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jrm523
Trending Lyricist I
July 18, 2021
Answered

Sonos no longer plays music when commanded through Alexa (Amazon Echo Dot)

  • July 18, 2021
  • 18 replies
  • 3276 views

Our house is filled with Sonos. We have a Sonos Play One in every room and our living room has a Sonos Playbar with two Sonos Play Ones for surround sound. We have echo dots in each room and have Alexa configured to use the Sonos speaker (in each room) as default. It has been working perfectly for years.

Fast forward to now; Alexa no longer plays music through any of our Sonos speakers. Alexa now just plays music through the echo dot instead of the Sonos speakers.

I have spent hours troubleshooting this and have done the following:

  • Disabled Sonos skill in Alexa
  • Removed Sonos speakers from Alexa
  • Power cycled all Sonos speakers
  • Added Sonos skill to Alexa and rediscovered the devices
  • Reconfigured each room (group) in Alexa to use Sonos as default

All of my Sonos speakers have excellent network connectivity and are set with a static IP. Nothing on my network has changed recently. I have verified firewall and dns logs. Recently I set Sonos to auto-update and am regretting that decision. At this point I am guesing it is either a Sonos update or Alexa issue that is causing the problem. 

There also seems to be other people experiencing a similar issue.. https://www.reddit.com/r/alexa/comments/n6n0ot/echo_devices_and_app_having_trouble/

I am at a loss. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Best answer by jrm523

OMG! I figured it out! I changed the "Play music group setting" that you mentioned. I guess an Alexa update borked it by changing the default to require you to say the group name. I changed it to automatically play without saying group name. Thanks for taking the time to post that image @Ken_Griffiths and for taking the time to work with me. 

 

I'm so happy it's working as expected again!! 😀

18 replies

Show previous replies
Ken_Griffiths
Ken_Griffiths
July 19, 2021

There’s also this ‘new-ish’option in the Amazon Alexa App (see attached) in relation to ‘Groups’ and I was planning to also explore that feature with the OP too.

Ken_Griffiths
Ken_Griffiths
July 19, 2021

As you can perhaps also see here Danny, you can set the music to play on an Alexa Group speakers ONLY when the group name is included in the voice instruction …and this too could be something set in place for the OP’s ‘Office’ Group, but it’s just a case of first eliminating the issues, one step at a time, before perhaps shifting to a case of ‘wait and see’ or (as I prefer to do) suggesting that the OP speak to the Support Staff. Still some things to explore here first, I think.

jrm523Author
Trending Lyricist I
July 20, 2021

@Ken_Griffiths Thanks for your ideas. I will try what you recommended later today and let you know how it works out. 

 

@melvimbe I appreciate your input as well. However, I really don't want to just leave it and hope it eventually resolves itself. This has been ongoing for days now and my fear is something was updated on Sonos or Amazon's side that is causing the problem. This is a feature that my fiance and I use daily. 

jrm523AuthorAnswer
Trending Lyricist I
July 20, 2021

OMG! I figured it out! I changed the "Play music group setting" that you mentioned. I guess an Alexa update borked it by changing the default to require you to say the group name. I changed it to automatically play without saying group name. Thanks for taking the time to post that image @Ken_Griffiths and for taking the time to work with me. 

 

I'm so happy it's working as expected again!! 😀

Ken_Griffiths
Ken_Griffiths
July 20, 2021

OMG! I figured it out! I changed the "Play music group setting" that you mentioned. I guess an Alexa update borked it by changing the default to require you to say the group name. I changed it to automatically play without saying group name. Thanks for taking the time to post that image @Ken_Griffiths and for taking the time to work with me. 

 

I'm so happy it's working as expected again!! 😀

Good news @jrm523 👍 and thanks for posting back the outcome - the answer had to be in the Alexa Settings somewhere. It’s just a shame it was one of the last things I suggested, but will move that setting up the priority list of things to check for next time.

Dirkdiglett00
Contributor I
September 10, 2021

OMG! I figured it out! I changed the "Play music group setting" that you mentioned. I guess an Alexa update borked it by changing the default to require you to say the group name. I changed it to automatically play without saying group name. Thanks for taking the time to post that image @Ken_Griffiths and for taking the time to work with me. 

 

I'm so happy it's working as expected again!! 😀

Can you explain exactly how you got the sonos to work again as I have old (not voice controleld) sonos 1's, 3's and a 5 that are no longer recognised as preferred speakers (they are completely greyed out when I try to select them via the alexa app) . When I ask alexa to play am amazon playlist it says the sonos device (the old one with no voice control) is disconnected. 

Ken_Griffiths
Ken_Griffiths
September 10, 2021

Can you explain exactly how you got the sonos to work again as I have old (not voice controleld) sonos 1's, 3's and a 5 that are no longer recognised as preferred speakers (they are completely greyed out when I try to select them via the alexa app) . When I ask alexa to play am amazon playlist it says the sonos device (the old one with no voice control) is disconnected. 

The ‘default speaker’ for an echo device can only be a Sonos product that has Alexa built-in, like a Sonos One for example.. you can’t use a Play:1/3. You need to look at using the Alexa enabled groups instead in the Amazon Alexa App (see below and attached ‘example’ screenshot).

  1. Set your echo device to control/enable the group. (NB the device can only be used once per group)
  2. Add your chosen Sonos Speakers to the 2nd section of the group, this will ensure they ‘duck’ their audio when speaking to the controlling echo device.
  3. Add your speakers that you wish to use for audio playback to the last section of the group.

Check that the Sonos skill is installed in the Amazon Alexa App and if necessary sign out of the skill and back in again to check it’s connection and allow it to scan and discover your Sonos devices. 

jrm523Author
Trending Lyricist I
September 10, 2021

OMG! I figured it out! I changed the "Play music group setting" that you mentioned. I guess an Alexa update borked it by changing the default to require you to say the group name. I changed it to automatically play without saying group name. Thanks for taking the time to post that image @Ken_Griffiths and for taking the time to work with me. 

 

I'm so happy it's working as expected again!! 😀

Can you explain exactly how you got the sonos to work again as I have old (not voice controleld) sonos 1's, 3's and a 5 that are no longer recognised as preferred speakers (they are completely greyed out when I try to select them via the alexa app) . When I ask alexa to play am amazon playlist it says the sonos device (the old one with no voice control) is disconnected. 

The setting that caused me all of the grief is pictured below. When you go to “Choose Speakers” for your Alexa Group, you have to select your Sonos and then scroll all the way down and you will see “Playback Options”. Alexa started to default on the setting that required you to say the group name any time you want to play back music. You have to change “play music on bedroom speakers” to “Always” and not the default “Only when you say the group name”. 

 

 

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