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Google Assistant support for multiple homes with single Sonos account?


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I switched all of my Sonos devices at my upstate home this weekend from Alexa to Google Assistant (2x Beam and 2x Sonos One) and everything worked great and controlled all of those as well as my 3x Connect:Amp devices. The Beam CEC control to turn on and off TVs with Google works great!

I attempted to update the Beam and Sonos One at my apartment when I returned to the city and when I run through the process, the Google Assistant app fails to find any devices.

My apartment setup has the same Sonos account with the latest firmware updates, same Google Account (which is configured for two homes) and is on the the same UniFi networking equipment (different SSIDs).

Are there any known limitations with a single Sonos account at multiples homes? There shouldn't be any limitations on the Google side as I have Ecobee thermostats at Google Home locations. The only other difference is that that I don't have any "real" Google products like a Home Mini at my apartment, so I'm wondering if a regular Google device needs to be a home hub to set up non-Google devices.

Thanks,
Sean
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Best answer by Ryan S 31 May 2019, 21:07

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Anyone else have setup Google Assistant with multiple locations?

Can anyone that works at Sonos able to confirm the expected behavior?
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Hi Sean, the Google Assistant integration with Sonos is designed to link one Google Account with a single Sonos household. In the apartment, you're likely running a different Sonos household ID (which is expected for different systems). This is why you're having trouble.

The best thing you can do is to either have two Google Accounts, or try to merge your two Sonos households. Merging the households involves bringing a speaker from one location to the other and resetting one of the two systems. Then rebuilding the location using the speaker from the other house as an existing system. It's a little tricky and will delete any playlists and settings you have on the system you're merging.
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And the other way around: splitting?

I have a Playbar, Sub and 2 Play:1's and I used them as a set. But some time ago I've taken the Play:1's and brought them to my other house. I use the same Sonos account and the same Google account. When I ask Google Assistant to play something on the Playbar, it starts playing in the house where I first setup Google Assistant.

Strange thing is that the Google Assistant setup in my second house looked like to go properly, no errors. But no Sonos speaker appeared in my list of the other location.

I've tried to split the system by creating a new Sonos account (for the 2 Play:1's in my second home) and then setup Google Assistant but that didn't work either. :(

It's no option for me to create a second Google account since both homes are smart homes with lots of other smart devices. E.g. I can control lights, switches and thermostats for both locations in one Google account.

How strange is it that I can not use Google Assistant on Sonos on both locations?
Is this a Google limitation? Of a design choice by Sonos?
And will it be possible in the (near) future? I guess it's a matter of time and more customers will have the the same need.

Is there another workaround for this problem?
Also affected by this limitation as I have both an apartment and a summerhouse. Just to confirm:

- Two Sonos systems at two different locations
- Two Google Home homes configured
- One Sonos account
- One Google account
- Only able to configure Google Assistant on speakers in one system/home as it seems like Sonos can only be linked once from Google Home

Have discovered this limitation myself in trying to setup both my house and my parents house. 

 

Looks like I'll have to use separate Google accounts and try it that way. I just need to be able to retain the 'admin' type access and control as I'll be maintaining things not the pensioner age parents. 

 

Question is - is this a Google limitation or a Sonos one? I have one Alexa device not two so not sure if I can test that out to see if it will work? 

Have the same problem with two homes, really irritating

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Same exact problem. Sonos please help! 

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Same exact problem. Sonos please help! 


Personally, I’m not sure how this would work. If it was possible to have a single Sonos Account across multiple locations linked to a single Amazon account, it would mean that:

  1. You would need to ensure that there are no duplicate device names, groups or Sonos Rooms - Only one kitchen, etc;
  2. Anybody in either location could play music, set alarms in either location - either by mistake or for a laugh!

I can understand the frustration about creating multiple accounts for multiple locations but the problems associated with single linked accounts across multiple locations would introduce a nightmare.  When Alexa integration was first released, I helped someone who lived on the east coast of the US and whose partner lived on the west coast.  They had mixed up their initial account registration between Amazon and Sonos and a voice request on one system would start playing music in the other, not great with the time difference!

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You bring up great points, However, Sonos & Google Assistant seem to be the only primary  platform combo we're having this problem with. No issues with Sonos & Alexa across multiple homes. Google Assistant can handle multiple Nest homes, multiple homes for Honeywell thermostats, etc. Sonos can handle multiple homes. It seems like we just need a the right Sonos developers to talk with the right Google developers, recreate this problem & then solve this quickly for all. 

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Hi, since I have the same problem too, is there a way to open a bug to sonos in order to ask to fix it? 

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Same issue.  Very frustrating. Please fix!

Same problem here. Two homes with each running extensive Sonos systems connected to a single Sonos account, one Google account. Google allows you two setup multiple homes for the purpose of connected devices and google assistant. Sonos recognizes multiple networks on a single account BUT only allows one of the Sonos home groups (aka collection of Sonos products on a single network) to work within the google ecosystem at a time (as evidenced by how it forces you to select one when you link Sonos to Google home).

 

It seems like a programming issue that should be easy to fix; however, it’s probably not a top priority for Sonos or Google because only being able to use a voice assistant in ONE of your multiple homes that has expensive Sonos equipment is up there in isolated first-world wypipo problems. 

I have the same problem; pointing it out to jog this thread to the top again in hopes someone from Sonos is listening. I hope it is a Sonos programming problem, because I think they are likely to be more responsive than Google.

Has anyone actually tried Ryan’s solution in the second response? Given that I would be merging the systems, would I still have be able to have two different music libraries on each system (music is on a NAS that is local to each location)?

Given that Sonos focuses on the high end of the market where many of us  likely  have multiple homes and/or home and office setups… maybe there will be an eventual solution? I don’t want to switch to Alexa...

Add me to the list of affected people.  Would be great if Sonos followed what is increasingly becoming an industry norm- having a “home”, then “rooms” within the “home”, and supporting having a single account sit across multiple homes.  

 

It should go without saying that people installing Sonos in multiple homes are your most passionate customers.  To decline to fix this issue would be a poor choice 

I’m in the same boat as everyone else here—but I’m still not clear on how the “Two Google account solution” works. By reading this thread, and several others, it sounds like if you have two homes, each with its own dedicated Google account, you should be able to use Google Assistant for each home’s respective Sonos speakers. 

Is anyone doing that—and if so, is that how it works?

I have a primary residence and a vacation home and I’ve been running them both off of the same Google account—with two homes within the single Google account. I just recently tried to set up Google Assistant at my vacation home after setting up a second Sonos system there and ran into the  same issue everyone else is experiencing. If separating each house into its own Google account will enable me to use Google Assistant on each home’s respective Sonos system I’ll do it—but I’m not sure if it will actually work because both systems are still linked my single Sonos account—I can’t figure out if that matters or not. 

I just don’t want to disconnect everything, set up a second Google account and reconnect everything if it’s not going to allow me to use Google Assistant via my Sonos speakers at each home.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

The “two google accounts” solution would require you to log out of one google account, then log back into the other account each time you move between homes.  That might not be terrible if you go between the homes once or twice a year.  However, I have properties that I go between quite often.  Again, I would urge Sonos to adopt the industry standard and allow us to have two or more homes and simply select between the houses

Also- Spotify needs to have the same email address on the Spotify account and the Google account.  I’m not keen on having to purchase and maintain separate Spotify accounts (losing the play lists, paying for separate accounts, etc.)

Same problem here. Bloody annoying.

Same problem here. Please update this soon. In the Google home App I created 2 different homes, but the App only finds the Sonos system which is in the flat which wifi I am using during the conn process. 

The solution should be implemented soon or I will switch to another brand for my secondary flat.

 

Same here. Need to delete the Sonos accound in google home and re-add GA when visiting my summer house. Really frustrating.

I’m in the same boat. Tried bringing all my sonos devices to one home and adding them all together twice however, as soon as I take them to my other home sonos decides to split them up into two separate systems and only one system becomes available in google home, annoying. I’m seriously considering dropping sonos in one location.

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Adding my irritation with the inability to use Google assistant and Sonos at multiple homes. This seems like it should be the easiest solution to resolve. Alas, GA only works at one home despite google home and Sonos properly indicating the ability for two locations. 

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I contribute to this issue as I goes between like three or four locations like home, weekend house and office 

This should really be a priority to Sonos business model that people should have Sonos system all around 

I am extremely disappointed to learn about this. I bought a Sonos move and a sound bar in the fall for 2 different homes. The bar came from Costco. Thinking I will just return it and get another brand.  

Not sure how a company selling premium products isnt fixing this. 

My confusion is that I have two separate sonos systems, which have two different email accounts. . One is at work and one at home.

When I try to add Google Assistant at home it only shows the 4 speakers on my work system and doesn't show the home speakers at all. Then when I look at my full account I can see all the speakers at home and work. But when using each system I only see the speakers on that system.

​​​​​​I don't honestly see what options there are. Suggestions? 

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