That’s sounds like a good test - let’s see who gets there and test first! 

@ratty - without sounding condescending, you are sure that the volume controls will communicate back to the ARC on 5Ghz? Just want ti check!

The controls on the satellites always have done. Can you not just check?  

You misunderstood the question. I know the controls on the satellite will adjust volume, I was just asking whether it’s defo communicates via the 5Ghz ad-hoc network that the ARC creates. 

Yes of course, as you’d observe when the Arc + satellites are working correctly.

From a network standpoint the 5GHz connections are simply another way to send IP packets around the system. They just happen to have more predictable latency/jitter at layer 2.

Thank you. OK we have a new test. Let’s see.

I’m just catching up with recent posts here, as I was ‘out and about’ yesterday, but just to mention I use Plume WiFi Mesh. I sometimes switch the Plume Hubs between bridge and main router mode and always have the ISP routers own WiFi adapters switched off. The setup easily switches between either router. Some of the devices on the network have static IP addresses and I mostly choose to run Sonos on SonosNet.

So initial test is that everything is working as should be after having to removed/add surrounds yesterday. Volume can be controlled with surrounds as expected. I’m just flicking between source inputs (especially ATV) and sound formats to try and trigger the fault… FWIW I have tried adjusting the sound with surrounds during the fault previously and it didn’t work. That said it’s best to confirm a live check. 

Hi @Brad Porter,

 I’m absolute open to your troubleshooting line and I think it makes reasonable sense. When I’ve been saying not network related or interference related I’ve meant my network. I think the error is home theatre triggered, not network triggered but there might be lots to learn in monitoring dropped packets and channels. I also like the cumulative aspect of the dropped packets. I was always thinking this might be related to high bit rate streams like multichannel pcm but was thinking in terms an error at a peak in bit rate. This would explain why Apple TV’s and other Dolby may devices seem so over represented (but not necessary). But a cumulative thing seems to fit even better. Would you be so kind as to review my post from last night because I think I did what you suggested (started monitoring dropped packets and channels prior to and immediately after a dropout). Although I did have some dropped packets in the location you’ve referenced, it was not runaway and only on the Arc, not on the satellites. And the channels in question did not seem to change due to the dropout. Hoping I’ve not done your procedure correctly and open to coaching to try again

I’ve now caught up with this thread and see that the testing here is continuing to try to see what happens to the HT surrounds ad-hoc WiFi frequency/channel when the TV audio does ‘randomly dropout.

I was mostly curious to see if the issue occurs when the surrounds are always on the same channel for each ‘individual’ user, so (just as an example) if the surrounds regularly dropout for (say) ‘Peter’ when the HT setup is using frequency 5200 (5Ghz channel 40), then it might be the case that something nearby is interfering with that one frequency, causing packet loss and communication issues between the Master HT device and it’s surrounds .. it’s something that’s probably quite difficult to reproduce in any research-lab, particularly as each Home environment is different and somewhat unique. Anyhow perhaps let’s see if the regular monitoring of the channel may reveal something useful here.

I’ve been battling this too (ATV 4K - g2 and Firetv4kmax), though with some other circumstances. You can see my set up in the a Sonos thread HERE. (I haven’t read through the entire thread, just the first few posts;).

While not the solution, I’ve noticed two things with the author’s phenomenon in my “5.1.2” system:

1. If I toggle the sub3 and surrounds on/off in S2, the Arc’s brains distribute the overall mix back to the Arc (increased bass etc) even though the sub/surrounds were playing no audio and show as connected in S2.
2. A TruePlay retune, sometimes brings the sub3 and surrounds back (meaning audio play out of them) precluding  a full reboot of the ancillary speakers.

Understood @Freddy45764. Will read and come back - been all over the joint the side with running the kids around! 

For me, I have seen channel changes 5200, 5220 - but I  noticed the issue was went into the DFS range. 

I am hoping the next time this happens we can look at the stats and see if we can see anything. 

If we can prove that is the case, then we really do seem to have a total loss of connectivity.  But as you say, lets see and fully confirm. 

Ok so after todays messing around I’ve lost connection with the surrounds. The surrounds DO still control the volume though.
Today It happened using ATV. I’d been playing various sound formats and it lost connection with the surrounds and sub when going to an Atmos movie (but not for the first time). Today I’d also truplayed the system. Arc connected with Ethernet. I’m gonna remove/add the surrounds and leave the truplay alone. It lost connection within an hour but with about 15 different sound format changes. 

So my question is, why would we lose sound to the rears and subs, but still be connected enough to control the sound? I am not sure what the answer is, buts its pretty obscure. 

Also, did you manage to check your frequency it was operating on before and after?

Simple. The network connection carries multiple types of traffic, between different software modules. Control commands are evidently making it okay, but it seems that something is stopping the streams, possibly at their source in the Arc.

Thanks Ratty. This does not sound like a problem we can fix on our own!

If the drop in wireless connection to the surrounds is ‘brief’, perhaps at the point when a channel-change occurs, then maybe it’s a case the rear channel audio is stopping/breaking and having some difficulty resuming, but control communication for volume change etc. continues to work without such difficulty.

However that still then begs the question as to why the majority of users are not seeing the same issue? So it’s still quite a puzzle to try to figure out what the issue might be.

I’m also wondering why a change of wireless/frequency channel takes place during audio playback, that’s if that IS what is happening and if the channel is changing because some packet-loss, or other, threshold has been reached?

For anyone with the same set up as me above:

The eeroOS 6.10.2 update, released last night, seems to have fixed the issue for me. I’ve been switching apps and watching shows on Apple TV all day, pretty solid.

I had a hunch last night that maybe my network switches in my environment could be exacerbating the issue so I completely changed my set up to remove them. Nevertheless I just experienced the drop out again just now so that’s moot point

im so tired of testing and debugging this. I’m just going to stick with my workarounds for now and keep an eye on firmware updates. I appreciate everyone’s help in this thread but I have to dip out of here for my own sanity. 

i hope Sonos can figure this out 

I am with you Peter. I think I have exhausted the extent of my knowledge on this one. I need to keep chasing my open ticket (been 2.5 weeks now, no response) and need to keep supplying further info. But, quite literally, I have nothing left that I can test. (Apart from a few tidying up items). 

My entire system, a sub, arc, sonance architectural on an amp 2, two ones, a move, and a connect have all had intermittent drops and sync issues between all of them. The ones and move are isolated in rooms, so not a big issue but have come up as issues in the app. The consistent problems are sub dropping, and architectural speakers dropping regularly from the arc grouping. Today I found out the record player (through the connect) was also experiencing the same issue. I haven’t had any issues whatsoever for almost 6 years and since the new update have made at least 7 calls to support, submitted several diagnostics, with no solid solution for 4 weeks now. At my breaking point of ditching the whole system. 

Humble request to @Sonos to diagnose and roll out a beta release to only the affected users, this is the only thing that makes sense. Roll us back to pre 14.6 and allow us to monitor if we still get the same issue. This then gives Sonos engineering a chance to diagnose what’s changed post 14.6 that is significantly causing this dropout issue. My 8 year old Harman Kardon SB26 performs better than this and has always played music no matter what at the very least. @Corry P and @Sonos - my HT system is going end of warranty soon in Aus, please update if you are able to rollout a fix or assist to return the entire system. It’s an expensive system and we have all been very patient, co-operative at the same time and I think everyone deserves to have a working system at the very least.

Have you spoken direct with Sonos Support and had your diagnostic reports checked? The Staff are suggesting you submit your diagnostic report within 10 minutes of seeing the issue and note the reference and then contact Staff via the link provided below, as they are apparently looking at each incident on a case-by-case basis…

https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

Friday evening I installed voice assistant on the Arc and the whole weekend it all works fine.

Switching between Ziggo next tv box and tv apps is not a problem anymore.

Strange butt it works for now.