Hello. I’ve been having an issue with my Sonos One and Alexa setup which I think is an error but have discussed with Sonos Support and they say it’s not, but this looks to me to contradict the website. Looking for some more opinions/experiences! I have an Echo Dot and a Sonos One in my living room. I have added both devices to one Alexa group. I have the Sonos microphone turned off and use the Echo Dot for speech input as I prefer the visual response of the light ring. The Sonos One is the preferred speaker for the group and that aspect of the setup works well. All Alexa devices in my household are in Alexa groups. The problem I have is that when I’m playing music on the Sonos (via Alexa or via AirPlay), when I speak to the Echo Dot, the music for the group doesn’t duck. I believe this to be an error for two reasons: The widely reported whole home ducking issue has been resolved by Sonos and is meant to be fixed by putting your Alexa devices in groups so that only that group ducks. If this is the case, surely my Sonos should duck? Ryan S (who I believe is from Sonos quoted the below on here): Volume lowering done smarter using Alexa Groups We've been listening, and are happy to say that with Alexa Groups, saying "Alexa" to any device with a microphone will only lower the volume of speakers in the same Alexa Group. Every Echo device you have will need to be in an Alexa Group to take advantage of this fully. Echo devices not part of any Alexa Group will still make all Sonos players drop in volume. This reads to me that the Sonos should deck when I speak to my Echo Dot in the same group. I had conflicting answers from Sonos originally. To begin with, they said it should duck and I needed to remove the Alexa service from the Sonos and simply add it as a connected speaker. I tried this and it didn’t work. Subsequently they said the Sonos is not designed to duck when speaking to an Echo device within the same group and have reiterated this several times. So my question is, has anyone had success in getting their Sonos to duck when speaking to their Echo device in the same group? Appreciate the help!

Contributor I

Answered

Sonos One, Echo Dot & Group Ducking

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
October 6, 2019
17 replies
1655 views

Hello. I’ve been having an issue with my Sonos One and Alexa setup which I think is an error but have discussed with Sonos Support and they say it’s not, but this looks to me to contradict the website. Looking for some more opinions/experiences!

I have an Echo Dot and a Sonos One in my living room. I have added both devices to one Alexa group. I have the Sonos microphone turned off and use the Echo Dot for speech input as I prefer the visual response of the light ring. The Sonos One is the preferred speaker for the group and that aspect of the setup works well. All Alexa devices in my household are in Alexa groups.

The problem I have is that when I’m playing music on the Sonos (via Alexa or via AirPlay), when I speak to the Echo Dot, the music for the group doesn’t duck.

I believe this to be an error for two reasons:

The widely reported whole home ducking issue has been resolved by Sonos and is meant to be fixed by putting your Alexa devices in groups so that only that group ducks. If this is the case, surely my Sonos should duck?
Ryan S (who I believe is from Sonos quoted the below on here):

Volume lowering done smarter using Alexa Groups
We've been listening, and are happy to say that with Alexa Groups, saying "Alexa" to any device with a microphone will only lower the volume of speakers in the same Alexa Group. Every Echo device you have will need to be in an Alexa Group to take advantage of this fully. Echo devices not part of any Alexa Group will still make all Sonos players drop in volume.

This reads to me that the Sonos should deck when I speak to my Echo Dot in the same group.

I had conflicting answers from Sonos originally. To begin with, they said it should duck and I needed to remove the Alexa service from the Sonos and simply add it as a connected speaker. I tried this and it didn’t work. Subsequently they said the Sonos is not designed to duck when speaking to an Echo device within the same group and have reiterated this several times.

So my question is, has anyone had success in getting their Sonos to duck when speaking to their Echo device in the same group?

Appreciate the help!

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Best answer by Ryan S

Thanks for checking that.

According to how it should be working, if the Dot is set up in the Alexa app as the input in the group, and the Sonos One is configured in the same group as the preferred speaker, with Alexa disabled on the One in the Sonos app, it should duck in volume when you use the voice command.

It may be worth it to reset Alexa control entirely to make sure it's all configured right. You can remove the Sonos skill, and forget the Sonos One from the Alexa app. Then just make sure not to enable Alexa control on the One in the Sonos app.

Show previous replies

UKMedia

I suggest that you Disable then Re-Enable the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App and retest.

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

J

jhcovert

Contributor I

Disabling and re-enabling Sonos skill had no effect on ducking.

Removed speakers from Alexa, added them back through discovery, and no effect on ducking.

Removed speakers from the group, played music through Dot, then re-added them and played music to them - no change in ducking behavior.

This is maddening: I’m so close to having the system behave in the way I want it to!

Ken_Griffiths

Disabling and re-enabling Sonos skill had no effect on ducking.

Removed speakers from Alexa, added them back through discovery, and no effect on ducking.

Removed speakers from the group, played music through Dot, then re-added them and played music to them - no change in ducking behavior.

This is maddening: I’m so close to having the system behave in the way I want it to!

Perhaps try this...

When removing the Sonos skill from the Amazon App, also remove all your Sonos devices… then login to your Amazon Account online via a web browser and goto “manage content and devices” and ensure the Sonos devices are gone from the devices tab, or remove any remaining Sonos devices manually.

Then goto your Amazon online account settings and scroll down to the section called ‘other accounts/login to Amazon’. Select that to view your sharing agreements and remove the Sonos/Amazon sharing agreement.

Next, setup your devices again from scratch by adding in the Sonos Skill back in the Amazon App. You will also need to add your devices to the “Downstairs” group again.

Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

There are some recent improvements made to Alexa ducking that may improve what you’re seeing here. These changes will allow only the players in an Alexa Group to duck in unison, even if the input device is an Echo. Which may improve things with Sonos Ones in a group with an Echo Dot even with Alexa disabled on them.

More details on Alexa grouping can be found here.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

S

Seeky

Prominent Collaborator II

There are some recent improvements made to Alexa ducking that may improve what you’re seeing here. These changes will allow only the players in an Alexa Group to duck in unison, even if the input device is an Echo. Which may improve things with Sonos Ones in a group with an Echo Dot even with Alexa disabled on them.

More details on Alexa grouping can be found here.

Unfortunately I am afraid that Sonos is labeling a bug as a feature here. When you write to support you get the answer that the Sonos One and the Beam only support ducking when picking up the voice themselves.

What you wrote here is simply wrong Ryan. The Sonos One will not duck when you do the following:

Put another Alexa device into an Alexa group as the “Alexa Device”
Put the Sonos ONE with voice service disabled or enabled, but disabled microphones into the group as a normal group member (This will usually enable the ducking)
Set the Sonos ONE or any other speaker as preferred speaker.

If you do exactly the same with a Play:5 it will duck whereas the Sonos ONE will completely ignore that you speak to the Alexa enabled device.

JFYI, I have just bought 4 Sonos One SL instead of normal Sonos Ones because the Alexa integration on the Sonos one is so bad and the fact that the ducking doesn’t work properly.

Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

Hey Seeky, I looked into it and my message above is the experience that’s intended, and is starting to roll out to households. It’s not live for everyone just yet, but should be by the next Sonos software update (assuming no issues come up during limited release).

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

J

jhcovert

Contributor I

Just following up here to say that I could not get ducking to work on the Sonos Ones with voice services disabled, despite trying all the tricks listed here.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and after adding a Sonos Connect to the same group in order to play a turntable, all of a sudden the ducking starts to work.

I don’t know if this is a coincidence or not, but the ducking now also works when I verbally play music from my Alexa to the Ones, without the Connect being in the mix.

Was it the addition of the Connect? Was it a software update? I don’t know, but while relieved and pleased I’m also nervous that it will go as it came - unexpectedly.

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