One Speaker Missing on Some Controller Not Others

You don’t mention it, but I’m going to guess you have some sort of mesh network. Try wiring a single Sonos device directly to your base router device, not one of the extensions, wait 5 minutes, and then check in the various controllers to see if they can ‘see’ all devices, and let us know. 

Sorry left that detail off. I also have:

• A Connect (wireless) that all controllers see
• A Boost (plugged in directly to router, natch)
• One of the Play 3’s is plugged directly to router (Cat 5)

Are you suggesting plug ANOTHER speaker into the router?

Hi.. As you have a Play:3 wired it’s questionable whether the Boost is adding anything, but it isn’t likely to be doing any harm.

Is the wired Play:3 the left or right speaker? (Better to be the left one)

Please check in About My System whether all speakers are listed and each has wireless method WM:0 not WM:1.

The Boost and wired Play:3 should be at least a couple of feet from the router.

Which wireless channel is your router using?  What channel is SonosNet set to use?

Further thought: with the ‘offending’ controller you might try:

1. Uninstall Sonos app
2. ‘Forget’ your home wifi 
3. Power off controller device and wait 10 seconds
4. Power it back on and reconnect to WiFi
5. Reinstall the Sonos app and choose ‘connect to existing system’

I’m with @John B here. There’s no real reason to connect two devices (the PLAY:3 and the BOOST) to your router, but it shouldn’t harm anything, either. But lacking that data was key to my suggestion, which since they are wired, it is no longer a valid response. 

There’s definitely some network oddity going on here. The controller on all devices is merely connecting to the Sonos system running across all devices and is supposed to report the data it gets back from that system, so for one controller to “see” different things than another is not normal. 

If, as John suggests, all speakers are showing WM:0 in the report, then I’d be tempted to do two things. First, a simple reboot of all speakers, to force a reload of the OS on each, on the offhand chance there’s been some sort of reason for there be be a corruption of the software they run (power surge, etc). Second, I’d recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

Thanks all. In no order:

• Calling Sonos support is a fool’s errand, IMO. I have been having Music Library issues for months and they just have me spinning in circles. Plus they are only available during workday hours, when (even if I can make myself available), I can’t monkey with my home network, since it’s also technically my wife’s work network…
• The “you don’t need both the Boost and the cable in the speaker” directly contradicts advice I was given just after I installed the system. (My Connect wasn’t strong enough to make it across the ten feet of unobstructed,direct line-of-sight space in my living room to the router, so I was told I “had” to buy a Boost).
• I haven’t had to uninstall and reload all of the speakers for a few months, so it’s been nice. Not looking forward to doing all of that again. (They’re not easy to get to - isn’t that the point of Sonos? That you don’t need to be limited to where it’s easy to run speaker cable?)
• Everything is indeed on WM:0.
• Physically, there have been no known changes for months. As far as I know, no power surges, unpluggings, etc. etc. etc. The biggest thing I keep doing (besides trying to fix the furshlugginer Music Library) is having to unpair and repair the 3’s. Every so often (usually ~two weeks or so) they become either both mono speakers or they both become just one channel (easy to test with an “Eminence Front” LP or Wish You Were Here CD, tougher to discover/diagnose on a streamer).
• I’m using Channel 6. That’s the “best” option, according to my Wi Fi analyzer app (screenshot below).

I’ll try John B’s delete-controller-forget-network option. It’s tough to explain why it would go caddywumpus on the iOS and Windows controllers, and not the Android. (It would be easier to grasp if it affected just one controller).

Thanks, will try tonight.

Well the good news is now it’s missing from ALL controllers. So I’ve been able to enjoy my Sunday morning moving furniture so I can unplug speakers and plug them in and reboot routers and get absolutely nowhere.

Sucks to have to go this route but it will save your back.

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That’s a good call, Stanley, thanks. Did something like that for wife’s curlers a few years ago and was amazed at how much more sleep I got without listening to her fumble with plugs and outlets every morning…

BUT - router and boost sit atop bookcase which is in front of the outlet. (I already have hooks and loops to prevent the cords from falling, but still).

Fun thing I discovered! Unplugging the Connect entails pulling it JUST ENOUGH that the RCA cable loosens from the back of the components’ A/B switch… Which JUST ENOUGH loss of signal that it never does show up in the system (but looks A-OK to the naked eye). And of course the more you fiddle, the more you make it worse...

So everything was back! For about three sides of records.

On side four, I noticed I could only hear music from the back room. Sure enough, the app had UNselected all of my other speakers. When I tried to reselect them, it told me “unable to connect to system”.

So while waiting for my phone to reboot, I went to another controller - the Windows one - and the Play 3’s are missing! AND  it will NOT let me select “Party Mode” for the rest. (Well it lets me select, but never groups them).

I should have realized that the name of the company was “So… No”.

It must be incredibly frustrating for you.  It may be worth looking at the network matrix.  If you can locate the IP address of one of your speakers (not the Boost), then substitute that into the following browser address

hllp://IPaddress:1400/support/review.  

Then click Network Matrix.  If you would like to post it i’ll take a look and see if there are any clues. You may wish to obscure the MAC addresses.

I’ll understand if you have had enough and don’t wish to do this

Complete uninstall and reinstall, seems to be stable - for two days at least. Thanks, John.

No, my music library is still facacte...

...aaaaaaaand, we’re back.

Same speaker - appears in Android and iOs controllers, NOT on Windows controllers. Obviously is playing music - and if I change what to play on Windows, it “follows” (probably b/c it was grouped on the iOs). But it does not appear on Windows.

Uninstalled Sonos on PC. Rebooted. Reinstalled fresh from a new download.

Unplugged speaker and plugged it back in. Nothing.

Given all its glitches and need for constant retuing, I would have felt Sonos was a waste of money at ten percent of what I paid for this.

@Alonzo Mosley,

My understanding is that with Sonos Networking on a LAN subnet, a packet can be sent to:

• A single host - Unicast - (TCP and UDP)
• All hosts - Broadcast - (UDP only)
• A group of hosts - Multicast - (UDP only)

Broadcast messages are not sent through routers, but multicast messages are. So I reckon in your case the router SSDP Multicast messages used to discover your Sonos speakers are ‘perhaps’ sometimes not always working as they should be. Some switches may also cause these type of problems, as can some wireless extenders too, particularly if operating on different WiFi channels.

So I would first go check to see if there is a router firmware update, or maybe even consider switching the router for a different brand, or model, otherwise I suspect you may just continue to encounter the same intermittent issues, from time to time (perhaps?) despite whatever you may try to do with your wired/wireless Sonos devices and mobile controllers.

Maybe speak to your Routers support desk to see if they are aware of any such SSDP Multicast issues and just see if there is anything they can maybe do to assist, or if they may already have a solution in their development pipeline.

I understood almost none of that! But…

1. This is the second router I’ve had this Sonos system on. The previous one had issues - just not these issues - with Sonos. (I switched from Cable to Fiber internet last summer).
   1. The firmware is indeed up to date
   2. Obviously I’m a little suspect about replacing another $200 piece of equipment to get the existing $1600 worth of stuff to work like it used to.
2. Just for background - I’m in a ~1100 square foot, single-level apartment. I have a Boost and a Play hard-wired into the router.  (I suspect you know that from previous posts, but people don’t always read backwards…!) The walls are drywall. There really shouldn’t be interference issues?
3. I’m a little confused about how your explanation explains how some controllers “see” the office speaker but others don’t. If I understand your answer (which I already said I don’t...), it would seem that the office speaker would disappear from the entire system sporadically, not just from the one controller…?

Thanks for taking the time to answer. When I bought this router 18 months ago, it was described as “strong enough to cook your balls from 500 feet”, so, you know, I figured it would be strong enough to toss Adele across the living room...

It’s my thoughts that your speakers are still all connected to the LAN, via SonosNet, (even when you cannot see them in the App) but the Mobile/App is not always ‘discovering’ their presence as the multicast messages are ‘sometime’ failing - hence my thoughts were, it might be your router is a bit flakey in this area (possibly) and the packets are not working as they should be - As it’s the latest firmware from the router manufacturers website, then (if not done already) perhaps see if reserving all your Sonos IP addresses in your routers DHCP reservation table might assist with their discovery. 

@Alonzo Mosley,

Next time you perhaps encounter a ‘missing’ speaker - just see if closing the Sonos controller App fully (slide off mobile screen) and then toggling off/on the mobile WiFi network connection for a few seconds, causes the device to reappear when you reopen the Sonos App after reconnection to the router. It might at least show, its perhaps a ‘discovery’ issue and that things are (intermittently) failing on your network for some reason.

Well we know that since they all appear in the Android and the iOs apps. Interesting thought on reserving an IP - I believe they always grab the same ones, but…

Note: The offending controller is a Windows PC. I have uninstalled the software, rebooted, downloaded fresh software, and reinstalled - and it didn’t find it.

Might it be a firewall issue perhaps? What happens if you toggle the firewall off and leave it off after a reboot?  - is the PC wired to the LAN, or wireless?

PC is (and always has been) wireless.

Tried with Firewalls all off. No difference. (Firewall off → Reboot → Un/replug speaker → Reboot).

Bought a new router. All speakers seem to show up in all controllers now.

Fingers crossed!

That's good to know. Thanks for posting back.

Posted too soon.

Hooked up new router, everything was immediately Fonzie.

Pushed the router back on the bookshelf, which jostled the power cable… And hours later, still no Sonos (after I launch the controller, it takes about a minute to “find” the system, and then it only finds the speaker that’s plugged into the router...).

Ugh