Question

Sonos One -- Two Pairs, each regularly having one half the pair drop in and out while playing music

  • 21 October 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 191 views

Having a problem with two pairs of Sonos Ones -- while listening to music over Airplay using any of my iOS devices, the right speaker in both pairs will intermittently drop out, usually not simultaneously. It only lasts a couple of seconds, but it now happens once every 45 seconds or so and is incredibly annoying. 

This started happening a few weeks ago, I believe right around the time I updated my devices to iOS 14. I was hoping that the update to iOS 14.1 would help, but it seems to have made the problem significantly worse rather than better, with the interruptions more frequent this AM and lasting longer

Thinking that perhaps it was something related to iOS, I tested it directly in the Sonos IOS app, using that to play music directly. Here the problem becomes even more severe: on occasion, when one half of the pair stops playing the music, it not only never restarts on that speaker, but the speaker itself drops off the wifi network and doesn’t rejoin unless I power it down and back up.

As I said, this only started happening a few weeks ago. Previous to that, this system was plug-n-play brilliance, so it really is quite frustrating. Since both my wife and I work in support, I have already tried the following, retesting at each step only to find the problem continues unabated:

1) Verifying that all devices and apps are up to date.
2) Unplugging all four Sonos speakers and then reconnecting them so as to reset their wifi connections and reboot the devices.
3) Removing and recreating the stereo pairings in the Sonos app.
4) Rebooting the router. I have a TPLink Archer C9 wireless router, which runs both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously, and since the Sonos devices only run the ancient B and G modes, they are connected to the 2.4 network running in mixed 11b/g/n. The only other devices on this network are my Philips Hue lightbulbs, and they are having no issues that I can see in maintaining their connections. All high traffic devices are on the 5GHz network.  
5) Manually assigning each of the devices their own permanent IP address via my router’s DHCP.
6) Manually assigning the wifi network to each of the 11 channels, eventually settling on channel 9 with a 20 MHz width to minimize interference. I live in a 900 sq ft apartment, and the pair in my office is the more distant of the two pairs from the router. NirSoft’s WifiInfoView consistently shows a signal with an RSSI in the -40s, a 100 quality, and no other competing networks within 2 channels of mine. Channel 9 was selected after pretty extensive testing that showed it to be the one on which I most reliably have the highest readings and around which I had the fewest competitors. The two strongest neighboring signals are using channels 1 and 11, and there are a number of more distant ones currently occupying 6. I understand the challenges that come with splitting the difference between 6 and 11, so I only selected this option after testing. It...appears to have made the problem somewhat less severe, although that’s a pretty subjective analysis since I havent been obsessively documenting each individual failire.. 
7) Submitted support diagnostics via the Sonos app -- 1719400223

So….could you PLEASE look at the diagnostic log, or possibly even share it with me if its in a readable form, so that I can figure out just what the heck is going on here?!? This product just went from “I will tell all my friends to buy it for Christmas” brilliant to “I will tell them to stay 5 million miles away from it until I know what is happening, why, and how to reliably fix it” annoying.

Thanks!


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1 reply

Userlevel 5
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Hi @alex.w.

Thanks for reaching out.

 

I appreciate your detailed post outlining the concern as well as the step(s) that you did, let me help and try to figure this out.

Upon checking the diagnostic report, the system detected transport and sync errors resulting in audio dropout and playback failure, possibly Sonos is not getting enough bandwidth or experiencing poor wireless conditions. Commonly, these could be caused by wireless interference, or perhaps the audio feed is too slow to allow the Sonos player to maintain reliable playback.

 

If all the recommended steps to reduce wireless interference were followed and it doesn’t help, then knowing how and through what Sonos is connecting is the great foundation to troubleshooting this successfully.

  • May I have the make and model number of any wireless router and/or Access Point that exist on the network?  It’s best if we can check any known issue or if there’s an additional configuration needed on the device that is essential for Sonos.

  • Please indicate also how these devices are connected to one another (wired or wireless).

 

If you are using a local WiFi network with more than one WiFi hub or access point, I recommend that you can try to switch your system toSonosNet by wiring just one standalone Sonos device to your primary WiFi hub or router, that begins the WiFi network. Attempt music playback, or any other activity to Sonos that was previously failing, and see if the problem will be resolved.

Wait for about 3 minutes, then submit a new diagnostic report and reply with the confirmation so I can check if there will be changes.

 

Let us know how it goes and if you have any questions feel free to reach out, we’re always here to help.