Problem adding surrounds to Beam

  • 12 November 2020
  • 69 replies
  • 10341 views

Trying at add a pair of Symfonisk bookshelf speakers as surrounds to my Beam. I set them up and confirmed they were working individually. Then I tried adding them as surrounds.

I go thru the setup and it fails saying “There is a problem adding your surrounds. Check the network connection and make sure your products are powered on. Try again.” They are powered on and network is working fine (could play music up until starting the setup).

Pressing “Try again” instantly gets the same error. If I exit the setup, the Living Room (where the Beam is) now says “Living Room (+?+?)” and I have “Remove Surrounds” in the rooms menu. I tried playing something in 5.1 but no sound is coming from them. The 2 Symfonisks are also now gone from my system and I need to factory reset them to get them to appear in the app again.

How do I setup the surrounds properly without error?


69 replies

Please let me know if you find a resolution. I just bought 2x SONOS One SL’s and am having the same exact issue as you. Tried factory-resetting and re-configuring probably 5+ times now and its always the same issue. No dice on setting them up as a “stereo pair” either; same error message and problem occurs.

Userlevel 6
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Hi @Jadegirl, welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thanks for sending that diagnostic over - looks like you’re using a mesh network is that correct? As these can sometimes cause issues when setting up surrounds, would it be possible to try adding the surrounds with the Beam connected to the network via Ethernet cable?

Let us know how you get on :)

I experienced the same frustration today, both with the issue at hand, connecting two Sonos One speakers as surrounds to my Arc, and with the poor support responses. “Send us diagnostics”, “tell us about your router”, “it’s probably your WiFi” etc etc. continually avoiding addressing the issue by seeking more and more info.  (Please don’t waste the energy defending this, it’s poor support in my opinion). 
 

The solution I found was as follows. The arc was cable, the Ones were WiFi. I disabled WiFi on the Ones, moved them to the router and connected them via cable to the router.  When I tried adding surrounds on the app, this time, the surrounds setup worked perfectly and the Sonos app added the the Ones to the Arc , I then powered down the Ones, disconnected the cable, moved them back into position and reconnected wifi when I powered therm back up, they remained successfully connected to the arc as surround speakers.

hope this helps someone 

Restart your network. 
 

I had this same issue with both beam + Symfonisk  speakers and Arc + Ones. Restarted network and boom, all is back to normal. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Knapstad 

The router and beam are quite close. I'll try moving them. The symfonisk are about 3-4 meters away from the beam

Great - the Symfonisks are well within range, and you should see a significant improvement once you separate the Beam and router.

Userlevel 6
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Hi @Mattxjones, thanks for sharing that diagnostic.

Unfortunately I’m not seeing any surrounds in the diagnostic, however I suspect that the powerline adaptors are causing issues here - would it be possible to either test with the powerline adators disconnected from power, or with a Sonos device (not one of the surrounds) connected directly to the main router via Ethernet cable?

Let us know how you get on :)

I know I’m a year late, but I’m having the exact same issue and cannot seem to resolve it with any of the troubleshooting methods listed in the thread. Also, I’m not seeing a “Diagnostic Number” anywhere, curious where this is found. If anyone has been able to sort out this issue, some guidance would be very much appreciated. 

 

A diagnostic confirmation number is displayed after you Submit a Diagnostic.

Hi @Jadegirl, welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thanks for sending that diagnostic over - looks like you’re using a mesh network is that correct? As these can sometimes cause issues when setting up surrounds, would it be possible to try adding the surrounds with the Beam connected to the network via Ethernet cable?

Let us know how you get on :)

Yes that worked. Thanks

While you wait for a Sonos rep to look at your diagnostic, I’d try two things. 

First, check your Beam to be sure that the radio/WiFi hasn’t been turned off in the room’s settings. It should be ON. 

Second, unplug all Sonos devices from power, and while they’re unplugged, reboot your router. Once the comes back up, after a minute or so, plug the Sonos back in, wait a couple of minutes, then try to re-add the surrounds.

If neither of those potentials solve the issue, it might be helpful to know the make and model of your router, too. 

Ok, I tried to do what you suggested, but the same thing is still happening. My router is a Netgear Nighthawk MR60 mesh with one MS60 satellite.

If your router has ‘QOS’ enabled, then see if switching that off resolves the matter.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Knapstad 

From the diagnostic, it looks like your Beam is really close to your router/access point. Please separate them by at least 1m (3 feet). If they are not so close, I recommend you reduce the transmission power of the router slightly, if that’s an available option.

A reboot of the router, the Symfonisks and the Beam may also help, if it still doesn’t work after separating the devices.

Also, how far away from the Beam are the Symfonisks?

Wow - does it seem crazy to anyone else that we have to be network admins to figure this out?  Not OK.

 

Userlevel 6
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Hi @kojikabuto, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I had a quick look at your diagnostic, and it looks like the phone you’re using is connecting to a Guest network, and isn’t seeing the Sonos system.

Mind double-checking that you’re connected to the right network, and trying once more to add the surrounds back on? It may also be worth “forgetting" the guest network from your phone, as the phone switching between networks could potentially cause issues.

If you’re still having trouble, feel free to send another diagnostic over :)

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Which network can matter, if your router doesn’t fully merge the 2 and 5 GHz networks you will have issues.

Rather than fuss with the router just hook up to the 2.4 until things are sorted.

I ran into this problem today, and tracked it down to running a dual-band WiFi.  I had a single network available on both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz.  If you try to add older 2.4-only speakers to a newer dual-band device, it won’t work.  The easy solution I came to was to move the Sonos system to my 2.4-Ghz only SSID.  That forces the newer devices to use 2.4Ghz, allowing them to pair with the surrounds.

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Wow - does it seem crazy to anyone else that we have to be network admins to figure this out?  Not OK.

 

I am so thoughtfully thoroughly fed up with Sonos and it's overly complicated garbage I'm ready to dump the whole system.  And now it's not going to play nice with a mesh?  

Gonna sell everything now that they jacked up the price.  I'm done jumping through hoops

> And now it's not going to play nice with a mesh?

These have been issues for years, and why they created Sonosnet in the first place.  For most people it works.

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Unfortunately it doesn't work well for me, since when I use Sonos net my Roam, which can't connect to Sonos net constantly connects and reconnects.  It's just one thing after another. After 3 years I've had enough

> Unfortunately it doesn't work well for me

Only suggestion I have is the one above, setup a 2.4Ghz-only SSID, and use that for Sonos.  It helped me.

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> Unfortunately it doesn't work well for me

Only suggestion I have is the one above, setup a 2.4Ghz-only SSID, and use that for Sonos.  It helped me.

I don't seem to be able to do that with my new router... Appreciate the feedback though

I’m so fed up of having bought these products I wish I just wired up my speakers. my last stereo never needed any adjustment in 20 yrs. this stuff crashes every week. 

Did you ever solve this? I have the same problem, exactly, except it’s a Beam and two Sonos Ones.

I had this issue recently, which coincided with a new wifi 6e router from Vodafone. To fix it I had to go into the router settings and turn on compatibility mode, which splits out the 6e band from the 2.4/5GHz ones. Everything connects fine now, but was very frustrating trying to get it sorted!

Hi - I’m having the same issue with two Play:Ones and a Beam. 


I restarted my last night router which temporarily solved the issue, but overnight the entire system started throwing up errors (very annoying when I use the bedroom Sonos for my 4 month old sleep sounds) and it has continued to be problematic through this afternoon.

I don’t understand what else I need to do to try and rectify the issue - I’ve hard reset both surrounds, power cycled the beam, reset the WiFi and all combination of the above. It seems to me that the surround ‘slaves’ just aren’t connecting properly to the Beam ‘master’ and I can’t understand why that could be. I can’t even see the two surrounds on the list of MAC addresses connected to my router, which is stranger still.

Even more frustrating, I can’t submit a diagnostic on S2 as that keeps throwing an error at me too!

I’m using a virgin media hub 3.0, TP-Link AV600 Powerline adapters for extended WiFi and all Play:1s apart from the Beam

Finally got the diagnostic to submit - 711268792

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