Lost surround and sub ( after update ?)

Godspeed

I got an Arc with 2 Symfonisk rears 2 days ago, and I’m also having frequent issues with the rears disconnecting. I’ve had contact with the support multiple times since then, tried all of their suggestions including removing Wi-Fi devices near the Arc (including the router itself), changing Wi-Fi channels, activating SonosNet, changing the SonosNet channel and rebooting the devices.

Usually rebooting the Arc fixes the issue temporarily, sometimes it repairs itself after a while. Once it only stopped for a minute or so: I stopped the movie playback after the issue started and resumed it shortly after. I’ve been able to play some movies (2h +) & episodes without issues. Most of the time the issue seems to occur when starting a new film. Might be coincidence, though. I’ve also had the issue come and go during a single playback other times (thus far only using Wi-Fi instead of SonosNet). Playing music didn’t fix the issue for me, like others have suggested, but I haven’t tried it that often yet.

I’ve contacted the support with at least 5 diagnostics, and they always tell me it’s due to Wi-Fi interference. They’ve also told me that it’s not a common issue when this thread seems to suggest otherwise.

I’ve had a Sony 5.1 system with wireless rears & sub before, which never had any such issues. I also don’t have any other Wi-Fi issues. It seems to me, if it actually is an interference issue, that Sonos devices are way more sensitive to it than other devices.

What might also be interesting to note is that the pause & volume buttons of the rears always keep working even when the sound stops on them.

Finding this thread I feel relief that I’m not alone in this and reading that some people where able to get to talk to makes me feel more hopeful. I was already considering returning the Arc, but I’ll wait a bit more and hope for the best 🙌. It would’ve been so much more transparent & helpful if the Sonos support would’ve told me it’s a known issue.

Yes your experience is spot on consistent with the issue we’ve been struggling with. 

I have an interesting finding to share. After getting so damn hopeless with this SONOS system, I tried powering down the BOOST and connect the ARC, 2 x Gen3 SUBs and 2 x ONEs to my wifi router. Surprisingly, it had been working without the ONEs and SUBs dropping for the past 4 days. But the SUBs and rears dropped a while ago after lasted for 4 days and so, it’s NOT FIXED. Now I am suspecting something wrong with the BOOST as well. This is so FRUSTRATING!!!

I've had the surrounds/sub drop with and without the boost, hardwired into the Arc or not and solely on wifi. This is a sonos software problem for sure but like others say, the ‘help’ are obsessed with the problem being with your home wifi network which it simply cannot be. This issue is affecting so many users from all across the globe, how can we all suddenly have home wifi issues! Like others my system has been solid for 10 years. I feel sorry for new adopters. They must be wondering what the hell is going on. I just wish sonos would accept there's a problem with THEIR end and promise a fix. 

I don’t think that it’s a local router WiFi issue as the Home Theatre connection to begin with. is usually HDMI-Arc, or an Optical cable connection, and the two surrounds don’t use the local router WiFi either when playing TV audio. The surrounds use an ad-hoc wireless connection. I don’t think Sonos have been saying that this is a Home WiFi network problem, unless perhaps something is interfering with the ad-hoc connection, but that seems unlikely as the HT master can choose its own channel selection. 

Have you contacted/spoken to Sonos Support Staff with this issue and if so, is that what you were told, that it was a Home WiFi Network issue?

Yes I've spent a fair amount of time on the phone on a few separate occasions. I've disconnected extenders, rebooted the router and speakers etc. The usual… They seemed convinced it was a wifi issue at my end (its not). I've changed wifi channels etc. 

My system has been rock solid and wired in for years but because of this issue (and before I found this forum) I bought a boost thinking that might make a difference. Nope. So that's £100 wasted. At one point I was advised to wire in a speaker. I politely explained it always has been wired in and no matter what configuration of wired/unwired/boost/no boost/wifi etc I've tried has made a difference. The only change that bought a little stability was installing the voice control but that was short lived. I agree and am convinced this is an issue between the arc and the extended speaker/s in the bonded system. The recent rounds of updates have essentially broken it. The only saving Grace is that once noticed, it's (relatively) easy to resolve- I tend to remove surrounds and re-pair them. But it's a ball ache. 

Tell your wife you dumped $2k on this and that's all she needs to do. Lol. Welcome to the party thougj.

So was it a case that your router and/or ‘extenders’ were auto-selecting their wireless channels and (perhaps) interfering with the ad-hoc HT wireless signal? Just wondering what the outcome was in your case? For example, were you asked to fix the channels and adjust the channel-width on your AP’s to see if that might resolve your issue?

No the extender (which is nowhere near the sonos) has been part of my setup without issue for years. But as requested I've unplugged it for about 2 weeks now and no, it's made no difference at all. Same as before. I havent fixed the channels because to be honest I haven't called back as I haven't had time. I believe there's other users on this forum who have fixed the channels and it's made no difference to them. 

 I'd like to think that sonos have enough diagnostic reports, and if they've been directed to this discussion, they should be able to acknowledge there's a problem and come up with a solution. As far as I'm concerned it's not due to interference with my home wifi setup. Nothing in my setup has been added or removed prior to this problem (other than buying a boost) This all happened since the last few updates.