ASUS RT-AX86U & SONOS CONNECTION ISSUE SOLVED!

  • 12 December 2020
  • 91 replies
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I have the AX86U, using the latest firmware 3.0.0.4.386.42095. For me to get things to work with my Sonos speakers, I have to turn off the guest network and the 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 mode for both 2.4 and 5 ghz.  I’ve been working with Asus since the 3.0.0.4.386.41535 version broke Sonos to try and get this fixed.  They can’t seem to figure it out.

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I have not used stock Asus firmware in years--I always use the Asuswrt-Merlin firmware from rmerlin, and many Asus users swear by it. It’s also free, which is great, though rmerlin does accept donations. If you’re not familiar with it, Merlin isn’t tweakware for tech geeks--the focus is on fixing bugs in the stock firmware, better overall stability and improving performance. The interface is almost a duplicate of Asus stock. And Merlin now supports the AX-86U. (I suggest using the latest version in the “Release” folder, not the Beta folder) Since I started this thread 3 months ago, my general experience has been that I lose connection to Sonos Arc system about once a week. The fix is generally easy: turn the Asus off, wait a few seconds, turn it back on. The connection to Arc is usually restored. (First the Arc shows up in the Sonos app, then Subs and Surrounds within a minute or a few at most.) Occasionally, maybe once a month, I’ll have to reboot the Arc, too, to reconnect, but never the Sub or Surrounds.This isn’t perfect, but the hassle is minimal, and a far cry from the constant drops that I was experiencing for a while. 

Still sitting on firmware that's from October because Asus can't play well with Sonos.

Sonos should probably encourage customers to go for other router options. I would have chosen something else had I known.

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Try to factory reset the router after firmware update, it worked for my Asus RT-AX58U router. My Sonos Beam always disconnecting from wifi before and after firmware update until I did the factory reset thing.

Hey @Evielwine, the only way I managed to get things working again is back to the old firmware ( Version 3.0.0.4.384.9318 ). No issues every since. Unfortunately the changes I made above only lasted a few days before things disappear again.

 

Here is the link to the Bios.

https://www.asus.com/au/Networking-IoT-Servers/WiFi-6/All-series/RT-AX86U/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Thank you @altyz, I purchased this router mainly because of the AIMesh function, I really don’t feel like downgrading firmware where all other things are working well except Sonos… I guess as interim every time when I want to use Sonos, I just have to reboot first… :(

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Hey @Evielwine, the only way I managed to get things working again is back to the old firmware ( Version 3.0.0.4.384.9318 ). No issues every since. Unfortunately the changes I made above only lasted a few days before things disappear again.

 

Here is the link to the Bios.

https://www.asus.com/au/Networking-IoT-Servers/WiFi-6/All-series/RT-AX86U/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Hi, 

 

I have upgraded my router to RT-AX86U too and was having a lot of problems. 

  1. Sonos disappeared / cannot be found randomly
  2. Lost control on music playback, unable to pause/skip, then it lead to point 1
  3. Reboot usually bring back online but same problem repeat 

My setup: Asus RT-AX86U as main router, 2 x AIMesh nodes using RT-AX92U.

After trying everything listed here - QoS turned off, and Airtime Fairness is Disabled, it seems to bring back the streaming playback capability. However, when I performed TruePlay tuning, it kept having errors stating Speaker problem”.

Anyone of you having same problem? 

Seems like Asus RT-AX86U with AIMesh doesn’t really work well with Sonos.

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Hey All,

 

Everyone that are still having issues, I called support yesterday and they have been super helpful. 

 

They helped me change something and I’m on the latest version of the firmware and have not had disconnections in the last 24 hrs. I have a RT-AX86U on 3.0.0.4.386_41535

 

 

Here is my 2.4GHz settings (I’ll try enable AX mode and Target Time to Wake later on as these were my own changes but I just need some stability right now!):

 

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I never thought this would solve it for me, but it did, once I disabled QOS, straight away both disconnection issues stopped (i finally managed to register my Sonos Beam) and google assistant worked again! Hopefully It’ll stay this way.

Issue with upgrade of Asus RT-AX86U firmware is still an issue.

Yesterday I did the router upgrade and immediately ran into severe problem with my Sonos equipment.

(I was not aware of that this upgrade was a problem for Sonos users)

Google assistant stopped working and so did TuneIn and Spotify.

Tried to put all devices in setup mode, to make a fresh installation.

But I only got intermitent acces to the Sonos equipment.

Tried also lots of changes in router, such as; QoS setting, Bandwith and channel number for 2.4GHz WiFi, turning of traffic collection etc..

Everything else connected to our home network worked without any problems.

Also all streaming services to other devices worked as expected.

Gave up and downgraded the firmware to recent version and all our Sonos equipment worked like a charm again.

 

 

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Hi everyone. Thank you for your patience in this. It will be helpful to submit a diagnostic report on the Sonos app after a few minutes when the issue happens and reach out to Sonos Support, as we can take a closer look and discuss it with all of you individually in real-time. 

I suggest contacting our phone team, for they have more resources available for advanced troubleshooting, and the tools our agents can use would be very useful in this case, there can be an advantage if they need to remote into the controller to see what's going on.

 

If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to reach out.

If turn off Qos does not work, try down grade firmware back to 3.0.0.4_384_9318, it works for me after 2weeks of try to fix Sonos one and Playbar because my Sonos one SL is working so the problem must be the speaker. My router is Rt-AX 86U. 

i have disabled airtime fairness (it was by default) and disabled QoS. 

 

still no success. plugging it in did not work either and was a massive pain in my ass since i can’t get it off the stand and had to hold it up above my head to get it to power. 

 

ANY advice?

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+1. With QoS enabled, I couldn’t add a new speaker to the system, couldn’t play music on speakers, speakers keep dropping, etc. Spent lot of hours troubleshooting. My system started working seamlessly when I disabled the QoS feature.

I use Asus ZenWiFi AX6600 (XT8) router

Same story, everything was great, upgraded to AX86u router, and now the Sonos system is unusable. 
 

I’ve got QoS turned off, and Airtime Fairness is Disabled on both bands, but no success. 
 

Will try calling tech support when I have a few hours to burn. 

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Hi there @charlesnyc.

Thanks for posting and sharing with us what you did to figure this out.

We highly appreciate your time and effort working through this.

Surely, it will benefit those members that might encounter the same issue and look for answers here in the community.

 

If you have any questions,  feel free to reach out.

Cheers!

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