Arc ultra not connecting

Hi ​@aneet 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

I am sorry to hear of this issue you have had with setting up your new Sonos Home Theatre system - I assure you that this is not the experience we wanted for you!

I am puzzled by the message you got about connecting the Era 300s to 2.4GHz - this is not at all needed. Clearly, however, things are not going as they should.

It rather sounds like your router might be isolating the devices that connect to 2.4GHz from those that connect to 5GHz. This is usually called Wireless Isolation, and it needs to be disabled in your router’s settings (assuming I am correct and the option is even there).

If this does not solve things for you - or if you are not sure on how to go about changing this - I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

I hope this helps.

I specifically have a separate 2G4 and 5G network, because a lot of devices can't handle a combined network, and I understand that if I connect 1 device to one network and the other device to another network (SSID) that this might cause issues, but from the start I did not know the Era300's couldn't connect to a 5G network, otherwise I would have started with connecting the Arc to 2G4 instead of 5G.

Anyway, after several times deleting everything, factory resetting everything etc, I could connect the ultra, the sub 4 and 1 era 300, and then with the 4th it wouldn't work at all, it would create a second living room, couldn't link it to the rest, after all I factory resetted all again (6th time or so) and then only connected the era 300 as a standalone speaker, then finally the firmware update went well, after that I deleted cache and memory from the app (cause I could not delete the speaker and it was also in the wrong room, I find the app really not userfriendly, but that aside), and then added 1 by 1 again and it finally works, totally spent over 4 hours….

That said, you mention the era 300's shouldn't need to connect to 2G4? Because the 5G network only showed up for the Arc and the Sub, when trying to add the era's it only showed the 2G4 network.

I don't really care that they are connected to the 2G4 now, cause it is probably more stable anyway (better reception in general), but would be nice to know if I might have to reconnect all again.

Also a lot of times when I start the app it just says it can't fine anything on the network, then I have to disconnect my phone and reconnect it or sometimes power off the Arc, after that it works most of the time. The whole set sound great, but I really didn't like the whole process…

Also hate the fact that there is no remote, since I have a beamer which is connected by bluetooth, I have to raise the volume on the Arc itself, but if I connect my phone, the sound is way too loud so I have to lower it again, a remote just for at least switching on/off and volume would be nice to have.

Hi ​@aneet 

To be clear, Era 300 absolutely supports both 2.4GHz and 5Ghz WiFi.

However, if you go through the setup process trying to connect a device to 2.4GHz while your phone is connected to 5GHz (or vice versa), there may be issues. I think this may have been the cause of the issues you had - especially if you moved through your home between setting up the third speaker and the forth speaker - moving may have made your phone jump frequencies. While we used to recommend splitting frequencies, things tend to now go better when the two frequencies are combined into one broadcast.

If you had the phone connected to 2.4GHz, that may be the reason you could not see the 5GHz network in the list. I am not 100% on that, however.

2.4GHz does have higher range and mass-penetration, so you may indeed be better off connecting to it rather than to 5GHz.

Not connecting to the system on opening the app may indicate that your network is not at it’s healthiest - I recommend you reboot your router by switching it off for at least 30 seconds. If you got your router from your ISP, it’s probably a good idea to repeat this once every two months whether you see any issues or not. Reserving IP addresses for all devices that commonly connect to your network can prevent IP address conflict, which can produce the error you describe - it is an issue often caused by the router forgetting which IP addresses have been handed out.

We do not supply a remote with our sound-bars as they do not need one - if your Arc Ultra is connected to your TV with a HDMI cable (and I really hope it is!), then you can use the volume buttons on your TV remote without the need for any further configuration - the TV will tell the Arc Ultra to change the volume via HDMI-CEC (High Definition Media Interface - Consumer Electronics Control). If you are not using a HDMI cable, then you can program the Arc Ultra to recognise your TV remote: Control Sonos home theater with your TV remote. But, please use HDMI!

I hope this helps.

I do not set my phone to auto connect to different networks, I had it connected to the wifi network that I was going to use with the sonos system, same as is necessary with other home automation devices.

My living room is also not that big that I would hop trough frequencies, I have my own router and have fixed IP addresses setup for most devices. I do not have 

As said I do not have any television, the only thing I use is a beamer with bluetooth since it is on the opposite side of the room compared to the Arc. Maybe in the future I will run a HDMI cable to it.

In any case, thanks for your answers

Hi ​@aneet 

The last I heard, a “beamer” was a BMW, so I am not sure what you have connected to your Arc, but I get the idea - not a TV.

I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports - they may be able to determine what is causing the System not Found errors.

I hope this helps.

sorry we call a projector a beamer

I’m not Sonos technical support just another community member. I have 31 Sonos units running on my Mesh Network which consists of three (3) ASUS RT 96RU Wi-Fi 7 Tri-band routers.

The bands on my router are 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and 6Ghz. All three bands operate under the same SSID with no specific designation.

None of the bands are restricted; nor do I employ any type of load balancing wherein the router decides the band a client will connect to.  At any given time, I may have a total of 60-65 clients on my network. 

My devices connect to whichever Node they are close to and select the band they need. Some can operate on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz; only a few utilize the 6Ghz. The point being there’s no need to decide what band works best and which to avoid as my clients do that for themselves. 

Here’s an excerpt from the article in this link.

More control is good, right? Wrong!

• With two separate Wi-Fi profiles, the clients are unable to switch quickly - or in some cases even at all - from using 5 GHz for capacity, to 2.4 GHz for range. Switching between bands occurs far more often than one would expect, even for stationary devices such as printers.

The above said, I strongly recommend opening up your network (so-to-speak). Setup your Sonos and let it and your device connect to your routers Wi-Fi band without intervention from you or your router admin controls. IMO, you’ve nothing to lose. Worst case scenario you have to expend more time putting things back to the way they were, if my suggestion doesn’t work.

I know...easy for me to say 😂

I do not control the sonos on any network, there are no restrictions or load balancing either, I just have one RT-X88 router. I rather have my network combined, but for some home automation devices this is an issue, they just won't connect, this is the only reason why I have separate SSID's for 2G4 and 5G.

The reason I connected all to the 2G4 network is because after connecting the Arc ultra and Sub4 to the 5G network, the Era's would only show the 2G4, so I imagined they could only connect to 2G4, I do not know what the reason was, but I then connected all to the 2G4 network.

I have set up most IP fixed to MAC addresses of my home devices since otherwise they won't work together, I do not have fixed IP's for the sonos setup, maybe I will later, not sure if this would help.

At first I thought changing all back to 5G, but then again, like mentioned earlier it is probably best to keep it on 2G4 because it is stronger. 

That said all is working now, it is a shame it took so long though, this made me definitely doubt if I had bought the right system and ruined a bit of the ‘new gadget’ experience, but I will probably just have to get used to it a bit.

I mainly use the Arc for the projector to watch movies, maybe sometimes I will use it just to stream some music from my phone, but that is not what I bought it for.

I used to have a good working (old) Samsung setup, but the dialogs were always very hard to understand, so I set the volume way up, but then with any action scene I would probably bother the neighbors with the way too loud noise :-)

Hi ​@aneet 

Arc Ultra has a multilevel Speech Enhancement option (with the highest being AI powered), but it is only available when the HDMI input is in use. You will not see the option when playing Bluetooth audio.

I highly recommend using another way to get audio to the Arc Ultra if you can. There are devices like the HD Fury Arcana (not a recommendation) that will simulate a TV and provide a eARC port for a Arc Ultra to connect to, while also passing the video out to a TV or projector that does not have eARC itself. They are a bit pricey compared to simpler HDMI switches/extractors, but one would let you get full advantage of the Arc Ultra’s features when using with a projector.

I hope this helps.

I have an Arc HDMI on the projector, it is just a bit of a hassle to get the cable to the Ultra, but I'll figure it out, thanks.

I did see some options in the menu though (night sound and something else regarding voice with 5 levels), however I first have to find out why the app doesn't find the Arc anymore, the strange thing is that if I then goto settings and update the network, it says it is already connected to the same network, and then when I go back to the start page of the app, it says no devices connected, then I restart the app and everything appears again, without having updated the devices

Hi ​@aneet 

This is where these boxes come in handy - you have the box, the source and the soundbar at the front of the room, and one cable going to the back of the room for video to the projector.

I’d start by rebooting your router - please turn it off for at least 30 seconds when no-one else is using the internet.

I hope this helps.

My projector supports eArc, Dolby Digital plus and dts-hd, so i think just an hdmi cable would be sufficient

Depending on the length of the run, you may need an active, or an active optical (which is basically an optical cable with HDMI converters at each end), HDMI cable. Passive HDMI cables tend to lose signal after 15-20 feet, actives are reliable for 100 feet or more.

ok good to know, I'll check it out

Make sure that the long HDMI cable supports HDMI-eARC if you are bringing audio back to ARC from the projector.

so I bought some speaker stands and wanted to retune trueplay, but all the time I just get an error message when starting, ‘something went wrong, we could not finetune your arc ultra, try again’

But whatever I do it keeps bringing this message, first time I did the tuning after install it went fine, now it just doesn't, any advice?

That said, I can't even find the option trueplay in the app, only when I stop the app completely and then restart the app, it will show in the top above ‘your system’, but after a few seconds it is gone and does not show up anywhere.

Strange enough in my products list it only shows the arc, sub and left surround speaker, if I look in the properties all 3 say connected, but if I look in my router client list I only see the Arc, if I do update network, on the Arc all goes well, on the SUB or era300's always same error ‘something went wrong try again’, pfff…..

Are your app and system up to date after last week’s updates to both?

yes, all is updated, and all works fine if I send music to it, all speakers have sound

I'm not sure if the speakers and sub all need the network to be honest, since I do not see them on my router but there is sound in all, I guess only the Arc needs network and the rest is connected to the Arc by sonos own network?

I don't really want to factory reset them again knowing how much time it cost me last time to get all working...

Sorry, just saw you said in your post some of your speakers haven’t updated. Try running the system update again from your laptop/Macbook/PC using the desktop app downloadable from the Sonos website (search “Sonos Windows (or Mac) app”) as that can often update speakers that have otherwise refused. 

it will have issues unless all speakers are on the same firmware. 

You’ll likely not see the sub and surrounds on the router list as they connect directly to the soundbar by a dedicated 5ghz WiFi, not your home WiFi.

ok, installed the app on Windows and it does say there is an update, kind of strange since the Android app said there wasn't…

so far it has been blinking red/white for over 25 minutes now…

Close the app and run it again. 

You might have done this already - or it might have updated okay by now?

(If it comes to it, despite it advising not to, you might have no choice but to need to turn off your router and all your speakers. Then after five mins turn the router back on and let it fully boot up, then all your speakers one by one (letting each boot up before moving onto the next). 

And then reopen the Windows app and try again.)