Contributor I

Lost surround and sub ( after update ?)

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
April 23, 2022
1604 replies
81294 views

Hi

I don’t know if my issue is related to the 14.6 update but I noticed today that I had no sound from my surround (play 3) and my sub (Gen 2), only the Arc is working They are still present in the app under the my System view but now sound which every sources

When I reboot each of them, the sound comes back temporary, but when I switch to another source or audio format, thé Sound disappears again. Tried several times, same behavior

Thanks for your help

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Ken_Griffiths

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.

No, I don’t think it will be a local wireless issue either, at least not in every case, although I guess it could be (I suppose) in some instances, as there are a variety of different matters now reported in this quite lengthy thread.

I was just wondering in your own reported case, when you said Sonos had said that it was a wireless issue, if they had advised you to change your your router (and/or extender) WiFi channels to ‘fixed’ non-overlapping channels and to maybe reduce the channel-widths etc. I would have thought that might have made a difference if it was ‘local interference’. Maybe give that a go and see.

Note: if the router channels are not fixed, then things can certainly change. A router reboot/update might change your network environment and, if using SonosNet, it might even cause a clash with its channel too. So it’s often worth making things static, but perhaps keep your eye on any neighbouring networks too.

F

Freddy45764

Enthusiast II

No, I don’t think it will be a local wireless issue either, at least not in every case, although I guess it could be (I suppose) in some instances, as there are a variety of different matters now reported in this quite lengthy thread.

I was just wondering in your own reported case, when you said Sonos had said that it was a wireless issue, if they had advised you to change your your router (and/or extender) WiFi channels to ‘fixed’ non-overlapping channels and to maybe reduce the channel-widths etc. I would have thought that might have made a difference if it was ‘local interference’. Maybe give that a go and see.

Note: if the router channels are not fixed, then things can certainly change. A router reboot/update might change your network environment and, if using SonosNet, it might even cause a clash with its channel too. So it’s often worth making things static, but perhaps keep your eye on any neighbouring networks too.

Hi Ken,

As someone who isn’t experiencing this issue but seems to have followed along reasonably closely to this thread, I’m a bit curious that you still don’t seem to agree that this is likely a Sonos software problem and keep going down the interference path. I agree with your comment “…as there are a variety of different matters now reported in this quite lengthy thread.” however I think that’s just the nature of a thread this long. The core issues of:

-observing a loss of audio in sub and surrounds

-missing audio is completely missing, not picked up by the Arc

-everything looks normal in the app, no errors showing, no speakers disconnected

-many things such as power cycling can bring the audio back temporarily

-Audio drops when starting new content, rarely mid stream. More likely to occur if switching HDMI inputs or audio types

-can be preceded by an echo or generally strange/poor audio. When restarting audio stream to fix echo, sub and surround are gone

-system was solid prior to 14.6. The issue for many was noticed shortly after. No other significant changes were made except the update.

As someone experiencing the issue, as soon as someone lists a combo of the above, it’s clear as day to me they’re experiencing the same issue as I am. Given the tremendous effort by the user base here in troubleshooting and trying to isolate, I just don’t know how it could possibly be anything other than a Sonos software problem

K

kuwarrulz_11

Enthusiast II

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.

Support just disagrees to anything on this forum. They are hardwired to point the issue at wireless interference or your home network. A lot of us here facing the dropout issue have tried every possible step to isolate but it turns out the issue is firmware related. Since 14.6, Sonos devices have become more prone to dropouts probably due to some competent causing excessive wireless interference. Strangely enough, only Sonos devices have this problem, nothing else at my home including a cheap 50$ wireless speaker isn’t impacted

B

bicster

Trending Lyricist I

Since speaking to Sonos support last week whereby I figured out that playing music from the Sonos app seemed to “reset” the rears and sub I haven’t had a drop out.

One other factor is that I haven’t enabled TruePlay since speaking to support and removing the rears+sub and then re-adding - I’m going to leave that off to see if that’s a cause of the issue.

Also, I’m curious what hardware spec of sub and rears folks have with this issue. Mine are;

Rear Left:

Hardware v: 1.8.3.7-1.0, Series ID: A101, Sonos OS: 2

Rear Right:

Hardware v: 1.8.3.7-1.0, Series ID: A101, Sonos OS: 2

Sub:

Hardware v: 1.8.2.5-1.0, Series ID: A100, Sonos OS: 2

Finally, I contacted Sonos support again today and they said I’d be contacted within the next 48 hours (so we’ll see what happens!).

Ken_Griffiths

Hi Ken,

As someone who isn’t experiencing this issue but seems to have followed along reasonably closely to this thread, I’m a bit curious that you still don’t seem to agree that this is likely a Sonos software problem and keep going down the interference path. I agree with your comment “…as there are a variety of different matters now reported in this quite lengthy thread.” however I think that’s just the nature of a thread this long. The core issues of:

-observing a loss of audio in sub and surrounds

-missing audio is completely missing, not picked up by the Arc

-everything looks normal in the app, no errors showing, no speakers disconnected

-many things such as power cycling can bring the audio back temporarily

-Audio drops when starting new content, rarely mid stream. More likely to occur if switching HDMI inputs or audio types

-can be preceded by an echo or generally strange/poor audio. When restarting audio stream to fix echo, sub and surround are gone

-system was solid prior to 14.6. The issue for many was noticed shortly after. No other significant changes were made except the update.

As someone experiencing the issue, as soon as someone lists a combo of the above, it’s clear as day to me they’re experiencing the same issue as I am. Given the tremendous effort by the user base here in troubleshooting and trying to isolate, I just don’t know how it could possibly be anything other than a Sonos software problem

Like many, if not all, posters in this thread @Freddy45764 I don’t truly know where the answers may lie here. I haven’t experienced the surround dropout issue, as you know (touch wood), but dip in and out of this thread trying to encourage users to eliminate some of the common causes, like interference or TV peripherals stealing CEC focus etc. and to actually get those that are then still experiencing the problems to submit diagnostic reports and go onto speak with Sonos Support direct, particularly as Sonos have stated that they cannot reproduce the issue and were asking users to get in touch so they could look into each report on a case-by-case basis.

So cajoling others that post in this thread to eliminate the common causes and to then speak to Sonos has been my aim, in the hope an answer can be found for the users who are still coming across this issue.

I do know what it feels like to have an issue that others perhaps cannot reproduce.

From my own perspective and through the monitoring of this thread on a daily basis, I can’t truly say if the reported issues are all related, or if they are caused by the Sonos updates, or not, as some reports do differ and there’s probably a good many more folk, like myself, who still have not had a problem with the 14.6 update, or the minor updates released afterwards, but just loitering here trying to assist to find the answers for those that continue to have this HT dropout issue

F

Freddy45764

Enthusiast II

@Ken_Griffiths thanks for your response. I was struggling with the message nesting on my phone so I’m not replying directly. Thanks also for your troubleshooting suggestions along the way. I could see how from the outside looking in this thing could look disjointed. There have certainly been users posting things that don’t feel related. But I assure there’s a very specific set of behaviour and I’d say at least 80% of users posting here have this thing. My real concern is that Sonos still seems to be treating each of our cases in isolation and sending everyone new through the support front door. I’d feel a lot better if I knew an internal team had been assigned to investigate and that our reports and diagnostics were being pooled. If you have any suggestions on how to make that happen, I’d love to hear.

Ken_Griffiths

@Freddy45764,

These are just my thoughts on the matter…

If each individual case here is reported and looked at in some depth by Sonos engineers, then you would hope from that on-going process, that lessons were being learned and passed up the line to the Sonos developers to try to resolve the issues via software/firmware updates. Any fixes, after internal testing, are rolled out and if successful, they should eventually reduce the calls into Support, probably a process that continues until the majority of issues are eradicated.

I think issues like these, can occasionally take a while to fix, particularly if the problems seen vary and are maybe being caused by several ‘internal’/ ‘external’ factors like a particular ‘codec’ for example, and/or a piece of hardware like an HDMI port (also just as an example) that is perhaps being used by some TV manufacturers and requires change to its firmware, or even a combination of things that may involve time and input between partners.

Without knowing any detail, or precise causes at this moment in time, I still think it’s best to perhaps encourage others to try to demonstrate (reproduce) their HT surround-dropout issue to Sonos Support Staff and provide them with the diagnostic data they may require to pass on and hopefully get the issue fixed as quickly as practicable.

I did fear at one point that some users were popping by this thread and commenting they had the issue, but without actually contributing, by submitting their own diagnostics and contacting Support.

Anyhow we haven’t seen that many Sonos updates since the issue was first reported here and I suspect what minor updates we have seen, were perhaps more geared towards the launch of Sonos Ray and SVC, so I suspect any investigation into these issues are ‘likely’ still ongoing.

F

Freddy45764

Enthusiast II

@Freddy45764,

These are just my thoughts on the matter…

If each individual case here is reported and looked at in some depth by Sonos engineers, then you would hope from that on-going process, that lessons were being learned and passed up the line to the Sonos developers to try to resolve the issues via software/firmware updates. Any fixes, after internal testing, are rolled out and if successful, they should eventually reduce the calls into Support, probably a process that continues until the majority of issues are eradicated.

I think issues like these, can occasionally take a while to fix, particularly if the problems seen vary and are maybe being caused by several ‘internal’/ ‘external’ factors like a particular ‘codec’ for example, and/or a piece of hardware like an HDMI port (also just as an example) that is perhaps being used by some TV manufacturers and requires change to its firmware, or even a combination of things that may involve time and input between partners.

Without knowing any detail, or precise causes at this moment in time, I still think it’s best to perhaps encourage others to try to demonstrate (reproduce) their HT surround-dropout issue to Sonos Support Staff and provide them with the diagnostic data they may require to pass on and hopefully get the issue fixed as quickly as practicable.

I did fear at one point that some users were popping by this thread and commenting they had the issue, but without actually contributing, by submitting their own diagnostics and contacting Support.

Anyhow we haven’t seen that many Sonos updates since the issue was first reported here and I suspect what minor updates we have seen, were perhaps more geared towards the launch of Sonos Ray and SVC, so I suspect any investigation into these issues are ‘likely’ still ongoing.

Yes all good points. I also suspect it takes some time to fix something like this and hope Sonos are doing as you say behind the scenes. I think it’s really the “case by case” comment from Sonos support that has us worried and frustrated.

A

AlexQC

Lyricist I

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.

If i had the chance to return my equipment i would 100% do it. Seeing how poor Sonos support and communications has been about this issue, i would not wait and hope for the best. I would return and buy another brand.

The only thing preventing me from selling my Arc + Sub + Ones on Facebook Marketplace is the guilt of selling a faulty system.

Sending diagnostics, changing the wifi channel, wiring, unwiring, connect, disconnect, plug unplug, none of this works, although i admire the dedication of everyone on this forum to try to find a solution by ourselves.

My advice is return if possible. If you haven’t already bought, then avoid. Never buying Sonos again, and of course telling all my friends and family about this.

S

Sensible_player

Lyricist II

6 days ago I tried installing the Sonos Voice Control as that seemed to help some people here. I've left it on my Arc and both rear speakers for good measure and it has worked pretty great so far. Not a single full loss of the sub or surround speakers so far.

The few only interruptions I'm getting seem to come from the mics picking up audio from the content I'm playing and interpreting it as the "hey Sonos" command, which lowers the volume for like 1-2 seconds. I've even heard the system answer "Yes?" one time, without me even saying anything. Was this behaviour normal before 14.6?

In any case, it works much better now, but hopefully there's an official fix in the works that doesn't involve the voice assistant.

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