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bosom
Contributor I
December 4, 2023

Need multiple Sonos accounts on 1 system

  • December 4, 2023
  • 40 replies
  • 14986 views

I’ve read a couple posts, and it appears you cannot use multiple Sonos accounts on 1 system. I would like to raise a feature request to enable this. It is ridiculous that the leader in connected speakers doesn’t handle multiple users properly. Each user should have their own Sonos account. This is a serious design flaw and it should be corrected. If there is a solution that enables multiple Sonos accounts and I haven’t found it, please let me know. If not, then please make this an enhancement request.

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    controlav
    controlav
    Lead Maestro
    February 28, 2024

    Ah thanks @controlav , that's an interesting angle to consider. I wasn't aware of the Household ID parameter on the system. I actually don't see a Household ID under my settings / About my system. Is it the "Sonos ID" I see there? Is the idea this value should be different for each house I'm located at and using the app?

     

    And so I can have a separate Household ID created by factory resetting the the system or the controller at one of my houses? I suppose I wonder why a new Household ID wasn't generated automatically when I set up the system at the new home on a new network? But I suppose there's a good reason for that.

    A Household ID is really a long string starting with HHID_ or Sonos_, but you can’t see that in the official apps (you can in mine). You can see the Sonos ID which is a numeric representation of the same thing, so yes, this should be different in each house.

    Yes, a factory reset followed by a “create new system” will create a new ID. However if you take a speaker from House A and relocate it to House B (without a reset), then add new speakers to that, you’ll end up with a “half-divorced” setup: two houses, one Sonos ID. If you ever brought one back from House B to House A then things will get very confusing, but that’s not something I have ever attempted, nor would I.

    Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
      Snaggle
      Lyricist III
      February 28, 2024

      Ah thanks @controlav , that's an interesting angle to consider. I wasn't aware of the Household ID parameter on the system. I actually don't see a Household ID under my settings / About my system. Is it the "Sonos ID" I see there? Is the idea this value should be different for each house I'm located at and using the app?

       

      And so I can have a separate Household ID created by factory resetting the the system or the controller at one of my houses? I suppose I wonder why a new Household ID wasn't generated automatically when I set up the system at the new home on a new network? But I suppose there's a good reason for that.

      A Household ID is really a long string starting with HHID_ or Sonos_, but you can’t see that in the official apps (you can in mine). You can see the Sonos ID which is a numeric representation of the same thing, so yes, this should be different in each house.

      Yes, a factory reset followed by a “create new system” will create a new ID. However if you take a speaker from House A and relocate it to House B (without a reset), then add new speakers to that, you’ll end up with a “half-divorced” setup: two houses, one Sonos ID. If you ever brought one back from House B to House A then things will get very confusing, but that’s not something I have ever attempted, nor would I.

      So I unfortunately don't see HHID but the Sonos ID in both locations is showing the same value.

       

      So resetting is from the app (reset the controllers for both my and my wife's apps) or every speaker at house B or all of it? Is the idea that my app is fully reset when I I go about setting up the system again at house B? And hopefully it kicks out a new HHID for house B?

       

      The tech support person I talked to didn't explain any thing like this and to simply add and remove the Spotify accounts at house B. Not sure what that will do but I'm hesitant to only try that because each of these tests is plane ride and a lot of time and $, so looking for a likely fix. Your solution seems to have the most logic to it.

      Snaggle
      Lyricist III
      February 28, 2024

      @Snaggle Are you sure you and your wife were using different Spotify accounts? Spotify should not stop playing in one location when you start playing from a different Spotify account on another location. Sonos will however revert to the last used Spotify account on a speaker when you ask it to play something by voice. So if you would have used a speaker on your Spotify account and your wife would ask for a song by voice, the speaker would use your Spotify account to play it, causing your music to stop in another location.

      If this is not the case, I’d make a diagnostic on both locations once this happens and call Sonos about it.

      Yep definitely aware of the Spotify account issue you mentioned. Ran into it many years ago and have to remind my wife about it ever so often. But it's definitely not that.

       

      I did submit diagnostic reports from both apps and got bounced to multiple techs who thought as you did as it is probably Spotify that is stopping the streams but why, when it's separate accounts on separate networks? @controlav 's clue about the same Household ID in both locations might be flagging the stop stream for whatever reason.

      controlav
      controlav
      Lead Maestro
      February 28, 2024

      Ah thanks @controlav , that's an interesting angle to consider. I wasn't aware of the Household ID parameter on the system. I actually don't see a Household ID under my settings / About my system. Is it the "Sonos ID" I see there? Is the idea this value should be different for each house I'm located at and using the app?

       

      And so I can have a separate Household ID created by factory resetting the the system or the controller at one of my houses? I suppose I wonder why a new Household ID wasn't generated automatically when I set up the system at the new home on a new network? But I suppose there's a good reason for that.

      A Household ID is really a long string starting with HHID_ or Sonos_, but you can’t see that in the official apps (you can in mine). You can see the Sonos ID which is a numeric representation of the same thing, so yes, this should be different in each house.

      Yes, a factory reset followed by a “create new system” will create a new ID. However if you take a speaker from House A and relocate it to House B (without a reset), then add new speakers to that, you’ll end up with a “half-divorced” setup: two houses, one Sonos ID. If you ever brought one back from House B to House A then things will get very confusing, but that’s not something I have ever attempted, nor would I.

      So I unfortunately don't see HHID but the Sonos ID in both locations is showing the same value.

       

      So resetting is from the app (reset the controllers for both my and my wife's apps) or every speaker at house B or all of it? Is the idea that my app is fully reset when I I go about setting up the system again at house B? And hopefully it kicks out a new HHID for house B?

      You need to factory reset every device at one of your locations, then set it all up again there. The app stores almost no data (except the last-used Household ID), all the useful data is stored on the speakers. The only thing you’ll need to do in the app is a “Forget this system” before you factory reset all your devices, then “Create new system” to get it going again.

      I understand the plane-ride problem all too well. This is why I now have three systems set up in one location, so I can test my own Sonos code against multiple simultaneous households, without getting on a plane.

      If you are concerned my advice will cause a melt-down, I recommend this cautious approach at House B:

      • In the app, “forget this system”
      • Power down all Sonos devices
      • Power one device up and factory reset it
      • In the app “create new system” with this single device
      • Add in your multiple Spotify accounts
      • Test this configuration in both locations, ie “is controlav smoking something or not?”
      • If this test works, then factory reset the remaining devices and add them to House B
      • If this test fails (ie my speculation is all BS) then Undo this change ie in the app “forget”, power on the other devices, connect the app to them again, then factory reset the test device and add it to the existing system.
      Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
        Snaggle
        Lyricist III
        February 28, 2024

        Ah thanks @controlav , that's an interesting angle to consider. I wasn't aware of the Household ID parameter on the system. I actually don't see a Household ID under my settings / About my system. Is it the "Sonos ID" I see there? Is the idea this value should be different for each house I'm located at and using the app?

         

        And so I can have a separate Household ID created by factory resetting the the system or the controller at one of my houses? I suppose I wonder why a new Household ID wasn't generated automatically when I set up the system at the new home on a new network? But I suppose there's a good reason for that.

        A Household ID is really a long string starting with HHID_ or Sonos_, but you can’t see that in the official apps (you can in mine). You can see the Sonos ID which is a numeric representation of the same thing, so yes, this should be different in each house.

        Yes, a factory reset followed by a “create new system” will create a new ID. However if you take a speaker from House A and relocate it to House B (without a reset), then add new speakers to that, you’ll end up with a “half-divorced” setup: two houses, one Sonos ID. If you ever brought one back from House B to House A then things will get very confusing, but that’s not something I have ever attempted, nor would I.

        So I unfortunately don't see HHID but the Sonos ID in both locations is showing the same value.

         

        So resetting is from the app (reset the controllers for both my and my wife's apps) or every speaker at house B or all of it? Is the idea that my app is fully reset when I I go about setting up the system again at house B? And hopefully it kicks out a new HHID for house B?

        You need to factory reset every device at one of your locations, then set it all up again there. The app stores almost no data (except the last-used Household ID), all the useful data is stored on the speakers. The only thing you’ll need to do in the app is a “Forget this system” before you factory reset all your devices, then “Create new system” to get it going again.

        I understand the plane-ride problem all too well. This is why I now have three systems set up in one location, so I can test my own Sonos code against multiple simultaneous households, without getting on a plane.

        If you are concerned my advice will cause a melt-down, I recommend this cautious approach at House B:

        • In the app, “forget this system”
        • Power down all Sonos devices
        • Power one device up and factory reset it
        • In the app “create new system” with this single device
        • Add in your multiple Spotify accounts
        • Test this configuration in both locations, ie “is controlav smoking something or not?”
        • If this test works, then factory reset the remaining devices and add them to House B
        • If this test fails (ie my speculation is all BS) then Undo this change ie in the app “forget”, power on the other devices, connect the app to them again, then factory reset the test device and add it to the existing system.

        My curiousity compells me to try this test (and see if you’re really smoking something), though we both realize I can probably relieve the symptom by simply having my wife create her own Sonos account and have her set up the system at house B, right? 

        What I still don’t understand is how did this happen in the first place? Your steps above seem like they are the exact steps I did when I set up house B’s system in the first place, so I’m wondering what would be different? The only thing that is different (if I can recall) is that I did not “forget this system” from the app before setting up and I know I didn’t do that on both apps (mine and my wife’s). Though the prompt “forget this system” is a bit ambiguous when you’re sitting on a new network with no Sonos system (b/c it wasn’t set up yet) and the app shows no system and I have to “foget a system”? Forget what system? Why is there not a system view in the app? Or a household view?

         

        Seems like that could be nice feature. We see this in smart home apps already (the idea of multiple homes/premises). Might be time to deisgn for these use cases in the Sonos app, or at minimum provide some UI that clues customers into how the app/system is handling these things. 

        PloppyC
        PloppyC
        Lyricist III
        May 9, 2024

        The new Sonos web app makes this a necessity, especially if it’s a precursor to deprecating the desktop app. It requires a login (I guess over the open internet), while current the desktop app works on a network-local basis.

        (Honestly didn’t read this whole thread, but it seemed like a good place to make this point)

        Ohiostate1993
        Lyricist I
        June 15, 2024

        I am a business owner...I mostly work in a vacation community...IE...most of my clients have multiple homes.  They do not set them up...I do. Control 4 is my main automation system.  My customers request multiple accounts on multiple homes and businesses.  I need to program them all with my phone and currently cannot.  Your customer support is very long waits. Always more than an hour minimum.  I have been in the AV business for over 30 years.  Comparing it to Samsung TVs and camera systems is an illegitimate comparison.  Control 4 has had this same issue forever. Now it's solved.  And those who say it is a fair comparison have never done this for a living.  And do not work in the industry.  There are hundreds of thousands of installers/ business owners.  Stop asking customers what they want. They don't know and never will.  It is up to us as salesman and business owners to decide how to impliment these large scale changes.  Ask us...many of us, not end users. They do not know how things actually work,only what we tell them Example : 1 client 3 Homes plus a separate law firm that he works in.  Need an easy way to toggle between systems when moving to that other location. 

        Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

         

         

        controlav
        controlav
        Lead Maestro
        June 17, 2024

        I am a business owner...I mostly work in a vacation community...IE...most of my clients have multiple homes.  They do not set them up...I do. Control 4 is my main automation system.  My customers request multiple accounts on multiple homes and businesses.  I need to program them all with my phone and currently cannot.  Your customer support is very long waits. Always more than an hour minimum.  I have been in the AV business for over 30 years.  Comparing it to Samsung TVs and camera systems is an illegitimate comparison.  Control 4 has had this same issue forever. Now it's solved.  And those who say it is a fair comparison have never done this for a living.  And do not work in the industry.  There are hundreds of thousands of installers/ business owners.  Stop asking customers what they want. They don't know and never will.  It is up to us as salesman and business owners to decide how to impliment these large scale changes.  Ask us...many of us, not end users. They do not know how things actually work,only what we tell them Example : 1 client 3 Homes plus a separate law firm that he works in.  Need an easy way to toggle between systems when moving to that other location. 

        Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

         

         

        Have you tried the Dealer Support line? Its supposed to be a lot quicker than the regular one.

        Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
        Htep
        Avid Contributor I
        August 10, 2024

        Hello,

        would be great in fact to allow multiple account on Sonos move.

        we are sharing an house during vacation with 1 Sonos move and it would be great to be able to use it with personal Sonos account.

        need to reset each time a user is in the house and want to play. More over, major account locked the device.

        should be nice to request an access to the admin so that it could allow using the device. When he leaves the house, he could disconnect user.

         

        Ken_Griffiths
        Ken_Griffiths
        August 10, 2024

        Hello,

        would be great in fact to allow multiple account on Sonos move.

        we are sharing an house during vacation with 1 Sonos move and it would be great to be able to use it with personal Sonos account.

        need to reset each time a user is in the house and want to play. More over, major account locked the device.

        should be nice to request an access to the admin so that it could allow using the device. When he leaves the house, he could disconnect user.

         

        No, you do not need to factory reset the Sonos Move at all. Just add the WiFi network to it that’s present/available at each location. The Move will support up-to 16 WiFi networks. See ‘example’ screenshot attached of multiple WiFi networks added to one Sonos Household in the new App - devices in that HH will auto-connect to any of the WiFi networks that you have listed in the Sonos App.

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