Can't connect AGAIN!

R
Userlevel 1

Last week, for about the 20th time in 2 years, my Sonos Play1 wouldn’t work.  App did nothing.  I tried to update the app, nothing.  I saw there was a new app, so I downloaded that. Tried to re-pair my speaker or whatever, nothing.  Then suddenly it works.  No problem.  Everything fine.  I think finally, a new app, this will be better.

Today, nothing.  NOTHING.  Tried to re-set it, won’t work.  Won’t recognize it.  I’ve spent hours on this.  SO frustrated.  The speaker sounds great when it’s work (which is only maybe 50-60% of the times I’ve tried to use it).  Bluetooth would be so much easier!

42 replies

ratty

“tear it down completely and restart”?

Never, in 16+ years.

Along the way I have obviously resolved the odd wireless issue and, to avoid transient glitches, reserved fixed IP addresses for my kit.

buzz

The “solution” might be that you need to learn something new.

At one point I had SONOS issues much more severe than you are reporting. After I learned a few new (to me) things, I was able to fix my environment and it has been smooth sailing since. That was in 2005. If I had been having constant, unresolvable issues along the way, I would not be here.

If you will not share any details about your home network and are unwilling to learn, we cannot help. You mentioned that you have updated your network along the way. I suggest that you again hire an expert. Hopefully the person that you hire has been keeping up with technology. 

P
Userlevel 1

I believe, Sonos, that you are missing the point.

Any decent system designer knows that simple connectivity for users who want to “listen”, not be a techie, is critical.

the systems are sold as seamless to install and use … anywhere .., along with delivering high quality sound.

rather than spending countless hours and frustrating more customers, just find a solution that doesn’t involve users being embroiled in this pointless debate

personally, I’m just about ready to ditch my system … I’ve had mine for years and at least twice a year, I have to tear it down completely and restart … after suffering thro painful lack of connectivity one day to experiencing audio bliss the next … it’s just not reliable and I won’t sink anymore if my time or money into a system, that by its architecture, is destined to fail

Ken_Griffiths

I believe, Sonos, that you are missing the point.

Any decent system designer knows that simple connectivity for users who want to “listen”, not be a techie, is critical.

the systems are sold as seamless to install and use … anywhere .., along with delivering high quality sound.

rather than spending countless hours and frustrating more customers, just find a solution that doesn’t involve users being embroiled in this pointless debate

personally, I’m just about ready to ditch my system … I’ve had mine for years and at least twice a year, I have to tear it down completely and restart … after suffering thro painful lack of connectivity one day to experiencing audio bliss the next … it’s just not reliable and I won’t sink anymore if my time or money into a system, that by its architecture, is destined to fail

@PoppaK,

This just has to be a bit of a wind-up, what do you mean by …

“…at least twice a year, I have to tear it down completely and restart … after suffering thro painful lack of connectivity"

That’s If you are trying to claim that you factory reset all your Sonos devices and start again from ‘scratch’, twice, every year? … and you’ve only just joined this community forum today, for the first time?

Anyhow, I’m struggling to think of a valid reason to ever do those ‘tear down’ steps (not even once, never mind twice a year) and then start over with a new Sonos Household again.🤷

If that’s true, then you’re really not understanding how Sonos works. You could just simply switch off any one (or two) speaker(s) and keep your Sonos Household safe, until you sort out the network connectivity issues.

I can’t personally recall ever doing a full system reset for my Home Sonos system and I’ve probably changed my Home router-wired/wireless networks at least four times in the past seven+ years or so …and not ever considered taking such a drastic step.

I’m sorry, but it sounds like it’s actually you that’s missing the point here.

jgatie

“tear it down completely and restart”?

Never, in 16+ years.

 

15 years, not once.  Even through multiple router changes and a move from one home to another.

ratty

seldom do you get constructive help or insights … just comments from people seeking ways to make themselves feel better at someone else’ expense

Hmm… over the last 15 years I’ve helped literally thousands of people. But believe what you will.  

buzz

Some further context. The Play is connected to the network (it plays when I press the Play button on the speaker itself) but the app can’t find it!

The controller Apps are impatient. As the controller starts it sends out a type of “who’s there”, but if a speaker does not reply before the timeout, you’ll get a “not found”. Some network characteristic is intermittently blocking the query and/or delaying the response.

ratty

If “conform[ing] to [one’s] bubble” means having a sound network then yes that’s necessary for Sonos to work reliably. It depends entirely on good intra-subnet communications, unlike devices which simply need to connect out to the internet. 

jgatie

I stand by my words.

ratty

… again … you are missing the point … that is not what Sonos is purporting to deliver

… I will leave you all to make yourselves feel better by crowing about your technical skills as opposed to results delivered by the product

 

Car manufacturers purport to deliver enthralling and/or relaxing experiences, but if the road’s full of potholes things tend to head south pretty quickly.

I’m sorry, but you can’t blame Sonos for a deficient local network. They do have staff on hand though who can assist with resolving difficulties. Have you contacted them? They have tools which can analyse the system and the network it sits on.

Airgetlam

Setting reserved IP addresses in a router’s DHCP table depends on the router. Your best bet is to look in the manual for the router, since they’re not even always the same within a single manufacturer. And, as in my personal case, currently, using a wretched T-Mobile provided device,  the router may not always allow you to use reserved IP addresses.

However, you don’t have to do it, if the thought overwhelms you. You can do essentially the same thing, albeit potentially more temporarily, merely by unplugging all your Sonos devices from power, then rebooting your router. Give the router a couple of minutes to load everything before plugging back in your Sonos devices. 

It’s possible that the router, having gotten into that state once, could do so again, but it may not, too. It does get exposed more frequently by Sonos, due to the fact that they reboot every time you install new software, and ask the router for a new IP address. But that simple process resets the DHCP table, and is relatively easy. 

Bruce
C

I share the same frustrations with this guy. The speakers will only connect to the network 40% of the tome. It’s been like this for years. When is go into the app, I regularly get the message “Unable to connect to Sonos. Let’s fix it.”. However the app troubleshooting never works. It’s completely sporadic. However my WiFi works perfectly with strong bandwidth & no breaks in connectivity. As I type this, the speakers won’t connect. Is this because of my router reassigning new IP addresses?  If so, how do I fix it at the Sonos end? I’m close to the point where I’m ready to ditch my 4 speakers and buy a different brand.

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

If you’ve tried the suggestions above and it still isn’t working well...

Send in a diagnostic when having the problems and call Sonos Support to have them look at the internal data that we users can’t see.

Airgetlam

But the PLAY:1 was designed before Bluetooth became a ‘thing’ with Sonos. There just isn’t any Bluetooth electronics inside it. You could certainly get a Roam, which does accept a Bluetooth signal, and then ‘group’ the two rooms together.

On the other hand, you clearly have some sort of network issue going on. Often, I’d suggest wifi interference , but in this case, I suspect a more likely culprit is an issue with your router handing the Sonos a duplicate IP address. Try unplugging all Sonos devices from power, and then reboot your router. Give the router two minutes to come back up before plugging back in your Sonos. Note that this issue is irrespective of Wi-Fi or wired systems. And if it does resolve your issue, I’d heartily recommend looking at your router’s manual to set up reserved IP addresses in the DHCP table. 

Bruce
106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Manuals can be downloaded from the internet. If you post what router you own here, someone will probably post a link to the manual.

R
Userlevel 1

Thanks.  Yes, I’m aware I can google and download a manual, but really?  Every other device in my home works just fine (Laptop, printer, Nest thermostat, Google Home, smart lights, smart TV, etc).  When I was on the phone with support we even directly wired it with an ethernet cable and it still didn’t work.  They are escalating the issue, but I’m getting close to just throwing the thing off the roof and getting another speaker that does Bluetooth (and it won’t be from Sonos, that’s for sure).  I’m just extremely frustrated and have spent HOURS on this.

They say I will be contacted by email to schedule a time for someone to help me.  (more hours, clearly).

P
Userlevel 1

exactly why I stay away from these forums … a bunch of trolls bashing folks that aren’t like them.

just so you know, I hired tech geeks to address my wireless/network issues eons ago and it runs seamlessly. … and I’ve gone thro multiple network/router changes/upgrades … I’m smart enough to know when I’ve passed the limits of my technical competence and hire experts.  

I only judge products based on performance per the promises of sales people.

So … rather than sit and slag folks on boards, take the time to read what they actually say … and recognize that the rest of the world is not like your simple little bubble

 

… and btw … I faithfully go through the steps that sonos prescribes to resolve connectivity issues from simple off and on to full reset to complete restart.  Until you sit in my house with my system, and understand my circumstance, i believe it would be prudent for you to either withhold comment or seek ways to positively engage …

to confirm, yes, this is why I haven’t engaged in this forum for years … seldom do you get constructive help or insights … just comments from people seeking ways to make themselves feel better at someone else’ expense

P
Userlevel 1

as have I … as a part of my professional career … sadly you believe that you’re helping by trashing others when they don’t conform to your bubble … so … “believe what you will”

P
Userlevel 1

… again … you are missing the point … that is not what Sonos is purporting to deliver

… I will leave you all to make yourselves feel better by crowing about your technical skills as opposed to results delivered by the product

ratty

This is primarily a user-to-user community, though Sonos staff do oversee it and participate at times. You’ve had your rant. You’re not here to seek help, and in any case we’re clearly too ill-informed to assist with your troubles. 

D

I have been frustrated with connectivity issues as have many Sonos users. I did talk to Sonos and they did the usual thing saying it’s not on their end. I did come across something that I had not seen before so will share it:

Go into your router. Under “Advanced Settings”, click on wireless. Then click on “Professional”. Then go down to Airtime Fairness and click on “Disable”.

It actually worked. I can’t guarantee that this is the fix for everyone, though it saved me from getting rid of my Sonos system out of frustration. 

Note: I have an ASUS RT router. You may have a different appearance of tabs once in the router menus. Just look up how to navigate to “Airtime Fairness” for your router. 

Q

Yep, Sonos is a crap system if you need to do all of this just to turn your speaker back on!

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

If it was just a duplicate IP it would be easy for Sonos to do a fix, the Linux base they use includes the arping command with the “-D” option to detect that. The proper response to finding a duplicate is another arping command with the “-w” option to update others on the LAN, then issuing another DHCP request by the Sonos.

From my many hours of testing, network monitoring and router-DHCP log reading I did not see any issues with the addresses handed out by my DHCP server or in the Sonos requests sent to it. I tested several routers as well as a bare DHCP server with the same result.

Access to the internal Sonos data would probably show the issue but we can’t get that. I’d lean to Sonos using an older version of the DHCP client, doing something slightly out of the usual in a configuration file, or a boot timing issue where Sonos and the DHCP server get out of sync.

P

yup … just what I was saying … and if you were listening, you would have seen my comment that I hired  the skills to ensure my network was robust and capable of handling the sonos system … 

did I reach out to sonos to seek help in resolving my issues? absolutely

Were you in my home evaluating either … I think not … so kindly withhold your opinion of what I’m doing wrong until you have all of the relevant information

spare me the platitudes

I expect you will take further shots at me to fuel your ego and make yourselves feel important at my expense but I won’t partake in any more of this waste of time 

It’s the “Trump approach” … if you yell louder, longer you think you’ve won, when actually all you’ve done is proven your insecurity in the world not seeing it your way … the last man standing in these debates is seldom right … the objective is to find a solution

I’m not about to lie to anyone here this man is right. I just sat here and read this whole forum and weeewwwwhhhh. As a network engineer for a International Fortune 500 company I can confidently say you're right. I mean my network is STACKED. 5 Gig dedicated fiber connection coming into a pretty heft firewall going into an extreme switch with a 10.xxx.xxx.xxx network and multiple extreme 510i APs throughout my house. There isn't a single corner of my house that doesn't get AT LEAST 700 MBPS both up and down and from the AP in the living room where my sonos has line of sight my S24 Ultra on a speed test pulls 1.1 MBPS. I mean corporate office in the thousands capable network in my house for no reason other to say I have it honestly.

Every single device (about 30) is on a static IP and set aside in its own range separate from my DHCP. My sonos will randomly drop. and I only have the one. A singular play 1 that struggles to stay on the internet. Go and check my firewall logs and its not even requesting an IP address on Ethernet even. I dont have a way to MAKE it call for one. Then when you factory reset the thing to connect it to your phone and do the setup through the Sonos app it wont even connect. This is on my wife’s 15 pro max, My work Pixel 8 Pro and my personal S24 Ultra. Call Sonos support and let them tell its dead. However let me take my old router and plug it in on my backup spectrum connection and it magically works. SO dead XD.

This is a SONOS issue.

jgatie

 

Every single device (about 30) is on a static IP and set aside in its own range separate from my DHCP. 

 

Interesting.  Does this include Sonos devices?

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