Can't connect to Sonos error


I am not sure if there has been an “update” or such like in the last week or so but in that time, when I seek to connect to the Sonos on my iPhone, it fades through the connection screen and comes up with the error message and “fix it”.  Each time I have to go through the process and 75% of the time I have to turn the router off and back on again, hence disabling house WiFi for about 10 minutes.  I would say it has happened every 2 or 3 days in the past week.  Connection to my Mac remains fine in the meantime just the iPhone app.  It is a pain.  Before you ask, it is not a new router etc.  I have also had to hard wire the Sonos via ethernet to get it to locate it.  Again, only from the iPhone app and not the computer.  Answers on a postcard please


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47 replies

Thanks for getting back to me Cory.

I have had a look at the BT website and can see they have some information regarding the Smart Hub2 on there regarding resetting it I will need to read it properly over the weekend.

what I still find strange is that my husband’s iPad has no trouble using the Sonos app  but I will try and contact your technical support tomorrow to see what they say.

 

 

Userlevel 7
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Hi @Strider47 

You’re very welcome!

I should reiterate that some may have similar issues/symptoms without this particular bug-or-whatever-it-is actually being the cause, so we very much would like anyone to get in touch with technical support before doing anything drastic to their Sonos systems or networks, or calling BT.

I think I have done all the suggestions - and whilst I thought disabling privacy settings on the iPhone Wi-fi connection worked, it doesn’t. The iPhone still loses connection to the Sonos and again, the only way to reconnect is to reboot the Wi-fi. BUT …. it seems that if I disable privicy settings on the iPhone Wi-fi - sometimes the iPhone finds Sonos. If it doesn’t, if I turn privicy back on again - it generally does locate the Sonos. Clearly this isn’t ideal and there is clearly a problem between an iPhone running iOS 14.4.2 and Sonos - who knows whose “fault” that is but this fudge seems to be working for me now. 
Note. It doesn’t seem to relate to the iPhone model. I have an old iPhone 6 - same thing on that. I’m on an iPhone 11 - same issue. My daughter has an iPhone 12 - same issue. Between Apple and Sonos it would be nice if you could sort this out for your customers - please!

There are a few threads on the BT Community board where other people have been having issues since a firmware update for Smart Hub 2 version 0.26.03.01286. No one has mentioned having problems with Sonos but having problems with connections to other things. Seems the update was end March/beginning April.

I have rung technical support as requested but the only options they could give me appeared to be (1) connecting one speaker by Ethernet which isn’t possible as all speakers are too far from the router or to (2) change the settings on the router to disable the 5Ghz which I really don’t want to do as the chances are it may well slow my internet speed.

The person I spoke to seemed to think that BT were aware of the problem so I may well take a very deep breath and get in touch with BT in the next few days and see what they say but I have a feeling this is going to be batted back and forth between Sonos and BT.

Calling BT is like rubbing your eyes with sand paper, according to them it’s Sonos’ problem. 

I hear you. But if it was truly Sonos’ problem, wouldn’t it be an issue on all other routers as well, and not just BT’s? And why was everything fine a couple of weeks ago, and has suddenly changed?

It is always unfortunate that the customer facing folks inevitably get notification about issues later than almost anyone else, in my experience. 

I don’t know the answers to these questions particularly, but they do make me think. 

We have also had a similar sounding issue: Sonos system with various speakers, a Play 1 being the oldest, a Windows 10 computer connects okay, iPad and new iPhone now connecting inconsistently for few days, same goes for a Galaxy A40.  All connected to a BT Smart Hub 2.

I tried things from various community threads without success, so decided to turn off the 5 GHz wifi in the Smart Hub 2, and then found this lengthy thread.  Everything has started working again, so far  - I will see if it still is in a couple of days, and might try turning the 5 GHz wifi back on.

My gut feeling was that it was a BT router problem (too many types of mobile devices and apps not connecting - router’s job is more complicated - I trust Sonos hardware more than BT routers ...) because there would otherwise be a lot more internationally, but it didn’t help that Sonos has been hassling us to upgrade to S2 for quite some time, despite there being 2 older (less used) mobile devices that won’t support it.  We spent some time upgrading to S2 before finding out that it didn’t help.

It would have been useful if I could have listed community threads by date.

I hope that once more than one person mentioned this to BT they would be trying to correct it, although the people on the phone might not know it.

Userlevel 7
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Hi All

A little advice for making sure what the issue is: If any one Sonos app on a particular device can always connect to Sonos, then your Sonos system is not the source of the problem, and the network or it’s configuration is where you should look next.

If contacting BT (or any other networking-related company), it’s best not to mention any other brands as those brands will be blamed. So, if contacting BT due to this particular issue, you should mention to them that “the router does not appear to be bridging the connection between the two frequency bands and so devices connecting to 2.4 GHz are unable to communicate with devices connected to 5GHz as the router seems to be erroneously isolating the two bands”. Ask them if your router recently updated it’s firmware and if so can it be rolled-back?

If you mention Sonos, they will say to get in touch with us. Frankly, the identity of the connecting client devices is irrelevant - your router’s job is to allow connected devices to communicate, end of story.

so decided to turn off the 5 GHz wifi in the Smart Hub 2, and then found this lengthy thread.  Everything has started working again, so far  - I will see if it still is in a couple of days, and might try turning the 5 GHz wifi back on.

 

All of our devices still work after a day with the 5 GHz wifi turned off.

The firmware of the BT hub was updated on 8 April to  v0.26.03.01286-BT (see Home → Advanced settings - Technical log - Information).

I am hoping that BT fix the issue before I need more wifi bandwidth.

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It should be pointed out that most ISP-provided routers are somewhat sub-par - which makes sense, as the bigger operators have to literally give millions of the things away for free, so they are, by definition, cheap.

In all cases of a BT Smart Hub 2 suddenly not allowing your iPhones to connect to your Sonos, a third option is to replace your router with a third-party ADSL router (I personally recommend spending at least £60, from personal experience), or to add a router and tell the BT router (which would still act as a gateway to the internet) not to run the network. Configuration will be required, but should be explained in your new router’s manual. If the new router is an addition, the BT router should be told not to broadcast WiFi or perform DHCP and you shouldn’t ethernet-wire anything, other than the new router, to it.

If you do this, it’s easiest to make the new WiFi credentials exactly match the old - then you don’t have to reprogram all your devices.

Options 1 and 2 are to disable the 5GHz broadcast on the BT router or to wire a Sonos product to the router with ethernet. Edit: Both of these may be needed.

I appear to have resolved my connection problem now after moving some furniture around to let move the router and one of my Sonos 1 speakers close enough to plug the speaker into the router via a Ethernet cable. It has now worked for 24 hours without losing connection ...fingers crossed it keeps working.

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Hi @Strider47 

That’s great to hear - thanks for sharing.

 

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An update: Android devices are in fact affected by this issue (which, frankly, makes a lot more sense), so if you have an Android device and a BT Smart Hub 2, then this thread relates to you too.

I’ve been on the phone at length to sonos and BT this morning. It’s a known issue to sonos since the router firmware to the BT hub a few weeks back. 
 

According to sonos the work round is:

  • hard wire into a speaker to create the mesh network
  • turn off 5ghz on the router
  • buy a boost and connect this way. 
     

When speaking to BT they denied it was an issue until the lady on the phone (working from home) tried her system and got the same error message : ) 

 

She did some more digging and a log has been made with their tech department to sort the issue.  Until then… the above work arounds should work.

Very frustrating a firmware update has caused all this.  
 

I have since ordered a boost - can anyone confirm their system with a boost is ok?

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I have since ordered a boost - can anyone confirm their system with a boost is ok?

A Boost wired to the network will do nothing that a wired speaker won’t do - if you have the option of wiring a speaker I recommend you do that instead and get a refund for your Boost. Boosts are for putting where you have to have your wired connection, but don’t want a speaker there (in a hallway, for example).

A replacement third-party router, although more work to install, would actually be cheaper than a Boost (though the cost varies from £25 to over £1000 - I recommend spending no less than £50-60) and would likely improve your network health, and not just for Sonos.

Regarding BT, our engineers have been in touch with them and they are investigating. They will not consider it a priority, however, unless they get significant customer contact - so please contact BT.  We ask you not to mention Sonos, as the issue is not restricted to our products - just highlighted by them - and use the wording given on my reply here: 

 

Thanks for the reply. 
 

Unfortunately I don’t have a speaker close to my router location so the boost may be the only option for me. 
 

Agree though for others a hard wire will resolve the issue. 
 

I have flagged the issue to BT also. See if they act upon it any time soon. 

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I made a thread on the same issue a couple of days ago having this same issue happening in some iPhones and iPads and computers,  it not on others, in the house.

it’s been interesting reading the replies, particularly from Corry P, thanks for the insight.

I too have the BT Smart Hub 2, also suffered no connection from some devices from about a week and a half or so ago. I always have a Play 3 hardwired into the router though, but it was still happening.

Ive turned off the 5 GHz channel and it has worked over the last couple of days, but it does seem more sluggish to bring up the rooms than it used to.

I’ll contact BT on their forum, and make sure to not mention Sonos.  If I’m asked why I am so sure that the two bands are not communicating though, what would you suggest I say, to not bring Sonos into the conversation?

I might also look at getting a high quality ADSL (?) replacement for the Smart Hub 2….any particular recommendations that have great coverage, and full gigabit port support?

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Ive turned off the 5 GHz channel and it has worked over the last couple of days, but it does seem more sluggish to bring up the rooms than it used to.

This is why we only consider this a temporary workaround - it reduces the speed of your WiFi, sometimes to speeds slower than your internet connection (though on a Smart Hub 2, probably not by much as ADSL is limited in performance).

I’ll contact BT on their forum, and make sure to not mention Sonos.  If I’m asked why I am so sure that the two bands are not communicating though, what would you suggest I say, to not bring Sonos into the conversation?

We recommend that you contact BT, not mentioning Sonos, but to state that “devices connected on 5ghz are not able to communicate with devices connected to 2.4Ghz and it appears the connections are being erroneously isolated.” 

If they do push you, sure mention Sonos, but let them know you have already been in touch with our technical support (that’s me) and we’re spotting this issue only with the latest firmware available for the Smart Hub 2, have tested it, and confirmed that it is not only Sonos that’s affected.

 

I might also look at getting a high quality ADSL (?) replacement for the Smart Hub 2….any particular recommendations that have great coverage, and full gigabit port support?

I can’t, but I’m sure someone in the Community can.

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Just as a follow up. On the BT forums, many were saying an update that was pushed out fixed their issue with Sonos, however when I checked I was still on an older firmware.

I contacted BT support, aided by the recent BBC article that highlighted the issue, and when they checked they said my router had for some reason failed in the update pushed out.

So they sent me out a new Smart Hub 2 which I set up today and after reconnecting everything, Sonos is working great (even when my Play 3 isn’t wired into router) and I’ve been able to keep the 5Ghz band on.

So all good. My BT firmware version is v0.24.04.11017-BT which came preinstalled on the router, just in case anyone wants to compare and they are still having issues.

 
 
 
 
 

I am having all of these same problems for the last week or two. Sonos app can’t find my older system components (Play One and Play Three), but does find the Move. I am using an iphone ios 14.5.1. The Sonos app is enabled under Privacy - Local Networks setting. Unplugging the Sonos units has no effect. Whole system connects only via wifi (no ethernet). Unplugging the wifi router works and my phone is able to find all of the Sonos products, only for those older components to again not be found by the next morning. Same is happening on my partner’s phone. We have a Verizon fios router here, not a BT smart hub, so I’m thinking the problem isn’t specific to that smart hub. Is there a solution for this? Must be happening to many people.

Userlevel 7
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Hi @Gfitz 

From your description of the problem, I think it best you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.