A Sonos system that is increasingly unreliable is almost certainly due to network problems. If the reliability problems coincide with updates, the probability goes towards 100%, with IP conflicts being the most probable cause. First, check your router for any firmware updates. Then you need to refresh the IP adresses in all your network devices. Reboot the following in order:

Modem
Router
Switches/Hubs
Wired Sonos players
Wireless Sonos players
Computers/Printers
All other devices - Phones, Tablets, etc.

Let each one come up before moving to the next. Note you can eliminate IP conflict problems by reserving IP by MAC address in your router setup.  See your router manual for details.

TL;DR: It’s probably not your APs. Update your Sonos from S1 to S2 and update the speaker firmware from v11.10.1 to v15.6.

Hi,

I wanted to reply to this, as I ran into what I believe is the exact same issue that is mentioned in this request.

I’m the network technician for a client who has 7 Sonos speakers; 6 Sonos One’s and 1 Sonos One SL. These devices are connected wirelessly to three Access Points, and have been so for roughly 3 years at this point. I had no issues with them over this time.

Suddenly, I get a report from the client that the Sonos speakers are cutting out. Indeed, in doing ping tests to the speakers, I find that each one is dropping probably 90% of their packets.

At first I thought it was the WiFi, as rebooting our APs fixed the issue. However, it reoccurred within a day - same issue.

After extensive troubleshooting, I eventually determined it was not the APs that were the issue. I determined this by creating a segregated SSID for the APs (channel 1, 2.4GHz band as all Sonos devices were connected to this channel and band and I wanted to replicate the original conditions as closely as possible), and then connected all APs to that, as well as one other device (an Asus computer). When the issue occurred again, I found that I was able to ping the Asus computer with no issues, but not the Sonos speakers. Logically, if the issue were with the APs (malfunctioning APs, wireless interference, etc) I should have seen the same problem with the Asus computer. I didn’t.

Having determined it was not the APs, I tried to get Sonos support to assist. They were completely useless; they asked us to submit a diagnostic of the system (which I did), and then told me they couldn’t review the diagnostic because “their tools were being updated”, and asked me to call back later.

​​​​​​I set about trying to use the Sonos app to see if I could find a way to resolve the issue myself. After installing the S2 app and connecting my system to it, it told me to download the S1 app. I did this, connected my system to it (rebooting the APs multiple times while doing this, so that the speakers would register) and found absolutely nothing that would assist in resolving the issue. I had suspected that firmware was the issue at this point, but I was not given an option to update it via the app.

By chance, I re-opened the Sonos S2 app and was suddenly given the option to update the entire system to S2. Once that was done, all the Sonos speakers received an update from v11.10.1 to v15.6.

That was yesterday. Since then, the Sonos speakers have been working reliably again. I am hesitant to say this has fully resolved the issue for sure, but I strongly believe it has. The reason: some of the Sonos speakers are now connected to 5GHz. Before the update, they were always connected only to 2.4GHz and gave no option to connect to 5GHz.

What this means is that something about the change in firmware has changed the way the wireless adapter within the Sonos speakers function. My theory then, is that something in the 11.10.1 update changed/broke something about the wireless adapter. Whatever issue was introduced in this patch does not seem to be present in v15.6.

As a result, the resolution seems to upgrade to S2. Alternatively, if Sonos developers ever decide to acknowledge they introduced a bad patch, one could wait for a newer v11 update. Given the nature of the issue, these would have to be manually pushed.

Hope this helps anyone else struggling with this issue.

Not all SONOS units can be upgraded to S2. If only some units are updated, you will end up with two independent systems.

A problem with some mesh systems is that an update might change how clients are connected. The older SONOS products are not very channel agile and the mesh update might block sharing between the 2.4 and 5GHz segments. A phone on 5GHz may not be able to communicate with 2.4GHz players. A common issue created during SONOS updates is duplicate IP addresses.

In my initial testing, I disabled wireless meshing. It did not resolve the issue.

Additionally, I created an independent 2.4GHz network broadcasting on channel 1. I also locked the APs to connect to a single AP. Thus, there was no movement of the Sonos devices between APs or channels. I also added DHCP reservations for the Sonos speakers. The issue still occurred for the Sonos devices; a computer I connected to the wireless network was still reachable.

If not all Sonos units can be upgraded to S2, then a patch will need to be issued to fix the problem. This issue has not re-occured after the update.

Here is the S1/S2 compatibility list.