Google assistant: I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices Sonos


Userlevel 2
Hi there just set up google assistant on my sonos 5.1 and two other sonos ones.

Setup was smooth, but after installation, it gives the following reply whenever I ask Hey google to play music/ spotify etc.

My google music services is the same spotify account as my sonos default. same for the sonos device setting.

I can skip track, pause, stop music once I've launched spotify from my phone etc.

Hope someone can help 🙂

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53 replies

French American Beat's solution worked for me too.

Userlevel 1

Hello everyone,

I just had the same issue and it started to drive me crazy. My BF and I started to check for solutions and we found the one below that has resolved everything. 

Just a little recap first on my specific situation:

I had my Sonos 1 set up with Sonos 1 app. Everything worked fine for months. Then, suddenly, it was bugging and it was not really responding to my commands. 

So, we decided to reset my Sonos 1. After doing that, Sonos told us to download the new SONOS S2 app, which we did. I then linked it to my Google Assistant. That is when I started to have the problem of Google assistant saying : I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices Sonos

The issue was that I had 2 devices linked to Google Assistant, therefore Google assistant was confused. 

So, the solution that resolved everything has been:

Go to Google assistant app (I didn’t have the GAP so I had to install it to resolve this). 

Then, scroll down to Assistant Devices. I noticed that 2 devices were linked. The first one was when I had Sonos S1 app and the second device was set up with Sonos S2 app. So, I went to the device with Sonos S1 and unlinked it. The device then disappeared from the list. And, only my setting with Sonos S2 app remained. 

Since then, everything works. 

Hope it will help you!

Happy Holidays :)

Userlevel 5
Badge +14

Hi @Nivamir.

Welcome, thank you for reaching back to Sonos Community.

I would like to recommend calling our customer phone support on this so you can be assisted with more thorough and in-depth troubleshooting steps as well as remote diagnostics that can be remotely gathered from your Sonos devices with your permission.

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

 

@Mark P thanks for the response.

 

Just after posting this workaround, the same issue actually started occurring again. Before it never worked, now it seems to randomly work and randomly give an error.

Would be great if someone from support could reach out to troubleshoot.

Userlevel 5
Badge +14

Hi @Nivamir.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community and sharing your experience and workaround.

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

 

A very annoying issue indeed.

 

I tried a few of the suggestions from this thread and managed to get it to work on my beam.

 

1. Change assistant language to EN (US)

2. Change speaker name to a unique name

3. Deleted an inactive speaker from a different room

 

That did the job!

Hi @OARfan24.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community.

Here are the list of commands to control Sonos with the Google Assistant.

Let us know if it works. If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

 

I still cannot issue a command to a Google Nest Mini as follows:
”Hey Google, play playlist Super Awesome on bedroom Sonos”.

Response:
“I can't do that here but you can ask me to play it on one of your other devices Sonos”

 

Specifically from Google Nest Mini this does not work. However, all of the following do work:

  • From the Mini I can play album or song or artist and target a Sonos in a different room.
  • From a Google Assistant on a Sonos One I can play a GPM playlist directly on the Sonos One.
  • From Google Assistant on a phone or tablet I can target a Sonos device with a GPM playlist.

 

Userlevel 5
Badge +14

Hi @OARfan24.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community.

Here are the list of commands to control Sonos with the Google Assistant.

Let us know if it works. If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

 

 

Userlevel 1

I think I’m closer to a breakthrough. It does has something to do with the name. If I say “play Tom Petty radio” it doesn’t work but if I say “play Tom Petty radio on “patio” it works. Patio is the name of my Sonos device. 
 

 

I have the same problem “I can’t do that here”  when I try to play spotify on my sonos one. 

I’ve tried pretty much all tips from this thread.

Did anybody manage to solve the issue?

I actually managed to get a solution on my own.

My issue was related to the fact that Sonos supports FR-FR language and not FR-CH language (I'm in Switzerland). I actually had to go in the google home settings and change my language to French (French) to make it work....

I have the same problem “I can’t do that here”  when I try to play spotify on my sonos one. 

I’ve tried pretty much all tips from this thread.

Did anybody manage to solve the issue?

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

Or well done Google, which supplies different services and seems to favor its own devices…..

How so? You think that Google have programmed this? the GA devices plays the stream and passes it to SONOS for output and it fails only with Jimi Hendrix? It used to work. It now does not. It does not work for radio streams either. SONOS and GA has deteriorated over the last few months. 

It will play one artist and not another. consistently. repeatable. You would think that after 2 months that SONOS software guys might be able to come up with a solution - they are apparently aware of the issue and working on it

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Or well done Google, which supplies different services and seems to favor its own devices…..

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I have the same problem

Can you test the following; 

using a Google Nest (or mini) with your SONOS device set as the default speaker. 

Default music service as GPM

‘Hey Google, Play Jimi Hendrix”

“Playing The Jimi Hendrix Experience from Google Play Music on KITCHEN (my SONOS device), Sorry, I can’t find what you asked for”

Nothing plays

“Hey Google, play The Beatles”

“Playing The Beatles from Google Play Music on KITCHEN (my SONOS device)” and The Beatles her Comes the Sun begins to play on my SONOS device as expected.

I can only conclude that SONOS has something against Jimi Hendrix

If I remove the SONOS as the default speakers then it all works fine.

I am then forced to choose between voice control and using Google speakers or no voice control and using SONOS speakers Well done SONOS.

I'm getting the message from Google 'I can't do that here but..." only when I ask it to play one of my google play playlists on a Sonos target. If I ask it to play a specific track or even just artist it works fine, but it won't play any of my playlists. I have a paid Google Play Music subscription. It was working when I first set up Sonos zones as default playback locations when that became possible, but has not worked now for over a month. 

I’m having the same issue with GA targetting a Sonos with a GPM playlist. Does anyone else? I spoke with Sonos today via chat, and I was told sending playlists from Google Assistant to a Sonos is not supported. I was advised that as per this article, playlists are not supported with Google Assistant. You can play artist, album, song or genre.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3490

 

This is certainly true for me as those work, but playlists do not. What’s a bit strange is that in some cases I did get a playlist to play to a Sonos, but not the one sonos expected, and I couldn’t repeat the process. Everyone in this household heavily utilizes playlists so this is pretty disappointing. 

I did some further testing. This doesn’t appear to be a limitation with Google Assistant. Rather, it’s something to do with Google Assistant on a Next Mini. I did these further tests

 

  1. Integrated Google Assistance with a Sonos One. From there, I am able to play a Google Play Music playlist to that Sonos just fine. I am also able to send a GPM playlist to any of the other Sonos in the house that aren’t voice integrated (Play:1).
  2. Using Google Assistant voice control on a phone or tablet I am also able to send GPA playlist to any of the Sonos in the house.

 

So, this appears to specifically be an issue related to (at least in my case) integration with the Nest Mini.

I am experiencing the same bug. Nest Mini > Google Play Music playlist > Sonos worked until 2 months ago but suddenly stopped working. I have the same experience as Mikey, I can get GPM playlists to play via my phone/Google Assistant. Just the Nest Home Hub or Nest Mini no longer work.

Any word from Sonos on addressing it? Seems like basic integration functionality (and it used to work!).

 

 

 

I think I have found the cause of this on my system. I had moved the SONOS One to a new room and reset the speaker, reconnected to the WiFi and then added the voice service for Google. Since then I got the “I cant do that here”  message. When I went into the Google Assistant app and checked under settings/ devices there were duplicates for the SONOS One under Assistant Devices. I solved the problem by deleting ALL the SONOS entries and then gong back to the SONOS app and re-adding the voice service.

 

hope this helps.

Thanks a lot PaulHill.. it works!! 

I had the same issue. The solve for me was going to Google Home app and unlinking the Spotify account and linking it again. For some reason it didn’t see my Spotify account as premium before I did this.  Hope this helps.

This helped me too. I am using Sonos Move. Had issues but after doing what you have suggested it works just fine. Thank you!!

I'm getting the message from Google 'I can't do that here but..." only when I ask it to play one of my google play playlists on a Sonos target. If I ask it to play a specific track or even just artist it works fine, but it won't play any of my playlists. I have a paid Google Play Music subscription. It was working when I first set up Sonos zones as default playback locations when that became possible, but has not worked now for over a month. 

I’m having the same issue with GA targetting a Sonos with a GPM playlist. Does anyone else? I spoke with Sonos today via chat, and I was told sending playlists from Google Assistant to a Sonos is not supported. I was advised that as per this article, playlists are not supported with Google Assistant. You can play artist, album, song or genre.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3490

 

This is certainly true for me as those work, but playlists do not. What’s a bit strange is that in some cases I did get a playlist to play to a Sonos, but not the one sonos expected, and I couldn’t repeat the process. Everyone in this household heavily utilizes playlists so this is pretty disappointing. 

I did some further testing. This doesn’t appear to be a limitation with Google Assistant. Rather, it’s something to do with Google Assistant on a Next Mini. I did these further tests

 

  1. Integrated Google Assistance with a Sonos One. From there, I am able to play a Google Play Music playlist to that Sonos just fine. I am also able to send a GPM playlist to any of the other Sonos in the house that aren’t voice integrated (Play:1).
  2. Using Google Assistant voice control on a phone or tablet I am also able to send GPA playlist to any of the Sonos in the house.

 

So, this appears to specifically be an issue related to (at least in my case) integration with the Nest Mini.

I'm getting the message from Google 'I can't do that here but..." only when I ask it to play one of my google play playlists on a Sonos target. If I ask it to play a specific track or even just artist it works fine, but it won't play any of my playlists. I have a paid Google Play Music subscription. It was working when I first set up Sonos zones as default playback locations when that became possible, but has not worked now for over a month. 

I’m having the same issue with GA targetting a Sonos with a GPM playlist. Does anyone else? I spoke with Sonos today via chat, and I was told sending playlists from Google Assistant to a Sonos is not supported. I was advised that as per this article, playlists are not supported with Google Assistant. You can play artist, album, song or genre.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3490

 

This is certainly true for me as those work, but playlists do not. What’s a bit strange is that in some cases I did get a playlist to play to a Sonos, but not the one sonos expected, and I couldn’t repeat the process. Everyone in this household heavily utilizes playlists so this is pretty disappointing. 

I'm getting the message from Google 'I can't do that here but..." only when I ask it to play one of my google play playlists on a Sonos target. If I ask it to play a specific track or even just artist it works fine, but it won't play any of my playlists. I have a paid Google Play Music subscription. It was working when I first set up Sonos zones as default playback locations when that became possible, but has not worked now for over a month. 

Try unlinking in Google Home and linking again, it takes a minute. 

I think I have found the cause of this on my system. I had moved the SONOS One to a new room and reset the speaker, reconnected to the WiFi and then added the voice service for Google. Since then I got the “I cant do that here”  message. When I went into the Google Assistant app and checked under settings/ devices there were duplicates for the SONOS One under Assistant Devices. I solved the problem by deleting ALL the SONOS entries and then gong back to the SONOS app and re-adding the voice service.

 

hope this helps.

 

Don’t have to do anything with Google Assistant, just unlink Sonos in Google Home and link again.

My problem came after I struggle all day to connect to a new wi-fi router which apparently messed up something so my Move was responding with that cryptic message but the rest of system was fine.

Userlevel 2

I'm getting the message from Google 'I can't do that here but..." only when I ask it to play one of my google play playlists on a Sonos target. If I ask it to play a specific track or even just artist it works fine, but it won't play any of my playlists. I have a paid Google Play Music subscription. It was working when I first set up Sonos zones as default playback locations when that became possible, but has not worked now for over a month. 

I had the same issue. The solve for me was going to Google Home app and unlinking the Spotify account and linking it again. For some reason it didn’t see my Spotify account as premium before I did this.  Hope this helps.

Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Iam having trouble with duplicate sonos devices again in google home…..

Default sonos speakers won’t stick to google speakers either…..

Un linking sonos from google assistant, leaves my sonos devices showing, then if i link sonos again it re-adds them and doubles up sonos devices…

 

Trying google re-syn devices, gives “sorry sonos can only be by the user that added it in google home app”.  Iam the user that added it…….. (edit - turns out it wasn’t as far as google was concerned, it was my wifes account)

 

My phone was my wifes, so changed to her as user in google home, tried re-syn and no longer gives above syn error, go into devices and sonos is still linked, un link and finally duplicates are removed.

That’s seems to have sorted it, default sonos speakers seem to stick, no duplicates.

So i didn’t understand what the re-sync comment meant…..

 

Now onto re-syn hive that gives warning as well ;O((

 

Badge +2

Hi : diagnostic number is 1874054287

thanks