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SH12
Contributor I
January 19, 2018

setting up multi-room music in Alexa app

  • January 19, 2018
  • 65 replies
  • 49095 views
I have 2 Sonos Ones (both have Alexa built in)n and a Sonos Play 5. I asked Alexa to play music in bedroom, dining room and family room, then Alexa tells me I need to set up multi-room music on Alexa app. I checked internet to see how to do that and it says to go to "Audio Groups" in Settings but there is no Audio Groups shown in my Alexa app Settings.
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    Sprint211
    Contributor I
    August 29, 2018
    Is the only way to group everything together at the beginning? I have my Beam and 2x Play:1s set up as a home theatre. I tried setting them up all together but it didn't change anything.
    Ken_Griffiths
    Ken_Griffiths
    August 29, 2018
    Sprint211,

    Sorry if any of the below info is teaching you to 'suck eggs' and you are already fully aware of these things, but it maybe useful anyway to some others reading this thread...

    When you setup your Beam and it’s two Play:1 surrounds, that is actually different to the term 'grouping'... it’s a thing Sonos call 'Bonding' and is created from within the Apps 'room settings' section, so your Beam and it’s surrounds (when 'bonded') show as just one single room. The room name appears in the 'room settings' section of the app and may look something like this ... Lounge (+LS+RS)... this same room however will just appear in the 'Rooms Tab' of the app as a room called ..'Lounge'.

    Obviously 'Lounge' is just an example here and will depend on your chosen Room Name.

    For music to play equally through all speakers in this home theatre setup, you need to goto “Settings/Room Settings” and select Lounge (+LS+RS) and then goto Advanced Audio/Surround Settings/Music Playback and toggle the setting from 'Ambient' to 'Full'.

    The other 'Sonos One' you have in the Bedroom is obviously an entirely separate and second group, called 'Bedroom'.

    So you just need to go into the Rooms Tab in the Sonos App and ' group' both Lounge and Bedroom together, or whatever your two rooms are currently called.

    Then once they are grouped, just ask Alexa to play to either of your two rooms... I have numerous rooms in my home and the two screenshots attached shows the case where I have grouped them all in the Sonos App Rooms Tab. Note there is the option to select 'everywhere' too in the dialogue box that appears when grouping your rooms together.

    You can currently only do these things within the Sonos App, they cannot be done with Alexa voice commands, well not yet, at least.

    Hope that helps.
      Sprint211
      Contributor I
      September 5, 2018
      Ken that is great information.

      Okay so just to clarify there isn't any way of using the voice command to group the two rooms when playing music, only via the app. After the rooms are grouped in the app I can use voice commands to play music, yes?

      I don't seem to have the option to play "Everywhere" like you do on the app. I only have two rooms to choose from though.
      Ken_Griffiths
      Ken_Griffiths
      September 5, 2018
      Sprint211,

      Yes that’s correct.

      I assume the 'Play Everywhere' is simply because I have lots of rooms.
      John B
      September 5, 2018
      Yes that is correct. In the Rooms tab, as soon as you hit the 'Group' button the top option should be 'Everywhere'. It is possible that it doesn't appear for a two-room setup as it only requires one touch to achieve that anyway (by selecting the other 'room').
      John B
      September 5, 2018
      Sorry Ken - should have left it in your capable hands!
      Sprint211
      Contributor I
      September 5, 2018
      All capable hands are welcome!

      Okay so I have another problem. I love sonos so much I decided to get another Sonos One for my work which is in a different building on a different wifi network.

      When I try to use Alexa to do music commands like skip track etc it tells me I need to learn the skill in the Alexa app.

      I go to the app and find that the Sonos skill is enabled, but if I disable it and then re-enable it, then the voice control works on my work speaker. However when I come home it has now kicked off my home speakers and I have to do the same disable/enable thing, which then kicks off my work speaker.

      Thoughts?
      John B
      September 5, 2018
      I am no Alexa expert. Maybe sufficient to tell Alexa to 'discover devices' after moving?
      Sprint211
      Contributor I
      September 6, 2018
      I tried that, unfortunately it says it has no devices to discover..
      RichardBJ
      Lyricist I
      November 1, 2018
      Nobody actually addressed this guys Q directly. I have the same issue. Alex (Echo Dot) recognizes my two sonos systems (Playdeck and two Sonos Play Ones plus a standalone Play # in another room), but says I need to set up a multiroom group using the Audio Groups section of Settings in the Alexa App. Like the OP, I cannot find any Audio Group command set up in Settings.
      Indeed, I think the answer is no, you can’t do that. You can always tell woeful customer support when they respond by initially repeating a version of your question, when the question was, in fact, perfectly clear :-)
      Currently the the Alexia/Echo “multiroom” and “everywhere” are restricted to Echo only. I assume this is because either Sonos or Amazon wish you to fill your entire house with just their own speakers. 😃
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