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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.

Show previous replies

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

Have you checked to see if the DHCP proxy issue with your router has any information from the manufacturer or other users?

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antman1978Author

Trending Lyricist I

Hi @antman1978

I am not sure I can help with that - a little above my pay-grade, to be honest. Though, I understood your report to be saying that you could not get any audio from the surrounds, when they were configured as surrounds. You mentioned adding one surround at a time and each one playing, but you could only have added them to the system, and perhaps put them in a room also called Living Room, but you could not have added one surround speaker and tested it - that is impossible. As far as I can tell, your report is entirely consistent with a router refusing to perform DHCP Proxy services.

My guess - in regards to the Ethernet connection - would be that your router considers that more secure. Again - just a guess. As @jgatie mentions, you would have to ask the manufacturer.

I hope this helps.

I have to admit when I’m wrong and say that the issue was not with Sonos, it was with my router. I was able to connect with the manufacturer of the router and figure out what the issue was and disable the feature that caused the issue of my speakers not connecting in surround sound. I apologize and thank Corry P for understanding my frustrations and providing me with enough solid information that helped point me in the right direction in fixing the issue.

I am back to loving Sonos again lol… thank you again Corry P. I appreciate all of the information that you shared with me. Tell your boss that I think you deserve a bonus $$ :)

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @antman1978

I am very glad to hear that your router manufacturer was able to assist with this - what was the name of the setting that they got you to change, please? I’d like to add it to our documentation!

I am back to loving Sonos again lol… thank you again Corry P. I appreciate all of the information that you shared with me. Tell your boss that I think you deserve a bonus $$ :)

You are most welcome, and I will! ;)

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

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antman1978Author

Trending Lyricist I

Hi @antman1978

I am very glad to hear that your router manufacturer was able to assist with this - what was the name of the setting that they got you to change, please? I’d like to add it to our documentation!

I am back to loving Sonos again lol… thank you again Corry P. I appreciate all of the information that you shared with me. Tell your boss that I think you deserve a bonus $$ :)

You are most welcome, and I will! ;)

Sure thing. There was a setting in the router called QOS that prioritized Internet traffic. They also had me roll back the latest firmware update that was applied to the router. I don't remember what the firmware was that initiated the change in settings.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @antman1978

Thanks!

While we do tend to recommend that QoS (Quality of Service - it restricts other clients from using a lot of bandwidth when a high-priority device is trying to use it, like a smart TV, for example - you’d want the TV to stream without issue while, say, an X-Box game downloaded slightly slower that it would otherwise) is disabled, I personally have had it turned on in the past without seeing any issues on my Sonos system.

I think, therefore, that what really did the trick was the firmware update. It sounds like they might have recognised the issue that preventing Proxy DHCP was causing and removed it in their latest software versions.

Good to hear that it’s all in the past now!

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

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ddiedugg

Contributor II

While it looks like the problem was resolved, did you consider assigning fixed IP addresses to each component according to its MAC address?

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antman1978Author

Trending Lyricist I

While it looks like the problem was resolved, did you consider assigning fixed IP addresses to each component according to its MAC address?

We did. That did not work as expected also. The reason as to why it did not work is posted somewhere in this thread. We tried everything but the only thing that resolved the issue was resetting the router

S

simshaun

Lyricist I

Exact same issue as OP. Era 300s and sub would work just fine if set up independently, but quit working the moment they were paired with the Arc. They were working fine for nearly two years up until sometime recently.

I fixed it by disabling a setting called “Multicast-to-Unicast Conversion” buried within the WLAN settings in my Omada controller software. Not sure how it got enabled, but after 6 hours of tearing my hair out, I’m happy my surrounds are working again.

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antman1978Author

Trending Lyricist I

I'm glad you were able to fix it. I know what it feels like to have something stop working all of a sudden and not know why.

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