Avid Contributor II

Answered

Stuck in loop on S2 mobile app

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
October 14, 2021
13 replies
792 views

I have the following equipment, on three different floors of my house:

Room A: 2 Fives (stereo pair)

Room B: 1 One

Room C: 1 Play:5 (gen 1)

Rooms A and B are controlled by S2 (iPhone)

Room C is controlled by S1 (iPhone)

Everything has been working perfectly, exactly as expected, for quite some time. Last evening, though, though, I experienced a particularly annoying issue --

Room A was active -- streaming from TuneIn Radio. Rooms B and C were inactive. The S2 controller suddenly popped up a message that an additional Sonos system had been found and was incompatible with S2, and it asked how I wanted to proceed.

That is, the old Play:5 had been discovered by S2. I had the choice of adding the Play:5 (which of course would not be allowed) or taking additional action. ‘Taking additional action’, as far as I could tell, involved resetting the S2 system, which of course I also didn’t want to do.

I was stuck in an infinite loop. Closing/reopening S2 by itself did not make the message go away. I finally solved the problem by physically unplugging the Play:5, then closing/reopening S2, then reconnecting the Play:5 to power.

It seems to me that when something like this occurs, S2 should allow a third choice: ‘Ignore the system that’s just been discovered, and just continue as is’. Am I overlooking something obvious?

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Best answer by JCBoston

Sorry, but this is not the full answer.

First, the Left Five (S2) is not the closest device to the router. It is the closest S2 device to the router, but is one floor away from the router. The Play:5 (S1) is actually closest to the router; in the same room, in fact.

Via my router admin, I rebooted the router. I then disabled SSID broadcast for my 2.4GHz channels and moved all of my S2 devices to 5GHz. But I was unable to move the Play:5 -- this S1 device apparently is not able to detect 5GHz. So the Play:5 had to remain on the 2.4GHz wireless. I rebooted the router again.

And the problem was still present: When I invoked the S2 controller app on my iPhone, it sometimes detected the Play:5 and put me into the loop we’ve been discussing. The issue was intermittent: sometimes, quitting and reloading the S2 controller app allowed me to avoid the issue. But the problem definitely remained.

I’ve fixed matters (apparently) by hardwiring the Play:5 to the router. This required also disabling wi-fi in the S1 controller app and removing the 2.4GHz network from the S1 controller app. SSID broadcast for 2.4GHz remains disabled on the router.

Now, invoking the S1 controller app reveals and manages my one S1 device, and invoking the S2 controller app reveals and manages my three S2 devices. Neither controller app attempts to manage the opposite system. Fingers crossed -- this apparently has fixed the issue.

Would you like to see another set of diagnostics? From S2? S1? Both?

Show previous replies

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @JCBoston

I was looking at a diagnostic from your S2 system, so had no idea about the Play:5 and it’s situation. Only putting the S2 devices onto 5GHz is exactly what I asked you to do - the Play:5 indeed cannot connect to 5GHz.

I’m glad that wiring the Play:5 to your router has improved things - I assumed this would make it easier for the S2 app to find it before it found the others, but apparently not. Good stuff.

Would you like to see another set of diagnostics? From S2? S1? Both?

Let’s wait a little longer to make sure things have in fact improved. If they have, there’s no need - just enjoy the tunes!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

J

JCBostonAuthor

Avid Contributor II

After additional time in this ‘new regime’ my conclusions are that things are, in fact, much improved -- but also that while the changes work for me, they’re not a total solution. Allow me to offer some observations and then gracefully sign off -- because the last thing I want is to appear ungrateful for the help this thread has ultimately provided.

With my S2 devices all moved to my 5GHz wifi and my one S1 device hardwired to the router, I’m seeing fewer issues than before. But not zero issues.

Anywhere in the house, I can invoke the S1 app and see only the S1 system. Obviously, in real life the only place I would be invoking S1 is in the room with the S1 device -- so that issue is definitely solved.

But there are definitely spots throughout the house (not just the room containing the S1 device and the router) where, apparently due to wifi strength or similar issues, invoking S2 detects the S1 system first and puts me into the infinite loop that started this whole thread.

Fortunately, moving just a few feet and re-invoking the app usually gets me to the S2 system after one or two tries. The issue doesn’t seem to have any simple relation to sheer distance from the router; it might have something to do with intervening walls, etc. I’ve concluded that I can live with it.

But as I’ve said before, in an ideal world, the S2 app should be able to deal with this far more gracefully than it now does. Consider the current sequence of events:

I invoke S2 and get the message Sonos found on <my network name>. This system includes products that aren’t compatible with Sonos S2. (In other words, it’s found my S1 system first.)
My options are (a) Open S1 controller or (b) More options
Do I want to open the S1 controller? Nope. I’m in S2 and want to get to S2. So that leaves More options.

Let’s examine those options. There are basically two:

Forget Current Sonos System. Does this mean forget the S1 system (which the S2 app has just found) or the S2 system (because I’m in the S2 app)? If the latter (which I think is the case), I definitely don’t want to do that.
Reset App. Kill the connection and attempt to re-connect to S2, with no guarantee of success? Nope.

Both choices are confusing, and neither is straightforward. As I said at the beginning of this thread, there really should be a third option:

Never attempt to connect to this incompatible product again.

The S2 app could place this product’s serial number on a ‘do not connect’ list that it maintains internally. Or, if that’s too drastic, at least

Ignore this incompatible system and keep trying to find a valid S2 system instead.

With the S1/S2 approach, Sonos has gone to a lot of trouble to allow people to set up configurations that allow older systems to coexist nicely with newer ones. If that’s a real commitment, it seems to me that ultimately, S2 will have to get smarter about how it deals with legacy equipment.

Just my two cents.

Thanks.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @JCBoston

“Forget Current Sonos System” - As the app at that moment has only found S1, I presume that’s what it’s going to affect. It really isn’t that bad - reconnecting would be simple (at worst, you might need to turn off your Play:5 again for a minute).

“Reset App” - essentially, this is “forget all known Sonos systems”. Again, if S1 is powered off, it shouldn’t be a problem to reconnect.

I agree with you however - having more options would make sense. The options you suggest make a lot of sense.

As you only have one WiFi access point, your location should only affect whether or not you can get connected to the WiFi, and not which system your app happens to find when you are connected - this is weird, to say the least.

Thanks again for your feedback, and I’m glad to hear things are more dependable now.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

Sign up

Login to the community