Question

Playing Spotify through the Sonos app causes issues for Alexa and Spotify Connect

  • 5 September 2020
  • 8 replies
  • 992 views
J
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

I’ve been running in to a problem for the last couple of months and I think I’ve stumbled across the cause.

For a while now, occasionally when I’ve asked Alexa to play something from Spotify, she’s replied from one of my Sonos speakers saying “Playing <whatever> from Spotify” only for there to be complete silence. If you ask her a second time to play the same thing, the music then starts playing successfully.

I’ve also been running in to a problem where, in the Spotify app, I’ll try and connect to a Sonos speaker via Spotify Connect and occasionally it’ll immediately disconnect. It’s weird, it looks like it’s connecting, and it looks like it very briefly connects for a fraction of a second, and then it’ll disconnect. Attempt to connect to the same speaker a second time and it will succeed and stay connected.

From my tests, I think these two issues have the same cause: the Sonos app. Play anything from Spotify using the Sonos app and if you subsequently try to play anything from Spotify via Alexa or Spotify Connect on that same speaker and it’ll result in the problems described above.

I can certainly provide further details, screenshots and diagnostic reports if helpful (writing this on my phone at the moment, so trying to be somewhat brief!)
 

I’m curious to know if anyone else is encountering the same problems, and if this is a known issue to Sonos tech support.

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8 replies

Annazel S
Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @jamie72.

Thanks for reaching out. 

I appreciate your detailed post outlining the issue, let me help and try to figure this out.

When issues like this spring up, there’s a lot of factors we need to explore, but the more information we can gather will help us isolate the problem. 

Kindly submit a diagnostic report when it happens, and reply with the confirmation number.

I'd start by reviewing your system and see if there’s anything causing the issue.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

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J
Userlevel 2
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Hi @Annazel S, here are the diagnostics you asked for:

 

Diagnostic number 598017385: For this I went into the Sonos app, played some music to my speaker called “Living room” from Spotify, then paused. I then went in to the Spotify app and tried to connect to the “Living room” speaker via the Devices menu. This resulted in the behaviour I described in my first post - it briefly looks like it connects, but immediately disconnects.

 

Diagnostic number 1206214044: For this test I went into the Sonos, played some music to my speaker called “Living room” from Spotify, then paused. Then I asked Alexa to play some music on the Living Room speaker. She responded “Here’s Spotify on Sonos”, but then silence.

 

If I go back into the Sonos app after performing either of these two test it displays this screen on the Now Playing screen:

 

Diagnostic number 1923308101: After performing test #1206214044 above (the Alexa test), if I ask Alexa to play Spotify a second time, it starts playing normally.

 

I should also add that I get the same behaviour if using Google Assistant instead of Alexa.

Annazel S
Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @jamie72.

Thanks for your very thorough answer, I appreciate your expertise.

Upon reviewing the diagnostic results, I noticed that the voice service on the ‘Living Room’ Beam is inactive, let’s try to activate it first.

Using the Sonos app > Settings > Services and Voice > Amazon Alexa > Select the Room > Add Amazon Alexa

Test it, and please obtain a new diagnostic if the issue persists.

 

For the Spotify direct control issue:

  • Please check for updates and ensure that your using the current version of Spotify app and Sonos app.
  • Start playing a track from the Spotify app and confirm audio is playing from the device before targeting a Sonos speaker.
  • Test it, and please obtain a new diagnostic if the issue persists.

 

Let us know how it goes and if you have any other questions or run into any issues, please do not hesitate to reach out.

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J
Userlevel 2
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Thanks @Annazel S,

 

Alexa is inactive on the Living Room speaker as I have an Echo Dot in the Living room at the moment - so we use Alexa on that.

 

However I do have Alexa enabled on one of my other speakers (a speaker called “Office”), so to demonstrate that the same issue applies even with Alexa enabled on the Sonos speaker, I repeated those same steps on Office (went into the Sonos app, played some Spotify music to Office, then paused). Then I asked Alexa to play Spotify. Again, Alexa responded “Here’s Spotify”, but then there was silence. The diagnostic number is: 188269358

As before, if I ask Alexa a second time to play Spotify it then successfully starts playing. The diagnostic number is: 1384017366.

 

For the Spotify direct control issue, I tried following your steps (the Spotify app is up to date, and I made sure that music was successfully playing from Spotify before attempting to connect to the speaker), but I still got the same behaviour - the speaker immediately disconnected. The diagnostic number is 1104298875.

And similar to the issue with Alexa, if I try a second time (to connect to the same speaker), it then connects successfully. The diagnostic number is: 914158911.

Annazel S
Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @jamie72.

Thanks for your immediate response.

The diagnostic report is showing a large sync error that mainly can cause dropouts and other connection issues.

Commonly, this issue can come as a result of wireless interference, are you perhaps using an incompatible network configuration or hardware that does not meet our system requirements?

 

If the above advice was followed and the issue persists, please submit a new diagnostic report through the Sonos app and provide us the confirmation number, it can help us identify what is causing your issue. I would need to check also your network set up and how Sonos is running on your system.

  • May I have the make and model number of any wireless router and/or Access Point that exist on the network?

  • Please indicate also how these devices are connected to one another (wired or wireless).

 

Let us know how it goes, we’re always here to help.

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J
Userlevel 2
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Hi @Annazel S,

 

I can confirm I’m not running an incompatible network configuration or hardware that doesn’t meet system requirements.

 

My network consists of three eero Pro mesh wifi nodes. The Living room speaker (Sonos Beam) is wired to the main node via Ethernet, and the other speakers connect wirelessly via Sonosnet. 

 

I just tested it again using my Kitchen speaker:

  • Test 1. Played music from Spotify using the Sonos app, paused, and then asked Alexa to play Spotify - same issue - diagnostic number is 226415607.
  • Test 2. Played music from Spotify using the Sonos app, paused, and then tried to play to the Kitchen speaker from the Spotify app using Spotify connect - same issue as before- diagnostic number is 809411542.
Annazel S
Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @jamie72.

Thank you for your reply and my apologies for the delayed response.

I appreciate your effort and patience while working through this, but at this point, it would be best to reach out to Sonos Support, so they can take a closer look at it in real-time to expedite the process.

I personally suggest calling our phone folks for they have more resources available on their system for advanced troubleshooting, the tools our agents can use through a live troubleshoot particularly remote sharing the controller screen would be very useful in this case.

Our contact information and hours can be found on the attached link above.

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know.

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J
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

Okay, thanks for all your help!

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