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Hi,

 

The new Sonos app (for Mac and iPhone, with Sonos One speakers, as of 1/22/2025) is an improvement from last summer, but…

 

  1. We frequently can not get any music to play out of our 3 speaker pairs without unplugging and plugging in the speakers.  With 6 speakers and several outlets behind furniture, this is HORRIBLE!
  2. When we do get music playing from a pair of speakers, we can’t add other speaker pairs… unless we start the music from the correct pair (living room or family room).  If we start the music on the dining room pair, we can never connect to the other speakers.
  3. We had a single speaker upstairs, but occasionally the music would shift to that speaker and then we could not pause/stop the music.  We finally powered off this speaker and this system works better.

We have many friends with Sonos in their home and all have had rough experiences.  I used to recommend Sonos, but no longer do.  I’d like to add a couple more pairs of speakers but don’t dare given all the issues.

 

#sadsonosuser

It sounds as though you have duplicate IP Addresses being assigned to your speakers. Can you describe your network.

Wireless 5ghz via a single xfinity wifi modem/hub.  I moved the SonosNet to channel 11.  We have another bridged hotspot in our home office upstairs (above the living room), but we are running the Sonos speakers off a single hotspot that is on the main floor.

It’s possible one of the speakers is connected through the other hotspot, but it’s hard to tell.

Try this….it will be a bit painful as you need to unplug all Sonos first…follow the steps below in order written.

  1. Unplug all Sonos 
  2. Shut down the hotspot…don’t enable it again 
  3. Enable the 2.4Ghz band on your main router
  4. Reboot your router and let it come back 
  5. Delete the Sonos app on your device 
  6. Update your device if one is available
  7. Plug in your Sonos and let them come back
  8. Reinstall the Sonos app
  9. Open the app and select join an existing system
  10. Test your Sonos

 

 

 

Wireless 5ghz via a single xfinity wifi modem/hub.  I moved the SonosNet to channel 11.  We have another bridged hotspot in our home office upstairs (above the living room), but we are running the Sonos speakers off a single hotspot that is on the main floor.

It’s possible one of the speakers is connected through the other hotspot, but it’s hard to tell.

If you are using SonosNet you need to wire the device(s) to the main router, or a switch adjacent to that main router only - do not wire anything to a Hub or Satellite AP. If the Hubs are not part of a mesh WiFi system, then they are likely not supported under the Sonos System Requirements, but that’s not to say they might not work, but I would ensure the following:

  • Any wired Sonos devices connected to the router/adjacent switch are set at least 1 metre away from any WiFi access point.
  • Set the routers 2.4 GHz channel to a non-overlapping channel 1, 6, or 11 and use a channel width of 20MHz only - repeat this setup exactly for any Extender/Access Point and ensure the SSID and password match the main router.
  • Set the SonosNet channel in the App to a completely different channel. So if using channel 6 for the router/AP’s, then set the SonosNet channel to 1 or 11.
  • Remember do not wire anything Sonos to a satellite WiFi access point - just one Sonos device only that supports SonosNet wired to the router, will suffice.

See if that may fix things for you.

My post crossed with ​@AjTrek1’s and we have similar ideas - albeit in my post I am looking to try to keep the WiFi AP/Hubs up and running, but with some changes - it’s a matter for you, if you want to leave the WiFi AP/Hubs powered off for now. They can always be reconfigured and tested later with matching SSID/credentials, channels and channel-width to ‘mirror’ the router WiFi around the Home - there’s no guarantee the AP/Hubs will work however, as they are not recommended as part of the Sonos System requirements.

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/sonos-system-requirements
 

I’m assuming the Hubs are not part of a WiFi mesh.

Thank you for the responses!

The house is large enough that we need a hotspot, and we have a wide range of connected devices, so it’s not an option to take the office hotspot out of service for more than an hour or two.

I’ll try the suggestions and see how the system works for the next couple days and post an update :-)

Thank you!



 

Thank you for the responses!

The house is large enough that we need a hotspot, and we have a wide range of connected devices, so it’s not an option to take the office hotspot out of service for more than an hour or two.

I’ll try the suggestions and see how the system works for the next couple days and post an update :-)

Thank you!



 

Hotspots are always iffy with Sonos. Have you considered a Mesh Network? I have 31 Sonos devices, cameras, phones, tablets, computers, appliances, AppleTV’s, Apple HomePods, Amazon Devices, Google Home Devices and more. My network consists of three ASUS Routers configured in a Mesh spread across my Tri-Level home. Everything except two computers (wired to the closest node) connect over WiFi. My ISP sends 2GB into my home.

Hi!

Yes, a mesh network is in our future, just not today due to it being the ski season 🙂 At last check we have about 60 devices on the network.  We will do the conversion when we have a day or so to deal with the fallout :-p

That said… we followed your instructions and the system is now working perfectly!  We’ve added in two more speakers and have been listening to ambient tunes all AM across 8 speakers (we added two more after an update on the firmware).

I made sure the hotspot is no longer used by any Sonos devices (it has a unique ssid) and have them all going through the main wifi hub.  I suspect a couple of the speakers were picking up the hotspot and somehow, that confused the situation.  

Time will tell if the configuration survives IP lease renewals, but I’m optimistic!

Thank you so much!

 

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