices (except SONOS Beam which won't let you delete it), deleted SONOS skill, enabled SONOS skill, added speakers, set preferred speakers etc etc numerous times

I also renamed all the speakers again just in case.

Along the way, speakers got lost, reappeared and generally misbehaved

However, this didn't seem to solve the problem....

I did once manage to get things working but it all fell apart again, but what I did notice is that it fell apart after I said 'Alexa, play BBC Radio 2 in the living room' - and you have to say 'in the living room' as otherwise Alexa uses the BBC skill and plays BBC Radio 2 on the Amazon device instead of the preferred speakers (stupid but you can't change it apparently).

This made me wonder... So I renamed the Alexa group 'Living Room' to 'Sitting Room' and suddenly it all started working as it should. I wonder if there is a legacy issue when I had lots of smart devices named or categorised as 'Living Room' from pre-Alexa groups...

Anyway it works for now although no doubt it will probably fall apart again tomorrow. I will let you know.

Ken_Griffiths

mvosloo,

Firstly, I’m really pleased to hear you have now got things sorted and I’m sure you have learned a lot and gained some great experience along the way as to how the Alexa Groups and Sonos work together,

I personally found a good “rule of thumb” with my own Alexa 'enabled' groups for my own setup...and that was, if there is just one Sonos Room held in an Alexa Group, it can have the same name as the Group... so a 'Kitchen' stereo pair, can be in a group also called 'Kitchen' and will often work fine, but it also may depend on the names of other smart-home devices (lights/plugs etc.) in the same group.

But ...

Wherever I have two (or more) “Sonos Rooms” in the same 'physical' room in our home, then I found it it was best to give all 'unique' names. So my Alexa 'Lounge' Group, which has 4 sets of Sonos Rooms (in the same physical room), just as an example, are each differently named as follows:

Media Room
Family Room
Fireplace
Portable

That “unique naming” for multiple devices, has always worked well here for me and this is just one example of many such multiple Groups around our home

U

User539058

Contributor I

I’m having a preferred speaker glitch which I think is the fault of the Echo/Alexa not Sonos.

Saying, ‘Alexa, play [music]’ works fine, the Echo device [Dot or Show] plays on the preferred speaker [sonos] in that room [Kitchen or Lounge].

But if you say ‘Alexa, play [music] everywhere’, the preferred speaker is not chosen and music plays directly from the Echo Dot in the Lounge (not the Sonos system setup as preferred). But still plays from the Sonos system in the Kitchen (not from the Echo Show).

So it would seem to be setup correctly but the preferred speaker is bypassed by using the Alexa Multi-Room speaker group.

Ken_Griffiths

I’m having a preferred speaker glitch which I think is the fault of the Echo/Alexa not Sonos.

Saying, ‘Alexa, play [music]’ works fine, the Echo device [Dot or Show] plays on the preferred speaker [sonos] in that room [Kitchen or Lounge].

But if you say ‘Alexa, play [music] everywhere’, the preferred speaker is not chosen and music plays directly from the Echo Dot in the Lounge (not the Sonos system setup as preferred). But still plays from the Sonos system in the Kitchen (not from the Echo Show).

So it would seem to be setup correctly but the preferred speaker is bypassed by using the Alexa Multi-Room speaker group.

I think that is working as designed as the ‘everywhere’ part of the Alexa instruction is a keyword for Echo devices. You could get around this by creating an ‘Everywhere on Sonos’ Alexa group and add all your Sonos speakers to that group as ‘preferred’ and then say “Alexa, Play Music Everywhere on Sonos”. I think that will solve the matter and Music will play to all Sonos speakers instead.. (hopefully 🤞).

J

joelittlejohn

Lyricist III

I also can't get this feature to work. I have a Sonos group called Downstairs, it contains 3 Sonos speakers. Alexa knows about this group and I can all Alexa to "play xxxx downstairs" and music will play on the group.

I wanted to set up the preferred speaker option so that I don't have to say 'downstairs' all the time. So I've added the dot to the group and I've set the three Sonos speakers as the 'preferred speaker' for the group, as per the Sonos guide.

No matter what I try, the music never plays on the Sonos speakers unless I say 'downstairs' in my command. If I just ask for music, it only plays on the dot.

The testing of this Alexa integration for Sonos has been woefully inadequate. It's gotten more robust since launch but it's still pretty awful. How is it that straight-forward things like this are STILL failing for a lot of people. It's really not rocket science to test, find the bugs, and fix them.

J

joelittlejohn

Lyricist III

I also can't get this feature to work. I have a Sonos group called Downstairs, it contains 3 Sonos speakers. Alexa knows about this group and I can all Alexa to "play xxxx downstairs" and music will play on the group.

I wanted to set up the preferred speaker option so that I don't have to say 'downstairs' all the time. So I've added the dot to the group and I've set the three Sonos speakers as the 'preferred speaker' for the group, as per the Sonos guide.

No matter what I try, the music never plays on the Sonos speakers unless I say 'downstairs' in my command. If I just ask for music, it only plays on the dot.

The testing of this Alexa integration for Sonos has been woefully inadequate. It's gotten more robust since launch but it's still pretty awful. How is it that straight-forward things like this are STILL failing for a lot of people. It's really not rocket science to test, find the bugs, and fix them.

UKMedia

Can you check out my post: https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/an-overview-and-explanation-of-the-new-support-for-alexa-grouping-6817788

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

J

joelittlejohn

Lyricist III

Can you check out my post: https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/an-overview-and-explanation-of-the-new-support-for-alexa-grouping-6817788

I think I’ve set everything up exactly as described (you can see my screenshot). The Sonos speakers are still not used when I ask the dot to play music. I have to specify ‘downstairs’ (the group name) at the end of my command, which I should not have to do if the Sonos speakers are marked as preferred.

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