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Sonos Move is visible, but doesn't play audio after inactivity

Hi Everyone,

I have a Sonos Move product that I often move around off the charging base. I’ve found that if I take it off a charger, stop playing media for 45min to an hour, maybe more, when I go back into the app on my phone OR attempt to play music through the Sonos app on my computer, the app will show the music being played but the device doesn’t play. Further, full comms seem to be there with the Sonos unit as I can view the device battery, make changes, etc. 

I reached out through social and was connected to Sonos’ external marketing team, then my message was passed to someone in Product, but I have not heard anything further. 

I’ve uploaded a quick video I was going to share with the product team, but never heard back. Here’s a link to the unlisted YT video (Sorry for sounding congested, finally caught the ‘Vid).

Any help insights would be appreciated.

 

 

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42 replies

G
Userlevel 7

Try rebooting the Move by following the steps below and reboot your router and phone.

  1. Take Move off of the charging base.
  2. Hold the power button for at least 5 seconds, or until the status light turns off.
  3. Wait 10 seconds.
  4. Press the power button or place Move back onto its charging base.
"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
rysal
Userlevel 1
Badge

@GuitarSuperstar Rebooting temporarily fixes the issue as demonstrated in the video, but it does not solve root cause. This will continue to happen. 

G
Userlevel 7

Did you reboot your router and phone too?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
rysal
Userlevel 1
Badge

@GuitarSuperstar Of course. For background I'm tech savvy in this space so I've done all the 101 stuff. 

Again, as noted in the video, this can happen using the Sonos app within Windows so it removes the mobile device from the picture.

I have an additional AP in my network config and have even tried making sure this is repeatable with only one SSID. I achieved this by blocking the Sonos MAC on the AP allowing it to only connect to the primary router. Same result. Both are AX routers and can happen when the Move is in the next room and WiFi signal strength is 99%

What Sonos needs to do is allow a USB drive to be plugged into the C port on the device and enable verbose logging output to the drive. Then it could be disconnected and the files could be uploaded to support/forums. Not sure if the data lines are routed for the C port or only the power and CC lines though (but I digress).

 

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

You could also send a diagnostic to Sonos right after your problem occurs and call Sonos about it.

IanJShaw
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

This is exactly the same problem that I’ve been experiencing.  12 zone system.  Wi-fi configuration.  After a period of inactivity I typically see:

 - add Move to group (Windows app OR Android app)

 - Move shows as part of the group, playing music, but no sound comes out

 - attempt to remove Move from group via app

 - “Unable to connect to device, please try again later”

Power cycling the Move sometimes fixes the problem.

 

I have tried cycling router, wifi extenders and sonos players with no change.

 

I have yet to have enough time free during working hours to pick this up with Sonos support.  This error arrived around the time of the last software update….

IanJShaw
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

@rysal 

Called support today.

This is, apparently, a “known issue” with portable speakers.  No fix right now but the “development team are working on it”.

R

Glad to hear I am not alone here on this one!

Any further update on this one? It’s really becoming very annoying and disappointing from Sonos.

edited… just updated app now and is working again… I must have tempted fate there by messaging!

 

D

The new app update didn’t work for me, I hadn’t noticed this issue until a few days back after I had left the move off the charging base overnight and couldn’t re connect.  Do we we know officially if this issue has been fixed ?  

Ken_Griffiths

The new app update didn’t work for me, I hadn’t noticed this issue until a few days back after I had left the move off the charging base overnight and couldn’t re connect.  Do we we know officially if this issue has been fixed ?  

Perhaps see this link regarding the Move’s battery saver feature and maybe see if that throws any light on the issue you were seeing…

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/5085

N

I am glad I found this thread.  I have the exact same issue as described in the OP.  I have two Moves and an Amp/Sub/external speakers setup.  I carry one Move around the house regularly and it stops working after a period of inactivity.  The rest of the system still works.  

Another interesting thing is that the Move will start working again if I just leave it on it’s charging station overnight.  Not sure if the reason is the charge, just leaving alone for awhile, or something else.  Curious to know if others have found this same behavior. 
 

i saw the link about battery saver.  Mine is turned off.  I do wonder if the speaker going to Sleep mode is a factor.  
 

Frustrating. Hope Sonos fixes this soon 
 

 

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

What network hardware do you have? Sounds like the WOL (Wake On Lan) magic packet that the app sends when it starts up is not making it to your Move. This would explain why after it goes into sleep mode, you cannot wake it.

WOL is a crappy “standard”, for sure, but its all we have, and it isn’t even supposed to work over WiFi though in my experience (with a Beam) it works fine. I do have a high quality router though.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
N

I am not who you are asking, Controlav.  But for me and others on this thread this is a fairly recent problem.  It seems tied to a recent update, not any hardware issue.  For the record I recently changed routers (in part to see if it would help address this issue) from a Verizon-issued G3100 to a Google Nest.  Nothing changed.

 

Does anyone know if Sonos monitors these threads?  

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi everyone!

I’m just letting you all know that our developers are aware of this behaviour with our portable speakers coming out of suspend mode and that a fix will be available soon.

In the meantime, one or more of these steps should serve as a workaround:

  • Move the volume slider a bit either up or down in the Sonos App
  • Tap the hardware volume control on the speaker itself
  • Pause and resume playback (press pause, then play)
  • Wake the portable speaker with a button press before opening the Sonos App

I hope this helps.


 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
N

Thanks Corry. Glad a fix will come soon.  I have tried all of the fixes you suggested and none work, at least not quickly.  The speaker does eventually wake up but it can take a long time.  

rysal
Userlevel 1
Badge

Thank you very much for the update, Corry! Happy to hear the team is on it. I appreciate the workaround in the meantime. 

B

Hi. Everyone. Very glad to read this thread since I am experiencing the same issue. After talking the support team via phone and moving with online testing the response I got was to ‘enjoy the move speaker because it seems to be perfect’. However, the issue still remains.

Let’s hope for a quick fix.

bockersjv
Userlevel 7
Badge +21

Raised this and added diagnostics.  I am really frustrated that this has bricked my Moves for over a month.  Whilst I understand the team are working on it a timescale would help.  We’ve had 3 releases since this problem was created and in my case the workarounds do not work around the issue and so the moves are expensive doorstops. 

W

I’ve been experiencing the same issues since the 14.6 update was released. The 14.6.1 update and 14.8 updates did nothing to resolve the issues.

But I found 2 interesting things whilst troubleshooting:

It you turn off the unit by holding down the power button for 6 seconds, it will turn off. Remove it from the base. The next time that you want to connect to the Move, just put it on the base. It will take 15 seconds for it to boot and you can usually connect on the first try.

Also, if you set an alarm on the unit for say like 6AM. It will turn on at the appropriate time and play whatever station that you had it set to. At this point, you can change the station to whatever you wish.

Ken_Griffiths

I’ve been experiencing the same issues since the 14.6 update was released. The 14.6.1 update and 14.8 updates did nothing to resolve the issues.

But I found 2 interesting things whilst troubleshooting:

It you turn off the unit by holding down the power button for 6 seconds, it will turn off. Remove it from the base. The next time that you want to connect to the Move, just put it on the base. It will take 15 seconds for it to boot and you can usually connect on the first try.

I have always thought the problem mentioned here did not occur if the Move is on its charger-loop, as it should not ever fall into ‘sleep-mode’, it simply goes into ‘standby-mode’. In your post here you mention ‘removing it from its base’ - if it’s on the charger base/loop, it should be working okay anyway. At least it hasn’t affected the two Moves left on their charger in my case here. I’ve only ever seen the issue reported, when they’re taken off the charger-loop and allowed to fall into ‘sleep-mode’.

bockersjv
Userlevel 7
Badge +21

Agree problems only occur when of the base. Once the start it takes a few hours, in my case, for both speakers to start working normally again.

A

Hello,

Same issue for me for about 1 month. 
I thought it was a hardware issue, so happy to read it is a bug.
I hope it will be fixed soon!

B

@rysal Thank you for starting this thread. I actually started another thread about this myself:

This has been very frustrating since it is an issue that Sonos introduced and even though there have been several updates, this still has not been fixed.

One thing I did was enable battery saver which will force the unit to shut down. While I have to manually start the unit again, the rebooting forces the unit to reconnect to the network and then becomes useable.

H

How is this not fixed yet. 

B

Same problem as you describe, started same time, tried same solutions.

Practically I no longer use my sonos move, since i cant reset the thing every single time i wish to use it :(

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