Answered

sonos no longer in homekit home.

  • 19 December 2022
  • 10 replies
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I have Apple HomePods all over my home.  I have an Arc 2 SLs and the 3rd gen sub in my media room.  Having people over last night and was trying to play music everywhere. The media room Sonos shows in the airplay menu but you can’t connect to it.  It’s also no longer in my homekit home.  What I’ve done so far is power cycled all Sonos speakers. Power cycled my iPad and iPhone.  Power cycled the network switch the Sonos is using. Nothing is on WiFi. And power cycled the access point in that room.  Is a factory reset needed for my system? 

 

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Best answer by ApriliaLac 20 December 2022, 01:38

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10 replies

I wouldn’t think so, but you haven’t suggested that you’ve power cycled your router, just the switch. It might be an IP address issue. 
 

The other thing I’d suggest is that you open the Sonos controller as well, and 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 Sonos system and network.

The challenge is, of course, when you’re using AirPlay 2, you’re essentially skipping most of the Sonos software. Even so, however, they might be able to see something going on. 

Spent almost 2 hours on the phone with support and they couldn’t find the source of my issues. I factory reset the system even after the support person was reluctant for me to do it and everything works fine again!  

Well, that’s certainly not the recommended way to fix issues, most often, however, I’m delighted it worked for you!

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Hi @ApriliaLac 

This may go some way to explain:

https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/21/apple-pulls-new-home-app-architecture-in-ios-16-2-as-users-complain-about-homekit-issues/

Although we rarely recommend factory resetting Sonos devices, in this case we have received reports from users that it will help - as long as you don’t then add the unit to (new) HomeKit afterwards.

I hope this helps.

I was able to re add my Sonos to HomeKit without any issues after the factory reset.  As a matter of fact it popped up as soon as I opened the home app to add them. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @ApriliaLac 

Even better! Thanks for updating the thread.

 

Hi @ApriliaLac 

This may go some way to explain:

https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/21/apple-pulls-new-home-app-architecture-in-ios-16-2-as-users-complain-about-homekit-issues/

Although we rarely recommend factory resetting Sonos devices, in this case we have received reports from users that it will help - as long as you don’t then add the unit to (new) HomeKit afterwards.

I hope this helps.

Corry,

Given the strong recommendation by Sonos NOT to do a factory reset unless specifically instructed by Sonos support to do so, not to mention the implications for those of us with large Sonos systems (i.e., I have over 20 Sonos products in my system and setting those up again from scratch is no small task), I’d like to see a more “official” recommendation as to how to solve this problem. While the link you provide to the 9to5mac article hints at what might be the problem, it is far from definitive. As such, I think marking this thread as “Answered” is premature.

This problem has persisted for me despite updating all of my Apple gear to the latest revision (out just this week) and ironing out any and all other HomeKit issues. 

So, what say ye? Is doing a system reset the only solution? Is Sonos officially recommending this?

Thanks,
Tom

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @SouthboSonosGuy 

I understand your concerns - resetting 20 devices is no mean feat.

I do not recommend you reset your entire system in one go - that will result in more work. Resetting one (or a few) at a time and adding it/them back to the system before resetting any more would be the way to go. This way, music services and some other settings will be retained.

As for if resets are needed, we’re still waiting on hearing back from customers like you, to be honest. AirPlay and HomeKit are Apple properties and we are not aware of what, specifically, went wrong with the last version of HomeKit- only that it was pulled from Apple’s download page because of issues with various brand’s devices. I’m not an Apple owner, so I’m not overly familiar with HomeKit, but I hear that you can deregister devices within it - I’d certainly try this before resetting the speakers.

Although there is a tiny risk with each factory reset, the main reasons we don’t want people doing it when not necessary are 1) environmental problems (like interference) aren’t fixed, 2) it needlessly creates more work and frustration, 3) if there are network problems, you may not get it added again, 4) it erases all the logs of what actually went wrong. These don’t really apply to the AirPlay/HomeKit problem.

Contacting Apple may reveal answers - maybe they even have a tool that will fix whatever data AirPlay receivers are holding on to. I don’t know if all the other AirPlay compatible devices from other manufacturers need reset too.

Ultimately, I recommend you try with one speaker - if that works, and if you couldn’t get it to work any other way, you may have to reset all your AirPlay compatible speakers - just not all at once!

I hope this helps.

 

Hi @SouthboSonosGuy 

I understand your concerns - resetting 20 devices is no mean feat.

I do not recommend you reset your entire system in one go - that will result in more work. Resetting one (or a few) at a time and adding it/them back to the system before resetting any more would be the way to go. This way, music services and some other settings will be retained.

As for if resets are needed, we’re still waiting on hearing back from customers like you, to be honest. AirPlay and HomeKit are Apple properties and we are not aware of what, specifically, went wrong with the last version of HomeKit- only that it was pulled from Apple’s download page because of issues with various brand’s devices. I’m not an Apple owner, so I’m not overly familiar with HomeKit, but I hear that you can deregister devices within it - I’d certainly try this before resetting the speakers.

Although there is a tiny risk with each factory reset, the main reasons we don’t want people doing it when not necessary are 1) environmental problems (like interference) aren’t fixed, 2) it needlessly creates more work and frustration, 3) if there are network problems, you may not get it added again, 4) it erases all the logs of what actually went wrong. These don’t really apply to the AirPlay/HomeKit problem.

Contacting Apple may reveal answers - maybe they even have a tool that will fix whatever data AirPlay receivers are holding on to. I don’t know if all the other AirPlay compatible devices from other manufacturers need reset too.

Ultimately, I recommend you try with one speaker - if that works, and if you couldn’t get it to work any other way, you may have to reset all your AirPlay compatible speakers - just not all at once!

I hope this helps.

 

Corry,

Thanks for the quick reply. It most certainly helps to have this additional information. I’ll try doing factory resets one speaker at time, see how it goes, and report back. Now if it were only a bit easier to remove the power cord from the Play:1/One/One SL (many of my speakers have the other end of the power cord buried behind cabinets and such). I certainly don’t expect you to solve that problem though. :)

Best,

Tom

I’ve had that particular problem, which resolved more easily when I suddenly realized I could unplug the other end of the cable, from the wall socket, and didn’t have to mess with the ‘hidden’ end near the speaker itself. ;)

I’m not always terribly thoughtful, truth be told. You might be kind and call me ‘focused’.