Beam IR sensor stopped recognizing remotes

I’m having the same issue. Resetting the Beam fixes it. It’s not batteries, and it’s not about the sensor getting flooded. There are a few threads on the forums about the same issue. I hope Sonos takes note as I’m also thinking of sending this back, like many others.

I just bought a beam and installed it and the volume will no work with my remote at all.  When it was hooked up to the HDMI it would, but I had to change it to the optical because I was told that is the only way to play the other video and gaming components I have running through the TV.  Now the only way we can control the volume is through the ap on my phone. So my kids can’t change the volume unless my husband or I am around - which is frustrating. I also don’t like that I have to do that. I’ve created a case, but have been told it will take 7 days before I hear back from someone. After reading all these posts, it seems like this has been an issue for a while.  Has there been a resolution? 

Yes I have but no solution as yet.

I am having this same problem. Bought a Beam (my first Sonos product) just before Christmas - it’s been fine for the first three weeks with both my Sky Q remote and OneForAll remote controlling the volume on it without issue, but the other day suddenly stopped being responsive to either device. I can see that both remotes are working, but the Beam doesn’t pick them up (no flashing lights on the top). As with others a hard reset sorts it out temporarily. I’ve never paid so much for a sound bar so to say this is disappointing is an understatement. Clearly the issue has been know about for a long time and obviously nothing has been done to fix it. If there is no long term fix then I’m guessing the best option is to send it back and get a refund.

Not the most elegant solution, but I’ve sometimes recommended taping a 3x5 card on the Beam so it shades the sensor from the light emitted by the Plasma TV. There’s probably more attractive ways to shield it, but it’s an easy test. 

Same issue here - with latest firmware and Nvidia shield remote. It just stops working, the status light no longer blinks when pressing the volume buttons. A power cycle is the only thing that gets it working again (so it’s not related to light sources or low remote batteries)

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… 

I tested it again as well today -- version 13.1.3. No luck here.

Set up everything using IR, watch TV, increase/decrease volume via IR remote worked, switched to playing something on Spotify using the Sonos app, and then turning on TV again (which outputted TV sound to the Beam) stops the Beam from receiving any IR commands from the remote. Very reproducible..

Hi @Nvc 

Earlier, you mentioned using a nVidia Shield remote. Although the Shield itself has an IR detector (so it can be used with other remotes), the Shield remote doesn’t transmit IR. Therefore, the Beam cannot detect it. CEC will be needed for remote commands to function in this case, and CEC is only available via an HDMI connection, not the optical connection.

As CEC is being used, and it sounds like the remote functions until the TV goes off and on again, I first recommend you unplug the TV from power for at least 30 seconds. If that doesn’t help, then please repeat but while the TV is off, disconnect all HDMI devices apart from the Beam and Shield. Test and if all goes well, connect the other HDMI devices back to the TV one at a time and test each time until you’ve found the device causing the problem. Disable CEC on this device. If you are unable to disable, you will need to get a CEC-less adaptor to strip the CEC channel from the connection.

If, however, you’re not using the Shield remote but a IR remote instead, then the IR commands are being blocked by the active HDMI connection, by design. In other words, when the TV is on and the Beam is connected to it via HDMI, IR commands are ignored by the Beam. You could connect the Beam to the TV with the optical adaptor instead - this would result in the Beam never ignoring the IR commands, but you would lose voice control of the TV’s power in this case (unless the TV has it’s own voice control, of course). There would be no reduction in TV sound quality from the Beam while using the optical connection, but you may need to tell the TV not to use it’s own speakers.

I hope this helps

Hi, thanks for the explanation! But I’m not sure you’re right -- I have the latest Nvidia Shield and the remote does indeed have an IR blaster:

SHIELD Remote
> Microphone for voice search and commands
> Motion-activated backlit buttons
> Bluetooth connectivity
> IR blaster for control of volume and power on TVs, soundbars, or receivers
> Remote locator for finding a lost remote 
> 2x AAA batteries included

It works initially, I see the light on top of the Beam blink when I press volume up or down. But when I play music through the Sonos app and then turn my tv back on, the Beam switches to TV audio (so it seems it detected the sound coming from the optical port) but the light on the Beam no longer blinks if I press volume up or down.

I’ll try with the TV remote, maybe it has a stronger signal.

I still believe the Beam is at fault -- when I do a power cycle, it received IR commands again...

No. And there never will be. As far as Sonos are concerned, this issue doesn't even exist. Or at least, if it exists then it's not their problem. I suppose we must all have completely separate, unrelated problems, and the fact that we're all using Sonos products is just a coincidence. 

Hi @Nvc 

Apologies -  as I had checked the Remote settings on my own Shield and didn’t find any IR reference, I presumed there wasn’t an IR function. It turns out it’s in the Display & Sound section, for some reason.

So your Beam is already connected via optical? That would negate the rest of what I said previously.

I can only recommend you get in touch with our technical support team and make all of this clear to them at the start. I wouldn’t expect an immediate fix, but as it’s an unknown situation it will at least get flagged for investigation. If the Beam IR function doesn’t work even at very short range, be sure to mention this early. I would test it myself, but I don’t have a Beam here at home.

Given that only the Beam and remote are involved, I’d be inclined to agree with you.

Someone else posted this: 

“It sounds like the IR may be turning off and converting back to RF via commands from the TV. Could I get the make/model of the TV? If the remote has a model number, please include that as well.”

Is this something that’s possible? That the TV (Sony in my case) turns off the IR functionality through the optical connection when it turns on?