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Question

Cannot add new Era 100s

  • January 14, 2026
  • 14 replies
  • 85 views

Hi,

I’ve bought my wife two of the Era 100s to add to my old (basically unused) Sonos system (4xV2 devices) so that we can use Bluetooth to enjoy music (bypassing the Sonos app). However, I can’t add them, the update fails with error 30 (as in this question).

The speaker is sat on my desk, metres away from the router. There is only a USB cable, so wiring in is not possible without an adaptor. There is also no option to submit anything as per advice in that post, only to “Try again”.

I have attempted factory resets, running the setup with and without the microphone (which I’d far rather didn’t exist), but it fails at the same point whatever I do. Since I bought two of these, I’ve tried both and it’s the same deal. I have a network firewall, so I can see that my phone successfully contacts `update.sonos.com`, but nothing from the devices themselves, and I’ve also tried fully disabling the firewall during the update, but no change.

I also tried updating via the Windows app; that fails in the same way, but this time for one of the existing speakers (which plays music). The Windows app even fails to update itself (though I could update that), so I’m not putting too much faith in that.

Can someone please assist, because the onboarding process for adding new devices is extremely poor (loads of unnecessary app permissions being requested one after another). Why can’t I just manually enter WiFi details for this speaker and be done with it (a single firmware update route on the internal webserver would allow a manual file upload - just like on a router)? Or it’s got a USB… can I not just push an update using that?

Thanks in advance.

14 replies

AjTrek1
  • January 14, 2026

Please review the last paragraph in the link below:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/error-30-when-updating-sonos

The Era 100’s require the latest Sonos App f.k.a. S2.

You can also provide more details about your old seldom used Sonos system 😊. It may be the cause which means adjustments must be made such as removing it or running separate Sonos systems (S1 and S2).


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 14, 2026

Thanks for the quick reply! Yes, of course:

_______________________

From the android app:

Sonos OS

S2

Build

80.35.4-release+20251204.7b798cc

There don’t seem to be any further updates for this.

_______________________

From the Windows App:

---------------------------------
Era 100
Serial Number: REDACTED
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 16.4.2 (build 81157139manufacturing)
Hardware Version: 1.49.1.4-9.1
Series ID: A200
IP Address: 192.168.1.44
WM: 0
---------------------------------
SYMFONISK Table lamp
Serial Number: REDACTED
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 17.7 (build 92071170)
Hardware Version: 1.34.2.9-2.1
Series ID: A201
IP Address: 192.168.1.43
WM: 1
---------------------------------
SYMFONISK Bookshelf
Serial Number: REDACTED
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 17.7 (build 92071170)
Hardware Version: 1.34.3.9-2.1
Series ID: A201
IP Address: 192.168.1.42
WM: 1
---------------------------------
Play:1
Serial Number: REDACTED
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 17.2.2 (build 86270230)
Hardware Version: 1.8.3.7-2.0
Series ID: A101
IP Address: 192.168.1.41
WM: 1
OTP: 
---------------------------------
Play:5: Sitting Room
Serial Number: REDACTED
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 17.2.2 (build 86270230)
Hardware Version: 1.13.1.7-2.1
Series ID: C100
IP Address: 192.168.1.40
WM: 1


 

In the mean time, I have been on the phone to support, but we’ve been cut off twice, the line was unclear and it was just a first line support person. I have however, raised a ticket (I think) and submitted diagnostics.

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.


AjTrek1
  • January 14, 2026

Thanks for the reply. However, what we need is the retail name of the products such as Play:5 (Gen1 or Gen2). SYMFONISK Bookshelf (Gen1 or Gen2). 

The information you provided is appreciated. However for the Play:5 it shows as C100 which should indicate a Gen1 product. Yet in the info provided it shows as being setup on Sonos S2 which would suggest it’s newer than a Play5 Gen1.


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 14, 2026

Thanks for getting back to me!

I’m not aware of having downgraded anything, my Sonos app certainly does have that option in the interface though. The Play5 currently works fine using the installed app (S2) and even states that it is running “Sonos OS: S2”? There’s also no hint from the Sonos app that this is what might be wrong? Very confusing.

When I am done with work for the day I will remove the Play5, try to upgrade the others, and post back.

[I’m assuming that the Play5 will still work separately with the Bluetooth dongle that’s currently plugged into it? It’s the only one with a line in, and that’s all we use it for anyway. If not it’s a ~£500 paperweight, and Sonos should really be ashamed of their ecosystem’s mess.]


AjTrek1
  • January 14, 2026

@WobbleCat 

Sorry for the confusion. I’ve revised my previous post with a better explanation as to why I thought the Play5 might be a Play:5 Gen1. 


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 14, 2026

My Sonos web account only has the first 4 products registered, and confirms the Play:5 to be a Gen2 version.

The other 4 devices seem to be at their latest versions (the builds indicate that they are anyway), and since the latest update is only a few days old (and they all work), I can only assume that my network is otherwise fine and it’s just an issue with updating during the device onboarding process for the newer devices?

If you have any other ideas as to what’s going on / workarounds, it’d be great. I was thinking that I might take them to a friend’s house, see if I can update them there / create a fresh system and then unlink them from that account?

I can’t believe that there’s not a USB install option! This seems like a great backup option and a way to sidestep all of the online installation issues that people seem to have.


Stanley_4
  • Lead Maestro
  • January 14, 2026

Here is something you could try, maybe it will work.

Start with powering down all Sonos and rebooting your router and controler, clearing any cached information.

While the Sonos are powered down - simplify the install and update process by only powering up one of the problem speakers and try to get it to install and update. Power it down and do the other. Once both are updated you can Factory Reset them, power up the other Sonos and connect the controller to your existing system. Then use the add new speaker process, which won't have to do the update and see if it works.

 

On the microphones, there is a switch to disable them.


AjTrek1
  • January 14, 2026

Thanks for the reply.

You seem to be very knowledgeable about Sonos. However Please verify that you are opening the app in your Android or iOS device and selecting “Add a Speaker or Component” and not “Setup a New System”. 


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 15, 2026

Thanks for the replies, I haven’t yet found time to get back to this, but I will over the next few days and post my progress.

Just for my understanding, am I trying to make a new group / separate system (sorry, I don’t know the Sonos terminology) or simply add the new speakers one at a time to my existing account / “group” while the others are powered off? I have until now been pressing the “Add Speaker or Component” button with other speakers online.

Once you attempt to add a new one, the new speaker sits in a broken state with everything complete apart from the update / registration (it appears in the “Your system” section until you factory reset it).

Resetting my entire network setup is a bit more involved than for most people because I have firewalls and VPNs for work over multiple servers, so I will need time to do that. I already flushed the server caches (OPNSense, PiHole, Squid) and of course disabled global and device level VPNs (Wireguard). I completely disabled / removed the PiHole and Squid proxy servers temporarily, but that did nothing (and nothing was being blocked before anyway - other devices were updating normally after all). Windows / Android caching is probably the next thing to look at, but both failing the same way says it’s probably not that. I guess I could look at upstream DNS services, I’m using Quad9’s security enhanced product, but I don’t know where Sonos are attempting to serve the updates from as to whether that’s an issue (i.e. it’s being treated as malware).

Sonos support has been completely silent since sending them the diagnostics, so not holding out any hope there.


Airgetlam
  • January 15, 2026

Sonos support doesn’t respond to you sending in diagnostics, you must call them. I’d read the Diagnostics - How do they work? thread.

 


Stanley_4
  • Lead Maestro
  • January 15, 2026

Firewalls, VPNs, Pi-Holes all can mess up the Sonos system.

Maybe just move all Sonos and your controller to a different LAN with none of that enabled?

On my pfSense that is a quick process if I have an Ethernet port available, only a bit slower if I have to drop in another Ethernet card.


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 16, 2026

After an amazingly frustrating few hours, and countless device / hardware reboots, this is now done. Two new Era 100 devices have been added.

The first thing that I did was strip everything down to just a wireless router (Orbi) (bypassing my actual OPNSense box / other servers). I then made this as simple as I could (ISP DNS servers etc) and added the fibre connection details directly into it. I then factory reset my new Sonos devices and turned all remaining speakers off. Rebooted everything (router > speaker > phone).

I retried the Sonos adding process and still received an Error 30. Before giving up I gave it another go. This time the app just closed without warning. When I reopened it, the speaker was still unregistered, but this time updated! Registration just worked. Great!

I immediately turned this one off and grabbed the remaining one. Error 30. Tried 5 times and then started to receive Error 1067. Tried on Windows and error 1101. Zero networking changes. FML. Rebooted everything again, same error. Manually assigned the speaker and my phone new IP addresses. Error 1067.

In the end I had to resort to plugging in a fresh router that my ISP had sent me years ago. I manually locked my phone’s DNS resolver to 1.1.1.1. This time it just worked immediately (well, it closed the app without warning, but whatever). Was it a fresh WiFi network? Who knows?

The ordeal is over. All I can say is it leaves an extremely sour taste in my mouth, why on earth isn’t there a manual file download / update process?!

[After this slog, I think that I will be looking to sell my Sonos system and perhaps try out the Audio Pro stuff instead (my wife hates the Sonos app anyway, and she’s the principle music user). We really want to play either local device files (ideally) or files from the NAS (if we must), no online services and it seems that Sonos just doesn’t really expect this / provide a nice UI for this use-case. It takes a stunning number of clicks to get to where I want to be (e.g. an album) and putting things through Plex seems to be the simplest option we’ve found to do so without leaving a PC running?! If you read this Sonos, please make some changes.]


bockersjv
Forum|alt.badge.img+21
  • Local Superstar
  • January 16, 2026

Well done for persevering and for the update, may help other is they pass this way!

 


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 16, 2026

Thank you to everyone who took the time to post replies here, it’s genuinely appreciated.