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I cannot connect another speaker to the system (even if I swap the speakers in order)

  • 19 July 2024
  • 6 replies
  • 129 views

Hello,

I have been using the system for several months (there were no problems and I was satisfied) and a few days ago a problem occurred. I haven't changed the network settings or anything in the Sonos system settings. Suddenly the speakers would not turn on and after a while they were not available in the system.

Standard procedures don't work. I am able to reset the speakers and add them again. However, it succeeds the first time. No additional (second) speakers can be successfully added to the system. It goes through the detection procedure, identification sounds, and when the screen for joining the Wi-Fi network appears, the procedure is interrupted. A message appears from the Sonos application that the speaker is added - but it may not be visible and you need to turn it off/on. Then the application displays another window to add the same speaker to the system when it is restarted. However, then you cannot reach the window with the identification sounds because the loudspeaker does not play them. The LED on the speaker is white (as if it was actually added).

Interestingly, having two Era 300 speakers, I am able to add them independently, when they are first - but even if I change the order, I never manage to add the second one.

The same thing happens when I try to connect Era 100 second, which I also have.

The problems don't seem to occur with the IKEA Symfonisk, which I have as my fourth speaker. He was not affected by the initial fault either. It didn't disappear from the system a few days ago.

I also did advanced tests with the router (I turned off 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi, leaving only 5Ghz, reset the router itself to factory settings, tested different channel settings for Wi-Fi and Sonons network). This had no effect.

I'm writing on the forum because today I tried to connect to the support chat, but I didn't succeed and maybe someone can give me some advice.
I'm wondering whether it would help to connect via Ethernet using an adapter to Era 300 and Era 100. It really annoys me that I'll have to buy an adapter to solve some software problem. As you can see, the speaker itself is functional, since they are interchangeable and work when connected first.

My suspicions:

It seems as if resetting the Era 100 or Era 300 speaker did not delete all data from either the speaker or the application.

It is possible that something went wrong with the disconnection of the Era 300 stereo pair (the speakers were working before the failure).

It is possible that there is something in memory related to the old Wi-Fi network (a long time ago Symfonisk required 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi - now it works on 5Ghz, and I removed the 2.4Ghz network from the system a few months ago, but it sometimes still prompts me in application).

6 replies

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +13

I think it is the new firmware or app because worked like a charm until I got a black out and app lost some of the speakers.

I cannot add anymore some of my speakers.

Other speakers continuously disconnecting from network.

Latest app or firmware are not stable at all.

We need Sonos to look at it because I am considering throwing everything in the trashcan...

Airgetlam

If you need Sonos to look at it, your best bet would be to submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

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, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system. And if it is an issue with the app, they can forward your specific information along with the diagnostic to the coders who would be looking at the issue. 

Bruce
M
Badge

Thank you for your answer.

Unfortunately, in my location only chat is available and there is no active phone number for Sonos support.
It's a pity that you can't see and analyze these diagnostic logs yourself to see something more than application windows and the color of the diode.

Michael
Airgetlam

You’ve not shared your location in the forum profile, so I can’t provide any help there. 

I assume that there is personally identifiable information in a diagnostic, and the various privacy laws around the world have made it too difficult to allow users to see/share that data. I can easily see a lawyer saying the potential exposure is too great. But I agree, it really would be nice to be able to access that data, whatever it is, personally. But I also wonder how much data it is? Would I be combing through dozens of pages, looking for one small errant data point? I suppose we would become accustomed to looking for particulars at some point, but there’d likely need to be a whole raft of ‘how to read diagnostic FAQs’, too. Not impossible, just extra effort, and one I suspect Sonos has done already in order to train their CS folks. 

Bruce
M
Badge

Updating the status of my problem.

I was away for a while, but after returning home I see that nothing has fixed itself. ;-)


Today I spent two hours on the support chat. I repeated the procedure of resetting the speaker, adding it in the application several times. I tried changing the phone and reinstalling the application. The problem could not be solved, I have my case number and I am supposed to call the support phone number.

Michael
M
Badge

I wanted to describe the solution to my problem. After spending two hours on the Sonos chat continuously restarting devices with no results, I was asked to call the support department. Since trying to reach that number resulted in hearing a message about the waiting queue, I decided to look for a solution myself.

 

I started analyzing the logs on the router and discovered that every time I tried to connect the device, there was a message about removing a suspicious packet. I tried changing the router settings to prevent it from interfering with such things, but I couldn't manage to do that. It's a large Internet provider, and I don't have many options in this regard.

I suspect that the removed packet contained the password to the WiFi network that the speakers were exchanging among themselves. Therefore, after being added to the system, the subsequent speakers never received the password, which is why they didn't work.

 

Given the above, I bought a new router where I had more control and was sure the software on it was up to date. The problems disappeared. The speakers just connected to the system on the new WiFi.

 

Additionally, I noticed that the Sonos speakers automatically chose the 2.4GHz WiFi network, even though I tried to add them to the 5GHz network.
I recall that some time ago on the old WiFi, I changed this setting to only connect to the 5GHz network. It's possible that this had some impact on the whole situation when I was successfully adding the speakers on the old network. It’s possible that I was too convinced that the speakers had to use the 5GHz network.

 

Interestingly, each speaker requested a software update after being added. I performed the updates as well.

 

So, in reality, I can't be certain about the cause of my problems:
- whether the internet provider actually changed something in the router's settings,
- whether the packets weren't previously being removed by the router because the speakers might have operated differently in this regard, and their software changed,
- or if it was my changes to the WiFi settings in the Sonos system to use only the 5GHz network that came back to affect the system over time…

 

I don’t know what the phone call would have been like. Apparently, a technician can check the network over the phone. I would have preferred if they had told me on the chat that the diagnostic data sent showed that the speaker wasn’t receiving all the network packets.

Michael

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