Still not fixed: 2 TV setup - Android app crashes when selecting TV sources

Hi @Koschwitz, Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the community. Thanks for bringing this up and we understand where you're coming from.Sorry about the delayed response. Regarding your concern about your Sonos system and for the TV setup. there is a new Sonos App update. have you installed it? and Let me know if the issue was fixed after the update on the Sonos App.

Let us know how you get on with the advice above.

We're here to answer any further questions you have.

Hi @Simon B 

Thanks for your reply. The issue hasn't been fixed with the last update, and I'm really disappointed.

I've got a 2 TV setup in my house with playbar+2 ones in the living and beam+2 ones in the bed room. It happens daily that I need to switch the TV input from living to bedroom when I move upstairs, but can't do it in the app any longer - it just crashes when I select TV as source. I used to get a choice of both TVs.

Please fix this as soon as you can - it's really embarrassing for Sonos and makes me question my rather large investment into the platform.

Thank you.

Hi @Koschwitz, thanks for the update. Sorry to hear that the issue persists. And since you’ve done some troubleshooting steps and still not working. So we can check the status of the whole Sonos system. I’ll ask you to submit a diagnostic report to investigate further what could be causing this issue. You may reply to the thread with the confirmation number to assist you with this issue.  

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The Sonos community is always here to help.

Hi @Simon B , confirmation number is 1825765115. Thank you.

Hi @Koschwitz, thanks for the quick update and for sending a diagnostic report of your Sonos system. Upon checking on the diagnostic information, all seems good with the Sonos Beam, and can’t see why the app is crashing when switching sources. Have you tried it on another controller if the issue persists? If that we'll still not work, then we will take this further.

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The Sonos community is always here to help.

Thanks for the analysis @Simon B . I'm certain this is an issue with the app, as this used to work flawlessly until an app update about 10 months ago. Unfortunately the bug even made it into S2 from first appearing in S1 earlier this year. Nothing has changed in my system, and this happens on all controllers in my house (2 Android phones, 1 Windows 10 PC, all on newest version of the app).

Hi. I think you may indeed be the only person who is amazed this hasn't been  fixed yet. You may be the only user trying to do this. I'm astonished that you're amazed.

Anyway, if you set up both soundbars with TV Autoplay enabled and Ungroup on Autoplay disabled, then in your scenario when you turn on the second TV you are given the choice of which TV's audio you want. So you have a way of achieving your desired outcome. 

That's not to say there isn't a bug.  I have no idea on that but I can imagine it not being top priority. 

@John B Hi! As you can tell by my use of the exclamation point - I love being amazed! And I’m glad to see you being astonished over my amazement. 

Both soundbars have TV autoplay enabled and ungroup on autoplay disabled. 

Imagine a house with 2 TVs that each have a soundbar + surrounds set up. A common scenario would be to have one TV in your living room, and the other in the bedroom, and both might be on at the same time throughout the day. People might have additional speakers in, let’s say, their kitchen and bathroom which play the TV sound as well, so you can cook or use the bathroom while not missing anything. 

I used to be able to go into sources, select TV, and then select the TV I’d like to hear the sound from. I’d do this every time I’d move from the living to the bedroom or vice versa. It was probably the main reason I’d have to even use the app. 

Since around Jan/Feb of this year, this simply no longer works. The app either crashes or shows a black dot when going to sources > TV. I have to constantly turn on and off my TVs, so I can force Sonos to switch the audio.

It’s a bug introduced in one of the recent versions of the app and I can’t imagine I’m the only one with this setup and the need to switch audio between two TVs (the app provided this for years after all, so it was clearly seen as something that should be possible).

It needs to get fixed, and hopefully will be soon.

I don't deny the bug. But the proportion of user households with two Sonos soundbars must be fairly small. But it includes you and me so it doesn't require much imagination on my part.

From this user subgroup I imagine most of us use the TVs independently.  I imagine many of us listen to music across the two soundbars and grouped with other speakers.  But how many want to hear the TV audio from one TV on the soundbar for the other TV? 

My speculation is 'not many'. I could be wrong, but this thread does not appear to be a hotbed of discontent. (And it is still possible if you want to do it.)

However, i hope this is now passed to the software guys so that they can consider how best to address this issue. I get the 'black dot' screen too and I can't believe that is deliberate.

@Simon B Hi, just wanted to check in on progress to have this bug resolved. I've been dealing with this all year and I'm disappointed that it still hasn't been fixed. As a customer with a total of 10 Sonos devices, I'm not whining for a new feature - I'm simply asking to have a previously working feature restored. It also seems like the bug has another scenario which is even worse now - if I played music while any of the two TVs is on, I now can't even switch back to the TV sound of that one TV. I have to turn it off and back on to force Sonos to switch to TV sound. All the app shows is a black dot when selecting TV as source.

I'm begging you, please fix this asap. Thank you.

Hi @Koschwitz, thanks fort he update and Sorry to hear that the issue persists on switching sources on Sonos. We’ll take this further. I'll ask you to kindly contact our phone support team for further assistance and more in-depth troubleshooting steps.  They may be able to give additional steps and options in resolving this issue. 

Let us know what you have in mind with the advice above.

The Sonos community is always here to help.

Hi @Simon B thanks for your reply but again, this is an issue with your Android app, not with my system/setup. It can be easily reproduced and has been even by a responder on this post.

You'll need to raise this to your developers and classify it as a bug, so it can be corrected in future updates to the app. Hoping this happens soon. Thank you.

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the issue mentioned in this thread, but.…

I have three Sonos HT setups around my home (lounge/dining room/main bedroom) - I usually just group the rooms if I want a TV audio source playing on each/any of the other rooms. The grouping process is started from the TV ‘room name’ on the System/Rooms tab that I wish to initially listen to, so that it becomes the Group controller (GC). If any of the other selected TV rooms for the group are already playing their own audio at this point, then the App presents me with a dialog box to pick which GC device audio that I would prefer to listen to for the group. I then just select one.

I can also easily switch between any of the playing TV sources too.. just ungroup the required TV for a moment, switch to that TV room in the System/Rooms tab so it switches on the ‘now playing’ screen and then select its TV source (TV icon) in the browse/audio sources tab to activate its connected TV audio and then re-group to the room(s) where I wish to hear that audio in, as mentioned in the paragraph above. Not a bug anywhere in sight here on my android tablet, nor my iPad?
 

I personally didn’t think it was possible to have more than one TV icon audio source in the browse/audio sources tab anyway in the App?.. the single TV icon shown there is ‘dynamic’ and shows/appears for whatever HT room is selected/GC and showing in the ‘Now Playing’ screen, as far as I am aware.

Hi @Ken_Griffiths , I think you're not seeing the bug because you divide your whole system into groups. I don't do that - I always want the TV audio from one of my 2 TVs playing in the whole house. 

That's also why you may have never seen the multiple TVs menu when clicking on TV as source - it used to show all your TVs (if you had multiple) and allow you to select the one you'd like to listen to. In recent S2 app versions, it just shows a black dot and/or crashes the app. All I'm asking for here is to fix that bug.

Ah I see where you mean now - I just thought there was just the one TV icon. I didn’t realise it can expand when two HT devices are grouped   ...and I see the ‘dot’ you mention.
 

It doesn’t crash my controller App and just to add it’s not a feature on my iOS controller App, so perhaps it’s a work in progress and put on the back burner in development terms. I guess Sonos Radio had priority in the run up to the festive season. 
 

I guess it’s ‘perhaps’ a case of wait and see if the feature gets developed further, or if the plan is to remove it altogether. I’ve not personally seen much (any) mention about it in the community, so it doesn’t appear to be a priority. 

@Ken_Griffiths thanks. And it's not really a new feature I'm asking for, it's simply a bug fix (used to work previously). I also can't believe I'm the only one being annoyed over this bug. I waited for months and through several app updates not saying anything, hoping it'll be fixed. But perhaps you're right, nobody at Sonos seems to care. 

At least there are other ways to do the same thing, as mentioned in my first post, until Sonos decide either to fix, or remove, the feature.

I think there is almost certainly a bug because of the weird black dot that comes up.  But I do think this is a really really rare use case, and the desired end state is still achievable, albeit with a bit more effort than used to be necessary.  Unfortunately, @Koschwitz , I can believe that you are the only user annoyed over this bug.  As things stand there is no evidence to suggest that anyone else is.  So I think it is understandable that this hasn’t made its way high up the priority list.  Clearly frustrating for you, though, as there is nothing wrong with what you want to do and i am happy to accept that this used to work in the way you wish.

To clarify - I don’t think you are the only person who will want the sound from a TV on other speakers, including TV speakers - it is more a case of expectations of how the system would do it.  You seem to have discovered a feature that neither Ken nor I, as very experienced users, knew existed or expected to exist.  I think it is the fact that you have lost something you had that is annoying for you, whereas we never knew it existed?

I still hope it gets fixed for you (and possibly others!)