Hi @DDLC.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community, We appreciate your time and effort in posting your concern here in our community.

What is the error message it's showing right now?

There's a possibility that there might be a speaker that recently update that didn’t sync in your application.

Or your facing wireless interference since the music keeps on dropping.

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

Hi! The message is the ‘unable to connect’ message. Sometimes it then connects five minutes later, sometimes not all, sometimes it connects first time. Then the music plays (almost always Spotify or Sounds) but usually the app drops the connection and is then unable to control matters, but the music or radio continues. Thus the speaker connection to wifi is working but the app is not seemingly.

The issue is the same for all our phones so not a phone issue; the router sees the speakers (Play 1 and Soundbar) and has their MAC addresses correctly.

This has been going on for ages sadly. I have connected the Play 1 to ethernet cable to force updates as well.

It feels like an app issue to be honest?

Unfortunately, in this case checking their MAC addresses isn’t quite the answer, it is much more likely to be duplicate IP addresses causing the issue, and that tends not to be something easily seen by looking at a router’s DHCP table, since it only reports what is connected at the moment the report is run, and not what connections have occurred over a period of time. 

In addition to the potential interference mentioned by Mark P, I’d encourage you to do a local network refresh, by unplugging all Sonos devices from power. While they are unplugged, reboot the router. Once the router comes back up, you can plug back in the Sonos devices. 

Hopefully, between Mark P’s and my suggestions, you’ll find the relief you seek, but if neither end up working, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this ‘unable to connect’ problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it, or post the diagnostic number here for a Community Moderator to pick up.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, there are more options available beyond just the diagnostic analysis.