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Well, this one is annoying. I have a Yoga Studio and have 6 Play 3’s mounted on the walls, when you switch tracks or playlists or even when they songs run themselves and switch to the next track at least half of the speakers drop out, but within 30 seconds they all reconnect.

 

Internet speed is 300MB+ and I did try turning off the modem and router (just those 2) and for a short time afterwards the audio was switching perfectly no dropouts at all. Then today we are back to speakers dropping out again. 

 

In conclusion, the audio will drop from certain speakers and return within 30 seconds without intervention, the system consists of 6 Play 3’s, 2 SYMFONISK’s, a Connect, and a Boost.

 

If anyone has a solution or idea please share, one of my teachers ditched this epic Sonos system to use a JBL BT speaker for a class “because it works”, so please any help here is huge

 

Best!

**Resolved**

 

Thanks everyone for your support. The resolution for me was the inclusion of the Travel router. It wirelessly connects to Starlink the all devices connect to it. Plus I got all new Era 300s for the studio and Era 100s for the lobby 😉


Power outage certainly lends credence to the issue being caused by duplicate IP addresses, as the Sonos being handed ‘dirty’ IP addresses by the router when they were being rebooted. Is there a specific reason why you’ve chosen not to assign IP addresses in your router for the Sonos?

I don’t think your download speed has anything to with this issue, it’s the ability for the speakers to connect to your router which is the main concern here. Which means either duplicate IP addresses, or some sort of wifi interference .

There is always the extremely low chance of a hardware failure, which is why the previous recommendation for the diagnostic and a call to Sonos to discuss it. 


**Resolved**

 

Thanks everyone for your support. The resolution for me was the inclusion of the Travel router. It wirelessly connects to Starlink the all devices connect to it. Plus I got all new Era 300s for the studio and Era 100s for the lobby 😉

I’m glad it’s finally (hopefully!) resolved - it must have been a frustrating year or so for you!


Please try setting allocated ip addresses. It’s a step that’s  fixed problems for so many folk…
 

Following your power outage it’s also worth powering down all your Sonos devices and your router. Restarting them should ensure “clean” ip addresses for your system. Reboot the router first and be sure to wait until wifi is fully established before starting Sonos devices one at a time. 
 

Why come on these forums and ask for help if you’re not willing to try what’s suggested? 


Sonos doesn’t like extenders, they seem to cause issues rather than solve them.

A decent travel router will let you do simple things like assign static/reserved IP addresses.


Worst case if Starlink offers no other choices would be a travel router, connect it to your Starlink and then connect your Controllers, Sonos devices and music library (if you have one) to it.


This issue has been going on for more than a year: are you out of contract with your service provider? If so see what router you can get from alternative providers. 
Or, another consideration: can you hang a travel router off your Starlink router and use that to control your Sonos devices? Perhaps others on this forum can comment on that as a solution? 


I’ve just looked at the other thread you started on this topic, a year ago. In it, you say the problem goes away when you restart the whole system. This does add to the likelihood of duplicate ip addresses being the problem; allocating ip addresses will eliminate the occurrence of duplicate ip addresses. If it doesn’t solve your problem it will at least take one unknown out of the equation and get you one step closer to a resolution. 
 

You also say, a year ago in that other thread, that you will try setting ip addresses…


Took me five minutes to set my Sonos addresses to static/reserved from my router’s DHCP server settings page and it ended several very frustrating issue.

 

It is worth the time to try it, even if it doesn’t help it hurts nothing and takes a whole class of potential issues off the table.


So this issue of the audio dropping out of certain speakers is still going on. I created a new dedicated network and the issue persists. I have since dropped the Boost from the system.

Here is what I know for sure: If you start a new playlist or switch to a different song, about half the speakers will drop out, they will all come back in under 30 seconds. If the tracks change on its own, like when the song ends, there is zero issues, works perfectly. 

After adding a new dedicated network, I can rule out interference on the network as a potential issue. Seems strange it just when you manually change tracks. 

If the audio buffer is depleting to an empty state after approximately the same amount of time 2-3 songs - and it’s not the ‘sending’ source, then I would still hazard a guess, that it’s interference from somewhere, or an issue with the ‘primary’ group co-ordinator, but without details of the network setup, including channels, channel-widths and the identity of devices etc; then it’s difficult to make any suggestions.

You are perhaps best to to reproduce the issue with your new network setup and then immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and then contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to resolve the matter.

Doing that might at least help to rule out a hardware issue with your grouped devices - it may even help you identify a much better group co-ordinator to handle the audio to the secondary devices and to change channels/channel-widths to improve the situation.


You say “I installed the speakers again anew and things seemed perfect”. Do you mean you did a factory reset and then re-installed them? If so this lends weight to the issue being duplicate ip addresses. The router will have had to issue new ip addresses during setup. 
If so, I fear that new Eras will be prone to the same problem. 


100% agree with setting up with IP addresses, this will be done today.

 

So the question of why didn't I already do this, well a very good question but here is the answer, thought it was a lengthy process and that everytime I was going to do that the audio seems to start to work, so I kept saying leave well enough alone. Well that was not a good idea clearly.

 

Taking all that info, there is still something I can't square and setting up the IPs might not answer this I don't believe, we have a playlist called "Yin Yoga" on Sonos and whenever I play that playlist, there is never an issue not a single one. Then I switch to basically anything else and it goes south and fast immediately. Why would  a certain playlist be ok while others are not?

 

Still not sure how to setup the IP addresses, but I'm sure it's not rocket science so I will do that and report back with the results. 

 

Thank you for the feedback everyone 💯


So I am using the new Gen 3 Starlink Router, then I plugged the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh extender with main unit plugged into Starlink Router and the 2 extender cubes in the lobby and Studio. Sonos is connected to the Netgear Nighthawk (better range then Starlink router by itself)

 

Do I do all this in the Nighthawk app?

 

Thanks!

 

In the Nighthawk app.  Also make sure that your Starlink router is in bypass mode, and not transmitting it’s own wifi network that device might be trying to connect to.


Yes for ones set to use DHCP (IPv4 and IPv6) to obtain addresses from the ISP’s servers.

There are other methods that are used, mostly on legacy or specialty connections.

 

Do note that the above is your public IP, which has nothing to do with your internal LAN’s IPs. Sonos uses internal IPs to communicate and the router is used to connect them to the external/public IP.


Also here: 

 


As soon as you add an extender you are in “unsupported by Sonos” networking territory.

I’d try the travel router plugged into the Starlink and see how it works, you could always add a longer Ethernet cable and move it to where it would work.

Another option is a HotSpot (WiFi in and out) capable travel router that you can place anywhere it can connect to the base’s WiFi and your client devices.

(haven’t used this one just a suggestion)

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Travel-Router-TL-WR902AC/dp/B01N5RCZQH/ref=sr_1_6

Page 90: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/D1hwLqTgBPS.pdf


It’s really weird. I have a Sonos system I semi-manage that was connected to a StarLink system, had no issues at all. Not a bunch of speakers, though, but was certainly playing Spotify without perceived issues. 

However, the quality of the StarLink signal, with its frequent dropouts were an issue for video calls, this home has moved over to a 5G device. I think the homeowner is close to ditching StarLink (although he shares his signal with his neighbors, who want him to keep it). And StarLink had no way of setting up reserved IP addresses, at least that I could find.  Unfortunately, in this remote location, options for Internet service are a challenge. 


Have you set reserved ip addresses for your speakers? Is the Starlink wifi set to one of the channels 1, 6 or 11? These simple steps can eliminate a lot of problems. 
 

Yes: I’d be inclined to use the 2.4Ghz band. 


So correct me if I am wrong, can I connect this travel router to Starlink's WiFi band then have the Sonos connect to it? So I wouldn't plug in anything via Ethernet, just connect wirelessly?

 

Is that considered a bridge?

 

Thanks!


I am not able to make reserved IP addresses, Starlink is not clear how this is possible, cause I can’t login to the router directly like a normal router. The app allows for some pretty detailed functions but no reserved IPs

 

With that being said I was able to plug a Symfonisk bookshelf via ethernet that was in the lobby, I installed the speakers again anew and things seemed perfect in fact one Play 3 could not connect and flashed a rare LED error so I though that I really solved the problem with a bad piece of hardware, it resolved the issues where speaker drop out in that first 30 seconds, so I thought it was good to go, I was very excited….however that was short lived...the audio started to skip again.

 

Like dude the speakers are next to Mesh 6 routers and still issues, honestly doesn’t make sense. Sonos customer support says there is some sort of interference, but there is no business to my right and the Starbucks to my left has terrible wifi that barely makes it here and they are closed in the evenings with Wi-Fi off so I know there is literally no interference unless we are now counting cell phones, even then if its just my phone the issue happens.

 

Unless I missed solution, after 2 years of audio issues, I now need to make a change….time for 6 Era 300s and 2 Era 100s and Sub Gen 3. This will resolve the issue on many fronts, eliminate Sonos Net which seems to hinder more than help, add Wi-Fi 6 support for much better Wi-Fi signal, but most importantly we will have Bluetooth backup now, which is a critical added feature. I need a consistent solution as we open more studios.


The BOOST doesn’t really do much in terms of wifi interference, unless you may have set the channel it’s using to one that isn’t being used by your current router. It’s just a separate wifi signal, effectively, and it’s still radio based, so it can be affected by all the sources of wifi interference that affect your other router’s signal. 


Some have said it takes minutes to setup reserved IP addresses, sadly I still cannot do this can anyone walk me through? Sonos support says to reach out to SpaceX and SpaceX does not have a phone number to call and emails refer to their manual that talks about reserved IP addresses and that Starlink router only reserves them for 30 mins. 

 

Can anyone help me set that up?

 

Meanwhile this is one of my lobby speakers hardwired to Ethernet...now imagine what you are about to hear is happening with 6 Play 3's in a full workout class environment, take a look and listen for yourself 😬:

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BE5kT1VDCHqxwShx6

 

Has to be the worst sound glitch ever...


Wi-Fi interference is actually what I initially thought was the case, so I purchased the Boost to help mitigate the issue but to no avail. I have reset the router and modems and reconnected everything back and the issue persists. Outside of doing another entire system delete and reprogram not sure how to resolve this 😔

 


Skipping music usually is caused by one of two things. 

First, it could be an issue on Spotify’s side. 

Second, it could be an issue of wifi interference or a duplicate IP address of some type breaking the ability of the speaker to temporarily reach your router, and hence the Spotify server. 


A travel router? Wouldn't that be exactly the same as using the Nighthawk wifi extender? The Nighthawk creates its own network too, and I have all the Sonos devices connected to just that extender and its own network.