Beam keeps dropping connection.

  • 24 January 2021
  • 23 replies
  • 4746 views

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Suddenly my Beam is very unstable and keeps disappearing from the app, and is not available through Spotify connect or Airplay when it happens. No changes has been done to the network.

I have performed a factory reset. It did not help.

I’ve seen other people having the same problem and just post the diagnostics ID here, so I’ll just do the same: 1041793801


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23 replies

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Hi @dellhem.

Welcome to the Sonos Community and thanks for reaching out to us and for submitting a diagnostic. Allow me to share some information to help.

The diagnostic submitted only contains an information about the Wifi name your controller is connected to. No Sonos Product was connected to the Sonos App the moment the diagnostic was submitted. It seems that your Beam is not connected to the internet. Allow me to share some troubleshooting steps to help out.

Allow me to share with you the guide about Sonos LED Lights to better understand the LED status on your Sonos Beam. 

Since you have mentioned about  a factory reset performed in your Beam, can we try the following these steps accordingly.

  • Let’s make sure we perform another complete factory reset on the Sonos product. Unplug the device from power, press and hold the join button (while it is unplugged form power), while the button is pressed, plug it in to power and wait for a green light before letting go. Doing a factory reset on your Sonos products removes all information stored on the product such as but not limited to music services, Wifi name, Sonos account, etc. It will act as if it is brand new out of the box.
  • Open the Sonos app tap on cannot connect to Sonos ‘Fix it’. reset the Sonos App.
  • Relaunch the Sonos App and choose set up a new Sonos system. You may use your existing Sonos account to sign in and follow the prompts.
  • Once the Sonos Beam is fully set up on the Sonos App can we submit a diagnostic so we can check the network it is connected to and any wireless interference that may be the root cause of this issue.

I hope this helps.

Please let me know how it goes and keep me posted.

Thanks,

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Hi.

Here’s a new diagnostics ID create when connected: 909254741

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@Paul A 

Userlevel 6
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Hi @dellhem.

Thanks for your immediate response and for submitting a diagnostic.

Based on the provided diagnostic, your Sonos Beam is already fully set up and is able to connect locally just does not have internet connection. Please try to unplug the Beam from power and plug it back after 10-15 seconds. The Sonos Beam should come online after doing this step. Once the Sonos Beam is online, try to test to make sure everything works.

Please let me know how it goes and keep me posted.

Thanks,

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@Paul A 

The reset process requires you to unplug the power, which I’ve done twice. Why would a third time help?

@dellhem 

I recently experience the same issue where my beam would disconnect from the app and reappear.

Everything was working perfectly and I only started experiencing this lately.

I called support and this was their advice.

My wifi gateway is setup with one network name. My router automatically decides what frequency to use (2.4ghz/5ghz) for that device

What fixed my problem was separating out my wifi signals with different names and passwords. Then connecting my beam to the 2.4ghz signal.

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Hi @justinpsu,

Thanks for your reply. I will try this to rule it out, but it is completely unacceptable as a solution. Sonos do net get to decide how I set up my network, and there are several reasons why you would not want to split the frequency bands on different SSID’s. How weird that it has been working perfectly since July 2019 and suddenly, with no changes to the network, this happens… 

Can I ask, what router do you have?

@dellhem 

Supposedly it’s an Xfinity issue but I’m not sure since I haven’t done anything with my setup. I’m using an Xfinity provided router and modem setup. 
 

Model# CGM4331COM

 

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I left the Sonos unplugged over night. Didn’t help even a little bit.

I do have my router set up in “Dual band smart connect” (Both frequencies on the same SSID).
I did the following:

  1. The Beam was connected to the 2.4GHz band, but was unavailable in the app.
  2. I started a continuous ping. All timed out.
  3. The I turned the 5GHZ band off.
  4. The pings started to get replies immediately.
  5. I turned the 5GHz band back on.
  6. Still works, 10 minutes later.

As I have been restarting both the Beam and my router several times during troubleshooting, I do not expect this to last.

 

@Paul A - Why do you care how we set up our network? It wasn’t an issue a month ago. Did you update the firmware?

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And now it stopped working again. It took about 20 minutes..

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I’ve now been running my 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands separate for 4 hours, and I’ve been restarting both router and Beam several times since. It still doesn’t work.

Any other ideas?

I’ve had similar issues! Beam will drop in and out of visibility in the sonos app, Will show in the app as “playing” but with no sound, will drop mid stream and come back on its own. Needs disconnect and reconnect excercises. Just overall unreliable.

It can be crazy making to find all these “turn your router on/off; and factory reset” options. Those are the first things I do. I have a theory its a BEAM issue. Anecdotally - I purchased a FIVE and a BEAM in the same week, FIVE has had absolutely no issues with connecting to airplay. Immediately was discoverable, fully functional, and has maintained steady & reliable access - through the app and through the Apple TV connection airplay option. This feels very much like a BEAM issue. I’m still in my 45 day window - and am hoping your issue resolve is something that is universal. The two speaker types paired together are a real dream! Hate to do without one, really noticeable when BEAM drops out. Anyway - best of luck and thanks for posting here.

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New findings. I did another reset, but this time I connected it to another router and I’m puzzled to say that it helped. Two hours with no problems.

 

I did another reset and connected it to my primary router again, and problems came back instantly.

I searched for “sonos beam asus router issues OR problems” and found this: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3668?language=en_US

“Some Asus RT Series routers have a known issue that prevents them from working with Sonos. If your Asus RT Series router has an Airtime Fairness setting, disabling it will ensure that it will work with Sonos.”

This feature was already disabled on my router. So I’m back to square one.

 

I think it’s safe to say that my router (Asus RT-AX58U) is the issue. But what is the actual issue, and why did this happen just now, almost two years later? 

As I’ve already mentioned, I have not changed the network recently, and no firmware upgrades has been installed on the router around the time the problems started.

I guess I’ll have to use a cable for now.

 

Userlevel 7
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Hi @dellhem 

Please follow the instructions on this reply to another, but related, topic:

Hopefully, that will help.

I don’t mean to sound patronising, but how sure are you that you’ve had no firmware update on the Asus router? We’ve had reports of Asus routers needing a factory reset after installing a firmware update. If all else fails, I recommend you try this too.

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Hi @dellhem 

Please follow the instructions on this reply to another, but related, topic:

Hopefully, that will help.

I don’t mean to sound patronising, but how sure are you that you’ve had no firmware update on the Asus router? We’ve had reports of Asus routers needing a factory reset after installing a firmware update. If all else fails, I recommend you try this too.

Hi.

Do you mean disable "block internet access”? In that case: I didn't check for this when I did the troubleshooting, but I think I would have noticed if it was blocked. I was going to check now, but I can't change from wired to wireless. “Wirelessl Setup” is grayed out in the app. Do you have an idea why this is?

Regarding firmware upgrades. As there were no updates released from the time I started to have these problems to the time I created this thread, I’m quite sure:

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking-IoT-Servers/WiFi-6/All-series/RT-AX58U/HelpDesk_BIOS/

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Hi @dellhem 

Yes - disable Block Internet Access is the step I wanted you to try. I’m not sure why you’re trying to do Wireless Setup - if that hadn’t been done, you wouldn’t get your Beam online at all without an ethernet cable. In fact, the option is currently greyed out because you’re not using an ethernet cable - If I’ve been following correctly, that is. Having said that, I’m not sure why you’re trying to do wireless setup - it’s only a way to tell Sonos your WiFi credentials - there are no options to adjust.

If you’re still having this problem, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who will be able to do some real-time troubleshooting with you.

In answer to an earlier query, your Beam is reserving it’s 5GHz radio for bonding a Sub and/or two Surrounds and will only therefore connect to 2.4GHz. With band steering on, your router is trying to get it to connect to 5GHz, which results in a disconnect. This may be what is happening, but it could also have something to do with these current Asus router issues. There’s more information on troubleshooting Sonos & WiFi here:

 

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Hi @dellhem 

Yes - disable Block Internet Access is the step I wanted you to try. I’m not sure why you’re trying to do Wireless Setup - if that hadn’t been done, you wouldn’t get your Beam online at all without an ethernet cable. In fact, the option is currently greyed out because you’re not using an ethernet cable - If I’ve been following correctly, that is. Having said that, I’m not sure why you’re trying to do wireless setup - it’s only a way to tell Sonos your WiFi credentials - there are no options to adjust.

If you’re still having this problem, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who will be able to do some real-time troubleshooting with you.

In answer to an earlier query, your Beam is reserving it’s 5GHz radio for bonding a Sub and/or two Surrounds and will only therefore connect to 2.4GHz. With band steering on, your router is trying to get it to connect to 5GHz, which results in a disconnect. This may be what is happening, but it could also have something to do with these current Asus router issues. There’s more information on troubleshooting Sonos & WiFi here:

 

Great, thanks. But I’m pretty sure that blocking internet access is not the issue here. It’s not automatically activated by the router, and I certainly haven’t activated it.

Regarding wireless vs wired: This whole thread is about issues with the wireless. I gave up and started using a cable instead, as mentioned in the last sentence of my last post before you joined the discussion. I am using a cable, I see in my router that it is connected by cable, and the connection is and has been stable since I started using the cable. The option for setting up wireless is still grayed out. If I remove the cable, it instantly disconnects. 

As for band steering. I’ve already tried to turn it off and using the 2.4GHz band specifically:

I’ve now been running my 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands separate for 4 hours, and I’ve been restarting both router and Beam several times since. It still doesn’t work.

Any other ideas?

 

Userlevel 7
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Hi @dellhem 

Apologies - I missed those rather salient points.

If the Operating System of your controller device is only partially supported, that would explain Wireless Setup being greyed-out. 

Our Sonos App Requirements page lists supported OS versions with which you can configure Sonos, and our Unsupported OS versions page lists OS versions that allow control of playback on Sonos, but not system configuration. Do you have another device you can try?

As you’re still having trouble with WiFi, I still recommend you get in touch with our technical support team - it may be a router setting we’re just not thinking of.

 

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I did another factory reset to connect it to wifi. I have been running my network separate (band steering off) for a few weeks for other reasons than this, but I thought I could give it another go as I didn’t really remember if I used the 2.4GHz or 5GHz the last time. During setup I realised that it wouldn’t even try to connect to 5Ghz, so I know for sure I did it right the last time. 

Setup went fine, as always. 10 minutes later, dead. It is connected to the 2.4GHz band with a prefect connection quality of -22 dBm. But it’s not available in the app, and not even responding to ping. So still same behaviour as when I started to get these issues.

I also went for the tip of factory resetting the router. It has been stable for 15 minutes now, so it looks promising. The pings are also with very low latency as to what I’ve seen before.

I’ll update again in a few hours.

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Checked again now. Dead.

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@dellhem 

Did you repeat the Quality of Service and disable Block Internet Access steps after resetting? Those options will have been reset.

If so, we’re back to contacting technical support, I’m afraid.

 

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@dellhem

Did you repeat the Quality of Service and disable Block Internet Access steps after resetting? Those options will have been reset.

If so, we’re back to contacting technical support, I’m afraid.

 

I checked if it was blocked. It was not.

What about QoS?

Userlevel 7
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I beg your pardon - I meant Airtime Fairness. 

Though QoS can cause issues too - just not your particular issue.