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mgreen03
Contributor I
June 29, 2019
Answered

Beam IR sensor stopped recognizing remotes

I have a beam connected to optical on TV. Remote was paired and everything was working fine. One day remote volume control stopped working. I tried to set up the remote again but the IR sensor did not recognize when buttons were pushed. Tried a different remote and it didn't recognize that either. I can still control volume with the app but IR sensor does not seem to receive any signal. Any suggestions?
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    Airgetlam
    AirgetlamAnswer
    February 4, 2020

    There are some cases where an IR remote sensor gets overwhelmed by the light coming from the TV. You may want to try putting a 3x5 card tenting the location of the sensor, to ‘shade’ it from the TV’s light, and see if that makes a difference. If it does, then you can experiment further to find a solution. If it doesn’t work, then you’ve at least tried. 

    Bruce
    View in thread

    95 replies

    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    June 29, 2019
    Try replacing the batteries in your remote. If it isn’t normally an IR remote, but a Bluetooth one, make sure to reset it to send IR, it’s possible a firmware update to the TV turned that option off. Double check to be sure the line of sight between the remote and the Beam’s IR sensor isn’t obstructed, or the sensor isn’t dirty.
    Bruce
    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    June 29, 2019
    Oh, and try a simple power cycle on the Beam itself, to force a reboot of the device.
    Bruce
    dyllionos
    Lyricist III
    July 8, 2019
    Any luck. I just bought a beam this weekend and I’m having a similar problem. Worked previously but I had to unplug and move it. Since restarting, no remote control via ir.
    EdTech10
    Lyricist II
    July 10, 2019
    Customer reports the same problem with the beam. Appears to work for about 8 to 12 hours then is unresponsive to the comcast remote. No volume change and no lights. Otherwise the system works. IR receiver seems to be locked up and power cycling the beam resolves the issue for 8 to 12 hours before repeats. We replaced the Beam and the problem persists.
    dyllionos
    Lyricist III
    July 10, 2019
    Yeh that’s what I’m finding too. I’ll try it again tonight now that I’ve got it in a good spot and wasn’t planning on moving it anymore.

    I really like the beam (and sonos) so this is a bit frustrating.
    EdTech10
    Lyricist II
    July 10, 2019
    I have done 8 installs with this product and prefer the Sonos Bar. This one is troublesome and I got a response that they haven't had reports of this with any other Beams. So It would be advisable to collect as much information about the system and beam location and submit it for a ticket for them to have visibility to this issue. I am testing the first unit and trying to replicate it and even have moved the beam to the exterior window to see if it will lock up.
    cboyd
    Lyricist II
    October 3, 2019
    I can confirm the same issue of loss of IR Control and that a hard reboot of the beam returns the IR control to normal. Sounds like firmware bugs or some other issue...

    please us give us a fix!
      skdnyc
      Lyricist II
      October 14, 2019

      Confirming the same issue as in this thread.

      Beam all of a sudden lost IR response. Unable to do a remove control setup.

      Need to hard reset the Beam but unplugging it, appears to work for a bit but then loses connection again.

      This is not a remote battery or tv firmware issue. It’s the Beam that’s causing the problem.

      cboyd
      Lyricist II
      October 14, 2019

      Sorry, I meant it to be a Beam Firmware issue - not something els like the remote. 

      Here’s an interesting update to something I noticed last night: 

      1. Like others here, when I do a hard reboot (power out) i regain IR control, only to lose it again in a day or so
      2. Yesterday morning, i realized I had lost control, but didnt have the time to get behind the unit and pull the plug….
      3. Yesterday my wife started playing music from the Sonos app from our Kitchen Play5 and also to the Beam in the bedroom while she was doing house chores. (grouped)
      4. later that night, forgetting that I had lost IR control and failed to reboot (in 2 above) I was wacthing a show and went to control the volume - and it worked! I was suprised when it occued to me I hadnt rebooted it. 

      So what does this tell me? This probably has something to do with bugs in the various modes of the Beam. What I do every day is: start a playlist from SXM as an Alarm,  talk to Alexa in the morning to hear weather, call out voice command for playing streams various source ( generally Amazon Music and SXM streams) while I’m getting ready for work, etc.. Then later that evening when watching a show is when I notice loss of IR control. 

      So I’m going to try and recreate this flow:

       1) doing what I normally do in the morning and see if I later have loss of IR control. 2) spawn music from another play to also play in the bedrom. 3) see if regain IR control. 

      Wondering if somehow voice control with Alexa is getting into the mix here… 

      User574487
      Contributor I
      November 1, 2019

      Hi:

      I am having the same problem where the Beam works fine and then stops responding to the volume buttons on my remote.  If I reboot the Beam then it will work again for a couple of days and then stop.  This is very frustrating.  My remote is new, my batteries are new, the sensor is not blocked so it must be a Sonos issue as rebooting resolves the problem for awhile.  Sonos, Please help as I have many of your products and this is the first one that has not functioned properly.

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