Question

Google Assistant not always responding and timer not stopping


Hi all

I have recently been experiencing problems with my Sonos One with GA. Everything was working fine until around a couple of weeks ago when Google does not always respond when saying "Hey Google" or "Okay Google", even when the chime sounds. The problem appears to have been getting worse. Also recently, when setting timers (say for cooking etc.) when the time is up and we tell Google to "stop the timer" or "cancel timer" etc., it stops for a bit but then starts beeping after a few seconds. As you can imagine this can be infuriating and the only way to stop it has been to switch off the Sonos from the mains.

All in all, i.e. general responsiveness of the Sonos to GA commands seems to be fairly laggy when compared to our Google Home minis which are a lot more snappy and responsive. I'm wondering whether these are just teething issues which Sonos is working through and whether anyone else has experienced patchy performance?

Thanks

TT

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32 replies

I'm having a similar issue, it seemed to start happening for me 4-5 days ago and as you've said, slowly gotten worse. It's now at the point where it basically doesn't respond to anything.

It can hear me fine, 'Okay Google' trigger works perfectly across the room, whatever I say after the chime happens seems to just be discarded, I've switched back to Alexa and that works perfectly fine too.

I've done factory resets, unlinked my Sonos account from Google Assistant, swapped speakers in and around different rooms, reset the controller, several times - and nothing seems to work.

Basically, Google Assistant just doesn't work for me now. On the odd occasion I have been able to get it to work, e.g. when setting timers like your example - I haven't been able to get it to stop the timer either.

When Google Assistant first went live in the UK on Sonos (not so long ago), it worked pretty much perfectly for me.
Qassim,

A few things that perhaps need clarifying and checking ...
  • What is your default GA language setting? Ensure there is only one installed.
  • What is your premium music subscription service and have you set it as default?
  • Can you perhaps post a screenshot of your “Google Home” from the GH App... Ensure only one 'Home' is in use.
  • Have you ensured the same MSP Account/credentials are installed in the Sonos App.
  • Is the GA voice assistant showing in your Sonos One Room Settings?
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I have the same issue on sonos one gen 2

gen 1 in same house is fine
I have the same issue on sonos one gen 2

gen 1 in same house is fine

It's unusual to work on one Sonos device and not the other.

Is the gen2 speaker name perhaps clashing with other smart home device names perhaps? Make sure you are using unique names for each of your devices.

Have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling the google voice assistant in the Sonos App room settings?
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They have diff names, have tried reinstalling to

they worked fine a week ago
Did you try removing the GA assistant from the speakers room settings in the Sonos App and then re-adding it?
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yeah tried that, still same, have put alexa back on my sonos one gen 2 and that is fine.

I dont get why GA works fine on my sonos one gen1 but not 2
yeah tried that, still same, have put alexa back on my sonos one gen 2 and that is fine.

I dont get why GA works fine on my sonos one gen1 but not 2

Have you got a screenshot of your 'Home' devices and the relevant 'Rooms' .. just to see if that might help throw some light on the matter.

Here is a small part of my Home, just as an example...(see attached).
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here you go

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it will resond to some questions eg whats the time, but wont answer tell me a job or set timer - these commands are all fine in the kitchen on sonos one
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it seems in the living room it no longer understands half of my commands

jimmyjamesh,

Your Home setup looks okay to me ... it’s strange the assistant is not hearing you correctly. Have you tried powering off/on the device you are talking to and maybe also toggling off/on the small mic/LED ?
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sure have
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all this has started in the last week since the outage, was 100% perfect before
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just asked it the weather twice and it responded once for the midlands and once for wales - crazy!

Altho it seems I would be warmer in Wales for info

ha ha ... I assume you have checked your Sonos profile language is set correctly and that the language in the Google App is English (United Kingdom) ...the GA App should have one language only.

I’m sure you will have checked that already and the fact it was okay prior to the recent outage, makes me think there are still some issues that have not been resolved. It may pay to give Sonos Customer Care a call on Monday and maybe refer them to this thread.
jimmyjamesh,

Here is my recent test, just a few moments ago, showing my Google activity. The Speaker in this instance and utterances are to a Sonos One (gen 1) with Deezer set as the default music service. Language is set to English (United Kingdom).

My speaker is working okay and myActivity is working fine too (see attachment)... I’m just wondering why mine would work and your Sonos One (gen 1) is not picking up your utterances correctly?

It can’t be a faulty mic if it works okay with Alexa...so its really an unusual issue. It must be a local issue. My only thoughts are to perhaps change the DNS on your router to the Google DNS server at 8.8.4.4 and see if that makes any difference.
I also have the unknown voice commands for weeks now. It worked perfectly fine before GA was officially released in the Netherlands. It misses 5-10 commands now. Hope someone can find a breakthrough in this issue
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Qassim,

A few things that perhaps need clarifying and checking ...
  • What is your default GA language setting? Ensure there is only one installed.
  • What is your premium music subscription service and have you set it as default?
  • Can you perhaps post a screenshot of your “Google Home” from the GH App... Ensure only one 'Home' is in use.
  • Have you ensured the same MSP Account/credentials are installed in the Sonos App.
  • Is the GA voice assistant showing in your Sonos One Room Settings?


Why only one language?
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I have sonos support on the case and they say others have report similar issues on certain devices

I have created these videos to demonstrate the issue

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UxiVxPwxQpvS1jgD8
Hi Jimmyjamesh,

Good job. I think I'm going to do the same. Do you have any experience with the response time from Sonos on issues like these? Thx!

Qassim,

A few things that perhaps need clarifying and checking ...
  • What is your default GA language setting? Ensure there is only one installed.
  • What is your premium music subscription service and have you set it as default?
  • Can you perhaps post a screenshot of your “Google Home” from the GH App... Ensure only one 'Home' is in use.
  • Have you ensured the same MSP Account/credentials are installed in the Sonos App.
  • Is the GA voice assistant showing in your Sonos One Room Settings?
Why only one language?

Just in case the language setting, maybe causing an issue Not all language settings are supported at this stage. I would just choose to set one only, which is actually known to be supported by GA on Sonos.
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it seems in the living room it no longer understands half of my commands



I've had the same! Phew, nice to know it not just my sonos
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I've already in the past showed this to sonos on twitter

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7AtUa8BqTQLF3f1K6
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It's gettting worse, look:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LP715SCUSfXLXbx99