Question

Google Assistant not always responding and timer not stopping

T
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

Q
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.
L
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
J
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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
J
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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
J
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I have the same issue on sonos one gen 2

gen 1 in same house is fine
J
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They have diff names, have tried reinstalling to

they worked fine a week ago
Ken_Griffiths
Did you try removing the GA assistant from the speakers room settings in the Sonos App and then re-adding it?
G
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For me to get my sonos to work with google again I had to pause the Voice & Audio Activity within googles activity controls, I know seem to get a response

yeah someone figured it out, when you disable the activity controls it works again! didn't check when you turn it back on..
J
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sonos support not replied for 3 days now, but cant see how dns would fix anything when my gen 1 works but gen 2 doesnt in same house...
Ken_Griffiths
sonos support not replied for 3 days now, but cant see how dns would fix anything when my gen 1 works but gen 2 doesnt in same house...
The Sonos staff are not always about to respond to everything on these pages, as this is mostly a community platform for 'users' to discuss matters with other 'users' (mostly).

You are perhaps best to contact them directly, via their official customer care links here.
J
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sorry, I meant I have an ongoing support case direct with support engineers on this - but they have gone radio silent for 3 days....
Ken_Griffiths
sorry, I meant I have an ongoing support case direct with support engineers on this - but they have gone radio silent for 3 days....
Ah right, I hope you get it sorted soon.

You can probably speak to the Staff via Twitter or Facebook to get an update, those support links are 24/7.
Ken_Griffiths
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).
1 Attachment
G
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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?
J
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here you go

1 Attachment
Ken_Griffiths
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?
J
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it seems in the living room it no longer understands half of my commands

1 Attachment
Ken_Griffiths
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 ?
J
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sure have
J
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all this has started in the last week since the outage, was 100% perfect before
J
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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

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J
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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
Ken_Griffiths
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.
L
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!
Ken_Griffiths

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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