Answered

10.1 broken alexa groups?


Userlevel 2
Badge +2
So it seems since the 10.1 update I can no longer set my sonos beam as the alexa enabled device in a group. This means I have to say the room name to change the lights for example rather than just saying lights and it take effect in that room/group. Where I could previously tick my sonos device under the applicable room/group it no longer let's me tick and will only let me select an Amazon device I.e dot, echo etc

icon

Best answer by MDI79 3 May 2019, 07:24

View original

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.

19 replies

Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Nobody else noticed this? There's been a couple of alexa app updates on ios since I updated to 10.1 however this problem persists
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Come on SONOS reported this almost a month ago with steps how to recreate the problem and still the issue remains. Clearly something changed with 10.1 that now causes me not to be able to set a sonos device as the Alexa enabled device in a room/group. Note this behaviour only seems to occur with newly setup devices, if you do not delete then re-discover your device all will appear ok. I suspect this has something to do with the change to grouped devices now only showing once in the Alexa app which was a change in the 10.1 update.
Badge
same problem here. can'd add alexa enabled device (beam with 2 ones a surround) to alexa group. Only way to add is to go on amazon devices tab, delete sonos virtual speaker named ad the room (which hides beam speaker device), add the beam to the group on alexa app (now it is possible) and the search again for smart devices on alexa (the virtual speaker is found again)
It’s definitely working here for me .. I can select my Beam (Dining Room) as the Alexa Enabling device for the Group. See screenshot attached. All my Alexa groups are working fine with both 'echo' and (relevant) 'Sonos' devices being able to ‘enable’ a Group.

Don’t forget each device can only be used once (only) to 'enable’ or 'control' a group so make sure you are not using the device elsewhere.
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
It’s definitely working here for me .. I can select my Beam (Dining Room) as the Alexa Enabling device for the Group. See screenshot attached. All my Alexa groups are working fine with both 'echo' and (relevant) 'Sonos' devices being able to ‘enable’ a Group.

Don’t forget each device can only be used once (only) to 'enable’ or 'control' a group so make sure you are not using the device elsewhere.


It was working for me also prior to the 10.1 update...the difference now being if you delete the SONOS device in one of your groups and re-discover it in the alexa app now it will only discover the main device rather than all devices in a particular group (see below example) whereas previously it would show my beam and additionally my 2 sonos ones. This change was documented by Ryan here https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-version-10-1-now-available-recently-played-6822569 see under "Alexa app improvements"

I would bet that IF you have other devices in your Beam (Dining Room) group, rear surrounds for example as I do... OR any of your other groups that have more than one SONOS device in it which is grouped they still show up as you haven't re-discovered following the latest update.

Whilst it's great that you are not experiencing this problem please don't be so quick to try and discredit others who have replicated and reported the problem. I'm fully aware you can only use one alexa enabled device per group that's pretty standard stuff. If you want to help try the steps outlined above and delete/re-discover one of the alexa enabled devices in one of your groups (I would advise one of your least used groups if you do not want to be frustrated by this) and report back
mark@scan,

I think you have perhaps misunderstood Ryan’s post ... they have consolidated the Alexa icons for the Sonos One and Beam devices into just the one icon and embedded the other inside it... the speaker only needs to be added to the Alexa enabled 1st section and/or the 'preferred' section of the group. There are no changes to the speakers that do not have the voice assistants onboard.

My groups here are working just fine... even if I delete a group and re-detect all... and recreate the group.

The speakers (with voice assistants) that have been consolidated can still be added to the “preferred” speakers section too, across multiple groups... that’s in addition to enabling a single Alexa Group.

That’s what the change were designed to do.
mark@scan,

Just as an example, see this extremely simple Alexa Group that I have just created with a Sonos One Speaker called “Hallway” ...this has two components, that at one point (prior to 10.1 App upgrade) were called “Sonos Hallway Alexa” ... which is the Alexa Voice Service part of the speaker and obviously the second component is called “Hallway”, which is the actual ‘speaker’ part of the device.

They now both have the same name (and icon) called “Hallway”... just to prove this point, I have added the two components to the Alexa Group, but have taken the Alexa voice component “offline”, whilst leaving the speaker part in the preferred section “online”. See attached screenshot. The two Hallway icons whilst looking the same are actually two different ones and represent the different components mentioned.

If I go into the 'offline' Alexa Enabled part ... I can go into its settings, where I find the old icon once called “Sonos Hallway Alexa”... which proves the Sonos developers consolidation and shows that despite seeing two Hallway entries in the group ... they are actually two entirely separate entities representing each component part of the Sonos One.

My groups are definitely working fine here with this new consolidated setup. I suspect you are simply misunderstanding how these things now work
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
I'm familiar with how alexa enabled sonos devices work for groups. The fact remains that since 10.1 something has changed. The only thing I know for certain is that I can no longer set my living room and kitchen sonos devices as the alexa enabled devices in those respective rooms. I simply cannot tick the sonos alexa devices in those groups.

The only thing different about these groups is that in the alexa app following the sonos 10.1 update I deregistered/deleted and then rediscovered the devices in these rooms. This results in only the beam showing in those rooms vs prior to the update it showed the beam + the ones...

Incidentally I have 2 sonos ones grouped in my office, I didn't de-register/rediscover these, and my office group still performs as it did prior to 10.1...so can you explain why the difference?
Incidentally I have 2 sonos ones grouped in my office, I didn't de-register/rediscover these, and my office group still performs as it did prior to 10.1...so can you explain why the difference?I will hazard a guess when you say your "grouped" speakers in your office.. you actually have them stereo "paired" ... and just like Sonos Ones surrounds "bonded" together with a playbase, of course they are different for Alexa Enabled Grouping purposes, otherwise an Alexa component would be hidden in both of those circumstances.

The consolidation only currently applies to the standalone players with a voice assistant component. You will just have to take my word for it, the Grouping is working as the Sonos developers intended .. my players and groups are fine.

I do not believe this is a fault.. I still think you are not understanding the changes that this merging of Sonos icons has brought about within the Alexa App.

My setup is working just fine here ... if yours isn't, then I would perhaps contact your local Sonos Customer Care and discuss it with them.

Perhaps they will explain the merging/consolidation features with you and you will grasp the way things now work.

Let me just conclude here too by saying it is the "Sonos Skill" that consolidates the icons within Alexa and if you remove the skill and devices, all the devices you had prior to the 10.1 update will return during detection, but on installing the Sonos Skill and redetecting the devices, it will restore the consolidated/merged icons exactly as intended .. which (in my case, at least) is certainly working fine !
marc@scan

Just to perhaps assist you further, if you have three Sonos One Speakers in two separate rooms as follows...

This is before the Sonos Skill is installed:

Room 1
"Hallway" standalone speaker with an Alexa component called "Sonos Hallway Alexa"

Room 2
"Bedroom" a stereo pair of speakers made up of "Bedroom Left" and "Bedroom Right" speaker each with their own Alexa component devices respectively named "Sonos Bedroom Alexa 1" and "Sonos Bedroom Alexa 2"

After Sonos Skill installed:

If you install the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App and scan for devices you will end up with just four top level devices

"Hallway"
"Bedroom"
"Sonos Bedroom Alexa 1"
"Sonos Bedroom Alexa 2"

The "Sonos Hallway Alexa" appears to be missing but it is actually merged into "Hallway"

If you go into the Hallway settings, in this example, you would then see "Sonos Hallway Alexa" .. the voice component.

Currently the two bedroom Alexa devices are not consolidated, because you would otherwise lose an Alexa Enabling Component .. that's why you are perhaps seeing different things, but I understand this is setup as intended by the Sonos developers and it does work as intended and is clearly not a fault.

I accept it confused me initially, but I can now see why Sonos have chosen this way of doing things with Alexa Groups.

In such an example a user can now use these three devices "once only" to enable an Alexa Group:

"Hallway"
"Sonos Bedroom Alexa 1"
"Sonos Bedroom Alexa 2"

Only two speakers can be "preferred" but this can be done in multiple Alexa Groups as follows:

"Hallway"
"Bedroom"

I hope that short/brief explanation helps you to understand the new consolidated Alexa icons, which do (or should) work fine with Alexa Groups. Mine are working exactly as expected.
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
I appreciate your efforts to try and help troubleshoot the issue. For me I just can't ignore that these groups worked fine prior to the recent sonos update, nothing else in my setup has changed. The only difference between the groups are:

None working groups LivingRoom/kitchen: beam + 2x sonos ones in each acting as rear surrounds, my living room group also has a sub for 5.1

Working group: 2x sonos one bonded in stereo.

Apart from the different players the only other difference is that I de-registered/deleted and re-discovered both my LivingRoom and kitchen devices which is why I feel this is in some way related.

Given that I've seen other users pop up on the forum recently to report similar issues I don't believe my problem is unique.

As you say I may have to contact my local sonos support for further support.
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Just as a little test, I've just set another echo device I have in the house to control my office so that I could see if I could then use the office pair as the alexa enabled device for the living room and what do you know...just as I suspected I am able to put a tick next to the office pair for my living room. Whilst it doesn't resolve my problem this makes me even more certain this is a sonos/alexa app issue than something unique to my setup.
marc@scan,

It's late where I am and so tomorrow I will look at your message and Group screenshots in depth and see if I can assist further.

I'll come back to you tomorrow and see if we can resolve your issues.

Hope that's okay.?
marc@scan

Just before I go off to bed, I will just quickly comment on the matter where you mention this..

"None working groups Living Room/kitchen: beam + 2x sonos ones in each acting as rear surrounds, my living room group also has a sub for 5.1"

These are both "bonded" configurations, which will each appear as a single device called "Living Room" and "Kitchen" in the Alexa device list... Any Sonos Ones in either of these rooms cannot be used to "enable" an Alexa Group ... I hope you appreciate that, as the voice assistants are disabled in a Beams "bonded" setup.. You can only use "Living Room" and "Kitchen" once only to "enable" an Alexa group...

Just thought you may not have realised that fact..??

Things are different with a PlayBar and/or PlayBase "bonded" setup, which behave differently in the Alexa device list and group features, because their voice assistants continue to both work, even whilst acting as surrounds.

Anyhow, hopefully we can sort things tomorrow and get them working.?
marc@scan,

Can you confirm you just have the two Alexa Groups, please? Just wondering if you have any others?

I presume one of those is to Group your Kitchen 5.0 and Living Room 5.1 bonded setups together, is that correct?

Can you tell me the name of that group please? I see you are also using and Echo dot in this same group for some reason. Is that also correct?

The second group relates to your Office... 2 x Sonos One in a stereo pair, is that correct and is the stereo pair the only speakers in your Alexa group? ... if so I don’t understand your reason for that group at the moment, unless it is to enable other smart-home devices like plugs, or lights etc.

Can you clarify the groups please and any other groups you may have.

Secondly, in your earlier posts you talk about de-registering some of your Sonos components and re-detecting them. Can you clarify if you also did the following:
1. Removed the same devices from “manage your contents and devices” in your online Amazon Account? (See Screenshot attached)
2. Considered removing and reinstalling your Sonos/Amazon sharing agreement from “login on Amazon” area of your Amazon Online Account?
3. Removed the Alexa voice service from the device room (where relevant) before then deregistering the device from your Amazon Account?
4. Removed/reinstalled the Sonos Skill post deletion and re-signed (accepted) the sharing agreement before rediscovering your removed Alexa devices?
5. Signed out and back into your Amazon Account.

If you have not done any of those five steps, I would ensure you do them when deregistering and removing devices from your Amazon Account.

So if you can give some answers to the above then we can see perhaps where to go next.

Thanks.?
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Thanks for your continued efforts. I've got a call scheduled with SONOS support tomorrow and they have opened a case to investigate further.

Will update the thread in due course
Thanks for your continued efforts. I've got a call scheduled with SONOS support tomorrow and they have opened a case to investigate further.

Will update the thread in due course
Thanks for the update, hope you get things sorted soon. ?
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Finally sorted!!!

Following a call this afternoon with sonos support UK John P if you are reading ?

Basically in both my lounge/kitchen groups I had to remove the surrounds/sub in the sonos app so that I was just left with just the beams. Then setup the groups again in the alexa app. This immediately let me tick next to each beam in each respective group where previously I could simply not tick. Once I had confirmed this as working and I no longer had to preface commands with turn on "kitchen" lights etc I setup the respective 5.1 groups in the sonos app again.

I imagine this is an extreme edge case. Where I suspect things went wrong was that following the 10.1 update I deregistered and deleted the sonos devices in the alexa app and re-discovered them, this was simply to see the changes made regarding the "Alexa app improvements" indeed where prior to the update multiple devices showed after 10.1 they do not.

However doing this appears to have had the undesired side effect of no longer letting you set those previously created sonos devices as the alexa control for that group... Hence the reason it wouldn't let me tick in alexa app.

I don't imagine there will be many who come across this problem but if you do following the above should resolve the problem.

Thanks KG for your assistance in helping trouble shoot this problem and also John P @ sonos support UK
mark@scan,

Really glad to hear you are all sorted mark@scan, that’s the main thing. Thanks also for the update/feedback.

First class support too by John P. at Sonos Customer Care.?

All the very best.