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Hi all

Hoping someone might have a suggestion here as I’m losing my mind on this one.

I’ve had a Playbar for many years with no issues.  About 6 months ago we added a Samsung Q950 TV and wall mounted both TV and Playbar.  Since then both TV and Playbar have worked fine - no issues - with the TV’s ‘smart’ remote happily controlling the Sonos volume.  The Playbar is connected by optical, which I believe is the only option.  The TV displays Sonos/Optical and an animated +/- as volume on the Playbar changes.  All good.

A few days ago, the smart remote suddenly stopped controlling the Playbar volume.  I’ve tried many things to restore it:

  • Power cycle the TV
  • Power cycle the Playbar
  • Factory reset the TV and reconfigured
  • Checked for TV firmware updates that might have changed functionality - none recently
  • Confirmed nothing is blocking either the IR window on Playbar or IR emitter on TV
  • Confirmed I can still control the Sonos volume using a different IR remote/emitter

Crucially, this model of Samsung TV has an emitter on the TV itself.  When I attempt to operate the volume using the Samsung smart remote, I can see the animated display on the TV and I can see the IR on bottom of TV illuminating, as if it’s controlling something - yet the volume doesn’t change, and the light on the Playbar does not illuminate.

I’ve read various posts on the Sonos forums about trying to trick the remote into emitting IR by selecting other manufacturers, but this too fails. (I tried with Pioneer fwiw.). After the 4th attempt the wizard simply returns to choosing a different model.

Just wondering if anyone else might ‘suddenly’ be experiencing the same and be aware of a change that caused it (Sonos or Samsung)?  Alternatively have you faced this issue previously with these models of Playbar and TV, and found an alternative?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Have you tried setting up your remote again by following these steps? https://www.support.com/how-to/program-a-samsung-remote-to-control-a-sonos-speaker-12733

There certainly have been cases before in which an update to the TV’s firmware has flipped a remote from being set up for IR back to either WiFi or Bluetooth. I’d agree with GuitarSuperstar, going through the setup process again would be a good start. 

Have you tried setting up your remote again by following these steps? https://www.support.com/how-to/program-a-samsung-remote-to-control-a-sonos-speaker-12733

Thank you.

Yes, I’ve tried this.  There are some key differences when I try to follow the process.  For one, we don’t technically have either of those remotes (F or K series), we instead have the small metallic smart remote from 2020 series TV’s.  

 

 

Nonetheless assuming K to be the more recent we’ve tried following that process.

When I enter the universal remote setup screen, I have 3 devices there now - Sonos, BSkyB, and Apple yApple TV].  If I click on any of those, I don’t have the option ‘use with home theatre’.  Not sure if this might only apply to certain series TV’s, as with ours I believe the IR emitter is on the base of the TV itself.

If I ignore that and carry on with the Sonos setup (noting that all of the screens are different than shown and there’s no longer a ‘room setup’) If I go through remote setup, getting to the point where you point the smart remote at the Sonos and hit volume up, it detects nothing.  Surely this indicates that the remote is still not sending IR.

Try the solution in this link: https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Qled-and-Frame/Can-no-longer-control-Sonos-sound-bar-optical-cable-via-remote/td-p/1551351

Thank you so much!  That has worked!!!  What a relief.

Would still love to know what ‘broke’ this to begin with, but hopefully it sticks for a while.  :grinning:

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