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Contributor I
December 6, 2024
Answered

When setup new home theater my speaker are all in different systems.

  • December 6, 2024
  • 19 replies
  • 560 views

I purchased a Sonos Beam and Era 100 speaker combo as well as a Sonos Mini Sub.  I did the initial setup for each speaker through the app but now the app put the Beam under Living room system 1, the Mini Sub under Living room system 2, and the two Era speakers under Living room system 3.  They are not working together when I watch a movie.  How do I combine the 3 Living room systems so they all work together?

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Best answer by Mr. T

Not sure how each speaker was put in a separate system. When I contacted Sonos support via phone the women said, “How did you do that? I’ve never seen that before.”  In any case the only way to get all the systems to one was doing a factory reset on the Era 100 speakers then adding them to the Beam system.  Then doing a factory reset on the Mini Sub and adding it to the Beam system. 

The initial setup seemed pretty straight forward, til it wasn’t. Very much a headache. I have only had my new Sonos speakers for one day, but so far the jury is still out on whether I want to keep them or not. There’s gotta be better and easier to use surround sound systems out there.

Thanks everyone for the help.
 

 

But you could previously see all 3 ‘systems’ in the app at the same time?

19 replies

Mr. T
December 10, 2024

But you could previously see all 3 ‘systems’ in the app at the same time?

Yeah it was weird.  System 1 was the Beam. System 2 was the Mini Sub, and System 3 were the Era speakers.  I could switch to each system and play music but couldn’t use all the speakers at once like I wanted. 

In Sonos terms, when your System looks like that in the app, each ‘system’ is called a Room. Not sure why support got you to factory reset the devices as it should have been possible just to reconfigure the rooms, but your system is working now as you want so enjoy! 

jgatie
December 10, 2024

It is quite possible to set up three different systems if one downloads the app to set up each one instead of downloading the app for the first one, then using the current system to add more products from the Settings menu.  We see here it all the time.

Senior Virtuoso
December 10, 2024

But you could previously see all 3 ‘systems’ in the app at the same time?

Yeah it was weird.  System 1 was the Beam. System 2 was the Mini Sub, and System 3 were the Era speakers.  I could switch to each system and play music but couldn’t use all the speakers at once like I wanted. 

In Sonos terms, when your System looks like that in the app, each ‘system’ is called a Room. Not sure why support got you to factory reset the devices as it should have been possible just to reconfigure the rooms, but your system is working now as you want so enjoy! 


 

Not so, ​@Mr. T 

Somehow it was set up as three systems - even though the Sub was in a system on its own. If it was three rooms they would have been in a single system, and so all visible/accessible at the same time. The only way to resolve was the factory resets. 
Either way, it’s now sorted. 

Mr. T
December 10, 2024

But you could previously see all 3 ‘systems’ in the app at the same time?

Yeah it was weird.  System 1 was the Beam. System 2 was the Mini Sub, and System 3 were the Era speakers.  I could switch to each system and play music but couldn’t use all the speakers at once like I wanted. 

In Sonos terms, when your System looks like that in the app, each ‘system’ is called a Room. Not sure why support got you to factory reset the devices as it should have been possible just to reconfigure the rooms, but your system is working now as you want so enjoy! 


 

Not so, ​@Mr. T 

Somehow it was set up as three systems - even though the Sub was in a system on its own. If it was three rooms they would have been in a single system, and so all visible/accessible at the same time. The only way to resolve was the factory resets. 
Either way, it’s now sorted. 

Agree to disagree.

The OP said they could see all 3 systems in the app at the same time. Only way that is possible is if they are all under the one system and the OP was actually seeing 3 rooms. I still don’t believe the sub was in a room on its own as again OP said they could switch to each ‘system’ and play music. You cannot play music to just a Sub.

 

December 10, 2024

I think the OP is something of an “unreliable witness” here, which is perhaps understandable.  He clearly went through the full system setup for more than one device, and so ended up - surprise surprise - with multiple systems.  Support advised correctly - factory reset all but one speaker, then add other devices to it.

As to whether a system can consist only of a Sub, I don’t know.  I don’t believe it can be a room or play music, but might appear under settings.

I think we are all fundamentally on the same page.

”

December 10, 2024

 

Not sure how each speaker was put in a separate system. When I contacted Sonos support via phone the women said, “How did you do that? I’ve never seen that before.”  In any case the only way to get all the systems to one was doing a factory reset on the Era 100 speakers then adding them to the Beam system.  Then doing a factory reset on the Mini Sub and adding it to the Beam system. 

The initial setup seemed pretty straight forward, til it wasn’t. Very much a headache. I have only had my new Sonos speakers for one day, but so far the jury is still out on whether I want to keep them or not. There’s gotta be better and easier to use surround sound systems out there.

Thanks everyone for the help.
 

 

Glad it is OK now, but you clearly did a full new system setup for each device, instead of just the first device.  Here are the instructions:

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/guides/setup

 

 

Mr. T
December 10, 2024

 

Not sure how each speaker was put in a separate system. When I contacted Sonos support via phone the women said, “How did you do that? I’ve never seen that before.”  In any case the only way to get all the systems to one was doing a factory reset on the Era 100 speakers then adding them to the Beam system.  Then doing a factory reset on the Mini Sub and adding it to the Beam system. 

The initial setup seemed pretty straight forward, til it wasn’t. Very much a headache. I have only had my new Sonos speakers for one day, but so far the jury is still out on whether I want to keep them or not. There’s gotta be better and easier to use surround sound systems out there.

Thanks everyone for the help.
 

 

Glad it is OK now, but you clearly did a full new system setup for each device, instead of just the first device.  Here are the instructions:

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/guides/setup

 

 

Clearly they didn’t otherwise all 3 systems would be called ‘Living Room’. A brand new system would not know of other room names, therefore, would also name them ‘Living Room’ rather than ‘Living Room 2’ and ‘Living Room 3’

Senior Virtuoso
December 10, 2024

What does it really matter, guys? OP is sorted, regardless what the issue was or wasn’t. 

December 10, 2024

 

Glad it is OK now, but you clearly did a full new system setup for each device, instead of just the first device.  Here are the instructions:

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/guides/setup

 

 

Clearly they didn’t otherwise all 3 systems would be called ‘Living Room’. A brand new system would not know of other room names, therefore, would also name them ‘Living Room’ rather than ‘Living Room 2’ and ‘Living Room 3’

OK I was wrong to say that anything was clearly the case here.  I don’t think we’ll ever be sure what happened, but I think I see where you are coming from ​@Mr. T .  What we can be sure of is that the first device needs to be set up as a new system, and the others added to it.  I am also reasonably confident that the labels “living Room system 1” etc, if they really did exist, must have been chosen by the user, not system assigned.

One possibility is then that the Support person thought there was more significance in the labels than was really so, and so unnecessarily factory reset devices.  Renaming them (for future clarity) and then combining them using “Add Sub” etc would have been sufficient.