Sonos speakers turn on themselves often in the middle of the night!!!

  • 5 September 2017
  • 15 replies
  • 4900 views

My speaker system turns itself on without being prompted. This occurs day and night, but night blaring music frightens me and is persistent. At least during the day I can turn it off. There are no alarms set and I think this is a software issue. This has been happening ever since I bought the speakers and the only way to correct is unplugging the entire system. I suspect Sonos software is just plain bad, but would love a better explanation.

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15 replies

So, you've checked the alarms, and found nothing. The next place to look is perhaps what is playing when it comes on in the middle of the night...is there a chance that a friend might have either access to your Spotify (? I think this is the one that can be controlled outside of access to your wifi, but it might be another) account, or a neighbor with access to the wifi, and they're accidentally triggering the music (and volume) on your system? Might be worth changing your wifi's password, that might help this.

If that fails, the next time it wakes you, I'd recommend that within 10 minutes of the event you submit a system diagnostic, and post the number here, for the folks at Sonos to look at. The logs that are submitted during that process would likely have data about what caused the system to come on, and they'd be able to help you resolve the issue.
Just turned itself on again without me doing anything. Diagnostic # 7807347
No one is using my Spotify account. Changing wifi password anyway.
Have you ever let anyone play Spotify Connect from their mobile device through your Sonos speakers? That is not the same as using your Spotify account.
No. I am the only one to ever connect through my current iPhone 7.
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No one is using my Spotify account. Changing wifi password anyway.
This is a good idea in general - it could be a neighbor using your WiFi and accidentally hitting Play on something, and the Sonos device responding.
I'll be interested to see what a Sonos rep has to say about that diagnostic you submitted. As near as I can tell, you've covered all the bases
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Just turned itself on again without me doing anything. Diagnostic # 7807347

Hello, and thanks for reaching out. After looking over the diagnostic there doesn't appear to be any issues that would indicate playback is starting all on its own. To help troubleshoot this issue we'll need to get some more information.

When the audio playback starts at random, what source (Spotify, Apple Music, or TuneIn) does it show as playing in the Sonos application? Do you have any devices connected to the Line-In port on your PLAY:5's?

If using the Spotify Connect feature it may be good practice to update your Spotify password to ensure that you're the only person using the account and let us know how it goes.
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Any cats in house? Known to press buttons.
I recently had this problem too but don't think it is a Sonos issue for me. I use Spotify and on investigation found lists of recently played music that definitely aren't mine. Also, my playlists disappeared on several occasions and I had to reinstall them. So finally the penny dropped and must assume my Spotify account had been hacked. NowI have updated my Spotify password and hoping I have solved this freaky problem.
Same issue. Few times in the middle of the night the system turns on. Diagnostic # 1503486330.
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You might want to contact Sonos Support with your diagnostic number, the forums see little Sonos Staff time on weekends, check the Contact page for your best option. I think they list twitter as open 24x7.
There's four potentials on this kind of thing:

1) An outside user still connected to your Sonos via Spotify
2) A TV turning on in order to check for firmware updates sending a signal through to a Sonos speaker (internal speakers aren't turned on, but apparently the optical port does get activated)
3) A device connected to a Line-In on a Sonos device triggering the Sonos to "auto-play"
4) A Sonos alarm of some type.

The diagnostic, if taken within 10 minutes of the event, should give the Sonos techs an indication of what the "wake up" event was.
The diagnostic, if taken within 10 minutes of the event, should give the Sonos techs an indication of what the "wake up" event was.Actually the diagnostic log in question doesn't 'age out' as such. (That is an issue for RF interference, for example.) The log which records playback control events only wraps out after it fills with further events. If nothing much happens until the morning the evidence should still be intact.
Ah, thanks for the clarification.