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Contributor I
October 14, 2017
Answered

Sonos and Alexa in two houses

  • October 14, 2017
  • 53 replies
  • 9871 views
I have Sonos speakers and Echo dots in two houses. I activated the Sonos skill in the first house and all is good for using Alexa to control the Sonos speakers in the first house When I go to the second house and search for devices, the Echo dot does not find the Sonos. Is it not possible without using a second Amazon account?
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Best answer by Keith N
glennsonos & drammelt: Thanks for reaching out about this. Getting Amazon Alexa to work across multiple houses can be tricky with Sonos. You will need to have a separate Sonos ID to keep Alexa from controlling the wrong house. The best way to do this with just one Amazon account would be to create a separate Sonos ID for the vacation home and then:

- disable the Sonos skill in Alexa app
- ensure you are signed into the proper Sonos ID (if you are at the vacation home, sign into that account)
- re-enable the skill and re-discover (at this point you may see your speakers from both locations)

In most cases where people have multiple houses, the best success is found when you treat each house as a different "person". This means a separate Sonos ID and a different Amazon Account. This keeps you from accidentally controlling your main home from your vacation home.

53 replies

Lyricist I
October 14, 2017
Same issue. Alexa works with Sonos in my primary home, but cannot find Sonos units in my vacation home. Can Sonos help us?
Lyricist I
October 15, 2017
It won’t work at both places simultaneously, at least not yet. You need to disable the skill, then re-enable and rediscover the devices when you are in the house you want to use Alexa with Sonos in.
Keith N
Keith NAnswer
Sonos Staff
October 18, 2017
glennsonos & drammelt: Thanks for reaching out about this. Getting Amazon Alexa to work across multiple houses can be tricky with Sonos. You will need to have a separate Sonos ID to keep Alexa from controlling the wrong house. The best way to do this with just one Amazon account would be to create a separate Sonos ID for the vacation home and then:

- disable the Sonos skill in Alexa app
- ensure you are signed into the proper Sonos ID (if you are at the vacation home, sign into that account)
- re-enable the skill and re-discover (at this point you may see your speakers from both locations)

In most cases where people have multiple houses, the best success is found when you treat each house as a different "person". This means a separate Sonos ID and a different Amazon Account. This keeps you from accidentally controlling your main home from your vacation home.
Building community is like building a garden. You build the frame, till the ground, plant the seeds, feed the plants & sometimes you gotta pull the weeds.
Contributor I
November 28, 2017
Do they plan to address this? Creating two separate account for each is not an answer, you can eliminate confusion by just giving the devices different name in each house. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to do this.
Lyricist I
December 10, 2017
Please fix this.
Lyricist I
December 21, 2017
This is really disappointing. So I would need to logout of one Sonos account and login to another when I reach the weekend home? I know you don’t like giving dates for software enhancements, but can you confirm if this is likely going to be addressed in 2018 or not?
Lyricist I
December 28, 2017
I agree different houses should be addressed with an easy and elegant solution. Please let us know when it is on the road map
Trending Lyricist I
January 1, 2018
Do they plan to address this? Creating two separate account for each is not an answer, you can eliminate confusion by just giving the devices different name in each house. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to do this.

I completely agree with this. I really don't want two accounts to fix a software limitation, not to mention those accounts end up getting used for other marketing/nefarious purposes so I try to avoid as many accounts as possible.
Trending Lyricist I
January 1, 2018
I agree different houses should be addressed with an easy and elegant solution. Please let us know when it is on the road map

Alexa already supports location information as when I'm at my vacation home and ask about the weather I get the correct forecast for the area. Seems sonos could do the exact same thing?
Lyricist II
January 3, 2018
I agree with everyone. Should be an easy fix. I named each SONOS item a different name.
Please fix!