Switch off WiFi and Bluetooth PERMANENTLY from Sonos One

  • 27 January 2020
  • 92 replies
  • 4623 views

Hi All

 

I have a very quick and simple question:

  • Can I SWITCH OFF the Wifi and Bluetooth PERMANENTLY from my Sonos One?

I am keen on using Sonos One connected to my Router via a Ethernet cable and also because I want to reduce the EMF Radiation in my Flat.

 

Thanks in advance

N


92 replies

Bluetooth is only active when setting up.  WiFi can be turned off in the settings menu:

How to disable or enable WiFi on your Sonos players

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Make sure to wrap your flat in a Faraday cage to prevent everyone else’s BT and WiFi signals from getting in. And cellphone signals.

Make sure to wrap your flat in a Faraday cage to prevent everyone else’s BT and WiFi signals from getting in. And cellphone signals.

 

Don’t forget the solar radiation.  Nasty stuff. 

I just bought a new Sonos One. The bluetooth is still on after the setup and there is no way to disable it. Please make it possible to turn it off. I'm also concerned about EMF radiation. There are many studies that says it is harmfull. I think it will be our generation smoking problem. So please stop making lame jokes about it.

I have a to year old Sonos One with voice assistent, and there is no bluetooth in that speaker, so I was very surprised and dissapointed to see it in my new one. The new speaker is useless to me :-(

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I just bought a new Sonos One. The bluetooth is still on after the setup and there is no way to disable it.


How can you tell that the Bluetooth is still on?

Userlevel 7

Hi @Henrik Duedal 

I don’t think Sonos is going to introduce a switch to turn off Bluetooth LE (Low Energy). Accordingly it’s only active during setup.

It’s not my intention to get into a long debate about the source, cause and effects of EMF radiation. However to target Sonos IMO is a bit of a stretch given all the other probable sources of EMF.

Take a look at the YouTube video in the link. After viewing it you may want to move to a deserted island. Although moving to a deserted would be extreme the bottom-line is that there’s no escape. 

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=what+is+emf+radiation&docid=608035865481642019&mid=038BE28E7B0277E3EFF5038BE28E7B0277E3EFF5&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

 

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Even your remote island option is iffy given the number of high power ocean penetrating radar surveillance satellites there are orbiting today.

If all your speakers are wired (I assume they are) you can turn off the wireless radios in the speakers.

Go to Settings, System, then under Products tap the speaker type (for example,  Play:5) for each product and then Disable WiFi.

If you have a Sonos HT then it is best to leave the radios on the components on and wire only the main speaker. 

 

I just bought a new Sonos One. The bluetooth is still on after the setup and there is no way to disable it.


How can you tell that the Bluetooth is still on?

I have a device that can measure EMF radiation. And the WiFi is turned off in the speaker and it is still emitting radiation. My other Sonos One speaker dosen’t do that, so I assume that it is the bluetooth.

I know I can turn off the WiFi and have already done so on all my Sonos speakers. It is only the bluetooth that is my issue. And it is on all the time, not only when setting up the device.

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I have to ask the OP: how are you controlling your Sonos speakers without any device emitting EMF? Can’t be an Echo, or a Google device, or a mobile device obviously.

I have to ask the OP: how are you controlling your Sonos speakers without any device emitting EMF? Can’t be an Echo, or a Google device, or a mobile device obviously.

I use voice with google assistent and then I use a android tablet connected to a ethernet cable

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So is there no EMF from the Google device, the router or the tablet? They are all electronic devices. 

So is there no EMF from the Google device, the router or the tablet? They are all electronic devices. 

It is very very low. The switch is ground connected and I use at CAT 6 shielded ethernetcable, wich reduces the e-field to a minimum in the tablet. The tablet is in fly-mode and dosen’t emit any radiation from wifi og bluetooth

Several people making fun of the BT topic in this post - that seems unproductive to the question.  The point is that many people want to have control over the WiFi and BT signals from their devices.  Sonos made an improvement and provided the WiFi control but seems to have then taken a step back with their new devices support of BLE.  Beam and SL have BLE and it is operating 24/7 (not simply during config). The Bluetooth footprint is over 6.00 V/m which is considered very high. Sonos has unfortunately now elevated themselves to the level of Samsung where they impose a technology that the end user cannot selectively turn off. From the end user perspective (the people who paid for the device) that is not okay.  WiFi and BT should be controllable but unfortunately new gen Sonos devices are imposing a BT signal that cannot be managed.   The original question on this post was asking if there was anyway around this issue.  I believe the answer is no. If this is correct Sonos should reconsider the way they are using / imposing required BLE. 

If you are worried about the harmful effects of non-ionizing EMF, WHY ARE YOU BUYING WiFI DEVICES AT ALL!!!???

I’m worried by the harmful effects of smoking.  So I don’t smoke.  Ever.  Period. 

And if I were worried about the harmful effects of non-ionizing EMF, I wouldn’t own a cell phone, or Sonos, or a WiFI router, or anything that uses WiFi.  Ever.  Period. 

I wouldn’t expect Sonos to accommodate my wishes when, if my fears are founded, I shouldn’t even allow their product in my house.  

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@tpalmquist06 Since the bluetooth version that is built in to Sonos is BLE (low energy), where do you get the notion that it’s emissions would be high? 

I just found out by accident that the Sonos One has Bluetooth enabled permanently (both speakers in my bedroom were found by my phone when I turned on Bluetooth and scanned for available devices) Although I’m not afraid of EMF, I don’t need 2 EMF emitting devices next to my bed. I replaced the Sonos One speakers with the Sonos Play:1 which I had no longer used.

In my opinion there is no need for an always on Bluetooth device in the Sonos One. I can control the speaker via voice or the Sonos desktop app on my PC or Mac. Even if I had Wifi turned on and wanted to control the speakers with my phone, I could do that via already available Wifi – no need to add more EMF sources.

I had decided to purchase the Sonos Ones because they were the only smart speakers which could be used with a wired connection and had Alexa Support. Had I known that Bluetooth is always enabled, I could have bought Amazon speakers for less money. Unlike Amazon’s or Apple’s speakers, from which is known up front that their devices work with WLAN only, I feel mislead by Sonos – no mentioning of always on Bluetooth on their web side’s product description or Amazons, where I bought the speakers. At least I didn’t see any notes.

I’m thinking about selling my 2 Sone Ones. And I think I will invest no additional money into Sonos products. Their rivals speakers are getting smarter and are cheaper. The Sonos USP is gone for me with always on Bluetooth.

I consider Sonos’ behavior in this matter disrespectful to their customers health. We simply don’t know yet how the long-term exposure to today’s massive EMF exposure will affect ones health over 50 or more years.

Can the Sonos One  product owner/manager please comment on whether Bluetooth can be turned off in the future. Thanks.

 

The only Sonos device with Bluetooth is the Sonos Move. All other current products have Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for set up purposes only, which doesn’t carry any music signal. 

I am confused as to why you chose to purchase WiFi speakers if you’re only interested in a wired solution. 

Do you also shield the power supply and electrical cables to block the EMF they generate?
 

 Hi Bruce, in our house all build in power cables are shielded against EMF, additionally, in the central power box circuit brakers have been installed, which cut the current when devices like lights are turned off. The outer walls contain a layer, which shields against EMF from cell phone masts. Every room has 6 ethernet ports. It was an option, we could select when our house was planned.

Despite all of that and working in tech, I have no problem using wireless devices when needed. A tablet for example would lose all its advantages when being hooked up to an ethernet cable. What I don’t like is avoidable EMF emitting. Speakers with an ethernet port certainly fall into this category.

Why do you call the Sonos speakers Wifi speakers? I can turn off Wifi in the app settings. So, they become non-Wifi-speakers, or not? Is there something I have not yet comprehended? Do the (stereo) speakers still commute via their own Wifi net?

Since you wrote that BLE is only turned on during setup, I powered up the “Ones” to conform that. My laptop found the 2 devices, they each disappeared when pulling the power cord from the speakers. If there was no Bluetooth (regardless of BLE or not), my Laptop would not find them.

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I just installed 16 Amp devices, and with the latest f/w, bluetooth is definitely still turned on after installation. This is not a good thing, since bluetooth uses the same 2.4GHz frequency as 802.11, and yet does not follow any of the traffic control of regular wifi. It is like a very rude neighbor, and definitely should be disabled after setup is complete.

One wonders if this contributes to the wifi issues that the majority of my Amps experienced when relying on wifi. They are all in a rack, with an AP a couple feet away, and yet continuously dropped off the network. Fortunately I was planning on connecting them to my switch anyway (yes, in daisy chained groups of 4, with line-in devices on each Amp closest to the switch).

Bluetooth is only active when setting up.  WiFi can be turned off in the settings menu:

How to disable or enable WiFi on your Sonos players

Wrong.  Bluetooth is always on even after setup

I just found out by accident that the Sonos One has Bluetooth enabled permanently (both speakers in my bedroom were found by my phone when I turned on Bluetooth and scanned for available devices) Although I’m not afraid of EMF, I don’t need 2 EMF emitting devices next to my bed. I replaced the Sonos One speakers with the Sonos Play:1 which I had no longer used.

In my opinion there is no need for an always on Bluetooth device in the Sonos One. I can control the speaker via voice or the Sonos desktop app on my PC or Mac. Even if I had Wifi turned on and wanted to control the speakers with my phone, I could do that via already available Wifi – no need to add more EMF sources.

I had decided to purchase the Sonos Ones because they were the only smart speakers which could be used with a wired connection and had Alexa Support. Had I known that Bluetooth is always enabled, I could have bought Amazon speakers for less money. Unlike Amazon’s or Apple’s speakers, from which is known up front that their devices work with WLAN only, I feel mislead by Sonos – no mentioning of always on Bluetooth on their web side’s product description or Amazons, where I bought the speakers. At least I didn’t see any notes.

I’m thinking about selling my 2 Sone Ones. And I think I will invest no additional money into Sonos products. Their rivals speakers are getting smarter and are cheaper. The Sonos USP is gone for me with always on Bluetooth.

I consider Sonos’ behavior in this matter disrespectful to their customers health. We simply don’t know yet how the long-term exposure to today’s massive EMF exposure will affect ones health over 50 or more years.

Can the Sonos One  product owner/manager please comment on whether Bluetooth can be turned off in the future. Thanks.

 

I agree. Unethical and unhealthy for Sonos to not allow bluetooth to be turned off.  I will not buy another Sonos speaker again and will tell everyone that i know not to buy sonos speakers due to them being unhealthy.  Why have an ethernet port if you can't turn off both the wifi and the bluetooth?

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It is possible that they are using some low-end bluetooth chipset that does not allow itself to be disabled.

I also found that bluetooth is always on. I bought the Sonos One primarily because I wanted to avoid the EMF radiation of Wifi-only devices like the Echos. Sonos, please respond whether there is/will be a solution.

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