Radio skipping backwards - BBC radio repeats


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Diagnostic 1334398637, occasionally the radio skips back and repeats a few seconds, the radio will later turn off.


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I have been streaming BBC Radio 2 through my sonos play:1 device in my home office every day since for 5 years without any issues until the last few weeks.  Always used TuneIn until I moved to Sonos Radio. Moved back to TuneIn when Sonos Radio moved to subscription. This is when the problems started. The same happens on my kitchen Play:3, Play:5 and IKEA SYMFONISK. There have been no changes to my WiFi setup/provider or position of my Sonos devices. I’ve invested in your products and expect you to treat your customers better. I listen to a single radio station and Sonos subscription for a free to air BBC service is outrageous. 

I’m having the exact same issue and it’s driving me nuts. Like others here I listen to Radio 2 most of the day each day and it keeps doing the same thing, skipping back by a few seconds.

There has been no change in my set up or addition of any potential items that could interfere with my set up since this has started.

I’ve resorted to plugging an old DAB radio into my Play 5 and streaming that around the house which isn’t perfect as I find that can be a bit patchy at times but it’s better than the skipping backwards.

For reference I don’t seem to experience this when streaming other radio stations / Spotify.

I have exactly the same annoying problem that started a few weeks back. 

That so many of us are having the same problem, it's unlikely to be a local wifi issue, more likely a Sonos/Sounds issue.

I hope Sonos support will take this on board!

Just to add, this also effects BBC Radio 4. I also listen to 6 Music but I haven’t heard it happen on that station.

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Hi Xander, 

 

Thanks for your response. 

Frankly isn't this something Sonos need to resolve? I can stream BBC on other devices and have not noticed the problem with them. Simply to advise customers to contact the BBC doesnt strike me as good customer service when it is clearly a widespread problem impacting your customer base. Speaking for myself this is very damaging to customer loyalty. I'm grateful that you will pass the problem to your engineers and I'm sure they are better qualified than customers to ask the right questions to the BBC. Hope you agree and commit to act accordingly. 

 

Thanks

 

Andy MC

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Hi @Andyneouk1 - as mentioned I’ve raised this with the senior engineers for investigation.

Essentially what seems to be happening here, is that rather than a single continuous stream of data being sent to your speakers, BBC use HLS streaming which provides the speaker with a “playlist" of smaller segments.

If there were no issues occurring, you could imagine the speaker as receiving and then playing segment A, B, C, D, E and so on, in that order. In this case, however, the “Distributor" (the web server responsible for sending each segment from BBC’s side) is sending segment A, B, C, C, D, E, and the Sonos system is dutifully playing these segments in the order they arrive, resulting in a segment being repeated.

In any case, we’re happy to investigate this from our side and work with the BBC where necessary to get this resolved - thank you for your reports.

 

[Mod: Edited for clarity]

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Hi all, apologies for the delay - I was waiting to check in with our senior engineers if there had been any changes.

No updates to share right now I’m afraid - we’re continuing to look in to this from our side.

At the present time, it looks like the MyTuner service is not affected/is the least affected by this issue, however we’re not completely sure what the situation between the BBC and MyTuner is currently - if you do decide to use MyTuner as a workaround for the time being, be aware that BBC stream availability through the service may change.

Thank you for your updates as well - seeing that the issue occurs using multiple Radio services, and when requested by both app and voice, (as well as the issue affecting non-Sonos devices) should help us get to the bottom of this.

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Hi @HILLBELEY, thanks for the update and the information that you provided. Regarding this issue. kindly check this link about Music service audio stops or skips. that may help with some troubleshooting steps. And also this link about reducing wireless interference between your devices and the network. 

Let me know your thoughts with the advice above

We're here to answer any further questions you have.

Good morning,

I’m pleased to see Hillbeley highlighting this, it’s happening for me too. It’s definitely a new phenomenon which has started in the last couple of months. I can absolutely confirm that it ONLY happens with BBC Radio 2 streams started via Alexa on the BBC Sounds skill (I haven’t tried other radio stations). SONOS radio and a Spotify music remain flawless, so this is nothing to do with my setup, it’s been working perfectly for years.

Hi, i want to add that this is happening to me. same as above. @Simon B @Sonos what are you doing about this?

I’ve got this same problem with Radio 2 and yes, it kicked in around the same time as others. It seems to be getting more frequent. S1 system and so I don’t imagine Sonos are that interested in sorting out the issue. 

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Hi everyone, thanks for raising this with the Sonos Community.

As the issue reported appears to be exclusive to BBC Radio streams, the likely issue is the data being sent to your Sonos system, rather than the system itself.
That being said, I'm more than happy to raise this with our engineers to see if there are any steps we can take from our side, however it may also be worth reaching out to BBC directly and reporting your experiences to them.

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Hi @John B, many thanks for the suggestion and links for trying non-HLS streams!

It’s certainly possible that this only happens for streams sent to Sonos devices, and the unique situation between Sonos, BBC, and TuneIn could indeed be a factor - having said that I have seen some reports of this issue occurring on other internet radio devices so I can’t say for sure - in any case I’ll pass this on to our engineers as it’s a good point to look in to :)

For the time being however, I’ll be giving your workaround a go, and I’ll post back to let you know if I’ve noticed any repeating segments from the non-HLS stream.

Had this issue on Radio 4 for a few months - first time thought it was just a dodgy edit in a news item but it happened again and again.

Generally use Alexa to “play radio 4” on Sonos 1 - no idea what tech is making it happen.

however often get message about linking my Amazon account to bbc sounds and time wasting bbc sounds intro so after reading this thread realise playing via bbc sounds.

tried starting from the Sonos app using tunein and ok so far - have to see what happens when I next listen, perhaps starting with a tap or “Alexa play kitchen”
 

no idea who is at fault but would be really good if Amazon/bbc/Sonos could sort it out together for their customers.  A clear description of the process and tech involved would be a start.

It affects my Sonos on an almost daily basis. We listen to Radio 1 and Radio 4.


[Edit]

I generally initiate the system via Alexa rather than the Sonia app - I have two small children so need to be able to control the volume/what’s playing quickly and can’t always find my phone!

I suggest you try launching the stream from the app. Use voice control to change volume etc. See how it goes. 

@Xander P - would be grateful if you could give any update as to the situation with this streaming problem. It’s been happening regularly for months now and it would be good to know that Sonos and BBC are working to get a fix in place. It spoils what is otherwise an excellent system.

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Yes just to add my name to this list, I listen to Radio 2 via Tunein on Sonos 1s and 4/5 times day it skips back. My sonos’s are actually hardwired so don’t fob me off with wifi interference.

 

 

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I also get this on BBC Radio 2 through Tunein.  Haven’t noticed on 6 Music on Radio 4.  The radio doesn’t turn off - just skips back 20 seconds or so.  I’ve only noticed in the past few weeks. 

Like many of you above I am experiencing the same issue and again related to listening to Radio 2 and have tried  playing through both TuneIn and through Alexa skills and around the same timescales. It's very odd. Any solution help to resolve this would be great. 

I'll chime in here too, as I've had the same issue over the last number of months. I mainly listen to BBC Radio 2 and 6 music, and have had the stream jump back by a number of seconds, multiple times a day.

I also stream music via Spotify often, and have never noticed this problem on that service.

Same issue here with Radio 4.  Listening via Sonos player (on Mac) via Radioplayer.  Happens both when played direct from Sonos or via Alexa using BBC Skill.

Its only started in the last couple of months.  Was rock solid for 10 months prior.

Just noticed a new update to download, so will do this and see if anything changes...

 

 

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Exact same issue for me too 🤪🤪

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Are Sonia going to do anything about this?

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Exactly the same issue, only BBC RADIO 2 skips backwards. I must also say, its been 3 times now when I've had issues  like this SONOS has tried to blame local wifi and EVERY single time it turned out to be a software issue on their end that was sorted by update. It's frankly getting a bit old to keep blaming the end users set up guys. Last time it was SPOTIFY missing tracks in a playlist. I've probably wasted 12-15 hours over the years tinkering only to find out it needed a patch :)

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I’m also experiencing the same issue which started a few months ago. I’ve only noticed it on BBC Radio 2 and 4 streams. These are nearly exclusively launched via the BBC Alexa skill so I’m not sure whether the issue exists if initiated directly from the Sonos apps TuneIn streams. My system is mainly S2 compatible speakers, running as a S1 system. I’ve not noticed the jump on the sole S1 device (a Connect) but streams from that device are initiated exclusively via the Sonos app (TuneIn) and tend to be non BBC streams. 

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