You need to have WiFi enabled on the Playbar Settings whether it is connected by Ethernet or not. If you disable WiFi then you turn off the Playbar 's wireless radio, making it impossible for it to communicate with the surrounds. 

You need to enable WIFi. The Playbar itself will still connect over Ethernet. 

Hello John,

Thank you for your answer, but I think that it is not correct. Indeed:

• In the past my 2 Play1:s always worked as surrounds to a cabled Playbar with wireless disabled
• In recent times, I had 2 Play5:s working as surround with the same configuration
• As I said in my message above, I can control the system from the Play1:s (volume up/down, play/pause, etc), so it means they communicate with the cabled Playbar. The problem is that no sound come from them.

Hey @davehen,

@John B is correct.

Looking at your diagnostic (specifically the first one), I can see that the WiFi has been disabled on your Playbar. Please try to enable WiFi while the Playbar is wired (Settings → System → Home Cinema → Playbar → Enable Wi-Fi) and let me know if that helps.

If not, please submit another diagnostic and reply with the number here.

Hello James,

That’s indeed something I did already: when the Playbar is wireless, the surrounds work.

But I want the Playbar to be on wire only, which is a perfectly legal configuration (see here): I can tell you for a fact, it always worked with this configuration in the past.

Yeah, I do know that having everything wired should work, but here’s the issue:

In your second diagnostic (1698362511) where you said the Playbar is wireless, I can for certain tell you that it’s not. It has an Ethernet cable connected in both cases, the only difference I can see between the diagnostic reports is that the wireless card is disabled on the first one (1260792362). I have yet to see a diagnostic where your Playbar is actually wireless. Disabling the WiFi in the app while having wireless surrounds connected is not a supported setup. You would need to either have the surrounds also wired, or enable the wireless card on the wired Playbar.

My question is this - how are you moving your Playbar from wired to wireless? What is the process you’re using to switch it over?

My question is this - how are you moving your Playbar from wired to wireless? What is the process you’re using to switch it over?

I just switch on and off this option:

while the network cable is always plugged in.

My question is this - how are you moving your Playbar from wired to wireless? What is the process you’re using to switch it over?

I just switch on and off this option:

while the network cable is always plugged in.

Yeah that’s the issue. When you disable Wi-Fi that essentially cuts off all communication between the wired Playbar and wireless surrounds. You need to have that enabled or have both surrounds wired (plus your Sub) if you wish to have the wireless card disabled on your Playbar.

James, I do really appreciate your help, but how do you explain that this setup always worked in the past?

Actually I had it working for months on end, with these very same Play1:s and even with 2 Play5:s.

John B is most certainly correct.  If your surrounds are wireless, you cannot shut off the WiFi on the Playbar.  WiFi has to be enabled in order for the surrounds to get a signal from the Playbar.   Which makes sense - The Playbar decodes the optical input and sends the surround signal to the surround speakers.  If there is no physical connection to the surrounds, how is the Playbar supposed to get the signal to the surrounds?  They aren’t going to communicate via carrier pigeon.

@davehen . You need to do what I suggested. You are completely wrong in your understanding. You have never successfully run unwired surrounds with WiFi disabled on the Playbar.

You must be mistaken

Without a diagnostic showing that setup fully working in that state I can’t answer that, I’m afraid.

I did find one diagnostic from April (the only one before the ones you’ve listed in this thread) and I see your entire system was connected via WiFi (nothing cabled). 

I can assure you that this has always been an unsupported setup and should have never worked in that state, but if you’re ever able to get it “functional” like that again, I’d love to see the diagnostic report and explain to you how that is.

What is your objection to having the wireless capability of the Playbar switched on, given that the system will still use the cable to send data to the Playbar?

@James L. , @John B ,

I will keep the Playbar with WiFi enabled then, and if I will manage to reproduce the same weird behaviour (Wi-Fi disabled, yet with surrounds working) I won’t hesitate to post the diagnostic report.

Let me point out that - at the very least - this whole wifi/no wifi/SonoNet thing is confusing for the end user.

You have confused two things that are totally different.  Wireless mode vs SonosNet has absolutely nothing to do with the setting you are changing here.

I think you must have previously operated with the Playbar itself connected wirelessly. In that configuration it would not have allowed you to disable WiFi on the Playbar and everything would have worked.

With the Playbar (or any other speaker in you system) cabled, your system  is in SonosNet mode irrespective of the Enable/Disable WiFi setting.

But if you set Disable WiFi  in the Playbar settings then the surrounds will not work. The simple solution, as I suggested in the first place, is to leave the setting at its default of Enable WiFi.