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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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Alexa does not appear to be any better at this... :- (

 

Sigh. Same issue here too. Really would be lovely to have a fix on this. My systems are in different states but I am back and forth weekly. There's literally no easy way to make this work.

Same here! Please fix this. This bug is really frustrating.

+1 on fixing this issue

looks like the only way out is to keep growing the number of people affected by this!

so here i am +1..

I use Sonos and GA both at home and in the office, with covid restrictions now out where i live, i am back at the office dailyand it is very annoying to use the workaroundsmentioned in this thread. @Sonos team please fix this, we are your best customer-base.

This is now becoming an even bigger issue because many people (like myself) are now forced to run TWO Sonos networks because of the STUPID decision by Sonos to not make their system backwards compatible with their older hardware. 

I bought a Sub and now I am FORCED to have two Sonos Systems in ONE house. And because of that Google forces me to pick which one to control.  Yes, I could yell at Google for this but they are also forced into this weird situation by a Sonos decision.

I can only image how many customers Sonos lost because of this.  Sonos - you have had a lot of time now to see the error of this.   You can still undo this.  The discount on new hardware was not enough.  Please Please enable some concept of “Joined Sonos Systems”. 

Require speaker names to be unique (or whatever) is needed.  Do a scan of both “systems for limitations”.  But,  your app and Smart system managers like Google and Alexa should be able to control ALL Sonos devices in a single home or multiple homes and across Sonos1 and Sonos2 type networks.  This is not a huge ask but its coming from your most loyal and probably target customers that are just going to buy more Google and Amazon products instead of yours. 

 

Think about it.   

One option is to have a sonos account for each home/office and reconnect that account in google home when you arrive (takes 60 seconds). That is the only work around I have found. The platform solution would be to have the ability to connect multiple Sonos accounts in google home or multiple homes under one sonos account.

 

Did anyone follow “Ryan’s” instructions to merge systems? It sounds like you can pair all of your speakers at one site, create site specific names (all under the same network/wifi settings) and then bring the speakers to the second location?

I just opted to have the one Sonos Account only, with the S1 system/household controlled by Google assistant …and the S2HH controlled by Alexa, each with the same music services linked to the different assistant accounts. It works great …and I guess to play audio to both systems at the same time, the best thing there is to perhaps keep an Airplay component in each Sonos HH, which allows streaming audio to either/both systems, as they’re each operating on the same local subnet.

Yea but I use other GA services… “Drive time...”, my news feeds etc so I need to solve the GA to Sonos issue. Glad you have found a happy compromise.

I just opted to have the one Sonos Account only, with the S1 system/household controlled by Google assistant …and the S2HH controlled by Alexa, each with the same music services linked to the different assistant accounts. It works great …and I guess to play audio to both systems at the same time, the best thing there is to perhaps keep an Airplay component in each Sonos HH, which allows streaming audio to either/both systems, as they’re each operating on the same local subnet.

This is exactly what I did too!!!  But, how stupid is it that I have to use two different technologies to run ONE Sonos system because Sonos can’t figure out how to unify their own tech.  Really really lazy Sonos.  Super lazy, insanely lazy.

I just opted to have the one Sonos Account only, with the S1 system/household controlled by Google assistant …and the S2HH controlled by Alexa, each with the same music services linked to the different assistant accounts. It works great …and I guess to play audio to both systems at the same time, the best thing there is to perhaps keep an Airplay component in each Sonos HH, which allows streaming audio to either/both systems, as they’re each operating on the same local subnet.

This is exactly what I did too!!!  But, how stupid is it that I have to use two different technologies to run ONE Sonos system because Sonos can’t figure out how to unify their own tech.  Really really lazy Sonos.  Super lazy, insanely lazy.

Or …maybe its a restriction simply imposed on Sonos by a Google/MSP sharing agreement. We will never know, I guess, as Sonos never reveals much about such things, particularly when it comes to dealings with partner services. Sonos probably just takes the criticism from users on the chin and moves on. So I’m a little reluctant to personally point a finger in these type of situations, as the behind the scenes partner issues are not entirely clear as to who has imposed the restriction, but Sonos seem to have less to gain in my own thinking 🤔?

I just opted to have the one Sonos Account only, with the S1 system/household controlled by Google assistant …and the S2HH controlled by Alexa, each with the same music services linked to the different assistant accounts. It works great …and I guess to play audio to both systems at the same time, the best thing there is to perhaps keep an Airplay component in each Sonos HH, which allows streaming audio to either/both systems, as they’re each operating on the same local subnet.

This is exactly what I did too!!!  But, how stupid is it that I have to use two different technologies to run ONE Sonos system because Sonos can’t figure out how to unify their own tech.  Really really lazy Sonos.  Super lazy, insanely lazy.

Or …maybe its a restriction simply imposed on Sonos by a Google/MSP sharing agreement. We will never know, I guess, as Sonos never reveals much about such things, particularly when it comes to dealings with partner services. Sonos probably just takes the criticism from users on the chin and moves on. So I’m a little reluctant to personally point a finger in these type of situations, as the behind the scenes partner issues are not entirely clear as to who has imposed the restriction, but Sonos seem to have less to gain in my own thinking 🤔?

 

Well, we know for a fact that Google will not allow their voice assistant to coexist with any other voice assistant on the same smart speaker.  It’s not a tech limitation of Sonos speakers, they have shown it can be done in tests. 

Maybe Google would not have a problem with having 2 Google accounts on the same smart speaker, but that would be a bit difficult to accomplish.  Besides, that isn’t the issue here is it?

The question was about connecting 2 separate Sonos systems to the same voice account, right?  I don’t see Sonos putting a restriction on this, as your Google account would need the mechanism for storing two different Sonos accounts.  So if Sonos is to blame, it would have to be because they didn’t force Google to make changes on their side.

I have also recently discovered that I am affected by this problem, having set up a new Google Home at my studio space with a brand new set of Sonos speakers. By linking my new Google Home in the studio to my new Sonos system it has dumped my whole setup at home. This is totally unacceptable from what purports to be a premium speaker brand and I'm pretty mad about it. If I had know ahead of time I would have gone with another brand of speaker.

What brand of speaker supports multiple homes with Google accounts?

Where does Sonos claim to be a ‘premium’ speaker brand?

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If something is important to you, try to find out if it works before you buy - even if it sound logical to you that it should be working.

Did you try the work around on the first page of this thread?

@106rallye I discovered this thread yesterday so I haven't had an opportunity to try the workaround. I do not actually understand it, as it's described. I don't want to bring my arc from my studio to my home, so I guess I bring a Sonos 5 speaker from my home to my studio space. Do I have to bring all the speakers (stereo pair and sub) from my home to my studio space in order to "rebuild the system"? And then I can just move that system back to my home on a different WiFi network? I understand RyanS is trying to provide a solution but it seems like there's a lot of assumptions of steps that leave me feeling uncertain as to how to proceed.

@Airgetlam the word premium shows up in several of their product and package names, but it's also an assumption I make based on my observations on how Sonos positions themselves in their marketing. Thanks for your contribution to this issue that's frustrating several users.

I have also recently discovered that I am affected by this problem, having set up a new Google Home at my studio space with a brand new set of Sonos speakers. By linking my new Google Home in the studio to my new Sonos system it has dumped my whole setup at home. This is totally unacceptable from what purports to be a premium speaker brand and I'm pretty mad about it. If I had know ahead of time I would have gone with another brand of speaker.

It probably is designed by Google to work in this way with Sonos, to try to stop people sharing their music subscription across multiple locations - if you were able to share things for your Home and Office, then clearly people could do it for their Home and ‘other’ Family Homes, or even with their neighbours/friends - so it makes sense that to get it to work in different locations, you will need two Google accounts. I can’t see Google changing the way it works. Netflix are stamping down on this type of opportunity to share subscriptions too.

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@Ken_Griffiths There’s no subscription for Google involved, at least on my system. @DorianB Bringing one speaker is enough to build a system from.

@Ken_Griffiths There’s no subscription for Google involved, at least on my system. @DorianB Bringing one speaker is enough to build a system from.

A user though needs to have a ‘paid’ music subscription service linked to their Google Home/Assistant for it to work (it’s one Google Home per Sonos Household) - it’s a similar thing with Amazon and Alexa too, where the Amazon account is free, but the Alexa and chosen ‘paid’ music service is linked to one Sonos Household only. Otherwise we could all share our paid subscription with family and friends.

There are ways around these things, by transferring/extending the same Sonos Household, but that’s a completely different story and not relevant where different Sonos systems/Households are being used with the same Google, or Amazon account... but I accept those accounts are ‘free’. The music subscription attached to them though isn’t for them to use for playback purposes on Sonos.

@Ken_Griffiths There’s no subscription for Google involved, at least on my system. @DorianB Bringing one speaker is enough to build a system from.

Yes, extending the same Sonos Household across the different locations is ‘key’. Having two entirely different Sonos Households is the reason that the issue has arisen, with the voice assistant service needing to be switched between Home & Office..

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The link of more than one Google Account to one Spotify account (in my case) could possibly be a problem indeed. 

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