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My problem 

When I try to increase the volume on my Sonos system, it will go up temporarily and then - after a delay of a second or two - automatically lower to a relatively quiet level. If I try to increase the volume again, it does the same thing. Rinse. Repeat.

My setup

I have a Beam connected via wi-fi to two Ones. They’re all sitting relatively close to one another on my mantle (each of the Ones is maybe a foot and a half away from the Beam).

The Beam is attached to my roughly five-year-old Vizio television via HDMI ARC (not using the optical adapter). I have a Google Chromecast connected to the TV via another HDMI port, and the Chromecast is also connected to my wi-fi network. The TV itself is not connected to the internet via wi-fi or ethernet.

Further context

The problem happens when I try to increase the volume on videos playing through the connected Chromecast/TV (Netflix/YouTube/Amazon Video/etc.) as well as on music played through the Sonos system directly using the Spotify app.

The problem occurs in the exact same fashion whether I use the TV remote, the Chromecast remote, the Sonos app volume controls or the native iOS volume controls when playing music through Spotify.

My television speakers are turned off when I’ve got the Sonos Beam connected, but when I disconnect the Sonos system from the TV and use the TV speakers on their own the volume leveling behaves as expected.

The Volume Limit setting in the Sonos app is currently at 100%, but I’ve tried adjusting that setting to a lower level and the issue persists.

I have the CEC settings turned on for my TV, and my Beam shows up in the Device Discovery menu along with the Chromecast. I’ve got Digital Audio Out set to Dolby Digital and Analog Audio Out set to Variable.

I’ve tried turning the Sonos Google Assistant on/off on the Sonos system (it’s currently disabled) and I’ve even unplugged other Google Assistant-enabled devices in the room. I don’t think it’s got anything to do with voice controls potentially hindering the audio playback as I’ve seen on other tickets referencing Alexa-enabled devices.

When I try to play Spotify music through other wi-fi enabled speakers in the house (e.g. Google Nest Mini and Nest Hub), I can control the volume with no issue. I don’t have the same issue with the Play:5 that’s in a different room; the volume levels work great when I’m playing music through Spotify on that device.

I’m convinced that the issue definitely has something to do with the Sonos system, but I have no idea what it is. I’ve been Googling and trying to troubleshoot on and off for two weeks. I freaking love the sound from these speakers, but I’m reduced to using my TV speakers instead because of this problem.

Any ideas on what could be causing this? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Please? 🙏🙏🙏

Hi @ev_nn.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community, We appreciate your time and effort in posting your concern here in our community.

Can you please submit a diagnostic report number for us to further check your Sonos system?

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

Hi, @Mark P! Thanks for the quick follow-up note. I just submitted my diagnostic information, and the confirmation number is 1735898260.

Please let me know if you need anything else from me, and thanks again for your help. 

Hi @ev_nn.

Welcome, thank you for reaching back to Sonos Community and providing the diagnostic report.

We've checked the diag and three possible causes why youre audio is not responding well.

 

  1. A bad HDMi Cable
  2. A bad ARC port on the connected source
  3. A bad port on the Beam.

In the first instance change the HDMI cable that the Beam is being connected to the TV. if this resolves the issue we will replace the HDMI cable.

If changing the HDMI cable makes no difference, ideally we would test with another TV to rule out any issue with the source HDMI port.

 

Let us know if it works. If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

I tried a new HDMI cable, and there was no change. I noticed the light on the Beam was blinking orange and white, so I ended up calling customer support to get the issue resolved. 

It’s still early in the process so I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, but the solution seems to have involved the simplest of fixes: I unplugged the Beam and plugged it back into a different outlet. I don’t know whether the powering off/on or the different outlet was the solution, but I don’t need to know at this point because something fixed the problem and I’m fine with it.

For anyone else who might ever read this, the customer support specialist also asked if I was running my power through a surge protector (which I’m currently not), so that might be a factor to consider in fixing the problem.

Thanks, @Mark P, for trying to help with this! Your efforts are much appreciated.

Hi @ev_nn.

Welcome, thank you for reaching back to Sonos Community.

Kindly update us for any update with the beam, actually theirs something we notice on the diagnostic report that's why if theirs another tv you can try please do so.

Let us know if it works. If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

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