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Contributor I
October 23, 2017

Sonos One doesn't work with Hue?

  • October 23, 2017
  • 34 replies
  • 18407 views
According to Amazon that's the case.

So i did a chat with Amazon support since the Sonos One is not finding my Phillips Hue lights (which work fine with the Dot)...



Can someone from Sonos weigh in on this? If i can't entirely replace my Dot with the Sonos One then it's going to get sent back.

Quite simply my Sonos One doesn't find my hue lights, but if i plug the Dot back in it disovers them fine, and they can be controlled via the One. If i unplug the Dot the lights become unreachable. All other smart home devices are ok.

I don't want to make this post too wordy, but i've done all the troubleshooting i can think of, inculding removing and re-adding voice services which i saw in another post. I have removed the Dot from my Alexa account, leaving just the One, still no joy.

My lights are using the v1 Hue Bridge in case that matters

Thanks
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34 replies

twigletAuthor
Contributor I
October 24, 2017
I had the same problem with Hue, fixed by removing Alexa from the One via Sonos app then re-adding it. Hi Dave, i saw your original post on this, and i tried that with high hopes. Sadly it didnt work.
Did you do anything else after removing Alexa from your Sonos one?
Do you have any other Alexa devices and is your Hue bridge the v1?


Hue v2. I have Hive but not tried it, the One is boxed up for return. Maybe try saying 'Alexa, discover devices'


Tried that. It completes suspicously quickly finding 11 devices. The number should be around 20 inculding the bulbs. I have pressed the button on the bridge before/during the discovery and that doesnt help.
Lyricist II
October 24, 2017
Hey guys, the Sonos One can control the Hue devices through the Hue Bridge. The only skill you need are the Hue and the Sonos Alexa skills. There isn't a unique Sonos One skill.

One thing to bring up is that the Sonos One has Amazon Alexa built in, which means it's an Alexa enabled device, but it's not an Echo device. The difference there is that some features are Amazon Echo only, such as drop in and calling features. The Sonos One doesn't have a built-in smart hub so you can't run Hue devices directly off of it, but you can use Alexa within the device to issue commands to your devices.


Would this mean that if you have a Echo somewhere else in your house to act as the smart hub you could get full functionality from the Sonos One?
twigletAuthor
Contributor I
October 24, 2017
Hey guys, the Sonos One can control the Hue devices through the Hue Bridge. The only skill you need are the Hue and the Sonos Alexa skills. There isn't a unique Sonos One skill.

One thing to bring up is that the Sonos One has Amazon Alexa built in, which means it's an Alexa enabled device, but it's not an Echo device. The difference there is that some features are Amazon Echo only, such as drop in and calling features. The Sonos One doesn't have a built-in smart hub so you can't run Hue devices directly off of it, but you can use Alexa within the device to issue commands to your devices.

Hi Ryan, can you or anyone from Sonos assist with my issue? Amazon have been no help.

After all my testing it just seems like the One wont discover the hue bridge without having a companion Echo device. Can you 100% confirm that isn't the case?

If i ask the One to "discover devices" it completes suspciously fast, around 2 seconds, saying it has found 11 devices (it should be around 20 with my bulbs).

While running a "discover devices", invoked from either the app or the voice command, i have run a packet capture for all traffic originating from the One over my wifi, i can see some HTTPS traffic out to 52.94.216.73 which is presumably the voice data going to Amazon, and some standard stuff like DNS and ARP, but no multicast or broadcast traffic that would suggest an actual search for the hue bridge.

Struggling to think of what else to try. It just seems like your product doesn't actually have the native support for Hue devices.

Thanks
Lyricist I
October 24, 2017
Figured it out guys.. must use with an echo dot.. the dot connects to the amazon ap and then your one will be able to operate its skills.
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
October 24, 2017
As long as you have the necessary skills enabled on your Alexa App, you should be able to use the Sonos One to discover any of those devices. What happens when you say "discover devices" is a command is issued to your Alexa app to search for devices on the network. The Sonos One isn't directly searching. Most of that is all cloud based.

You can also try discovering your devices using the Alexa app on your phone directly, instead of asking your Sonos One.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
Lyricist II
October 25, 2017
I can confirm my Sonos one controls my Hue without any issues. I'm kind of loving it.
Lyricist I
October 26, 2017
I was having the same issues with my v1 (circular) Hue bridge + Sonos One. Hue lights worked fine with apps on iOS & IFTTT, but couldn't be discovered by Alexa/Sonos One. I spoke to both Amazon (who was useless) and Sonos (who referred me back to Amazon) today with no luck. However, I decided to just bite the bullet and upgrade my old v1 bridge to the newer v2 (square) bridge. Works fine after the changeover...not the greatest solution since it cost me $60, but at least I can control my lights again...

p.s. Before I switched bridges, I did get a workaround to run correctly using an IFTTT Applet with my v1 bridge, but it wasn't the most elegant solution.
MikeV
October 26, 2017
I've had a v2 Bridge as that's what came in my Hue bundle... it's worked great with Alexa on my Echo Dot, and it's working great with the Sonos One as well. BTW, Sonos wouldn't have anything to do with support for the Hue and Alexa, even through the Sonos One. That would be between Amazon and Philips.
The S in IOT stands for Security.
twigletAuthor
Contributor I
October 26, 2017
I can confirm my Sonos one controls my Hue without any issues. I'm kind of loving it.
May i ask if you have the v1 or v2 hue bridge and if you have any other Alexa devices on your network?

As long as you have the necessary skills enabled on your Alexa App, you should be able to use the Sonos One to discover any of those devices. What happens when you say "discover devices" is a command is issued to your Alexa app to search for devices on the network. The Sonos One isn't directly searching. Most of that is all cloud based.
Are you sure about that? I can see SSDP traffic between my Echo Dot and my Hue bridge when i click discover in the app. This traffic doesnt occur when i use just the Sonos One.

Have Sonos actually tested a Hue Bridge v1 with a Sonos One and no other alexa devices involved? From what i'm seeing that simply doesn't work. My options are:
- Keep my Echo Dot in addtion to the One, just a waste of power
- Spend £50 on a new Bridge which might fix it
- Send the Sonos One back
twigletAuthor
Contributor I
October 28, 2017
So i took the plunge and ordered a new Hue bridge. I have no need for a new bridge, my v1 has served me very well.

I used the Hue app to perform a migration to the new bridge, and what do you know, the Sonos One now discovers it straight away and my lights work fine.

I think Sonos need to update their marketing material and support guides, because it seems to me like the v1 bridge simply isn't supported. It's a shame this has cost me money and quite a bit of wasted time.

I would be keen to find out if anyone has sucsessfully got a v1 bridge working with a Sonos One without any 3rd party solutions or additional Alexa devices on their network.