Is everyone enjoying the the new party feature, meet the guests?

Hi ​@tripete99, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I hope you’re enjoying the Party Mode feature (called that in the desktop app) and is called Everywhere in the mobile app. It’s a good way to group a lot of speakers instead of individually selecting them in the app.

No, it’s a way to meet everyone at the party as you wander from room to room. It also allows you to discover the tech heads. You are going room to room, as for no apparent reason, every device goes offline and the component name is gray, meaning you can’t control them from the app. You go each room manually adjust the volume and it starts working again. That is except for the Ports. You have to crawl up in the cabinet and nothing works besides a factory reset and a fun reinstall. Get’s all the techies chatting and providing advice. Love Sonos, always coming up with great ne app additions.

Hi ​@tripete99,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with your system. 

If you’re having issues with devices going offline when using party mode, and as long as your network meets our system requirements, then it’s possible that wireless interference is causing this to occur. This feature has been around for a while and there hasn’t been any reports on party mode causing the type of issue that I’ve seen.

I would recommend checking that support article for some troubleshooting steps to perform. Another step would be to force close the Sonos app or Reset the Sonos app; since it’s just a controller for the system, you wont lose anything on an app reset.

I would also advise against any further factory resets of your products, as this deletes all the information stored on the device, losing valuable diagnostics.  If your devices are greyed out in the app and missing, then you also shouldn’t be able to adjust the volume. So if this occurs again, then I’d recommend recording a video of the issue, submitting a diagnostics, and contacting our support team to troubleshoot with them and raise an issue or bug report if needed.

I hope this information helps.

I missed the announcement for this and Google search just links me to a 12 year old request for it.

It sounds great from the AI response to a Google query (master controller, nobody can accidentally clear the queue (happens faaaaar too often in current setup)) - can you link to the official instructions please?  Or is this a made up AI response that doesn't exist?

From the Description above, I'm really hoping this isn't just the Button called ‘Everywhere’ in the grouping screen (that I have in 16.1).

No actual new announcement. It’s my sarcastic way to make light of just another of the annoying new “features” of the Sonos App. I experience this way too often. The entire system stops and you have to go around and manually adjust the volume and the speakers come back online. The Sonos Ports, not so well. The only fix is to factory reset them, which is a complete pain as I have two and they are in media cabinets. Lot’s of fun in the middle of a party.

As typical, they infer it’s my network. I have a Google mesh network, with wired backhaul that always test at great speeds. I leave my phone on a shelf during a party, so it does not disconnect from the network. Perhaps I don’t tiptoe past the phone quietly enough to suit Sonos.

The challenge always is that Sonos doesn’t use the network in a ‘typical’ way, like most devices tend to. Comparisons don’t always fare well. 

First of all, stop resetting your devices.  Factory resetting is only necessary when instructed by Sonos support staff, and is only useful if an update has bricked the unit.  Factory resetting an entire system wipes out all data; services, playlists, favorites, account info, etc., and also wipes out any diagnostic info Sonos could use to help you out.  

Instead, try the following: Reboot/power cycle your devices in the following order:

Modem
Router
Switches or hubs
Wired Sonos units
Wireless Sonos units
Computers/printers
Wireless devices - phones/tablets etc.

Allow each device to come back up before proceeding to the next.  Note that you can permanently prevent duplicate IP addresses by assigning an IP to each device's MAC address in the router setup.  See your router manual for details.

Thanks jgatle,

Appreciate the the recommendation on assigning a perm IP address to the Ports, I had not received that recommendation form Sonos support and had not thought of it, but it makes sense.

When the system cuts out, I still see all my components, but the location name is grayed out and won’t respond.

I don’t factory reset the entire system. The speakers come back online, once I physically go to them and simply manually adjust the volume. 

The Ports are another matter, since they connect to my traditional stereo receivers, the Sonso Port does not have a volume control. They won’t respond even if you power off or reboot. The factory reset on the Ports is due to multiple interactions with Sonos support and that is what they always end up recommending. But, they do that after taking me through the whole tedious process you described, multiple times, along with the laundry list of additional questions that leave you wanting to shoot yourself.

Now, instead of wasting another 30 minutes. I simply try a reboot (knowing it will fail)  and then refer to a doc I have saved. It has the process and device ID, so i don’t have to climb up into the cabinet to read it, I just factory reset it myself.