Skip to main content
jack_vancouver
Contributor I
September 1, 2019
Answered

Google assistant music play back issues

  • September 1, 2019
  • 67 replies
  • 7574 views
Help!
Google assistant works fine on my Sonos system for everything except music playback.

Assistant music playback works fine on all other devices in the house, just not Sonos.

Weather, general web enquiries all work fine, but here’s an example of the music problem:


”hey google, play Mumford and sons”

”Alright, playing Mumford and sons on YouTube music”
”sorry, I don’t know how to help with that”.

or

”hey google, play bbc radio 4 on tunein radio”

”ok, playing BBC radio 4 on tunein”
”sorry, I don’t know how to help with that yet”.

Already tried:
  • Removing and re-adding assistant
  • Removing and re-adding YouTube music
  • powering off and on Sonos speakers
  • powering off and on house router
      This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.
      Best answer by jack_vancouver
      Email just received from Sonos, cancelling my service call tomorrow because they know they can't fix it:


      Hi Jack,

      I was reviewing your case prior to our call tomorrow and it looks like you are one of a handful of customers suffering from a bug that is affecting specific accounts with Google Voice Assistant and Sonos.

      The unfortunate news it that currently the only work around is to use a different gmail account to get Google Voice working on the system but we have opened up the bug with Google and are providing them information around the affected customers as we encounter them. I'm unsure of an ETA of the fix yet, but we will keep on top of this with them to ensure we obtain one because we know that using another Google account is not an ideal solution.

      This means that there isn't anything we can really do for this with our call tomorrow, but I've added information from your ticket to our bug report and will keep your ticket in my court as we keep on this issue. Soon as I hear an update from the Google team, and if there is anything they want us to have our users try I'll reach back out to you.

      Thank you,
      Brandon G
      Sonos Escalations Team

      67 replies

      Show previous replies
      grahams1stfix
      Lyricist II
      September 10, 2019
      Ok so I just got off the phone with Gavin from Sonos and all I needed to do was make sure I add 'on Google play music' when I voice command content to play. Strangely if I used an alternative Google account I didn't need to add that on. Didn't have any issues with the speaker not being available this evening whilst on the phone but it would seem that it's an intermittent network issue.
      RyleyinSTL
      Trending Lyricist I
      September 10, 2019
      That doesn't solve it for me unfortunately.
      jack_vancouverAuthor
      Contributor I
      September 10, 2019
      Ok so I just got off the phone with Gavin from Sonos and all I needed to do was make sure I add 'on Google play music' when I voice command content to play. Strangely if I used an alternative Google account I didn't need to add that on. Didn't have any issues with the speaker not being available this evening whilst on the phone but it would seem that it's an intermittent network issue.

      Doesn't solve for me unfortunately. Even when I specify 'on YouTube music' I get the same error..
      JoeYan
      Lyricist III
      September 11, 2019
      Specifying the service name also does not solve this for me. Same behavior on Google Play, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn and regardless of what the default music service is set to.
      grahams1stfix
      Lyricist II
      September 12, 2019
      So since Tuesday and my call with Sonos support , the work around we sorted now doesn't work anymore , also using my wife's account doesn't work anymore. It's actually ridiculous. I've never known anything to work so badly as this system. I've made contact again via email. If I manage to fix it again I will post on here . Especially if anything new comes up.
      youngdizzle
      Lyricist III
      September 13, 2019
      I've had the exact same issue. When I first got my Beam and Sonos One it worked perfectly in August. 2 weeks later I am facing the exact same issue as everyone else is describing and my Sonos will no longer play from Google Music or Pandora via Google Assistant.
      jack_vancouverAuthorAnswer
      Contributor I
      September 13, 2019
      Email just received from Sonos, cancelling my service call tomorrow because they know they can't fix it:


      Hi Jack,

      I was reviewing your case prior to our call tomorrow and it looks like you are one of a handful of customers suffering from a bug that is affecting specific accounts with Google Voice Assistant and Sonos.

      The unfortunate news it that currently the only work around is to use a different gmail account to get Google Voice working on the system but we have opened up the bug with Google and are providing them information around the affected customers as we encounter them. I'm unsure of an ETA of the fix yet, but we will keep on top of this with them to ensure we obtain one because we know that using another Google account is not an ideal solution.

      This means that there isn't anything we can really do for this with our call tomorrow, but I've added information from your ticket to our bug report and will keep your ticket in my court as we keep on this issue. Soon as I hear an update from the Google team, and if there is anything they want us to have our users try I'll reach back out to you.

      Thank you,
      Brandon G
      Sonos Escalations Team
        RyleyinSTL
        Trending Lyricist I
        September 13, 2019
        I'm happy Sonos is seemingly investigating this with Google but given that this issue seems to be rare I'm not confident it will be given much of a priority at Google.

        I tried flying this up the flagpole with Google and they told me there is no support for Google Assistant only Google Home devices.
        youngdizzle
        Lyricist III
        September 13, 2019
        This sucks.... part of the reason I got Sonos One is so I could use voice commands instead of the App. Now I have to wait again.... I can't even change emails because my gmail account is the one paying for my Google Music.
        RyleyinSTL
        Trending Lyricist I
        September 13, 2019
        Exactly, the account you want to use for assistant is always going to be the one also paying for Google Music. Really sucks.
        Show more replies
        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement