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Contributor I
December 25, 2018

Real hassle trying to get speakers grouped.

  • December 25, 2018
  • 19 replies
  • 590 views
I now have 5 Sonos speakers, I never should have bought the latest 3 (playbar plus 2 x Sonos 3) as it was hard enough job with the original 2 Sonos 3 that I owned... Real hassle trying to get them grouped (wouldn't see the 2nd speaker), any changes to playing the 2 speakers (ie only 1 switched on) meant same issues.

I naively thought the playbar might sort issues, it didn't. Tried "forgetting" all speakers, reinstalling controller didn't work (on both phone and tablet).

Yet the cheap system in our office is a breeze, anyone can walk in, connect to wireless, download the app then control the speakers.. why not Sonos? ...Anyone walking around Edinburgh tonight might find a pile of Sonos speakers on pavement, albeit they may be in pieces as have been tossed out window.
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    19 replies

    Chris
    Lead Maestro
    December 26, 2018
    You have network isseus - you need to call Sonos and they will help you resolve them.
    Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)
    bawbagAuthor
    Contributor I
    December 26, 2018
    Thanks Chris, my frustration last night got the better of me! We have Google wifi boosters throughout the house (thick walls) so I did wonder if they potentially were causing the problems. I'm going to take all speakers up to room with the router, reset them, reinstall Sonos then start from scratch. Thanks again for taking time to reply
    ratty
    December 26, 2018
    A Google WiFi mesh doesn't let you put their system into 'bridge mode'. This means it contains its own router, so all the Sonos components and their controlling devices must connect through the Google kit, not directly to the main internet router.

    Also, it's understood that Google selects wireless channels automatically, switching them when it chooses to do so. This makes it quite unsuited for a Sonos system in "WiFi"/"Wireless"/"Standard" mode. Grouping in particular would be upset. The typical solution is to wire one Sonos component to a Google puck and flip the Sonos system into "SonosNet"/"Wired"/"Boost" mode. If it's not convenient to wire a player, a Boost would be required.
    Contributor I
    December 26, 2018
    I'm not sure WHAT happened in update 9.3 but grouping and maintaining a group now is almost impossible. Sonos is pinging and tries to update ever 30 seconds or so and seems to hijack the UI. WHAT did you do in 9.3!
    I'm on of the original owners of Sonos and have had Sonos since they first came out and have never been so frustrated with the new software/update. Now when I ask Alexa to play XYZ in a room it drops all grouped speakers. Prior it would maintain the existing group. But you can see the Sonos controller "updating" every few seconds. This makes it difficult to even regroup the speakers.

    What's up Sonos?
    bawbagAuthor
    Contributor I
    December 26, 2018
    Thanks Ratty, I had thought of connecting to the Google puck rather than the router itself. I'll do this and I can also leave a Sonos 3 hard wired permanently to Google puck, I'm not sure about the "sonosnet/boost" settings you mention but I'll see how it goes later tonight when I start from scratch. Thanks again for assistance
    ratty
    December 26, 2018
    Now when I ask Alexa to play XYZ in a room it drops all grouped speakers.
    Nothing to do with 9.3. https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-now-playing-with-alexa-groups-6817588
    ratty
    December 26, 2018
    I'll do this and I can also leave a Sonos 3 hard wired permanently to Google puck, I'm not sure about the "sonosnet/boost" settings you mention but I'll see how it goes later tonight when I start from scratch.
    Hopefully that should help significantly. BTW you don't need to set up from scratch. Just wire the Play:3, and wait 5 mins or so for the system to switch over to SonosNet mode (i.e. its own radio mesh).

    Then go to Settings/About My Sonos System and check all the devices say "WM:0" (SonosNet mode). Finally, go to Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup and remove ("reset") the WiFi credentials from the system.

    If you do get any glitches you can always try a different SonosNet channel, again in Advanced Settings.
    Contributor I
    December 26, 2018
    I actually may have found my "issue". For some reason the Sonos One in my garage appeared to be connected to Tune IN even though nothing was playing. I kept getting a voice message saying..."can't play music". I went back in and loaded up some local music and then paused the playback. Now, the Sonos desktop interface isn't refreshing every 30 seconds. Before you couldn't set the volume or even group speakers because the desktop player would keep refreshing the UI.

    I'm still not sure why the speakers lost grouping when using the Alexa voice commands. Mind you, I have been using the Echo from the start and even coded Sonos to work through my ISY before the cloud integration. So....this is the FIRST time I've ran into this situation. Basically, the internet radio hung and wouldn't turn loose of the speaker which somehow effected the entire system. Even though the Garage speaker is NOT grouped with anything else it had an impact on the others.


    Prior to this I could say, Alex play XYZ in the Bedroom, which was grouped with 4 other rooms, and everything would fall apart. All groups lost.
    Pointing fingers at 9.x b/c this seemed to develop after the most recent update.
    jgatie
    December 26, 2018
    Yes, Sonos is now using Alexa Groups, which causes the old group functionality to fail sometimes. See this link for details:

    https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/an-overview-and-explanation-of-the-new-support-for-alexa-grouping-6817788
    bawbagAuthor
    Contributor I
    December 26, 2018
    Ok, so I've set everything up and seems to be working fine... albeit I couldn't set up by connecting to the Google puck, I had to use cable to connect to the virgin router, it's still connected by cable to the playbar so I'll see how it goes tomorrow when I pull cable out - Using playbar just now and dont want to risk the system crashing!

    One other thing, the Sonos app on phone is no longer connected to the speakers and pushing the speaker buttons as suggested by app doesn't work.