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Can't Control Sonos Volume with Samsung Galaxy Watch

  • 6 April 2021
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I can’t control my Sonos system volume from my Galaxy 3 watch. Has anyone figured this out?

 

I can control the Sonos Pause and Skip functions from my watch.

 

I have the Sonos S2 app on my Samsung Note 9 phone. To enable Sonos control on my watch, I followed these instructions: On the phone, open Sonos App Settings > App Preferences and turn on “Show Notifications,” “Show Lock Screen Controls,” “Control From Other Devices,” and “Home Screen Volume Control.”

 

This worked, and the music app on my watch now has a Sonos option. It shows the title of the current song playing and the Pause and Skip functions work. The volume control is changing the Media volume on my phone, which would normally work, but on my phone there is a new slider labeled Sonos in my volume control. Its icon is a little box with the wireless lines in the corner, similar to the “Cast” icon in Chrome and YouTube for casting the display to a TV. Adjusting the Media volume slider on my phone (or from the watch) doesn’t change the Sonos volume anymore, only the new Sonos volume slider works.

 

I don’t remember having a separate Sonos volume slider before. Did the separate volume control for Sonos in Android come in the S2 app?

 

By experimenting, I found that the new Sonos volume slider is added to the phone’s volume controls when I enable “Home Screen Volume Control” in the Sonos app settings. If that isn’t turned on (i.e. the Sonos slider isn’t displayed), I can’t adjust the Sonos volume from my phone’s volume settings, I can only use the volume slider in the Sonos S2 app.

 

I’m wondering, is this an issue with the Sonos app not respecting the phone’s media volume control, or is it an issue with the Samsung phone or watch not connecting the S2 app’s volume control to the watch’s music app when Sonos is selected?

 

I’m thinking that Samsung figured “there’s no way a media app would be stupid enough to bypass the MEDIA volume control of the phone. We can just use that and make our application simpler.”

 

I know that I’d prefer being able to adjust the Sonos volume with my phone’s Media volume control.

 

So, does anyone know how to tie the Sonos volume to the phone’s Media volume control?

Or, does anyone know how to access the phone’s Sonos S2 app volume control from a smartwatch?

 

Side note: Once I got access to the Sonos controls from my watch, I tried turning off the “Control From Other Devices” setting in the S2 app and I can still use the controls on my watch. This didn’t change anything with the volume issue described above.

 

Thank you

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Best answer by James L. 7 April 2021, 10:17

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James L.
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Hi @RokitMan, thanks for reaching out.

 

I, too, have a Galaxy Watch (albeit an older model, S2 Classic) and can confirm the same experience you’re having. Let me try to answer the questions separately, so it’s easier to follow.

 

I don’t remember having a separate Sonos volume slider before. Did the separate volume control for Sonos in Android come in the S2 app?

For as long as I can remember that slider has always been present when controlling Sonos volume from the home screen (i.e. without the Sonos app foregrounded) and is not a change made in S2. 

 

I’m wondering, is this an issue with the Sonos app not respecting the phone’s media volume control, or is it an issue with the Samsung phone or watch not connecting the S2 app’s volume control to the watch’s music app when Sonos is selected?

It’s neither. Sonos and System Media volumes are indeed completely separate. The only exception I could think of to this would be if you’re connected to a Move or Roam via Bluetooth, then the media controls would be directly linked. Your watch likely just doesn’t have the capabilities to control anything other than the general media volume.

 

So, does anyone know how to tie the Sonos volume to the phone’s Media volume control?

Or, does anyone know how to access the phone’s Sonos S2 app volume control from a smartwatch?

I’m afraid not. Sonos doesn’t use the phone’s media volume since the app doesn’t need to play anything directly through your phone’s audio sources (headphones or internal speakers). The app is essentially a remote control for your connected speakers and the volume controls are thus separate from everything else going on inside your phone. Again, the only exception to this would be if you were casting to a Bluetooth enabled speaker, but even that wouldn’t really use the Sonos app at all.

 

I know it’s not the answer you were hoping for but I hope I was able to clear things up a bit.

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