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AK-79
Trending Lyricist I
February 5, 2021

Sonos Bandwidth Usage When Not In Use

  • February 5, 2021
  • 15 replies
  • 3549 views

I see Sonos community keep closing this topic and brushing it off like it’s normal.

Sonos idle without streaming any content is using between 89kbs and 500kbs throughout the day and night.

Why is it using this constant data. Add this up and at average usage and that’s 1GB per hour 24GB every 24 hours 720GB a month… Idel!

There’s either some redundant bandwidth stealing, CPU usage or bitcoin mining going on with these devices we should be aware of.

Thankfully I’ve got a network I can track and set usage routines with, so I’ve cut off this massive data drain from my network when not it use.

The more I learn about Sonos and the more I get to use their controlling, overbearing software, the less I like them. With smarter phones, networks and speakers which just do great music, without controlling networks and forcing you to use buggy apps and hardware, hopefully Sonos will be the “midi disc” of their time with a cult following of nerds who’ll always love them, but not because they made music any better!

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    15 replies

    Ken_Griffiths
    Ken_Griffiths
    February 6, 2021

    That’s odd, as my router only reports 12mb (or thereabouts) upload for each of my Sonos devices in a full 24 hour period and I’ve been using some of these speakers and checking for Sonos updates… and speakers I haven’t used in the past 24 hours have only downloaded 5mb or thereabouts in the same 24 hour period … nothing like the kind of data totals you mention in your post. Screenshot attached.

      Airgetlam
      Airgetlam
      February 6, 2021

      My guess is that the reports are indicating data being transferred not to the outside world, but between speakers.
       

      Since most devices tend not to intercommunicate like Sonos does, it would make sense to me that they ‘appear’ to be uploading a lot of data, when instead they’re merely communicating with themselves, and the report interprets that as outbound traffic. 

      Bruce
        ratty
        ratty
        February 6, 2021

        On the other hand the quoted data rates could be explained by someone having muted a stream, rather than pausing it. 

          John B
          February 6, 2021

          @AK-79 .  Given your beliefs, I really think you should sell your Sonos gear. 

          I have lost track of the number of reasons given on here for why Sonos are about to crash and burn, over the last 10 years.

          Here is an interesting thread from Reddit

          https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/ercm8v/sonos_using_800gb_in_a_month/

          AK-79Author
          Trending Lyricist I
          February 6, 2021

          Thanks for those with constructive feedback. I only have one Sonos device and there are no paused streams or services in progress.

           

          I actually discovered this by checking bandwidth usage late at night to check my son wasn’t gaming late, that’s when I saw the sonos drawing this data as the only and highest usage device on my network.

          AK-79Author
          Trending Lyricist I
          February 6, 2021

          @AK-79 .  Given your beliefs, I really think you should sell your Sonos gear. 

          I have lost track of the number of reasons given on here for why Sonos are about to crash and burn, over the last 10 years.

          Here is an interesting thread from Reddit

          https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/ercm8v/sonos_using_800gb_in_a_month/

          I agree, I think I’m at the end of my Sonos journey, having to do a factory reset it the other week as I changed wifi networks, as it wouldn’t let me simply switch networks via the app like I was prompted too, then having to install all services again and setup the dynamic sound which failed…. Yeah at the end.

           

          Sonos One (white, with sort of an Alexa built in, but more like a gimmick Alexa) for sale £50 anyone?? 

          ratty
          ratty
          February 6, 2021

          You never needed to reset. You could have just temporarily wired the speaker and changed the WiFi credentials that way.

          On the original topic, I have about 20 Sonos devices on the network at present. I can see from switch LEDs when there’s streaming traffic. With the entire system idle all I see is the occasional maintenance packet being exchanged between the units.

          AK-79Author
          Trending Lyricist I
          February 6, 2021

          Im sure I could plug it in to the router and change networks etc but it’s in the ceiling https://ibb.co/CHjTV4P and a pain to get down off the bracket!  Just kinda expect this stuff to work.

           

          As I say, one Sonos device, idle with nothing streaming or paused, 1GB per hour! 

          John B
          February 6, 2021

          This is local, not Internet traffic. You have started from a misinterpretation of the situation and ended up at bitcoin mining. Heaven preserve us.

          AK-79Author
          Trending Lyricist I
          February 6, 2021

          Yep is external, am monitoring this via my ISP.  I’ve explained this further up the thread.

          Unless you can 100% rule it out because your a  developer for Sonos then who knows what they’re using redundant CPU capacity for, was more a provoking statement than a conclusion.

           

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