Are your two Sonos Fives connected as rear surround speakers for your Playbar? Do both Fives cut out? Do they cut out when not connected as surrounds and just paired as a stereo pair? Do each of them cut out when used as an individual speaker?

You can’t pair a PLAY:5 with a PLAYBAR. You can bond two of them as surround speaker to the PLAYBAR, or you can group them, so that they’re playing the same content. 

If I were to guess, going in and out might be related to either wifi interference, or potentially a duplicate IP address problem. Beyond the data in the linked FAQ, I’d certainly try a network refresh, by unplugging all of your Sonos devices from power. While they remain unplugged, reboot your router. Once the router comes back up, plug back in the Sonos devices, wait a couple of minutes, and test. 

However, if neither suggestion works, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it, or post the diagnostic number here for a Community Moderator to pick up.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, there are more options available beyond just the diagnostic analysis.

I have a Sonos 5, not a play 5, unless these are the same thing.  “Pair” may have been the wrong word.  I have done the router and Sonos system reset several times.  They will not remain grouped.  The Sonos 5 keep dropping, then several minutes later will come on for a few minutes, then drop again.  This happens repeatedly.  I recently added the new speakers as “surround” components and so far it is working.  I would prefer to simply group them so I could separately use the second Sonos 5 speaker in another room.

I have sent diagnostics 3 or 4 times, while working with support.  They didn’t seem to have an answer, so I tried community.

Do you have the ability to connect any of your speakers to your router or network with an ethernet cable?

Sadly, no.  Our router is in the opposite corner of the house.  Signal is strong in here though.

Does the Five cut out only when grouped with the Playbar or does it do it when being played on its own too?

It will go out on its own as well.  I would also add that I have reviewed all IPs on my system and none are duplicate.  My ISP does not allow residential customers to set static IPs, so that is not an option.

If you move the Five closer to your router, does the audio still cut out?

Note: most routers don’t have the ability to show duplicate IP addresses, just looking at the DHCP table at any moment in time will just reflect what is connected at the moment the report is run. And you wouldn’t want to set static IP addresses, instead reserving IPs in the DHCP table. Seems similar, but one should be allowed by your ISP. 

Just submitting a diagnostic doesn’t garner a response, as you’ve found out. You need to either call in with the diagnostic number, or post it here for a forum moderator to look at. You may want to check the Diagnostics - How do they work? thread.

“Just submitting a diagnostic doesn’t garner a response, as you’ve found out. You need to either call in with the diagnostic number, or post it here for a forum moderator to look at. You may want to check the Diagnostics - How do they work? thread.“. I have only submitted diagnostics when working with support, as noted above.  I have at least 3 tickets on this.

I will try it closer to the router and see if it makes a difference.  Good clarification on the dhcp reservation versus static ip.  I know I can modify that.

Ok, just tested with the speaker right next to the router.  Stayed on 5:34 minutes, off 1 minute, back on again.  Moving closer to the router had no effect.

Ok, after 2 hours on the phone with Sonos support, (again) the best they could offer was to hardwire the speaker to my router.  This is not a real solution for us as the router is on the opposite end of the house.  Interestingly enough, if I add the speaker as a surround component, it works fine.  This points me to an issue with the app and grouping.  I hope they figure it out.  We have decided to accept the speakers on surround even though that is not our desired config.

Another option you can try is changing the WiFi channel on your router to see if that improves your network performance.

Sigh…..we did.

It’s 2021.  People should not have the only answer be to hardwire to solve issues like this.

Thank you for reminding me to update one more time.  Being an IT geek for over 30 years I could not accept support’s answer either.  Persistence always wins.  Why would the speaker work fine when a surround component and not in a group?  Support kept talking about noise on the network. They had me unplug the WiFi extender, but this didn’t help.  But I couldn’t let it go mentally.  So I thought what if it is just too close to the playbar?  I moved the WiFi extender across the room and down on the opposite end, then reconfigured the speakers they way we originally wanted them grouped.  Lastly, I had the Sonos app on both our phones and the iPad.  I deleted the app from all but my phone, to make sure it wasn’t getting confusing messages from multiple apps as we did the troubleshooting.  BOOM!  We are working, and no issues since.  AMEN!  I love these speakers and really wanted it to work.  Thanks for listening/helping on the journey!

I can’t figure out how to make this one the answer, but I hope it helps someone.