I know there are tons of topics and megathreads explaining how to control your Sonos system using an Amazon speaker/Alexa however they all seem fragmented with different procedures and troubleshooting steps and are daunting to try and get through. I wanted to detail out the method that finally worked for me (and that Sonos Tier 1 tech support never reviewed with me).
I am a custom integrator and at some point I found out that some of my customer’s Sonos systems no longer worked in conjunction with an Amazon speaker that had previously worked just fine. For example saying “Alexa, play some holiday music” to an Echo Dot with holiday music following in the associated Sonos zone...this stopped working at some point. This was no good as they had adapted to this simple method of playing music through their Sonos systems by simply telling it to.
I am not referring to setting up Alexa on an Alexa-enabled Sonos speaker w/ a built-in mic (ARC, BEAM, ONE) as that seems very stable. I am referring to using a separate Amazon Alexa speaker, like an Echo Dot, to play music in a Sonos zone whether that zone have an ARC, BEAM, AMP, ONE, etc.
In a nutshell, after tons of troubleshooting (removing the Alexa voice service from Sonos, disabling the Sonos skill in Alexa, etc), the problem was that during the Sonos iOS app Alexa voice assistant setup process I was using a different email address to log into the Amazon account when prompted than was used to setup the associated Amazon hardware (ie Echo Dot) in the Alexa app.
Anyway here is the procedure from scratch to get it working, it is assuming you already have a Sonos system setup, in this case a Sonos AMP + in-ceiling speakers in the Kitchen:
- Download and install Alexa iOS app and login with your desired Amazon account
- In the Alexa iOS app add any music services that you already have accounts for that you would like to have access to via the Alexa (Apple, Spotify, Pandora, etc) → More in bottom right corner of Alexa app → Settings → Music & Podcasts → Link New Service → follow prompts
- Also in the Alexa iOS app install and setup the desired Amazon speaker in the Kitchen, in this case let’s use an Echo Dot speaker.
- In the Sonos iOS app add the Alexa voice assistant service to the Kitchen zone
- Follow Sonos iOS app prompts including logging into the Amazon account when prompted (use the same Amazon account as you did when you setup Alexa and registered your Alexa speaker above)
- At some point during the Sonos iOS app voice assistant setup you will be re-directed to your Alexa iOS app and it will search for new devices and should find your Sonos AMP in the Kitchen (probably in the form of a little speaker icon labeled “Kitchen”). You may be prompted with the message “No new devices found” and in this case it may have already found the AMP in the Kitchen when you initially setup the Alexa app above so don’t worry.
- Continue following prompts and ultimately you should end back up in the Sonos iOS app telling you that you have successfully completed the Alexa voice assistant setup for the Kitchen, make sure and hit “Done” if prompted to.
- Head back to the Alexa iOS app to setup a Group by going to the Devices selection at the bottom right of the app → hit the “+” button at the top right corner -> Add a Group → Create a room or device group where you will then follow the prompts to → name the group (Kitchen) → add devices (in which you will select the little speaker icon labeled Kitchen ) → add the Alexa device (in which you would select the Echo Dot you setup in the Kitchen prior) → the app should prompt you that the group is all setup confirming what Sonos speaker will play music when the Amazon Alexa device (Echo Dot) is told to.
- Lastly in the Alexa iOS app choose the Default Music service that Alexa will use when you ask her to play music → More in bottom right corner of Alexa app → Settings → Music & Podcasts → Default Services at the top → select your preferred music service (I like Amazon Music...does not have to be a premium account)
With the above setup you can simply say to the Kitchen Echo Dot “Alexa, play some holiday music” (no need to specify where you want to hear the music as with the prior setup above you have “dedicated” that Echo Dot to the Kitchen Sonos zone) and holiday music pre-selected by the default Alexa music service (selected in the above procedure) will pipe through the Kitchen’s Sonos AMP and connected in-ceiling speakers (and hopefully a SUB!) and NOT through the Echo Dot’s little built in AM-radio sounding speaker.
NOTE: if you are using an Alexa-enabled Sonos speaker w/ a built in mic instead of the aforementioned Sonos AMP make sure the built-in mic is muted or it will also pickup Alexa commands and mess things up in this particular case.
I have found this setup to be the easiest way for my customers to get music playing on their Sonos systems (they do not like using their phones). And it sounds WAY better than through some crappy little speaker on the counter. In some jobs I have 10+ Sonos zones in an Alexa group that can be ignited with a simple command to a single Echo Dot speaker...it is killer! Much faster than using the Sonos iOS app (which is a GREAT app, just not needed in this case)
Fyi you can then proceed to tell the Echo Dot to goto the next song, turn up, turn down, and depending on which default music service you have selected you can specify exactly what artist/album/song you want to listen to.
Hope this helps anyone looking to get this setup working! It’s worth it!!