Hey Guys


Hey Team.  I’ve had sonos products for 10 years, and they’ve never worked for longer than 2 hours.  I’ve tried hard wiring my entire system, I’ve done wifi…. Literally everything.  It’s hard to imagine that nothing works, I can’t listen to my music, and these products are still sold.  I’ve spoken to sonos support hundreds of times, I reboot my wifi, unplug all of my units daily, yet nothing works.  There couldn’t be a more frustrating music platform.  


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21 replies

Userlevel 7

I have 11 different Sonos devices, and I can play them all day without a glitch.

Describe your setup in detail. What specific Sonos devices are you using? What model router do you have? What device are you using to control your Sonos devices?

I have 11 different Sonos devices, and I can play them all day without a glitch.

 

Pretty much my experience since 2011; I can’t imagine living with kit for a year if it did all the antics that the OP has said to have lived with for ten years. Life is too short.

I have a play 1 (hard wired), connect and connect amp.  The connect and connect amp manages my family room and outdoor speakers.  I have an ATT router which is connected to fiber optic and is 20 feet from my connect/connect amp.  I have Ethernet as well which I can connect to all of my products, yet still nothing works.  

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

What model is the router? 

BGW320.  It’s a big white one 

I certainly agree with where @nik9669a is going, but also need to ask how far away from your router are your various Sonos devices.

 

As a point of reference, I used to have an AT&T DSL modem/router, that I had nothing but trouble with. I finally broke down and turned off its ‘router’ function, and wired it to a Netgear WiFi router, after which I had little issue. Since that point, I have little trust in ‘routers’ provided as part of a system, and instead I use them to get a signal to my own router, so that I can have better control. This was 10 or 15 years ago, so things may have changed, but I stick with this separate process. Now it’s Spectrum that I distrust. Wish I could get fiber of any type…..

Appreciate that 💯 @Airgetlam and certainly wish I didn’t have to resort to this community blog to express my frustrations.  I’ve sunk $, time and endless hours trying to troubleshoot my system with no avail or resolution.  I recently was at my daughter’s ortho and the music piped in kept stopping, to which I asked “what platform do you use”?  The Dr replied with “sonos, and I couldn’t be more frustrated after 4 years of this”.  I was empathetic knowing what she’d been dealing with.  Anyways, to answer your question, my router is 20 feet from my connect/connect amp.  My Apple TV works fine (which is above my sonos), as do my kid’s Echo dots, 40 feet from the router. 🤦‍♂️

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

I think we all get the idea that you’re frustrated. Repeating yourself doesn’t help. 
 

Since you say you’ve tried hardwiring your entire system, try that again. Once all the Sonos devices are on wired connections, disable wifi on all devices and use the system for a while. Let us know how that goes. 

I certainly admire your perseverance.  If I had had even half as much trouble I would have given up after 10 weeks, not 10 years.  Why have you put up with 10 years of frustration when you could have been listening to music?  Thankfully I have had no problems, so you have my sympathy.

It is also a pity that after 10 years and hundreds of conversations with Sonos Support, you only joined this forum today.

Perhaps I should put it another way.  I don’t think a word of what you have written is remotely plausible.   

Hey John.  Great catching up and thanks for the kind words.  Plausibly speaking, on Saturday evenings, when I have 15 people at my house and my sonos cuts out every other song, I really enjoy making up stories to post on this forum and have “John” tell me I’m a liar. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Interesting reply to John, @Dana M 

 

I don’t want to risk upsetting you, so I shall not contribute further. 
 

Good luck sorting your system. I hope it doesn’t take you another 10 years. 
 

Edited to add:

@Dana M    I notice that you or someone has edited out your swearing at John  in the preceding post. Thank you. 

  Plausibly speaking, on Saturday evenings, when I have 15 people at my house and my sonos cuts out every other song

So how many times have you had this embarrassing experience? Every Saturday evening for the last 10 years? Has nobody said " For f*(^& sake. How many more times do we have to put up with this?".

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Sonos systems rely on chatting with each other over an undisturbed (preferably) wireless link. You seem to have wifi interference, that is worse when your house is full of people. People, sometimes described here as “sacks of water”, disturb wifi signals.

So, if you do want help from other users on this forum, describe your wifi set up and your home (stone or wood, apartment, may wif signals in the neighborhood or not) and what you already have done to try and make things better.

OP says that inspite of hard wiring all units, he still has problems. There has to be some undiagnosed router issue going on. For instance when I use wired extenders, I have to make sure their DHCP server has to be turned off; indeed, I have to make sure to use extenders that allow this to be done.

Hi @106rallye .  My wifi set up is an att router which works for all of my apps, laptops, iPads etc.  It is fiber optics which was installed about 6 months ago.  I’m not sure if it’s getting bogged down with all of the devices connected to it, but seems to work fine with 1 smart TV, an Apple TV connected to my main tv (not a smart tv).  My house is drywall which could be causing the interference because my router is in 1 room, and sonos products (which don’t work well) are around 20 feet away.  My hardwired play 1 works consistently, but my connect and connect amp go in and out, giving me codes on my app like “cannot connect to sonos products at this time”, and other various codes.
I usually call sonos and they run diagnostics and fix it for a couple of days, but then it’s back to problems.  I’ve hardwired all of my system which worked for a week or so, but then acted up.  The only thing I can think of is moving my router closer to the connect and connect amp (which power outdoor speakers and family room speakers, Bose products).  Thoughts?? And thanks 👍

@Kumar .  My friends have suggested getting a mesh wifi extender, but at this point I feel like I’m chasing it, rather than fixing the problem.  Like my buddy John referenced in the above forum “for f*#ks sake, how many more times do we have to put up with this”, I’ve spent money to hardwire, thinking that would fix it, I’ve updated my wifi with fiber optics, new routers…. My only other option at this point would be to move my router closer to the products.  🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Sonos and mesh are not a happy combination. Since you’ve now (only??) hardwired a Play:1 the Connect and Connect:amp are not connecting to your router directly, but through your Play:1 using Sonosnet). So moving the router would not help much.

Is the Play:1 far way form the other devices?

The play 1 is about 20 feet away from the connect and connect amp.  Yesterday I plugged in my connect amp (which powers my outdoor speakers) to my Ethernet and after about 20 mins of continuous music, the app kicks the connect amp off and turns off my outdoor speakers.  I’ve tried with Apple Music, Amazon music and Sirius via my sonos app with the same result.  

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

The app does not kick a device off. It is just a remote to your system. If a Sonos device is not visible in the app their is something wrong with either your phone's connection to the router or the system's connection to the router. Since you mention the music also stops when the app no longer see the Connect:amp, it looks like it's the last option: something is inhibiting your Sonos devices to connect to your router. 

I think we all get the idea that you’re frustrated. Repeating yourself doesn’t help. 
 

Since you say you’ve tried hardwiring your entire system, try that again. Once all the Sonos devices are on wired connections, disable wifi on all devices and use the system for a while. Let us know how that goes. 

yes you are right.

A little update on my situation.  Just wanted to thank everyone for your input and willingness to help me out with my system.  Anyways, this past week I carved out a couple of hours to fix this and I did it… with a little (a lot) of help from sonos customer service and my IT friend from work.  After numerous diagnostics, we figured out that I had some speakers on IP addresses which were public somehow and a faulty Ethernet cable connected to my play 1.  I also rewired and moved my connect and connect amp to have more of a clear path to my router and all seems to work perfectly.  Thanks again 👍