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I have a recurring issue with my S1 app

I have a gen 1 Play5 in my gym; it is the only Sonos product in there.  The remainder of my Sonos products are S2

Almost all the time now, when I open my S1 app on the phone, it doesn’t connect, I get the message at the top saying “Sonos found let’s connect”

As soon as I do this it connects to the S2 group and I have to reset the app.

If I try and connect to an existing network, all it does is connect to the S2 “network” and I go round in cirlces resetting and trying to connect again.

Eventually after random attempts, when “connecting to an existing network” I get the prompt to hit the two buttons on the device.  It then connects correctly

What is odd is that I can start the device playing without the app and that is fine

I have had various successes (although these may just be random), but not yet found a surefire way to resolve it

  • Toggling wifi on and off (before and during the set up phase)
  • Turning location services off
  • waiting! (this seems to work)

The other strange thing is I have an ipad as a screen for my back trainer and I don’t have the same issues there.

 

Any help or suggestions will be gratefully received as it is very annoying when all I want to do it put on some tunes and workout!!

I would add I have checked the channel and S1 is on channel 11 and my S2 network is on channel 6

and finally, the gym is 10-15 metres away from any other Sonos products!

Moderator edit: combined posts again

Sounds like router confusion, please describe your network and what device is running the app.


I’m running the app on a iphone (which has the problem) running on IOS 16.5.1 and an ipad (that works fine) running on 16.2

My network set up is complex due to the distance from the router to the gym.

I have a BT wifi extenders (and I know they are not necessarily recommended, but I don’t have the option to run long lengths of cable!)

I have an extender in the garage which is hard wired to a powerline extender. In the gym I have the other powerline extender which is hard wired to the Play5 - This proved to be very consistent and I didn’t have issues before I had to separate the units into S1 and S2 groups.

I also have a wifi extender in the gym, also connected to the powerline and generally my wifi signal is good in the gym

I did experience this problem with my partners iphone, but up until now, mine has always been Ok, so I’m not sure what has changed.

What I also don’t understand is that the Play5 will play when I press the button from the device, so the connection is obviously valid and the ipad has no issues finding the device


Wifi extenders AND Powerline! Wow, its amazing it works at all. Extenders are not supported https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/sonos-system-requirements and Powerline is infamously poor.

Suggest you switch to a proper mesh system, which is also Sonos’ recommendation in this article.

The reason it works when you press the button is that the speaker is still on the network just fine, but your phone has lost track of it because the SSDP broadcasts are lost due to your network infrastructure. Your phone could be on a different wifi frequency than your ipad, or something else that blocks broadcasts.


This is a bit of a mess, but I suggest that you power down all of the S2 units and uninstall the S1 controller on the problem phone. After you reinstall the S1 controller, restart the S2 units. I expect that this will straighten out the phone. If not, also do the inverse — power down S1 and reinstall the S2 controller.

EoP (Ethernet over Powerline) is my last choice for networking, but occasionally it is the miracle cure.


Thanks for the reply, but a mesh system is way outide of my knowledge!!

 

Why does it work sometimes though? Is there a way to ensure my phone either doesn’t lose the SSDP broadcasts (whatever they are!), or can find them again when I go to the gym.

 

Is there a way to change the frequency on my phone to the same the one on the ipad.  Again, outside of my knowledge

Thanks in advance


Thanks for the reply, but a mesh system is way outide of my knowledge!!

 

Why does it work sometimes though? Is there a way to ensure my phone either doesn’t lose the SSDP broadcasts (whatever they are!), or can find them again when I go to the gym.

 

Is there a way to change the frequency on my phone to the same the one on the ipad.  Again, outside of my knowledge

Thanks in advance

You could either disable 5GHz entirely or configure your router to only use 2.4GHz to your phone. (As its a BT router it may not have these features).


just checked and my BT network is actually a mesh network through the BT home disks.

 

That said, it is still a physical stretch to get from the router to the gym; probably 30m and that’s why I’ve got the intermediate disk in the garage as it is the mid point


just checked and my BT network is actually a mesh network through the BT home disks.

 

That said, it is still a physical stretch to get from the router to the gym; probably 30m and that’s why I’ve got the intermediate disk in the garage as it is the mid point

Temporarily try with the BT Wifi mesh setup on the 2.4Ghz band only, set a non-overlapping WiFi channel on that band (channel 1, 6 or 11) and if the router allows, set a channel-width of 20Mhz only and see if it works. If it does work successfully (I think it will) then re-enable the 5Ghz band and see if the multicast problems return (once again I think they will) and if so, go to the below link and ask BT to send you £100 under their guarantee scheme and then go onto buy yourself a reliable router/mesh system. 😀

https://www.bt.com/broadband/complete-wifi

It seems many folk online describe the BT routers as not being up-to the mark for some aspects of networking, but I can’t comment further, as I’ve never used their product/services.


will give it a go

I do know that the S1 is set to channel 11 and my S2 is set to channel 6 - does that make any difference?


No, they are two separate systems. The only consideration would be WiFi interference or poor connectivity on the S1 channel.


It seems like there might be a connectivity issue between your S1 app and the gen 1 Play5 in your gym. To troubleshoot, ensure both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network. Try restarting your router, and if the problem persists, consider reinstalling the S1 app. Additionally, check for any firmware updates for the gen 1 Play5. The discrepancy in performance between your phone and iPad suggests a device-specific issue, so verifying app permissions on your phone might be beneficial.