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Harrigill
Enthusiast I
July 24, 2022
Answered

Sonos with Alexa in multiple locations

  • July 24, 2022
  • 11 replies
  • 1680 views

There are several system design issues that I cannot get around.  Please advise.

I have two separate locations in which I own and regularly use 19 Sonos devices. This includes one Roam that I take back and forth between sites.  I have Amazon Echos to control the speakers, along with the Sonos app on my phone and my PC.

Problem: I cannot use Alexa with both networks at the same time (even though Alexa has no problems controlling other devices across separate networks).

Details: In order to control Sonos devices with Alexa, I must use the Sonos skill in the Alexa app. When I enable the skill, Alexa knows I have Sonos speakers on two separate networks, and asks me to select one by listing the Sonos devices that are on each network. Once selected, things work fine on the selected network, but do not work on the other. When I wish to change locations, I must disable the skill in the Alexa app and re-enable by choosing the other network. This breaks the first.  If I am in location A but my wife (for example) is in location B, we have to choose which one of us can use Alexa to control our speakers.

Note that in the Alexa app I have set up groups representing rooms. I can group an echo and a Sonos speaker and tell that echo to play music. She will say “Playing xxx on Sonos” and the grouped speaker will play. I can also tell Alexa to play music on <Speaker Name> and that speaker will play. But these commands only work on the subnet selected in the skill.  If I am in location A and ask Alexa to play music on a device in location B, she says she is playing it on that device (because she recognizes the device), but nothing actually plays. 

Taking the Roam across locations is particularly problematic, because I must completely reset and re-register it every time.

Using separate Amazon accounts is not a solution because I lose the ability to control multiple locations. Using separate Sonos accounts is not a solution because the skill only allows one account, and this breaks the app, since there is no means in the app to log off and log back into a different account.

I have many smart devices that work well across multiple locations. Sonos is my only problem. It is hard to conceive of such limitations in an otherwise excellent system like Sonos.

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    Best answer by John B

    I think you could get to Ken’s ‘single HH’ model as follows.  Can we park the migratory Roam for the moment?

    Let’s assume you want to keep the playlists, favourites etc from HH1 (because I doubt they are now identical across the two HHs)

    Let’s assume that Alexa is attached to HH1 and is working happily there.

    I’ll assume you have no wired devices currently.  It doesn’t make a big difference

    You would then need to:

    1. Take one speaker from your HH1 to your other home.
    2. Factory reset ALL Sonos devices in the second home.  This deletes HH2 and loses all Sonos playlists etc on that system (just so you know)
    3. Connect the HH1 speaker you brought by Ethernet to your router
    4. Confirm that you can play music on that speaker
    5. Add all your reset speakers to the system using ‘Add Product’
    6. Check it’s all working
    7. Add your local wifi credentials to Sonos
    8. Disconnect the Ethernet cable and check all working on Wifi
    9. Take the speaker you brought with you back to home 1

    You will probably need to discover devices on Alexa.

    I have ‘seeded’ one location from another in the past.  That was before Alexa.  No guarantees.

    Edit: it might make things even easier if the SSIDs and passwords were identical in the two locations.

    11 replies

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    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    August 13, 2022

    It is indeed unfortunate that Amazon does not allow non-Amazon devices the full functionality of the system. I’m sureSonos would love to be able to have the entire system available on their devices. 

    Unfortunately, Google does the same thing, restricting which features are available.

    It makes you wonder if these restrictions are part of the reason that Sonos has implemented SVC, and continues to work on it. 

     

    Bruce
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