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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
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    95 replies

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    PeterDowson
    Lyricist II
    April 21, 2020

    Exactly the same issue. When will Sonos actually do something about this? As others have said, the IR receiver is ‘choosing’ to ignore instructions. Nothing do do with interference or batteries. Reboot and it works. 

    Expensive bag of spanners! @Sonos When are you going to sort this out???

    jamesandjaque
    Contributor I
    June 6, 2020

    Hi @jamesandjaque ,

    For testing purposes, can you try using another TV remote to your Beam temporarily? If the issue occurs using another TV remote, try factory resetting the Beam to default and set it up again as new product. Let me know if the issue still continues after trying these steps.

    @Sebastien D. 
     

    Sorry I didn’t respond sooner. We have done a factory reset and as per usual it works for a bit and then stops. 

    Sebastien D.
    Sebastien D.
    Sonos Staff
    June 9, 2020

    Hi,

    I appreciate that you've gone through those steps previously, now what I need to establish is whether or not your remote is sending IR commands. 
    1. Open the camera app on your phone
    2. Point the IR sensor into the camera lens while pressing the volume up button.
    3. If your remote is sending IR commands then you should see a purple flicker.

    This step is important as it determines whether the issue is the remote not sending IR commands or the Sonos Beam not receiving/recognizing these commands.

    Please also note that the IR sensor on your Beam is at the very bottom on the front of the Beam. Please make sure nothing is obscuring this sensor.

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    jamesandjaque
    Contributor I
    June 9, 2020

    Hi,

     

    I assume in step 2 you mean ‘transmitter’ on the remote not sensor? And yes there’s a purple flicker. Also, the remote’s clearly working as it also controls the TV and satellite box. Actually, pressing ‘up’ means a message comes up on TV which says ‘not available’ since the TV’s own speakers aren’t being used.

     

    :-(

     

    James

    jamesandjaque
    Contributor I
    June 9, 2020

    Hi,

    I appreciate that you've gone through those steps previously, now what I need to establish is whether or not your remote is sending IR commands. 
    1. Open the camera app on your phone
    2. Point the IR sensor into the camera lens while pressing the volume up button.
    3. If your remote is sending IR commands then you should see a purple flicker.

    This step is important as it determines whether the issue is the remote not sending IR commands or the Sonos Beam not receiving/recognizing these commands.

    Please also note that the IR sensor on your Beam is at the very bottom on the front of the Beam. Please make sure nothing is obscuring this sensor.

    p.s. here’s a photo… it’s mounted so it’s not obstructed 

     

    Sebastien D.
    Sebastien D.
    Sonos Staff
    June 9, 2020

    Understood, It’s possible it could be a bad IR sensor on the Beam. At this point,  I'd suggest that you give us a call on our support line and a technician can help out. 

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    jamesandjaque
    Contributor I
    June 10, 2020

    Understood, It’s possible it could be a bad IR sensor on the Beam. At this point,  I'd suggest that you give us a call on our support line and a technician can help out. 

    Sure, I’ll call them, but please do try and escalate the fact that many people are saying it’s clearly not a hardware fault as it’s fine every time you reset the device. It’s a firmware issue, and it doesn’t get fixed by replacing the device. I believe it occurs when you switch inputs from TV to Spotify that it stops working. I guess the reason it’s not coming up so much is that most people have an HDMI-arc port. But it’s so frustrating for those of us who do because the sound and is great, as is the rest of the functionality :-(

    Sebastien D.
    Sebastien D.
    Sonos Staff
    June 10, 2020

    No problem at all James. We are very aware of this issue and I will certainly take your feedback into consideration. 

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    dgilchrist
    Lyricist I
    July 26, 2020

    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? 

    PeterDowson
    Lyricist II
    July 30, 2020

    No problem at all James. We are very aware of this issue and I will certainly take your feedback into consideration. 

    Sonos are not taking this seriously. My previous post was ignored. I suspect this one will be too.

    I have wasted hours of my time backwards and forwards, calls, emails, submitting diagnostics for this problem that everybody in Sonos pretends does not exist:

    • Connect the cables and power on in xyzzy order
    • Is there IR interference
    • Swap the Beam for the one in another room
    • Connect it with optical rather than HDMI

    The Beam has been replaced and like others say the symptoms are the same. Its IR sensor goes ‘blind’ after a period of time. Resolved by unplugging and plugging back in again. This is ridiculous for a £400 speaker!

    Product support are now outright refusing to do anything about it and still maintain that there is no product or firmware issue. Life is way too short for this!

    Support reference 01979926

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