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CONNECT lagging/out of sync/echoing

  • 29 October 2022
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I update the S2 app on my phone (and the software running on all my speakers) to 14.18 following an in-app prompt a few days ago.

Since then my Connect has been gradually starting to lose time (lag) behind all the other speakers, getting continually further behind.  The echo caused by the lag becomes noticeable after a few hours, and after 24 hours I’d say it’s more than half a second behind.  The lag can be eliminated by rebooting the Connect, ungrouping it from my other speakers, or switching to a line-in source, but it soon returns and appears to get progressively worse.

I’ve spent (wasted) a couple of hours talking to Sonos support through live chat and on the phone with no success.  As usual they have run through their standard set of responses, for example “there’s a lot of wireless interference”.  Well yes, I live in a thick-walled house, in a built-up area, of a densely populated country, not a log cabin made of balsa wood in the middle of nowhere.  Of course there’s a lot of interference.  There was a lot of interference last week too before this issue appeared.  They’ve had me jump through their usual hoops - rebooting all the speakers in turn, restarting my router, switching to a different wireless channel.  Of course none of the solutions worked.  Frankly they are just clutching at straws.

I'm no network engineer but I don’t believe wireless interference can cause speakers to fall out of sync, and even if it did then that would constitute a fault with the system design.  It seems pretty obvious to me that there’s a software bug in the most recent update which has caused this issue.  So if you are also experiencing it (as are a couple of other people on this forum), you aren’t imagining things.

I’ll keep ringing Sonos every morning until this issue is resolved, which from their responses so far could be a while.  Their last word to me today was “I will write your case here so our engineers will take a look and see if the issue is with the software. If it is an issue with the software it should be solved with the new updates :)“  My response was that it will only be solved if the issue is acknowledged and actively investigated.  Simply saying it will be resolved in future updates doesn't make sense and frankly isn't really good enough.

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Best answer by DunkirkPie 3 November 2022, 12:00

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22 replies

We have multiple threads on this issue. Where should we reply?

@DunkirkPie . May I ask what amp or speakers your Connect connects to? Does the behaviour occur when you begin the group from the Connect and when you start from one if your other Sonos devices?

The reason for my question is that the device from which ypu build q group acts as the group coordinator, and handles the sync for the group. I am wondering if the Connect goes astray only if it is the GC, or not the GC.

There was a sort-of-similar issue about 3 years ago, when surround speakers gradually went out of sync unless the associated soundbar was the GC.

 

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Same problem for me.  Sonos playbar (and any other speakers) sound in sync with the Sonos connect when you first add them together, but now the connect slowly falls out of sync with the other speakers. Apparent after ~ 15 minutes, problematic after an hour.  If you remove the connect form the group, then add it again, it goes back to sounding in sync. 
 

I use a connect to send audio to more powerful subwoofers, so it becomes super noticeable. 
 

For me, it doesn’t matter which one starts the group (old okay ones, a move, a Sonos amp,    It slowly falls out of sync with all of then)

is it possible to downgrade to a former update version?

 Could you please confirm if the problem arises if you group starting with the Connect?

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@DunkirkPie . May I ask what amp or speakers your Connect connects to? Does the behaviour occur when you begin the group from the Connect and when you start from one if your other Sonos devices?

I always have all my speakers grouped together, with my Beam (which is the only one plugged into the router) as the “group coordinator”.

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Confirmed, “sub” is the connect and was the originator of the group  (connect is RCA direct into a powered sub). Starts without any perceivable lag, but then slowly falls out of sync where the connect is behind the other Sonos speakers. 

 

 

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@DunkirkPie . May I ask what amp or speakers your Connect connects to? Does the behaviour occur when you begin the group from the Connect and when you start from one if your other Sonos devices?

For completeness, my amp is a Cambridge Audio azur 340a.  But I seldom use it as a line-in source, usually just playing music with my Beam as the “controlling” component, per the above.

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I spent nearly two hours on the phone to Sonos support this morning (the first call was mysteriously disconnected after half an hour so I had to start from scratch).

Despite repeating my view that the idea of this issue being caused by wireless interference isn’t supported by the evidence and doesn’t stand up to any logical scrutiny, Sonos only seem interested in that as a possible cause, and it must apparently be eliminated before any other (in my view more likely) possibilities are even considered.  Their logic seems to be “you have interference, you have an issue, so the issue must be caused by the interference”.

Over the course of the calls I was asked variously to reboot speakers, move them between different rooms, uninstall my Boost, wire the Connect to the router by ethernet cable, disconnect the Beam from the router, reboot the router twice, and finally reconfigure my entire system to run wirelessly (i.e. nothing at all wired to the router, which runs counter to other advice I’ve had from Sonos over the years).

I now have a system running entirely wirelessly, which is apparently afflicted by much less interference than I had before (although anecdotally it seems to be performing worse and I’m getting far more dropouts etc.)  I’ve asked Sonos to add to my notes that if this issue persists then as far as I am concerned, wireless interference will have been comprehensively eliminated as a potential cause, and I won’t be prepared to spend any more hours on wild goose chases, trying to resolve the issue by somehow completely eliminating interference from my system.

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After another two hours on the phone with Sonos support on Tuesday afternoon they have finally admitted that this issue is nothing to do with wireless interference or my internet, and that my Connect is “faulty” (or, more likely, incompatible with the new software 14.18).

They have now agreed to replace it free of charge.

What are they replacing it with?  The Port?

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What are they replacing it with?  The Port?

They haven't said. No mention of a Port so presumably a Connect which has been gathering dust on a shelf since they discontinued them.

I’m on the phone with them again now.  I don’t know why they have case numbers as each call starts from scratch again (“Have you rebooted the system?  Your router?  Have you contacted your internet service provider?  Have you connected an ethernet cable directly to the unit?  Have you switched Sonos channels?”).  My fear is if they just replace it with another Connect it’ll have the same software issue.

Now we’re onto something new -- I am required to tether TWO devices now for a new test.

All done and after another hour they’ve approved a device replacement, which will apparently be a Port.

I’m having the exact same issue! Im reposting here since I’m not sure what thread to use.
 

A Connect (S2) is initially in sync with the rest of the Sonos network and then falls out of sync over time. The audio source has always been the Sonos app (not line in) and the audio system connected to the Connect is old-school analog, no DSP in it. It’s been working for years and now is frustratingly unstable. I’ve been on chats and calls with support many times. I’ve spent a Saturday running an Ethernet cable through the house so I could hardwire the connection from the router to the Connect as well as a Sonos Five that has always been directly wired to the router (now both the Connect and the Five are wired).  It still falls out of sync. Cycling power to everything in the network will fix the problem, for a while, and then the Connect will fall out of sync again. I’ll get on the phone with support again on Monday but is there any way I can point them to this thread?

Though they told me on the phone they’ll be replacing it with a Port, I see on the shipping notice that it’s another Connect.  If that actually solves the problem then great.  However, I’m sure the bug with the update is going to affect this new Connect as well and I’ll have to go through this 5 call multi-hour process all over again.  Stay tuned.

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Though they told me on the phone they’ll be replacing it with a Port, I see on the shipping notice that it’s another Connect.  If that actually solves the problem then great.  However, I’m sure the bug with the update is going to affect this new Connect as well and I’ll have to go through this 5 call multi-hour process all over again.  Stay tuned.

If the replacement item (whether it be a Connect or a Port) is still afflicted by this bug I will go absolutely spare.

I had an absolute nightmare returning my Connect, had to go to four different places and have no proof of postage or anything, so I half expect it to just disappear into thin air and I will never receive my replacement.  For some reason (probably because they’re cheap) Sonos insist on using UPS and the faulty Connect has to be shipped back to Poland, and of course they won’t dispatch the replacement until it arrives.  I wish now that I had dug my heels in and refused to accept this arrangement, and instead said I wanted to receive the replacement before I sent back the faulty one.

This whole episode has been a total pain in the neck, and further reinforced my conviction that Sonos are only really interested in manufacturing and selling speakers, and treat the whole software side of their business as a tiresome inconvenience.

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For anyone still paying attention, I received my replacement today (Friday) and it is indeed a Port. Dropped my Connect off on Tuesday afternoon so the turnaround time is pretty good. I see from the UPS tracking that my Connect is still on its way back to Poland, so fair play to Sonos for dispatching the replacement before receiving the original one back.

@DunkirkPie did the Port solve the issue?

 

Hi Friends - just an update from my side.  Previous summary: I’ve got a Sonos network with 8 end points, S2, wired network (Sonos Net) with a Five hardwired to the router.  One of the end points is a Connect that’s been replaced once already (a couple years ago?) due to it developing electrical noise in the output when line-in was selected as the source.  The Connect has started falling out of sync with the rest of the network.  Through multiple support calls, I’ve run endless permutations on the wireless network, switched from Sonos Net to wifi, and hardwired the Connect and another Five into the router (so as many as 3 hardwired endpoints).  The problem persists.  It’ll go away after resetting the Connect but slowly reappears over a few hours.

In the last phone session with support (last week), the tech again was hyperfocused on the wireless network despite the Connect and the original Five both being hardwired and still losing sync with each other.

They offered to upgrade the Connect with a new one for 30% off (the path I’ve been through before).  I haven’t done that for fear the new Connect will behave like the old one.

The workaround I’ve developed: I’ve semi-permanently hard-wired the Connect to the router with 35 feet of Cat6 cable, and if I select the Connect as the head node in its group, the problem doesn’t appear.  There might be a slight phase mismatch between the Connect and the other speakers, but it might be me being hypersensitive to the issue now.  (It might be in my head.). I’ve left the original Five as also hardwired to the router.  I’ve taken out the third hardwired connection; it didn’t seem to help.

I’m going to stick with this for now while I watch the forums to see if the problem is found and solved.

I might consider just throwing more money at the problem and replacing the Connect with a Port, if I can gain confidence that it would solve the problem.  I’ll search around here to see what issues might be emerging (or not, as the case may be).

I’m curious if others have experience with replacing the Connect with another Connect or a Port.  Please post if you have…

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@DunkirkPie did the Port solve the issue?

 

Yes

I’m curious if others have experience with replacing the Connect with another Connect or a Port.  Please post if you have…

Since others are reporting similar issues, I recommend holding off on replacing anything based solely on this issue. I expect a future update will resolve this.

I am having the same problem with the connect. I only use the connect about 20% of the time I use Sonos and usually sync my 3 other speakers.  I believe it is after I updated the software but I am not positive.  I do not do auto updates and update about 6 times a year.

 

The speakers start in sync and then slowly drift apart.  One it gets bad (usually 10-15 minutes) I turn off the connect.  

 

Has there been a software fix yet?

 

The connect has always been the weakest link of my system.