Huge problem with Sonos


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Previously my Sonos system was fine. I had an Arc joined with a Sub Gen 3 in a room. I then purchased to move’s and added them no problem. Things ran fine for several weeks. I then cahnged my modem to a newer Rogers Ignite modem. No problem, updated the network and everyting worked fine.

 

Suddenly one of my moves looked like it was conected, solid white LED, but when looking at the system it showed Move L/? meaning that one of the Moves just didn’t seem to be reporting to the Sonos app although the LED light remained solid white.

There was no sound from the one Move, the Arc, Sub 3 and other Move were fine. I am really so not impressed with Sonos at this point. I went and unistalled the app three times, restared my phone. It just keeps remembering the previous install it seems.

 

I want to have the app be reinstalled so that I can begin adding all the products again, but you can’t. Products can’t be discovered even when powered on solid white lights, no system exists to forget. You can’t discover nearby products no matter what, nothing shows up. Seriously, how can Sonos be so bad? It was a breeze getting the system setup, but now it has lost it;s brain from one Move disappearing from the pair. At first the system was there, I could see the Arc and Sub room, I could see the one Move and clicked Add stereo pair, but no matter what it would not see the second move even after numerous rebbots.

 

I am shocked at how bad Sonos products can be under such circumstances. You can’t seem to actually really reinstall a new Sonos app and start again. I am extremely disappointed with Sonos. I am technically pretty savvy, but this situation seems unresolvable. Now in the app I can't even add a new network or even see any product. Thoughts? 


16 replies

Nothing critical is stored in the controllers, it’s all stored in the players. That’s why your initial un-install/install of the controller did not seem to accomplish anything. Also, as you have discovered, Factory Reset rarely solves issues.

After you get your system operating by following Airgetlam’s suggestions, I suggest that you reserve network addresses for all regular network clients. While you are working with your router to reserve addresses, I’m curious about the DHCP server’s lease time. Note that as you install a new router, it is important to reboot everything on your network. If you did not perform this reboot, I’m not surprised that you have fallen into this mess.

Occasionally, I’ll experience the ‘missing’ MOVE that started all of this for you. You can work through this by removing MOVE from its charger and rebooting MOVE.

Right, all the Sonos devices had been told to look for your old network SSID, and consequently can’t connect to your current one, as there was no way for them to be ‘told’ after you disconnected the old router.

It is unfortunate that you factory reset them, you have deleted any information they stored about anything about your system, you’ll need to set up a completely ‘new’ setup.

The easiest way to do so is to connect one of the Sonos speakers to your router with an Ethernet cable, temporarily. Open up the controller and use the ‘add a device’ function. Leave the Ethernet cable connected to your router while you use that function to add all the other speakers, except the Moves. Once they’re all done, go ahead and reset the network information for your new router’s SSID and password, and then you can remove the Ethernet cable.

Once that process is complete, you should be able to add the two Moves using their normal setup process, since you’ve factory reset them.

As a reminder, when you ran that factory reset on the speakers, it did erase everything stored there, including music sources, playlists, and network information. In the normal situation, as explained in this FAQ, you wouldn’t have needed to factory reset them, and your system would have just transferred to the new router. 

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Figured it out. Just had to factory reset the one Move. Sorry for being dense. Cheers to all.

The SONOS system is impatient, If some sort of transient network issue prevents the system from discovering a unit, the system might throw odd errors. The user then reacts to the odd error by Factory Resetting something and things go down hill. If rebooting the ‘missing’ MOVE does not resolve the issue, reboot the other MOVE.

Mother nature is never fair, we cannot rule out some sort of hardware issue. And, I’m not convinced that you have yet worked through all possible network foul-up’s related to changing routers.

Submit a diagnostic and contact SONOS Support. The diagnostic contains network details that are very helpful.

 

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.... And, I’m not convinced that you have yet worked through all possible network foul-up’s related to changing routers.

Submit a diagnostic and contact SONOS Support. The diagnostic contains network details that are very helpful.

 

I’m not convinced that I have either. Frankly I am likely going to return the newer modem to Rogers as the other one (I still have it) never gave me a problem at all and my Sonos system was rock solid with it.


Why not sort out the network first? Why ask for help and then choose to disregard it? It’s more likely a network issue than a speaker issue - though having Sonos check a diagnostic may prove me wrong. 

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Thank you nik9669a. Nobody offended me. I just didn’t see me wondering about doing things in parallel, such as going back to an old modem as in anyway looking past the excellent advice. I am just now home and able to look at things. I am trying to get my head around the ethernet solution. I have just started reading and from what I have read, very cursory understanding to this point, I need to make sure that the product I use wired is already in the system. Currently, for whatever reason, I can’t get any product in the system. Anyway, I have no idea what is wrong, but I intend to systematically follow the advice that has been given to me. I really do. Sorry that this wasn’t clear.

So, everything was working fine until you changed the network?

How does/did your Sonos system connect to your network? Did you have one or more devices wired to the root router, or was everything connected just to WiFi? Have you factory reset any of the Sonos devices?

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Things were all WiFi, no wired connection ever needed. I have tried factory resetting everything. Even though I think I completely blow away the Sonos Android app, reinstall, now it has the account and settings greyed out. I even installed it fresh using a new email, but no difference. Seriously, for the amount of money that I spent to suddenly, and for no reason have Sonos become unusable is beyond belief.

 

All of my other devices updated to the new network credentials, and at first Sonos did as well and was fine. Nothing changed and suddenly Sonos forgot one of the Moves, but now the entire system can’t be found, discovered, nothing. The app cannot see any of the products, and I have four, an Arc a Sub Gen 3 and a pair of Moves. Now the app is useless no matter how many unistalls/reinstalls. The system tab is greyed out, but all the products show a solid white LED as if they are connected. What horrible engineering that does not allow for a customer to blow away a previous install and start over. 

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Thanks Airgetlam, I will go through the process. But to be clear, I had successfully changed the system to running via the new network. It then simply stopped working with one of the Moves after about a week of no issues at all. I then tried to pair the missing Move to the existing system which was fine having the Sub and Arc still as a room and the one Move. I have no idea why the pair of Moves were broken. It literally happened without any warning or seemingly reason. 

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Thanks buzz, I will do as the two of you have suggested. Huge pain in the ass though as only the Arc has ethernet. When the one Move was orphaned I did as you said, removed it from the base, rebooted it and tried to have it pair with the existing Move still in the system. Nothing worked it could not be added, it was invisible to the app. That is when I blew everything away thinking fine, I’ll just start over. The problem is at first it remembered the Arc and Sub and kept them there, but now the Moves couldn’t be added. In the app you could see that it detected a Move needing to be added, clicked on the dialogue box to add it but nothing worked, it was as if the Moves just couldn’t be added. I am confused why the Moves always had the solid white LED though?

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Thanks buzz, I will do as the two of you have suggested.
 I am confused why the Moves always had the solid white LED though?

Why worry about that? Why not try what’s suggested and see how it works out?

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Thanks buzz, I will do as the two of you have suggested.
 I am confused why the Moves always had the solid white LED though?

Why worry about that? Why not try what’s suggested and see how it works out?

Oh I intend to, but it makes me wonder why as it might happen again. Hopefully not though. It just seems odd that a speaker can get dropped from the pair with seemingly no cause. 

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.... And, I’m not convinced that you have yet worked through all possible network foul-up’s related to changing routers.

Submit a diagnostic and contact SONOS Support. The diagnostic contains network details that are very helpful.

 

I’m not convinced that I have either. Frankly I am likely going to return the newer modem to Rogers as the other one (I still have it) never gave me a problem at all and my Sonos system was rock solid with it.

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buzz, you keep implying that I am not going to take the advice offered. Would you please find a single instance when I have said that I wasn’t going to listen to the advice given? Of course I am going to try what has been suggested, and I have clearly stated that on a few occasions now.

 

I am considering changing the modem back (later) or maybe not at all as my older laptop NIC card has been constantly disconnecting from the network since the newer modem so I am considering this. If I get the Sonos system back up and running on this newer modem, that will be great and if I make the move back to the older modem, it really should be pretty simple to change the network again.

 

Remember, I originally successfully migrated my Sonos system from one network to the other. Anyway, I do appreciate your help, and the help of others, but I would ask that you stop reading into what I am saying and implying that I am wasting peoples time. I have been part of Online communities for many years and I do not waste people’s time. I appreciate when people help me. Very much so.

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I think it was me implying you’re disregarding advice, not buzz.  If I offended you, I apologise. 

When advice is proffered, you imply that you’ll try that, but then you also offer up some alternatives that you’re considering. Sometimes you need to take small steps: sort this out by evolution rather than revolution. Some of the guys here have years of Sonos experience - they sure helped me get my system rock-solid reliable. That’s why I said I thought it would be better just to try what’s been suggested.

You are, of course, free to take or reject advice. 

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@Airgetlam 

Thank you for your help, and everybody of course. You have all been extremely helpful. I have now gotten pretty much where I need to be. I was able to force my modem to broadcast both a SSID for the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. Previously the modem was lumping them and managing based on what it figured was best. My best guess is that this is what caused the one Move to drop out of the system, and then my folly.

 

I did hook up the Arc to the Ethernet port as described and as predicted it did see the previous Arc + Sub. I then went to see if I could update the Network information as described, with the Ethernet cable still but it just did not see or discover a network. Confused I took a gamble and just unplugged the RJ45 cable.

 

Things seemed lost as now the S2 App didn’t show a system. I was thinking what to heck did I do now? Closed the app and opened it again and voila, an option to connect the Arc to my wireless network displayed, I clicked it. At first it failed verifying the app. Once past that the app asked if I also wanted to update the network settings for all of my products and it showed the Sub and both Moves as available to update!!

 

It appears that all products have been setup with the new network, except that same Move!! When it was trying to update the Network, it only showed an old network that would have been associated with the former modem. Other Networks was greyed out. So I have 3 of 4 products on the new network, but still this one Move does not appear to be on the network. Frustrating.

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