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The elusive stereo pair of Move speakers away from home

  • 6 January 2021
  • 8 replies
  • 840 views
D

Can I use my phone as a wifi hotspot to connect 2 Move speakers in stereo away from home? Or does my phone also need to be connected to the same wifi, hence I would need a separate hotspot?

I understand that  a lot of folks don’t appreciate the benefits of the stereo experience as much as I do, but to me, the great sound coming from my solitary Move speaker over bluetooth is veritably drowned out by the lack of a stereo sound stage. As someone who has traditionally supplied the music, I have fantasies of carrying the joy of my (future) pair of Moves away from my own backyard when hanging with friends in the exotic locations we are wont to haunt. 

I enjoy my Move to extend the sound from my living room Sonos system throughout my home and yard, but the idea of the best portable speaker I’ve had (in a long long line of them) not being able to do stereo away from home is dismal.

Do I now need to go buy a wifi hotspot along with my 2nd Move?

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 6 February 2021, 01:43

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8 replies

Rowena B.
Userlevel 5
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 Hi @Ddbrad60,

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us. Allow me to share some information with you.

Connecting your Sonos Move to a hotspot may or may not work. Using your mobile phone to control your Sonos as WiFi will be disabled when in hotspot mode. You may check out Sonos system requirements when setting up Sonos devices.

Sonos Move always connect to the WiFi network. If you’re moving your Sonos Move to another location, you need to update network information, your Sonos Move and mobile device should be connected to the same WiFi network. 

You can also pair your Sonos Move with Bluetooth. We can wait for suggestions and feedback from our Sonos community members, they might provide additional information about this. You can also visit this community thread for your reference.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns, I'll be glad to assist you.

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D

Thanks. Yes, I saw that thread. It says that it should work if the hotspot provides a strong and stable signal. I would love to hear from anyone who has tried this or has any further insight. It’s important enough to me that I have looked into available wifi hotspots and plans, and it’s likely that I will try this. 

J

Your best bet is probably a travel router.  You can connect this to a hotel wifi or your mobile phone to provide an internet connection and a LAN.

Or you might use your phone as a hotspot in itself, but you will need a different device to act as controller.

I have done both in the past (not with Moves but a Play:1).  i made the hotspot SSID and password identical to my home wifi and everything connected easily enough.

Test it at home (if you have a second device.  Set up your phone hotspot with home WiFi details. Power off your router.  Connect controller device to hotspot.  Play.

Tell us how it goes.

Edit.  You should power cycle the speakers so they get IP addresses from the hotspot.

D

Your best bet is probably a travel router.  You can connect this to a hotel wifi or your mobile phone to provide an internet connection and a LAN.

Or you might use your phone as a hotspot in itself, but you will need a different device to act as controller.

I have done both in the past (not with Moves but a Play:1).  i made the hotspot SSID and password identical to my home wifi and everything connected easily enough.

Test it at home (if you have a second device.  Set up your phone hotspot with home WiFi details. Power off your router.  Connect controller device to hotspot.  Play.

Tell us how it goes.

Edit.  You should power cycle the speakers so they get IP addresses from the hotspot.

Excellent. Thank you John. I will try it with my iPad as controller since my Fi phone has a decent hotspot feature. Buying my 2nd move tomorrow!

J

Please let us know how it goes. I suggest you test it with the current Move before you buy another. If it works over WiFi with one it will almost certainly work as a stereo pair. If it doesn't work with one it won't work with a pair.

D

Good idea. Thanks. I’ll report back

D

It works. I did actually buy a used cell phone since I no longer had the one I thought I did, as well as the 2nd Move. Factory resetting both speakers to forget my home wifi, signing in to my cell phone’s wifi and my Sonos account on the new cell, setting up each speaker to my cell wifi, with passwords, and making them a stereo pair, all took about 15 minutes. I listened to some favorite tracks in a whole new way, now with the potential of that luscious immersive sound almost anywhere I might want to go. Resetting and adding them back to my home setup when I was done took about 5 minutes. Now I’m planning road trips and making playlists for when we’re allowed to travel again lol

Ken_Griffiths

It works. I did actually buy a used cell phone since I no longer had the one I thought I did, as well as the 2nd Move. Factory resetting both speakers to forget my home wifi, signing in to my cell phone’s wifi and my Sonos account on the new cell, setting up each speaker to my cell wifi, with passwords, and making them a stereo pair, all took about 15 minutes. I listened to some favorite tracks in a whole new way, now with the potential of that luscious immersive sound almost anywhere I might want to go. Resetting and adding them back to my home setup when I was done took about 5 minutes. Now I’m planning road trips and making playlists for when we’re allowed to travel again lol

Just to add you don’t need to factory reset your Move speakers - the Sonos Move can store upto 16 WiFi networks at any one time.

To add a network …

  1. Connect your mobile controller device to the new WiFi network. (Perhaps ensure any previous network is not accessible by disabling its beacon temporarily)
  2. Open the Sonos App and wait whilst it searches for your current Sonos system.
  3. When the app shows “Unable to connect to Sonos” ... tap the  ‘Learn More’ link
  4. Tap the ‘Changed Router or WiFi Settings’ button and select the ‘1 product option’.
  5. Follow the instructions to connect the Sonos Move to the new WiFi network. Previous networks remain stored and are viewable in the Sonos App “Settings/System/Network/Networks"

Note: When you bring your Move back home, it will automatically reconnect to your home WiFi network.

 

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