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Answered

Arc and Arc Ultra Not Connecting to Era 300s and Subs

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
June 4, 2025
29 replies
1407 views

I have an arc ultra with 2 era 300s and a sub gen 3 setup in my living room. I also have an arc, 2 era 300's and sub gen 2 in my basement. Ive had the ultra arc since it's first release as well as Sonos arc with no issues. Recently, during the month of May both arcs have disconnected from the 300's and subs. All speakers play independently but do not play when attempting to connect as a surround set-up. I've reset all speakers, rebooted the router, rebooted my phone, unplugged and plugged things back in, contacted Sonos support only to have them walk me through doing the same steps I did before. The end result was support telling me that there is a known issue with the arc's that they eventually will stop working in a surround setup wirelessly and must be hardwired to the router. I explained that I've never had any issues with both surround areas and to me it seems to be a software update or app issue but they stood firm in stating that it's a hardware issue. When I asked for replacement arcs, they said they would not provide any as the issues will eventually happen again down the road. I told them that this was unacceptable as the whole reason for me investing in Sonos speakers was for the wireless setup and that I cannot hardwire both surround areas to a router. Support stood firm and stated that there was nothing more that they could do. I've spent thousands of dollars in Sonos and to not be able to use my speakers in a surround set-up as advertised is highly disappointing and unacceptable. Has anyone had any issues recently with the arc connecting to their surround speakers? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix the issue that I have not already listed above? Please help as I am highly upset with the response the Sonos support team has provided me

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Best answer by Corry P

Hi @antman1978

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

I am sorry to hear of the issue you are having with your Arc and Arc Ultra not playing to their surrounds.

Your post was flagged to me as the report of the issue as you have described it was concerning to some other users.

I took a look at your case and the notes on it, and I just wanted to clarify that the issue is that your router is refusing to issue IP addresses to the satellite speakers because they are connecting to the sound-bars rather than to the router. Essentially, your router is refusing to perform Proxy DHCP through the wireless network - most routers do not have an issue with this. As a result, the Arc and Arc Ultra need to be connected via ethernet. A swap of your router for another make/model should also have been recommended as a possible fix.

I hope this explains the issue you are having more clearly.

P

Peter_254

Prodigy II

It sounds absurd that SONOS is actually claiming that the wireless part has a fault and that it's just sad for you/us. As you write, that's one of the crucial factors of this system. I wouldn't have the opportunity to run cables myself, and I also didn't want to have cables throughout the house.

In my opinion, it sounds completely crazy.

Do you also not get sound in your surround setup when you watch movies or is it only with music?

Back to your speakers, it sounds like you've tried everything, the only thing I could think of was the order in which you set it up.
I would remove ALL speakers from the APP and then connect your Arc/Ultra, when it works I would set up the Sub and then try connecting it to your Arc/Ultra, then set up an Era300, then the other one and then add them as surround at the end.

You could also try to cable your Arc/ultra (only during installation) if that works you can remove the cable after everything is set up and working, then it should jump to wifi itself after you have entered the code for your wifi.

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antman1978Author

Trending Lyricist I

I don't get anything from the surrounds with music and movies but when I play all speakers Independently, they work fine. I've even connected the sub to the 300s and they work fine but when I connect to the arc, nothing works OR one surround speaker will work for a few seconds and then stop working.

I'll try your advice in the morning. I did attempt to connect with the an Ethernet cable to the arc, which did work but when I removed the Ethernet cable to go back to wifi, the surrounds and sub stopped working.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @antman1978

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

I am sorry to hear of the issue you are having with your Arc and Arc Ultra not playing to their surrounds.

Your post was flagged to me as the report of the issue as you have described it was concerning to some other users.

I took a look at your case and the notes on it, and I just wanted to clarify that the issue is that your router is refusing to issue IP addresses to the satellite speakers because they are connecting to the sound-bars rather than to the router. Essentially, your router is refusing to perform Proxy DHCP through the wireless network - most routers do not have an issue with this. As a result, the Arc and Arc Ultra need to be connected via ethernet. A swap of your router for another make/model should also have been recommended as a possible fix.

I hope this explains the issue you are having more clearly.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

106rallye

If this problem concerns a specific router maybe Incompatible network hardware | Sonos could be updated?

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antman1978Author

Trending Lyricist I

Thank you Corry for the reply. The person I was on the phone with did not clearly state this. I'm still a bit confused as to why all of the speakers work perfectly fine independently but only do not work when connected in surround mode to the arc. The router I have is only a year old, Asus gt-ax16000 and everything has been working fine up until this point.

Either way, I really appreciate the clarification on this and I will research if there is a way around this with my current router.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @antman1978

Just to expand a little on what I said earlier, DHCP Proxy is used when a device connects to the network via another device - surround speakers connect directly to their sound-bar, and not to the router. For some reason - you’d have to ask the manufacturer why, but my assumption is that it is probably considered somehow more secure - your router will not accept this when WiFi is being used - instead, it will only accept a proxy connection when the device hosting it is connected to Ethernet (as with a wired Wireless Access Point).

As far as I know, there are no known workarounds other than to either use ethernet, or to use another router, but your router manufacturer may well have their own solution to this issue.

I am sorry to hear that this was not explained to you - I will see about getting the agent you spoke to some feedback in that regard.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

It isn't a requirement that your router provide DHCP services, you can disable it's DJCP server and enable one on a different device.

Is it possible to work around the router's glitch by assigning static/reserved Ip addresses?

I'd sure report this to the router's manufacturer and see if they have a solution.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @Stanley_4

It isn't a requirement that your router provide DHCP services, you can disable it's DJCP server and enable one on a different device.

Good point, although the number of customers that have an alternate device on their network that will do this is probably quite low (barring those that have a router + mesh) - I know PiHole will do it, for one.

Is it possible to work around the router's glitch by assigning static/reserved Ip addresses?

Another good point - I honestly don’t know. I’d like to think if it were it would have been mentioned in the documentation, but it’s possible that no-one thought of the possibility. I will seek answers.

Thanks!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @Stanley_4

As I understand it (and I asked for a bit of help too), a DHCP server still hands out reserved IPs - it just sends the same one to the same device each time. Therefore, I don’t think reserving IPs would work, as the DHCP server would still see the wireless backhaul and refuse to issue IPs to devices connecting via it.

It was a good thought, though.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

The replacement DHCP server might be the way to go then.

The Pi-Hole makes it easy to add one and is easy to configure, but any device offering one should work.

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