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Contributor I
Nov 18, 2017 4:34 PM UTC
Answered

Sonos not playing Alexa music

I've had the Sonos One for a couple of weeks and it was working fine up until yesterday. The music plays fine through sonos app but is not playing correctly through the speaker upon command. For example, if I ask Alexa "to play Lithium on SiriusXM" she responds "Lithium from SiriusXM playing on Office" but then nothing happens. Any suggestions?
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Edward R
Edward RAnswer
Retired Sonos Staff
Jun 27, 2019 3:30 PM UTC
We have noticed this thread gaining a lot of traction of late, with most visitors to this thread opting not to actively engage in troubleshooting. The information in this post will be marked as the best answer to assist those reading along.

We have an article that talks about how to resolve the majority of issues with Alexa on Sonos. If you are experiencing the problems details in this thread, please have a look there.
Try searching our articles for help with your question: https://www.sonos.com/en/support

44 replies

Contributor I
Nov 19, 2017 12:02 AM UTC
Seems this is happening a lot to a lot of different people. I also had the same problem. For me, it only starts acting up if I use a Sonos device (laptop, iPad or iPhone) to get the music started then try to do Alexa commands. It doesn't seem to like that at all and the same thing happens as was mentioned.
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UKMedia
Nov 19, 2017 3:09 PM UTC
Seems this is happening a lot to a lot of different people. I also had the same problem. For me, it only starts acting up if I use a Sonos device (laptop, iPad or iPhone) to get the music started then try to do Alexa commands. It doesn't seem to like that at all and the same thing happens as was mentioned.

IF you start music on another device, you may need to state the room name on any subsequent voice command.
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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
UKMedia
Nov 19, 2017 3:10 PM UTC
Sonos tech support - please fix this problem. Alexa says "playing on Sonos in living room " then no sound unless i go to the sonos app and play pandora through the app. SOOOOOOO frustrating!!!!!!!!!!

Is this happening just for Pandora?
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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
Lyricist I
Nov 19, 2017 4:55 PM UTC
I'm having the same problem. I started out only using the Alexa based commands but as soon as I went to stream music through the Sonos app on my iPad the Alexa commands quit behaving correctly. Seems like there should be a way to easily switch between the 2 options? Not ready to give up yet but definitely frustrated!
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UKMedia
Nov 19, 2017 5:03 PM UTC
I'm having the same problem. I started out only using the Alexa based commands but as soon as I went to stream music through the Sonos app on my iPad the Alexa commands quit behaving correctly. Seems like there should be a way to easily switch between the 2 options? Not ready to give up yet but definitely frustrated!

If you start music from the iPad app, you will need to specify the room name for Alexa commands to work correctly.
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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
Lyricist I
Nov 19, 2017 5:58 PM UTC
Now it won't work on my iPad. Wont' play with Alexa commands either... Alexa says it's playing but no sound. WTF?
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UKMedia
Nov 19, 2017 6:12 PM UTC
Now it won't work on my iPad. Wont' play with Alexa commands either... Alexa says it's playing but no sound. WTF?

Try powering off the Sonos One for 20 secs and then switch on and let it boot. Please retest

If the problem persists then try the actions I've listed in this post:

https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/sonos-one-not-responding-to-alexa-comands-6793239
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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
Lyricist II
Nov 19, 2017 6:21 PM UTC
I have two Sonos One's. I just did the update this morning and one is working fine, but the other won't play music when commanded through Alexa (I've tried both Pandora and Amazon music), just like all of you are complaining about. Has there been a fix found for this? I wonder why one of mine works fine, but the other one doesn't. Hope this gets resolved quickly. I was thinking of exchanging the one that doesn't work, but when you set it up, it makes you update the software, so I may still have the same issue.

I have already rebooted it twice, and was going to do a hard reset, but Sonos doesn't recommend it. I reached out to Sonos Support on Twitter, but have not heard back. I have also logged out and back in to my Amazon Alexa account to no avail.

My wife got into an argument with the Sonos this morning as it wouldn't stop playing music when commanded. It says something like "I'm not quite sure how to handle that" when asked to pause music when the music was started through the app. Frustrating!
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UKMedia
Nov 19, 2017 6:56 PM UTC
I have two Sonos One's. I just did the update this morning and one is working fine, but the other won't play music when commanded through Alexa (I've tried both Pandora and Amazon music), just like all of you are complaining about. Has there been a fix found for this? I wonder why one of mine works fine, but the other one doesn't. Hope this gets resolved quickly. I was thinking of exchanging the one that doesn't work, but when you set it up, it makes you update the software, so I may still have the same issue.

I have already rebooted it twice, and was going to do a hard reset, but Sonos doesn't recommend it. I reached out to Sonos Support on Twitter, but have not heard back. I have also logged out and back in to my Amazon Alexa account to no avail.

My wife got into an argument with the Sonos this morning as it wouldn't stop playing music when commanded. It says something like "I'm not quite sure how to handle that" when asked to pause music when the music was started through the app. Frustrating!


Hi

Can you just check that the white round light is lit on the top of the speaker that isn't responding? If not then the mic has been switched off. Just touch the mic symbol to toggle it back on.

The other thing to check is within the Alexa app Smart Home>Devices, do you have any devices with the same name?

If you start music via the app try including the speaker name when giving a command. e.g. Stop Kitchen
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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
Lyricist II
Nov 19, 2017 7:37 PM UTC
The mic is on. Alexa works if I ask her what the weather is like, etc. She just won't start music from any service. If I ask her to play Pandora, she says "getting the last Pandora station you listened to", but then nothing happens. If I start music in the app then try to stop using Alexa, she says "I'm not quite sure how to do that." My other Sonos One works fine though after the update. It's only my master bedroom one giving me issues. All of my devices have different names.
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