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Contributor I
March 15, 2024
Answered

Suddenly alexa is not working with my voice enabled Sonos Speakers S1 app

  • March 15, 2024
  • 60 replies
  • 4039 views

I am using the S1 app for my Sonos speakers.  Recently my voice enabled Sonos speakers are not working with Alexa.  I can control my speakers in the S1 app but not with Alexa.

When I look at the Alexa app the voice enabled Sonos speakers are showing offline.

  • I have disabled and re-enabled Sonos Skill in Alexa
  • Alexa does not find any devices when I re-enabled Sonos skill in the Alexa app
  • I have removed and added Alexa voice enable to each speaker
  • I have powered off and on the speakers

Did something change?

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Best answer by Corry P

Hi @gduncan3595 et al

We have released an update for S1 that we believe addresses this issue. Please check your system for updates and test. If you continue to see this issue after updating, we recommend you get in touch with our technical support team for assistance.

Thank you for your patience.

60 replies

Lyricist III
March 18, 2024

sure, because at this point, i am convinced they are letting people with S1 systems suffer until they feel compelled to spend more money with them and upgrade hardware to S2

jgatie
March 18, 2024

Sigh.

Schlumpf
Virtuoso
March 18, 2024

Wow… that‘s getting worse over here blaming Sonos for hypothetical reasons to let this Alexa issue happen and exist as long as users buy new hardware. Come on… do some reality check. What kind of problem are we talking about!? There is a temporary outtage of Alexa on S1. Sonos knows about it, communicates it and is working on it. They will give an update as soon as there are things to share. 
Some of you are talking about that, as if it’s the biggest thing ever. 
To take part in that plot I would ask myself if some of you are employees of bo**, yam*** or any other company that wants to discredit Sonos. 😉

Ralf
Lyricist III
March 19, 2024

wow… nothing as sinister as such a conspiracy theory!  More indirect, they are not adequately resourcing the support for customers on S1, imagine this happened on S2?? I would bet this is solved by now….

 

they are OK making that resourcing decision because we are no longer top tier customers to them? I hope not…. we invested a lot in Sonos and can’t just throw the non S2 compatable stuff away.

 

To be clear, i’m sure the people working on fixing this are working hard. Are there enough people doing it? i am not sure…

 

Also btw… a bit surprised by the number of staunch corporate defenders on this forum too now hitting back? how are posters like that employed? by sonos? just looking for neutrality and focus the problem. look i love the sonos equipment when it works too, but this has become an important functionality for anyone using some home automation. 

jgatie
March 19, 2024

Sonos employees are duly marked as such, so you can drop that feverish conspiracy dream.  Reality is, you might have to actually question if your melodramatic reaction is really warranted, rather than looking over your shoulder for the black helicopters. 

Trending Lyricist I
March 19, 2024

Anyone who remembers the complete hash Sonos made of their EOL announcement will know they don't do comms to customers well. 

They wanted to change their model to get customers to keep upgrading. I'm sorry, forking out thousands on hardware doesn't make it easy for most to bin old for new. People invested in a brand and ecosystem. I've been a Sonos customer for almost 20 years (yes I had a gen 1 CR100 conroller 😆). Over that time I have upgraded and changed some devices (including that controller). Ive kept others. But the key was, I was never forced to upgrade. 

Their uturn of, sorry your devices are no longer supported, to a we bad, they will be but in a limited fashion (and here's and email from our COE saying sorry) was messy and poor. Customers dont forgot. The whole S1 was only created due to the backlash they got from their customers.  

I get it, you can want to have customers always on the latest version, spending more money with you. But hardware and software aren't the same. And a Sonos music device is not as important as a mobile phone to users, so pushing people to upgrade was wrong. 

If they wanted more revenue, a better model might have been to create a premium service that worked across all their ecosystem (maybe even Alexa dare I say it), ragher than segregate their hardware. You would get users who would pay a subscription to get those extra services. Others who dont could happily stay in their standard world. People would have also naturally upgraded some obsolete hardware over time, just like I did. So more revenue. 

Where am I going with this? Well Sonos created a 2 tier system for customers at that time.  Everyone knows S1 support and updates are second class to S2. Anyone who says otherwise is in cloud lala land.

It may not be that cynical, but at the end of the day they want you on the latest hardware. So resources to develop, test releases etc will be less than S2.

As some have said here, S1 customers are being treated poorly, but...

1. Did they cause the outage on purpose as a a ploy to upgrade? Very Doubtful. Did they cause the outage? Absolutely. 

2. Nothing was shared out to the "loyal" customers. We all had to find out ourselves after trying to fix it. Now we are self supporting others.

3. This is a global major outage (as Sonos report). But the length of time it's taking to resolve is frankly shocking. If you caused it, then make sure you fix it quickly. 

In summary, all this outage is doing is further showing the gap between their 2 tier system. And many probably didn't need any more proof of that.

Lyricist III
March 19, 2024

Yep feeling like before when Sonos ditched us after spending thousands with them. Except I doubt there will be the same media outcry and they are probably fine with it at some leadership level. This is a major issue and needs a much better response if Sonos cared about those that have been users for a long time. I still have many newer Sonos products as well and this affects them as well. Not great customer service to have a global outage lingering now on day 4 and may customers likely haven’t even figured this out. 

Lyricist II
March 19, 2024

wow… nothing as sinister as such a conspiracy theory!  More indirect, they are not adequately resourcing the support for customers on S1, imagine this happened on S2?? I would bet this is solved by now….

 

they are OK making that resourcing decision because we are no longer top tier customers to them? I hope not…. we invested a lot in Sonos and can’t just throw the non S2 compatable stuff away.

 

To be clear, i’m sure the people working on fixing this are working hard. Are there enough people doing it? i am not sure…

 

Also btw… a bit surprised by the number of staunch corporate defenders on this forum too now hitting back? how are posters like that employed? by sonos? just looking for neutrality and focus the problem. look i love the sonos equipment when it works too, but this has become an important functionality for anyone using some home automation. 

Agree on the slight religious tone here from some - Think your comment is very balanced and spot on;

Love my Sonos stuff and repeatedly surprised by the level of service i get upon contact even with my old stuff. Nevertheless a bit surprised on this outage. It is not like they are about to send a man to Mars, so assume there is some dependency to Amazon that lag out.

Contributor I
March 19, 2024

I suspect this has more to do with Amazon than SONOS. I’ve had a few runs in with their software people, specifically with ‘works with Alexa’ there seems to be little or no due diligence from them, off topic I know, but I spent a lot of money on a smart bath/shower system that ‘works with Alexa’ only to discover it doesn’t in reality. it seems as long as something connected to Alexa once it gets blessed, even if it doesn’t do anything or can’t connect a second time. 
it maybe didn’t used to matter too much with throw away iot type stuff, but now higher end devices are using and increasingly relying on Alexa functionality it’s getting more serious. 
There is still a lack of maturity with voice systems where there are two parties involved and we are moving away from  cheap gimmick into more solid everyday, expected functionality - the service side is clearly lacking and not so easy to implement. 
these things are never easy or simple to fix, but when you leave a communication vacuum like this it does tend to suck in a lot of spurious stuff unfortunately.

 

Lyricist I
March 19, 2024

I use the S1 app for my Sonos speakers.  Recently my voice enabled Sonos Move speaker is not working with Alexa.  I can control my speakers in the S1 app but not with Alexa.

When I look at the Alexa app the voice enabled Sonos speakers are showing offline.

  • I have disabled and re-enabled Sonos Skill in Alexa
  • Alexa does not find any devices when I re-enabled Sonos skill in the Alexa app
  • I have removed and added Alexa voice enable to each speaker
  • I have powered off and on the speakers

Please repair this issue.  I don’t want to move away from Sonos.  Thank you.