Can't connect to Sonos error

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hi @Strider47 

That’s great to hear - thanks for sharing.

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?