Can't add surrounds to Arc (There was a problem adding your surrounds)

Hi all!

I feel I've tried a million things to get my surround system up and running, but I haven't succeeded. The error message I get is this:

"There was a problem adding your surrounds. Check the network connection and make sure your products are powered on".

I have the following products:

Arc
One
One SL

All three works individually, and the two Ones work as a stereo pair.

I've tried rebooting speakers and wifi without any luck. I've also tried factory resetting without any luck.

I've researched quite a lot but haven't found any fixes. As far as I understand, some Sonos issues are due to the router, but without knowing what the issue is, in my case, it seems overkill to buy a new one, especially if it doesn't solve the problem.

I've sent diagnostics if this helps in any way (Sonos support): 2049259484

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Give us some info about your network.

Do you have a mesh network with main node and satellites (1 or more)… or do you have a standard network with Router and Modem with range extenders?

Give us some info about your network.

Do you have a mesh network with main node and satellites (1 or more)… or do you have a standard network with Router and Modem with range extenders?

Hi AjTrek1, thanks for the quick reply.

I’m no network specialist myself. I believe I have a standard router+modem:

Cisco Linksys EA4500

(looks like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Wireless-Dual-Band-Anywhere-EA4500/dp/B007IL7AKM)

Cisco AIR-CAP37021-E-K9

(looks like this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cisco-AIR-CAP3702I-2-4GHz-Gigabit-Access/dp/B00HEXFTGG)

@Mikkel Rossing,
Assuming the WiFi Adapter has not been switched ‘off’ on the Arc by yourself, this sounds like an issue with the router allowing the Arc to proxy the IP addresses to the bonded surrounds.. perhaps try this first of all.

See if the surrounds will setup/work if you power off the access point, leaving devices running on the router wifi signal only.
If that doesn’t work, then try wiring the Arc to the router (if practicable) and try the bonding of the speakers to the Arc again. If it’s impractical to wire the Arc to the router, then just as a temporary test (only) see if wiring either the One/One-SL to the router will work, but note this is just a test and your setup should not be left in this configuration.

Report back if any of the above work for you.

Have you checked whether the ARC has WiFi enabled?

Hi @Ken_Griffiths - thanks a lot for your reply!

If I kill the access point the wifi dies Is it supposed to be like that?

BUT! When the Arc is wired to the router, it freaking works!! Problem now is the router is far away from the tv+speakers and when I unwire router+Arc the connection to the speakers is lost again.

Any idea how to solve that?

Hi @RussJK, thanks for your reply! Normally the Arc works fine (on wifi).

If you have time please read the comment I just posted to Ken: When Arc is wired to the router it works, problem is it can’t be wired all the time and when I unwire the connection between arc+speakers is lost again :(

Btw sorry @AjTrek1 I didn’t tag you in my reply to you - not sure if you get notifications anyway.

Hi Mikkel,

The ARC has its own Wi-Fi capability - Sonosnet independent of your router. If you ensure that Wi-Fi is enabled for the ARC in the Sonos app then you may establish the link to your other speakers.

@RussJK just tried and it looks like wifi is enabled on the Arc. Can’t connect to the speakers without being wired to the router though.

Hi @Ken_Griffiths - thanks a lot for your reply!

If I kill the access point the wifi dies Is it supposed to be like that?

BUT! When the Arc is wired to the router, it freaking works!! Problem now is the router is far away from the tv+speakers and when I unwire router+Arc the connection to the speakers is lost again.

Any idea how to solve that?

Yes, when the speakers are bonded to a Sonos HT master device they (mainly) connect to that (Sonos Arc in your case) over an ad-hoc 5Ghz connection. Their IP addresses on the network are proxied via the Arc from your routers DHCP server and in your case it looks like your router is not liking that on its own WiFi network, so it refuses to hand out the IP addresses to those two (unseen) players… via the request from the Arc.

The simple answer is to take all Sonos devices off your routers WiFi signal and instead switch the players to use SonosNet instead - to get them onto SonosNet you simply wire just one Sonos player.

However, you should never cable a HT surround speaker or sub for a variety of reasons.. so best way to solve it, is to either add a Sonos Boost, or another Sonos speaker that can be easily wired to the router but keep it about one metre away from the router. All should then work in the same way as when you wired the Arc to the router.

Hope that assists.

@Ken_Griffiths You’re the best, thank you SO much! I wired an old Play:1 to the router and it works!

Had to move some things around though, among other things the Play:1, so not the perfect setup yet. If I buy a Boost (second hand) and connect it to the router it will work just as good, if I understand you correctly?

@Ken_Griffiths You’re the best, thank you SO much! I wired an old Play:1 to the router and it works!

Yes, that’s correct. The Boost will take over the Job now being done by your Play:1 and when it’s in situ, you can then put the Play:1 back to where you had it before.

@Ken_Griffiths You’re the best, thank you SO much! I wired an old Play:1 to the router and it works!

Yes, that’s correct. The Boost will take over the Job now being done by your Play:1 and when it’s in situ, you can then put the Play:1 back to where you had it before.

Got my Boost today @Ken_Griffiths and it works perfectly! Again, thanks a lot, I really appreciate it. I talked to Sonos Support 5 months ago and they couldn’t help besides saying it was “something with the router”. You fixed it within some hours. Power to the Community

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