PLAY1 playing, but controller app say 'can't connect'?!?!?

There is nothing flaky on the Sonos side. If you have 'wifi assist' enabled on your iPhones it would be best to switch it off. It may be worth limiting your phones to connect only over 2.4GHz not 5GHz if you have a dual band router.

Thanks for your quick response - I'll give both of those a try. I'm a little unsure why that would make a difference (as clearly one of the phones is streaming the audio to the player already, just the controller doesn't want to acknowledge the fact) - but very willing to give anything a shot!

No that is totally incorrect. The controllers are controllers and do not stream anything. The speaker is instructed to fetch the music and once started you could smash your phones to pieces with a hammer and the music would continue.

Thanks for your quick response - I'll give both of those a try. I'm a little unsure why that would make a difference (as clearly one of the phones is streaming the audio to the player already, just the controller doesn't want to acknowledge the fact) - but very willing to give anything a shot!

You stated that the Play 1 will resume a previously playing radio station. So in this scenario NOTHING is streaming from a phone (Flush both down the toilet to test (don't do that by the way!)).
The only time that the phone would stream would be when you play music "On this phone" from the Sonos controller and since you say that it isn't connected that isn't the case.

You mentioned that the Play 1 is now "right next" the router - I suggest that this isn't ideal as this could very well promote interference - this might be more of an issue if the Play 1 is wired to the router and also right next to it. You could try wiring it again but moving the Play 1 further away from the router, ensuring that your router is set to use a fixed channel, setting the SonosNet channel to a different one to that of the router (1, 6 or 11) and removing your Wi-Fi credentials in the Sonos controller (This assumes you can connect using a PC or Mac).

Maybe try smashing the phones with a hammer first and then flush them down the toilet 🙂

Thanks John B and Stuart_W - I'm certainly learning a little more about how it all works 🙂 - not feeling the need to trash the phones just yet!! :)

So....

- this isn't a new problem - been happening since I received the PLAY1, several months ago (and looking at other posts its quite a common issue).
- I've had the PLAY:1 wired, and on wireless in other rooms all with the same symptoms from the controller. Bizarrely, until today, the controller has worked flawlessly for the last two weeks with the PLAY:1 near the router - with the PLAY:1 further away from the router (including wired connection) the controller loses the PLAY:1 once or twice a day.
- I also frequently lose connection to the PLAY:1 when playing music "from this phone" - in this scenario the music also stops (understandably and as you suggest).
- usually
- if the PLAY:1 is pulling down the stream then presumably it is connected quite happily to my network?

I have no other wifi connectivity issues with these phones (or any other devices in the house) - including streaming between IP security cameras and other wifi connected devices, so while I'll be going off to try the things suggested (thanks again), this still feels like a lot of hard work for something that fails (and recovers itself) apparently at random.

I will update!

Just as an aside - I've just reset the controller on one of the phones, re-registered it on the system (pressing play/pause and + buttons on PLAY:1) - all good - nice big green tick on the screen. Controler then tries to connect... and immediately reports it can't do so...

It may be worth submitting a system diagnostic when you have been having problems (but have got back on for long enough to submit a system diagnostic!). Post the confirmation number back here. Do you have a computer with a Sonos controller on? It would be instructive to see what happens with that

I submitted diagnostic to Sonos a few months back but no ideas; I've just installed a controller on my windows laptop. It registered and then said it couldn't see the player - same as phones. I've wired the controller to the router - as soon as I plugged in all devices instantaneously see the player. I've just changed the SonosNet channel and will see how that goes when I disconnect the cable... Will upload another diagnostic here if things continue as is (likely).

OK - so above "wired the controller" should read "wired the player"; the player is back on wifi now and working. I changed the SonosNet channel to channel 6 (was 11) my router is using 1. The issue I'm having was manifested on two phones (one 5GHz connection, the other 2.4GHz) and the controller on my PC (5GHz) - all are now seeing and interacting correctly with the player again... will wait to see if that changes.