How change from wired to wireless with only a single Play1?


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All my Sonos devices but a Play1 are in storage since we are moving.

I initially connected the Play1 wireless at the airbnb we were at to the wireless network just fine, but it was intermittent due to a weak signal so tried to connect to the other available network but could not.

I got a wireless extender for a stronger signal, but I am still unable to move it to another primary wireless network or to an extended wireless network, or even to the original wireless network.

I can run fine only if I plug the Play1 into the enet port on the wireless extender.

If I use Sonos2 to ‘Manage Networks/Update Networks’ and say YES when asked to add a trusted network, then hit ‘Find System’ I am prompted again to make sure all products are powered on and to ‘Find System’ again, but nothing is ever found.

Is there any other way to change the old wireless network to a new wireless network? Even if I set the S2 app to the old wireless network it no longer works. Since I only have the one Play1 at present, I would prefer to not factory reset the Play1 and lose all my data. Seems if I’m working hardwired, there should be some means to change the wireless settings! Any suggestions? Thanks, Dave


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Ken,

I just installed the latest Android V2 app, have a cable but no physical access to the WAP/router, no VPN, AV, firewall on my phone. And have seen dialogs with the speaker and another Sonos system show up once but now neither show though the speaker is working fine w/ my app.

Think I will take ratty’s advice and get a travel router. Then I can reset once and hopefully be done w/ this. Thx for your help!

Make sure there’s nothing on the phone/controller device blocking it finding your system, eg. antivirus, firewall, VPN etc.

Do you not have a network cable to hand? That makes things even easier if you wire the Play:1 to the ‘new’ network instead and enter the WiFi credentials whilst it’s cabled (using ‘update networks’). Then just uncable it.

Make sure you’re using the latest Sonos App too perhaps, as there was an update on the 21st June.. although I’m not sure that will make a difference.

The above screenshots were taken less than 20 minutes ago, so the App and Play:1 are working okay with the current software. It should let you add the nearby ‘trusted network’. On selecting the new WiFi network you will be prompted to enter its password - once the speaker switches, you then connect your mobile to the new network and that’s it.

You might just need to close/reopen the App, but usually it just finds the speaker, when the mobile switches to the same (new) WiFi network.

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I have seen some of those in the past but not now. Even a while ago I would select the offered system and it would still loop back to Find system again. I think it has something to do with only a single Play:1

WAP#1 is a Cradelpoint using U.S. Cellular

WAP#2 is HughesNet satellite.

No exenders.

My Android Sonos V2 app and Play:1 are both on WAP#1 w/ a decent -66 dBm signal and work fine.

Sonos “Settings/Update Networks/Yes (add or change network)/Find system” searches and then goes back to Find System again w/o having found anything. Should it not be able to find its own system? Sitting right next to the speaker. Location and BT on.

Switching the V2 app to the WAP#2 network, then duplicating the above scenario, leaving the speaker on WAP#1, the app initially said “Update your network settings”, then later when I tried again said “Unable to find your Sonos system”, but both times got the same results; Find System finds nothing and asks you to find the system again after turning the products on. The Play:1  is on, and usable from the app.

Got to be doing something wrong...

 

The attached shows the screens I see (I’m using an iPad in this instance) … hope that assists.

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WAP#1 is a Cradelpoint using U.S. Cellular

WAP#2 is HughesNet satellite.

No exenders.

My Android Sonos V2 app and Play:1 are both on WAP#1 w/ a decent -66 dBm signal and work fine.

Sonos “Settings/Update Networks/Yes (add or change network)/Find system” searches and then goes back to Find System again w/o having found anything. Should it not be able to find its own system? Sitting right next to the speaker. Location and BT on.

Switching the V2 app to the WAP#2 network, then duplicating the above scenario, leaving the speaker on WAP#1, the app initially said “Update your network settings”, then later when I tried again said “Unable to find your Sonos system”, but both times got the same results; Find System finds nothing and asks you to find the system again after turning the products on. The Play:1  is on, and usable from the app.

Got to be doing something wrong...

 

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Only switch the mobile controller device/App to the new WiFi network if you have already wired the speaker to that network or have ‘already’ added the new WiFi network credentials to the speaker. You would need to be on the ‘old’ network (SSID/Credentials) to do that - do you have a ‘mobile hotspot’ with you (note it cannot be the same device as the one hosting the Sonos controller)? If so, set that hotspot up with the old WiFi network credentials and then go onto add the new local WiFi network credentials to the speaker. 

Will give that a try later today when I get a chance. Thx.

Ok. Just recently noticed my host apparently had some Sonos speakers as they were not mentioned during any app msgs before. Only during certain scenarios but tried so many I forget how to describe here accurately.

 

In any event, having two wireless systems to choose from, neither via an extender, I’m unable to get the Play1 speaker to use the other wireless network that my phone wi-fi switches to away from the one it was using with the Sonos device. At least I think I’m supposed to switch the phone to the new wireless SSID before trying to move the Play1 there via the Sonos V2 app...

Only switch the mobile controller device/App to the new WiFi network if you have already wired the speaker to that network or have ‘already’ added the new WiFi network credentials to the speaker. You would need to be on the ‘old’ network (SSID/Credentials) to do that - do you have a ‘mobile hotspot’ with you (note it cannot be the same device as the one hosting the Sonos controller)? If so, set that hotspot up with the old WiFi network credentials and then go onto add the new local WiFi network credentials to the speaker. 

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Ok. Just recently noticed my host apparently had some Sonos speakers as they were not mentioned during any app msgs before. Only during certain scenarios but tried so many I forget how to describe here accurately.

 

In any event, having two wireless systems to choose from, neither via an extender, I’m unable to get the Play1 speaker to use the other wireless network that my phone wi-fi switches to away from the one it was using with the Sonos device. At least I think I’m supposed to switch the phone to the new wireless SSID before trying to move the Play1 there via the Sonos V2 app...

P.S. when should join (pause+plus) be used? What exactly does it do? Putting the speaker into this mode during some of the variations of triggering finding the system did not help or seem to make any difference.

I ‘think’ you’re perhaps referring to a case where you are trying to get a reset Sonos controller App to discover an ‘existing’ Sonos system on the local network and where more than one Sonos Household is present on the LAN.

The App invites the user to press those buttons on one of the devices to identify the Household you want the controller App to connect to.. if so, it’s not really relevant to the discussion here of adding a speaker to a different network… unless you are just adding another controller to use with the Household. 

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Believe me I tried those instructions and followed the prompts and sometimes it seemed it was going to work but then it would start over to “finding the system” again. I’m a software engineer so tried every possible scenario based on what I could imagine were the state machine of the UI. Try it with a one speaker Play1 system that was factory reset, added to a new Sonos system via wireless only, then try to change wireless networks w/o an enet cable. I could not…

P.S. when should join (pause+plus) be used? What exactly does it do? Putting the speaker into this mode during some of the variations of triggering finding the system did not help or seem to make any difference.

Sonos1 == the V1 app / Sonos Play1 is my single speaker I have with me. Bug is that you cannot move a single Play1 using the Sono V2 app to a new wireless system w/o using a enet cable. I’ve not been able to so this w/ resetting the speaker AND the V2 app. Not debating the usefulness of a travel router as suggested...

You simply take the Play:1 from Network A to Network B, wire it ‘temporarily’ and add the new SSID/credentials to the speaker and then it will work on that wireless network without a cable, or as an alternative, you can either:

  • Setup the Network B credentials to match Network A and then no cable is required at the destination.. or…
  • Change the Network A credentials stored in the speaker to match Network B before transporting the speaker to the destination.

There are a variety of ways to achieve the transfer to a different network, without factory resetting the speaker.. I personally carry a MiFi travel router device with me when travelling and that allows me to transfer a speaker/system (HH) to any nearby compatible WiFi network once the local credentials are established. 

I don’t personally believe there are any ‘bugs’ in the current software, as it does appear to work fine… just easier ‘perhaps’ if you have an Ethernet cable with you, but not always essential.

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Sonos1 == the V1 app / Sonos Play1 is my single speaker I have with me. Bug is that you cannot move a single Play1 using the Sono V2 app to a new wireless system w/o using a enet cable. I’ve not been able to so this w/ resetting the speaker AND the V2 app. Not debating the usefulness of a travel router as suggested...

Not sure what ‘bug’ you’re talking about, or for that matter, what a Sonos 1 is. There are Sonos PLAY:1s, and Sonos Ones, but there are no Sonos 1s. And as @ratty has said, from the perspective of the Sonos speakers, a router signal, travel or ‘standard’ looks exactly the same, and there are hundreds, or perhaps thousands of people who have set them up as WiFi connected without issue. 

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No, WiFi extenders are something totally different. 

A travel router is a device which attaches to any network (usually wirelessly but some can also be wired) and sets up its own private subnet. In terms of network topology it looks to Sonos the same as a conventional home router. 

Thx. I do think they have a bug though when moving a single Play1 as the entire SONOS system, to a new wireless network. I did this with Sonos 1 a while ago multiple times. Personally, I’d make the Sonos2 app smarter to deal with this scenario.

No, WiFi extenders are something totally different. 

A travel router is a device which attaches to any network (usually wirelessly but some can also be wired) and sets up its own private subnet. In terms of network topology it looks to Sonos the same as a conventional home router. 

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See here to connect to a new WiFi: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1061

To be honest, if you’re going to be moving frequently it would save a lot of hassle to get a travel router. You’d connect your Sonos, phones, computers, etc to the travel router’s WiFi, then all you’d need do when you move to a new place is connect the travel router to whatever network is provided. 

Thanks. I did that but it would keep trying to find the system again after showing me two systems and I would select the second system which was my single Play1 that I identified by the unique ID. Would never select the second system even though I hit the select button. I’ll have to look into the travel router but that smaks of a router extension which Sonos claims to not support. Dave

See here to connect to a new WiFi: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1061

To be honest, if you’re going to be moving frequently it would save a lot of hassle to get a travel router. You’d connect your Sonos, phones, computers, etc to the travel router’s WiFi, then all you’d need do when you move to a new place is connect the travel router to whatever network is provided. 

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My current situation is the airbnb host setup a new wireless system that works better, and I am no longer trying to use an extender. I gave up on trying to change the wireless system in my situation, with the pretty firm conviction that if you have a single Play1 speaker (the rest are in storage as we are moving), and the speaker cannot be hard connected via cat5 to the WAP. that the only way to move the speaker to a new wireless network is to reset the speaker to factory settings. Then to reset the Sonos2 app and setup a new system all over again. I know I’ve moved a wireless speaker around w/ SOnos1 a while back just fine, but I believe it is impossible with Sonos2. Show me I’m wrong and I’d be most thankful because I’ll have to do this again soon as we move around to different airbnb’s..

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What is the make/model of extender? (By the way, Sonos doesn’t officially support extenders, as they can be problematic.)

Are the wireless networks putting out a 2.4GHz b/g compatible signal?

sorry, got busy w/ something urgent and found response notifications in my spam folder.

It’s a linksys re6300 but come to find out it only works well in the morning since the underlying verizon service gets really bad later in the day. So I’m giving up on using the extender but would still like to switch the wireless service to a different wireless service than the one I originally set which was the terrible verizon service. Seems it was easier/possible on the S1 app to do this.

What is the make/model of extender? (By the way, Sonos doesn’t officially support extenders, as they can be problematic.)

Are the wireless networks putting out a 2.4GHz b/g compatible signal?

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I suggest:

Power off the extender.

Connect speaker by Ethernet to the router.

Go into Manage Networks, delete any existing networks and see if yo can add the network that your router is creating.

Follow prompts to allow Ethernet to be disconnected

Did this but no luck. The speaker was working while hard wired, there were no wireless networks (I already had removed them) and tried both the original and desired wireless networks connected to the S2 app on my Android. Neither could find the network or the speaker. The “router” is a cradlepoint connected to cellular service I believe. Works fine for everything else and Play1 when hard wired to it or the extender. Thx

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Unfortunately, not. I get the ‘Unable to find your sonos system” msg, select YES to ‘Did you change your router...”, YES to ‘Do you want to add a trusted network...”, hit FIND SYSTEM, but within 5 seconds or so, nothing is found. I am on the same wireless network as I had the Play1 working on at one point before I reset the app. Using the other wireless network also did not work.

I suggest:

Power off the extender.

Connect speaker by Ethernet to the router.

Go into Manage Networks, delete any existing networks and see if yo can add the network that your router is creating.

Follow prompts to allow Ethernet to be disconnected