Contributor I

Answered

Recent update now breaking groups with Alexa

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
December 11, 2018
55 replies
3580 views

After an update to the Sonos software this weekend, the Alexa integration is "broken" in that now, starting music using voice commands breaks apart groups of speakers. Are there new commands, or is there a way to roll back the software version to one that actually worked? If this is the "new normal," then I will need to discuss returning all of the Sonos products I own and looking into a new Alexa compatible system.

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Best answer by Ryan S

I posted this in the other thread with the same topic, but so the information is in both threads, here's an update on some things you've noticed.

We're working with Amazon to bring some additional features and improvements to Sonos. These are rolling out in stages, and you've noticed some of them. Not all of the changes are out yet, but I wanted to clarify a few things here for you. We'll make a public announcement when that work's complete.

There are some changes that you're seeing around naming rooms when you go to perform a function. One of these changes is that when you explicitly call out to stop/pause an active Sonos speaker, just that room will stop playing.

"Alexa, stop in living room" will stop the music in just the living room, even if it's grouped with other players in the Sonos app. For example, if the player was grouped with a Sonos speaker in the Kitchen, the two will ungroup, and the Kitchen will keep on playing.

This also includes telling rooms to play music. If the Living Room and Kitchen are grouped in Sonos and not playing music, "Alexa, play in the Kitchen" will remove Living Room from the group in Sonos, and start playing in Kitchen only.

And this applies to Sonos players that have Alexa built in too, so if you have Living Room and Kitchen (a Sonos One) currently grouped and not playing music. Speaking to the Sonos One "Alexa, Play Music," will cause the Sonos One to remove Living Room from the group and start playing on its own.

If you notice Sonos groups changing due to your voice commands, open your Alexa app and look for the new Groups setup. Tap the lower-right icon, a house outline with two levers, to find it. Create an Alexa group with your desired speakers and assign your Alexa or Sonos device as the input for that group. Your voice commands will now use that group without needing to say the location name as part of the command.

You will also notice some other changes soon, and we'll let you know when it's all live. Stay tuned!

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Chris

Lead Maestro

Boost and bridge are interchangable

Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)

S

samonty

Contributor I

Resetting bridge a bad idea. Your going through wrong. I think you should talk to someone onnphone to setup properly.

Of course resetting the bridge was a bad idea because it is no longer supported! There should be a way to rollback to the previous way of setting up Sonos.

Who told you the Bridge is no longer supported? It most certainly is. Just re-add it by choosing More > Settings > Add a Boost or Bridge.

The Sonos app just times out and I get the no devices found. Also the app says " press the button on your boost, it does not mention a bridge.

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pk111

Lyricist II

Has nobody else encountered the "Alexa is stuck in one room" issue?

I deleted everything and started over. All is fine until you make a group and then start a single Sonos player which brakes the group. Now it gets stuck on that single Sonos amp. Until you rediscover devices Alexa will play music on that Sonos amp only. If it’s stuck on kitchen and you tell it to play in the living room it says playing in the living room but plays in the kitchen. This is frustrating.

UKMedia

Has nobody else encountered the "Alexa is stuck in one room" issue?

I deleted everything and started over. All is fine until you make a group and then start a single Sonos player which brakes the group. Now it gets stuck on that single Sonos amp. Until you rediscover devices Alexa will play music on that Sonos amp only. If it’s stuck on kitchen and you tell it to play in the living room it says playing in the living room but plays in the kitchen. This is frustrating.

Have you read this article about recent changes:

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-now-playing-with-alexa-groups-6817588

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

C

Caligo

Contributor I

Has nobody else encountered the "Alexa is stuck in one room" issue?

I deleted everything and started over. All is fine until you make a group and then start a single Sonos player which brakes the group. Now it gets stuck on that single Sonos amp. Until you rediscover devices Alexa will play music on that Sonos amp only. If it’s stuck on kitchen and you tell it to play in the living room it says playing in the living room but plays in the kitchen. This is frustrating.

Have you read this article about recent changes:

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-now-playing-with-alexa-groups-6817588

This seems to be the culprit: "Please note, microphone enabled Sonos speakers can only be in one Alexa Group at one time for now, but the non-microphone enabled ones can be in multiple groups."
I have a Sonos One which I assigned to more than one group (it let me do it in the app). I'll try to remove that one - let's see if it gets stuck again.

P

pk111

Lyricist II

Has nobody else encountered the "Alexa is stuck in one room" issue?

I deleted everything and started over. All is fine until you make a group and then start a single Sonos player which brakes the group. Now it gets stuck on that single Sonos amp. Until you rediscover devices Alexa will play music on that Sonos amp only. If it’s stuck on kitchen and you tell it to play in the living room it says playing in the living room but plays in the kitchen. This is frustrating.

Have you read this article about recent changes:

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-now-playing-with-alexa-groups-6817588

This seems to be the culprit: "Please note, microphone enabled Sonos speakers can only be in one Alexa Group at one time for now, but the non-microphone enabled ones can be in multiple groups."
I have a Sonos One which I assigned to more than one group (it let me do it in the app). I'll try to remove that one - let's see if it gets stuck again.

It appears everything works as it should if the Alexa activated group has only 2 Sonos players. If there are 3 Sonos players Things go terribly wrong. Let’s say the group has 3 players A,B and C. Alexa stop music and all 3 players stop. Alexa play The Rolling Stones on player B and player B starts. Alexa stop music. Alexa play The Rolling Stones in player A. Alexa reply’s playing the stones on A but plays the Stones on B. Until the player are rediscovered the stones will always play on B if Alexa is told to play on A,B or C. Player D which was not in the original group will work fine.

U

UKTreoFan

Collaborator II

I have used Alexa with Sonos since it was available in Beta (signed up for the beta programme so that I could). I group rooms according to my listening needs and what is happening in the household. If we have multiple speakers playing and the phone rings we want to stop all of the speakers as a group. We group speakers so that in the morning we have music playing in the bedroom and it's also on downstairs.

The change to the Alexa skill that causes a room you give an instruction to be removed from the group that I have set up is a complete frickin' disaster. If the phone rings we now have to tell 2 - 3 - 4 speakers to stop. Etc Etc Etc Etc

I am now spending more time than ever in the Sonos app re-grouping speakers. It's quicker (!!!!) to go into the Sonos app to stop a group then it is to use Alexa voice control to stop the speakers in a group one by one.

This really is one of the worst changes to the integration of Alexa and Sonos. As giving a command to one speaker always takes it out of the group we are bl**dy close to disabling the Sonos skill on Alexa and going back to just using the app.

Seriously, when I set up a GROUP I want to be able to manipulate what it happening IN THAT GROUP and not have Alexa decide I suddenly don't want a group.

So please put this back the way it was.

PS Sorry for the swearing and capitals but this one change has undone all the benefits of being able to use voice control with my Sonos ysystem.

U

UKTreoFan

Collaborator II

Er, sorry Lyricist III I thought I was replying to the original message, didn't mean to send it to you, please ignore and I'll try to post it to the right person!

UKMedia

Hi UKTreoFan

So I have set-up my Sonos Alexa Groups as per Scenario One in my post: https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/an-overview-and-explanation-of-the-new-support-for-alexa-grouping-6817788/index1.html#post16298346

I can initiate music via Alexa and use the command 'Alexa, Stop' and it will stop in all Rooms , without dropping any Rooms. If I use the Command 'Alexa, stop [Room Name]' then that Room is removed from the Sonos Group and the rest of the Sonos Group continues to play. Is this different behavior to your set-up?

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

U

UKTreoFan

Collaborator II

@UKMedia,

I've looked at the instructions you linked to and, frankly, too bl**dy complicated.

Old method: Go into Sonos app, click on room, click on Group, tick rooms, done.

Scenario One: I need a 'controlling device'; then I need to create an Alexa group (so if I want different groups for different listening needs I need to create a whole host of Alexa groups) and then come up with yet more 'unique' names for the Alexa group?

Sorry, but voice conrtrol was meant to make things easier.

Please can I have the old, simple, effective way of creating a Sonos group and then an Alexa command about any speaker in that group applies to the whole group. Simples.

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