using Amazon Music on Sonos with 4G Router

  • 22 February 2020
  • 35 replies
  • 938 views

Badge

I have set up my Sonos system, 2 paired play 1s and 1 Sonos One,  with a 4 G Router.  Everything works as it used to on the telephone wire router except Amazon Music.

 

I have deleted and re-installed Amazon Music but the result is the same.

 

e.g. I can search for an artist, display albums etc. But can’t display the contents or play individual songs.   Other music providers like TuneIn are working.

 

how do I get Amazon music to set up and play on a 4g router


This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

35 replies

I assume you’re referring to the built-in Amazon Music Service installed in the Sonos App? Does the actual 'native' Amazon Music App work on your mobile controller device? If not, then ...

Perhaps try a different DNS server on the 4G router, such as the google public servers 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 and see if that fixes it, 

Badge

Thank you for your very fast response.
you are right in your first assumption.

It’s the  built in Amazon Music Service on SONOS which after successfully searching for an album eventually displays the message “unable to browse music”  when I try to select and individual track 

However

The Amazon Music App works. 
 

everything else appears to work exactly as it did.
 

 

Try this perhaps…

  1. Remove the Amazon Music Service in 'Settings/Services’.
  2. Reset the Sonos App in 'Settings/App Preferences'.

App will close and ensure it is fully closed. Now open App and choose the option to ‘Connect to existing System’ 

Go back to ‘Settings/Services’ and add the Amazon Music Service again and login with the same credentials as those in use in the Native Amazon Music App installed on the controller device.

Then see if that works. If not, then try a different DNS Server on your 4G router as mentioned earlier. Also check there is no security software, or Firewall, on the mobile controller that might be blocking the connection. 

Badge

Tried all the above plus.  Realising the router I’d dual band I have disabled the 5 GHz band. Thinking it could be that.

 

more playing with it shows that I can search on individual Songs from Amazon and play them but if I search on Artists, Albums, Playlists etc I get a blank screen with the wheel of death.

 

so it looks like I am connecting to amazon i just can’t control it.
 

 This is irrespective of 5 ghz being enabled or not.

Badge

Just to eliminate the obvious.  I have re connected SONOS to wire router and AMAZON MUSIC Service works as it should.

 

i am very confused because in every other respect SONOS works and everything else also works faster with the the 4G router than With the wire broadband connection 
 

other music services e.g. TuneIn work perfectly has anyone any idea what could be confusing AMAZON MUSIC. 

 

I will return the 4G router tomorrow if I have to but don’t really want to because it is so much faster than my wire connection.

 

 

 

 

Leopard,

After trying and failing to get the Amazon Music searches to work, Submit a Sonos diagnostic report from “Settings/Help & Tips” and post it’s reference back here and with s bit of luck the Support Staff passing by this thread may take a look to see if there are any obvious issues that’s blocking the results.

If you’ve not heard anything in 24 hours or so, then follow this LINK to report the incident and see if the customer care team can assist.

Just to eliminate the obvious.  I have re connected SONOS to wire router and AMAZON MUSIC Service works as it should.

 

i am very confused because in every other respect SONOS works and everything else also works faster with the the 4G router than With the wire broadband connection 
 

other music services e.g. TuneIn work perfectly has anyone any idea what could be confusing AMAZON MUSIC. 

 

I will return the 4G router tomorrow if I have to but don’t really want to because it is so much faster than my wire connection.

 

Sounds like the 4G router or the provider is blocking a port or something .. do you have a different SIM card that you can try from another provider, that’s if the device is sim free?... I assume the change of DNS was also tried earlier??

Leopard, 

Just to add I’m also in the U.K. and I know that both 'EE' and the '3’ Network work okay with a Huawei 3G/4G MiFi device as I use those providers when travelling with my Sonos. I also use the Amazon Music HD service ...If that information helps you to perhaps eliminate some things.👍

Badge

Thank you Ken.

 

You seem to get my frustration.


 

I have just spoken to Three Tech services, I think in India.  They, as I expected, were only able to confirm that the 4G connection is good and understood little about connecting with a SONOS network but they have set up a call for me to chat to Huawei tomorrow.  
The device is a Huawei B535 which is a quite recent router but I can’t find out how to change the DNS vis the device service app

Searching on google is not revealing much, I did find something entering developer mode with function keys in Chrome but being armed with only an IPad,  maybe not


I seem to be successful at finding out what it is not. 

 

again thank you for help

Why on earth do these companies hide the DNS Settings and make things so difficult? .. I appreciate that you might not want to mess with the developers menu at this stage etc.

Anyhow I have just reset my Huawei E5776 MiFi with a 3 sim dara card to its defaults to check this and connected a Sonos Move speaker to its hotspot and then performed some searches and its working okay here. So that appears to rule out the 3 DNS servers. Some screenshots are attached.

Is there a firewall you can temporarily disable on your device?

This is the 3-Network default DNS Server that my MiFi connection was using during the test above 188.31.252.88… you can perhaps check your DNS by navigating with a web browser on your iPad to whatsmydnsserver.com, or any such similar online service.

Badge

Just checked the DNS server for my 4G Three connection it is 188.31.254.89.
 

 For the copper wire router (Sky) that works it is 90.207.253.94

 

Ive checked again and all fire walls and parental controls are switched off as far as I know

 

i don’t have another SIM card to try from a different provider.

 

The only thing I have not tried that I can think of is setting everything back to factory and re-installing the SONOS speakers from scratch.    I don’t have a SONOS move. Just 2 play 1,s and a One SL.  

I cannot see resetting Sonos is going to help. Have you tried Ken's suggestion to use Google Public DNS servers?

Edit  just read of your difficulties changing this.

I can’t see the 3-Network DNS servers being different from each other .. I’m on a pay monthly plan FWIW ...and I agree with John B that resetting your devices is unlikely to make a difference here, particularly as everything works on your other wired router.

I am aware however that the Amazon Music Service can be a little ‘exact’ and 'unforgiving' when searching through the Sonos App, it often does not like partial words… so perhaps just try again with the same searches that I did earlier and see if you get any results at all.

  • With Artists tab selected … type “mumford”
  • With Albums tab selected … type “the lamb lies down”

If not, then go down the route of submitting a diagnostic immediately after failure (as mentioned earlier) and let’s see if the Sonos Support Staff can assist in discovering where the problem may lie here.

Badge

I’m on a pay monthly plan too with Three.

i tried some pretty easy one word  artist searches like Beatles.
 

It found them but when I tried to open the search to the next level (e,g. list of albums or top songs etc) i hit the screen of death

 

Similar with Album I put in Revolver and drew a blank.    
 

Exactly the same searches when set up with the wired router produced results I can open

 

if I put in the name of a song. Like Help. It opens and plays. It even shows the albums where it is located but then trying to open that gives the screen of death.

 

It partially works,  it’s like I am talking to Amazon but it does not talk back unless it’s the lowest level search. if that makes sense

 

i submitted a diagnostic last night but have not had response.  It is the weekend I guess.

Leopard,

Ah I see… I was only doing a quick search on the Artist and/or Album and displaying those results I did not go deeper … I will go back and check things again.

I don’t use the Sonos search facility that often and I only use the MiFi device when travelling, so let me set it up and try it again for you.

Give me half hour and I will report back.

Leopard .. I am able reproduce what I think is your issue with the Amazon Music Service, but it’s somewhat intermittent. Is this the screen you see (note, I have tried this on both iPhone and iPad), the attached are screenshots from both devices connected to the 3 mobile network…

It is however “intermittent” as I will explain in my next post.

If I search for an artist with a lot of albums and songs, like the Beatles for example, I get what might be a timeout and the above screen shows saying “unable to browse music”. 

On the otherhand if I search for an artist with just a few albums and tracks… Lewis Capaldi is one such example… then the results do return and display as shown in the attached screenshot.

It also worked for me for Mike & the Mechanics, but several others failed. 

So it’s very intermittent and seems like the mobile network is somehow holding up the data and it therefore times out.(perhaps?)

i did a System diagnostic too immediately after it both worked and failed … 1729405978

 

Just to add I also subscribe to the Deezer HiFi Service too and that service in the Sonos App appears to be working fine and brings back the results everytime. I will screenshot that fact too and post that here in a few moments.

Screenshots attached showing the Deezer search results are working here okay.. I searched for the Beatles as an extreme example and it works every-time, almost instantly. Music plays fine from both services to my Move speaker, albeit I have only done a short test in this area.

I also ran a Speedtest check on the 3-network internet connection in my case. I am getting a meagre 12Mbps upload/download, so its not the greatest connection, comparatively speaking to my home network, but i would have thought it perhaps a reasonable link to get back the Amazon search results and to stream audio. 

Anyhow, I hope the additional information here assists. 👍 Let me know if I can be of any further help.

Badge

Ken,  thank you

They are exact examples of what I am seeing and your description that the mobile network is somehow holding up the connection correctly summarises what I was trying to say about being able to talk to Amazon but it not being able to talk back.

 

As you say it can be intermittent and is definitely related to volume.  
For example if an artist only has one song on Amazon then that song will display and I can play it.  But if they have one album I will get the album but will no be able to display or play the individual tracks.  Where as in the case of say The Beatles there are a number of albums I will only se the existence of the artist and not even see the albums or tracks. It’s like I can only access the highest common factor of any list.

 

I am getting about 18 Mbps upload and download with 4g which is at least 8 Mbps quicker than the speed I get with the landline connection for download and 15 Mbps faster than the upload.    I was rather expecting a better performance than a worse one

 

Thank you for all your help and I am at least happy that someone else has now seen the same or similar issues.  Interesting Deezer works too.  
 

i will let you know what Huawei have to say tomorrow but I am not holding my breath.

Indeed, establishing an ‘owner’ for these type of issues can be a problem in itself, but maybe something can be established from the diagnostic reports.. you might just to need to post your diagnostic references back here and contact Sonos Customer Care direct for them to get examined. My report and screenshots too, from earlier, may assist.

I would have thought this issue however likely lies with Amazon and/or the 3-Network .. so when I get a chance, I will try my mobile as a WiFi hotspot with the EE network to see if that makes any difference.

Leopard,

Okay .. this time I switched off my home WiFi and my Huawei MiFi device and instead setup my iPhone XR as a mobile hotspot on the EE (4G) network. I used an iPad with the Sonos App as the main controller device. Again I very occasionally use this setup/configuration when travelling and so my Sonos Move speaker connected to the iPhone hotspot instantly, as it is one of my saved Sonos WiFi networks in the Sonos App..

 

After connecting to the Hotspot I opened the App and waited for the Move speaker to appear (called 'Portable’) ..then I tested with the same 'Beatles' search and a few others and had the exact same issue with Amazon Music .. it times-out and no results show. I tried it a few times and problem was the same as seen earlier with the MiFi device and the 3-Network. So the built-in Amazon Music Service on Sonos, when searching via the App, does not appear to work correctly (its intermittent, at least) whilst using a 3G/4G mobile connection. 

 

On the other-hand testing these same searches and things with the Deezer Music Service, that seems to work fine everytime ..and plays music to the Move device too from the search results screen.👍

 

So this test appears to rule out it being the 3-Network exclusively and because the Deezer Music Service works fine on both the mobile tested connections/devices, things appear to point towards the problem being the Amazon Music search and the way it’s implemented in the Sonos App (perhaps?). 

 

Perhaps importantly, I think we can safely say that these tests (taken collectively) rule out your Huawei 4G router as being the cause of the problem here.

 

I carried out another Sonos diagnostic report, post testing on this occasion … 619926724. Screenshots were taken, but really they are just the same as I posted earlier, so I won’t bother to post them at this stage.

 

I hope that further information assists a little further. I will just add the Speedtest of the EE mobile hotspot connection was approx. 23Mbps Download/5 Mbps Upload.

Badge

Ken

thank you for the update.  You have done a huge amount to satisfy me that it is not something I was doing wrong. After conversations with both Three and Huawei today they also arrive at the same conclusion that the problem lies somewhere between SONOS and Amazon.   The fact that the native Amazon App works drives them to be more suspicious of SONOS;  I am also aware that this is also something to do with the suspicion of the unknown. 
 

I am not quite sure where this leaves me but  I think without confidence that I will get a solution soon then the 4G router  will have to go back.  

Ken

thank you for the update.  You have done a huge amount to satisfy me that it is not something I was doing wrong. After conversations with both Three and Huawei today they also arrive at the same conclusion that the problem lies somewhere between SONOS and Amazon.   The fact that the native Amazon App works drives them to be more suspicious of SONOS;  I am also aware that this is also something to do with the suspicion of the unknown. 
 

I am not quite sure where this leaves me but  I think without confidence that I will get a solution soon then the 4G router  will have to go back.  

The Amazon Music service in the Sonos App is actually not the responsibility of Sonos, at least that’s my understanding. Amazon developers would be responsible for implementing their own service here. I think Sonos just provide the tools and service for the implementation.

Ideally the matter needs bringing to the attention of Sonos customer care who will likely pass the information along to the relevant Amazon team. There is one issue however and that is I’m not entirely sure that mobile internet connections, or WiFi hotspots, are ‘officially’ supported in this case, albeit that these connections often still do work for most things. 

As long as the situation here perhaps gets highlighted to the right people, I guess that’s as much as we can perhaps do at this moment in time. Obviously it’s not a major sticking point in my own case, as my home (wired) internet here is fine and I can use Deezer when travelling,

However it is perhaps a little more important in your case, that’s if you are thinking of using the 4G router as a faster and more permanent solution for your Home setup. 

Badge

Ken,  you have been brilliant  in the support and contCt you have provided.  I have resigned that for the moment that between Amazon, SONOS, Three and Huawei  I will not get a quick solution to this.

 

Taking stock of what is working I have the following.

 

1 I have a good, solid and fast internet connection with 4g through the Huawei router, far better than I currently get with the copper landline connection.

2 The Huawei router provides a strong WiFi throughout the house

3 I can network my 3 SONOs speakers successfully using the Huawei WiFi and it works well for everything except Amazon Music Services with the SONOS App.

4 I can get Amazon Music through the Amazon native App using the 4g router without any problems

5 I can connect to my SONOS One SL using Air play.

 

So that is what I have done.  Using Air Play for Amazon Music is a bit more chunky than from within the SONOS App. but I can hope that it is not forever until Amazon/SONOS sort out the app utility.  I don’t need to play different music in different room so apart from this restriction I don’t think I can see any other problems;  do you?

 

As you say this issue now needs to be raised with SONOS Customer Care.  The future of Broadband in the UK is going to be reliant on distribution via fibre but local connection using Mobile  Data (4G and 5G) especially in rural areas.  Even now many new builds are not being provided a landline connection I am sure that this issue is only going to effect more and more people.