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Answered

Ancient S1 system recently refuses to connect over Wifi

  • November 7, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 60 views

  • Contributor I
  • 2 replies

Hi all.  Gen1 play5, play 1 and a bridge.

2 weeks ago Sonos S1 cannot connect to system.  Full reset to everything.

Still would not find Bridge (always had ethernet cable to bridge).

Will find play 5 when I connect play5 to ethernet cable.  Also then sees play 1 but not bridge.

Happy to play music at this point.

App then falls over when we move to wifi connection.

Any ideas? Have Sonos decided 10years is enough and they want more£?

Best answer by Airgetlam

Not sure what you mean. In an ideal situation, with the ‘radio/wifi’ turned on on all devices, the wired PLAY:5 (gen1) should be creating a WiFi (SonosNet) signal for the PLAY:1 to connect to. If this isn’t happening, there may be something else that is wrong. In which case, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, they get sensitive about GDPR.

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 Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

6 replies

Airgetlam
  • 44820 replies
  • November 7, 2025

Get rid of the BRIDGE and either wire the PLAY:5 directly, or hang it off your WiFi signal. The BRIDGE, at this point, is a known failure point, often with power supply issues, but even the BOOST, which replaced it, has been retired from sales. 


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 2 replies
  • November 7, 2025

Hi and thx.

Sounds sensible but the app / system falls over, after finding the wired play5, when it moves to try the WiFi connection?


Airgetlam
  • 44820 replies
  • Answer
  • November 7, 2025

Not sure what you mean. In an ideal situation, with the ‘radio/wifi’ turned on on all devices, the wired PLAY:5 (gen1) should be creating a WiFi (SonosNet) signal for the PLAY:1 to connect to. If this isn’t happening, there may be something else that is wrong. In which case, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, they get sensitive about GDPR.

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 Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.


buzz
  • 24653 replies
  • November 7, 2025

Temporarily wire the PLAY:5 and go into system settings and check to make sure WiFi has been setup for your system. When you started building your system there was no need to bother with WiFi. BRIDGE and SonosNet took care of the wireless. Now BRIDGE often becomes intermittently non functional and it might interfere with wired and wireless. WiFi has greatly improved over the years and there is little reason to attempt to use BRIDGE or BOOST.

Don’t Factory Reset without further consult.


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 2 replies
  • November 11, 2025

So after a great deal of messing around.

The app / play5 will not connect or play music over my WiFi.

The app / play5 connects when wired to router and plays normally.  It also picks up my other two play1. The app runs through 'lets get your wireless network set-up'. Tells me it's complete but as soon as I remove the ethernet from the play5 the whole system goes offline again.

The Bridge isn't seen at all even when wired.

What gives???


Stanley_4
  • Lead Maestro
  • 12383 replies
  • November 11, 2025

First step - unplug power to the Bridge - until you do that it will possibly be messing with your setup and making everything much more frustrating.

You may have a radio issue with the Play 5. Support can see the hidden from us users internal data, remove power from the Bridge, wire the play 5, submit a diagnostic then CALL Sonos support.