Question

App will not connect unless I enable location.

  • 31 July 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 1165 views

I’ve used this Sonos speaker previously with the Android app but now I’m unable to connect to it unless I enable location services. Could anyone help explain why? This used to work great but I never had to use this before. Is this new and I don’t remember enabling this before or did the app used to work without this?


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4 replies

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

I seem to recall location needs to be enabled when setting up a new or reset speaker but it's certainly not needed after.

Userlevel 6
Badge +16

Hi @anonsonosuser, Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the community. I agree with @Bernado, during the initial setup for your Sonos products on the Sonos App, you need to enable location services because Location access is required to detect your nearby speakers during setup and your mobile device’s WiFi network information. You may check this link about Sonos App permissions for reference. 

Let us know how you get on with the advice above.

We're here to answer any further questions you have.

Hi @anonsonosuser, Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the community. I agree with @Bernado, during the initial setup for your Sonos products on the Sonos App, you need to enable location services because Location access is required to detect your nearby speakers during setup and your mobile device’s WiFi network information. You may check this link about Sonos App permissions for reference. 

Let us know how you get on with the advice above.

We're here to answer any further questions you have.

This is technically BS. All speakers are on a local area network, so having the mobile app connect via the network will always find the speakers. If the speakers contain GPS modules without explicitly stating so, it would be a grave disrespect for my privacy.

The “option” is used to enable\disable certain features like streaming services. 

Sonos probably does not trust the users\speakers public IP address to detect the physical location, as VPNs are popular now days. I still think you should be able to opt-out\skip of GPS location logging/registration.

Userlevel 6
Badge +16

Hi @bartdep, Thank you for reaching out and welcome to the community. Thanks for bringing this up and sorry if you feel this way about your privacy in connecting to the Sonos App. You can enable the location while using the app. Some features of Sonos require certain permissions to be allowed on your mobile device. We care about your privacy concerns. For more information, see our Sonos App permissions and Sonos App Privacy Policy page for reference about all the permissions that are being asked for the Sonos App.

Please, feel free to let me know if you require any further information.

We're here to answer any further questions you have.