Several months ago I started to experience connectivity problems with my Sonos system (2 Connects and a Connect Amp): songs would skip mid-play; connections were dropped with increasing frequency; playlists wouldn’t download because of encoding errors; etc. The problems got worse and worse until the system became essentially unusable. I looked on the Sonos Community site and found several people reporting similar problems, but no solutions. I finally discovered a fix and wanted to share what I learned in the hopes it may help someone else.

When I installed my system, I connected the Connect Amp and one of the Connect units via ethernet (over my home wiring) and the second Connect via Wi-Fi. (I assumed the Ethernet connection would be faster and more reliable than Wi-Fi.) For a couple of years, everything worked fine; then I started having trouble. When I started to experience problems, I tried suggested fixes like restarting all my devices and rebooting the router, but none of them worked. I began to think maybe one of the Sonos devices was having a hardware problem so I thought I would test each Sonos unit when it was the only device connected to the Sonos system. Neither of the devices connected to the system by Ethernet would function properly; I experienced the same problems as before. When I tried the unit connected by Wi-Fi, it worked perfectly. I disconnected the Ethernet cables from the other two units, restarted the system, and all seems to be working well.

I know how frustrated I was trying to troubleshoot my problem and figure out a solution. I hope this helps someone else avoid some headaches.