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I have just bought a Era 100 speaker. I wanted to use it as a Bluetooth only speaker (connecting to my Spotify on my Samsung S24) but quickly found out I had to set it up through WiFi, despite not having WiFi in my flat. So, I took it to my girlfriend's house and set it up through her WiFi (which was a painful experience btw). I then activated Bluetooth and it seemed to play fine, without any issues.

So, I bought the speaker home, I connected my phone to the speaker via Bluetooth and started playing my music. To my horror, the music kept cutting out, for a second at a time, several times per song. 

I rang the Sonos helpline and was told that because I don't have WiFi in my flat, that this Bluetooth performance is normal, which I think is outrageous. She asked me to submit a diagnostic code through the Sonos app, which I did. She then asked me to playback music from Spotify to the speaker whilst talking to her, but it wouldn't play through the speaker. At this point she gave me a reference number and we said goodbye.

My question is, what is the solution to this clear fault? 

 

Moderator Edit - Removed Personally Identifiable Information.

You’ve bought a wifi speaker with Bluetooth capabilities. Did you do any investigation before you bought it? It’s certainly not faulty, as it needs to be on a wifi connection. 
If it doesn’t match your expectations, can you return it? 

Roam 2 will work as a Bluetooth speaker out-of-the-box, without any setup or wifi needs. 

To fix your Era 100 Bluetooth cutting out at home, keep your Samsung S24 and speaker within 10-20 feet, away from interference like microwaves or other Bluetooth devices. Reboot both: unplug the speaker for 30 seconds, restart your phone’s Bluetooth, then forget and re-pair the Era 100. It worked fine at your girlfriend’s, so WiFi isn’t required—Sonos support is wrong there. If it still skips, the unit might be faulty; use your reference to push for a replacement.

 

Moderator Edit - Removed Personally Identifiable Information.

Roam 2 will work as a Bluetooth speaker out-of-the-box, without any setup or wifi needs. 

Interesting side note… Sonos support documentation about bluetooth pairing is individual for each bt supporting device. 
There next to Roam2 also Arc Ultra doesn’t seem to need a wifi setup before. 
Officially for all other products this is mentioned as required. 
But somewhere I read that for example also Roam 1 will be able to pair via bt without wifi setup before, if it’s on latest firmware. 
But yet I did not try it myself. 
Maybe someone is curious and will factory reset his Roam 1 or Era 100/300 speaker for testings. 😉

To fix your Era 100 Bluetooth cutting out at home, keep your Samsung S24 and speaker within 10-20 feet, away from interference like microwaves or other Bluetooth devices. Reboot both: unplug the speaker for 30 seconds, restart your phone’s Bluetooth, then forget and re-pair the Era 100. It worked fine at your girlfriend’s, so WiFi isn’t required—Sonos support is wrong there. If it still skips, the unit might be faulty; use your reference to push for a replacement.

 

Moderator Edit - Removed Personally Identifiable Information.

My reading of the op is that it worked fine at the girlfriend’s home because it was set up and connected on wifi. On taking it home, where there’s no wifi, it won’t work because it needs a wifi connection to work. 

Roam 2 will work as a Bluetooth speaker out-of-the-box, without any setup or wifi needs. 

Interesting side note… Sonos support documentation about bluetooth pairing is individual for each bt supporting device. 
There next to Roam2 also Arc Ultra doesn’t seem to need a wifi setup before. 
Officially for all other products this is mentioned as required. 
But somewhere I read that for example also Roam 1 will be able to pair via bt without wifi setup before, if it’s on latest firmware. 
But yet I did not try it myself. 
Maybe someone is curious and will factory reset his Roam 1 or Era 100/300 speaker for testings. 😉

Interesting! It’s certainly not what Sonos say on the web site for Era 100. Perhaps a Sonos rep can advise? 

To fix your Era 100 Bluetooth cutting out at home, keep your Samsung S24 and speaker within 10-20 feet, away from interference like microwaves or other Bluetooth devices. Reboot both: unplug the speaker for 30 seconds, restart your phone’s Bluetooth, then forget and re-pair the Era 100. It worked fine at your girlfriend’s, so WiFi isn’t required—Sonos support is wrong there. If it still skips, the unit might be faulty; use your reference to push for a replacement.

 

Moderator Edit - Removed Personally Identifiable Information.

My reading of the op is that it worked fine at the girlfriend’s home because it was set up and connected on wifi. On taking it home, where there’s no wifi, it won’t work because it needs a wifi connection to work. 

I don’t think the speaker always has to be also on wifi when working in bt mode. It just has to be set up once on any wifi with Sonos app and after that is done you should be able to use it anywhere on bt  even without a wifi connection at all. 
So imho for op there really might be some interference issues. Otherwise bt playback wouldn’t has started at all for him if a wifi connection is required. Just for using stereo setups on bt mode you always need a wifi connection in backgroud. 

The Era 100 is Not a Standalone Bluetooth Speaker:

  • The Era 100 is designed to be part of the Sonos ecosystem, and it relies on Wi-Fi for its core functionality and integration with other Sonos products. 

That’s the reason it must be setup on Wifi first. Placing the Era 100 in BT mode does not negate its WiFi connectivity. Bluetooth is just a “perk” for Era 300 and Era 100.

 

​@AjTrek1 

No doubt the Era speakers primarily are designed for use on wifi. And for me even the portable Sonos speakers are. 
But as a fact (regardless if bluetooth will work out of the box wirhout initial wifi setup for a certain speaker) I can use my Era100 and 300 perfectly via bluetooth after turning off my wifi. Of course I did set up the speaker before on wifi to my system, but after that I can use it without wifi but via bt anywhere. 
And that‘s what op likes to do, though of course it’s not the recommended typical usecase. 😉

You’ve bought a wifi speaker with Bluetooth capabilities. Did you do any investigation before you bought it? It’s certainly not faulty, as it needs to be on a wifi connection. 
If it doesn’t match your expectations, can you return it? 

No, I bought a speaker that said it did both, either WiFi or Bluetooth. And it certainly is a fault, if after set up, it still requires a WiFi connection to work with Bluetooth. But thanks for your condescending input all the same...

To fix your Era 100 Bluetooth cutting out at home, keep your Samsung S24 and speaker within 10-20 feet, away from interference like microwaves or other Bluetooth devices. Reboot both: unplug the speaker for 30 seconds, restart your phone’s Bluetooth, then forget and re-pair the Era 100. It worked fine at your girlfriend’s, so WiFi isn’t required—Sonos support is wrong there. If it still skips, the unit might be faulty; use your reference to push for a replacement.

 

Moderator Edit - Removed Personally Identifiable Information.

I've got my phone within 6 feet of the speaker and there is nothing to interfere with it. I've tried all of your suggestions but no luck.

The Era 100 is Not a Standalone Bluetooth Speaker:

  • The Era 100 is designed to be part of the Sonos ecosystem, and it relies on Wi-Fi for its core functionality and integration with other Sonos products. 

That’s the reason it must be setup on Wifi first. Placing the Era 100 in BT mode does not negate its WiFi connectivity. Bluetooth is just a “perk” for Era 300 and Era 100.

 

Bluetooth is a perk??? What nonsense. If it is advertised as a Bluetooth speaker, it should work without issues. I had a Bose 10 years ago and it was no bother. 

​@AjTrek1 

No doubt the Era speakers primarily are designed for use on wifi. And for me even the portable Sonos speakers are. 
But as a fact (regardless if bluetooth will work out of the box wirhout initial wifi setup for a certain speaker) I can use my Era100 and 300 perfectly via bluetooth after turning off my wifi. Of course I did set up the speaker before on wifi to my system, but after that I can use it without wifi but via bt anywhere. 
And that‘s what op likes to do, though of course it’s not the recommended typical usecase. 😉

Thanks for your input. Do you have any suggestions? It continues to cut out and I'm taking it back to the store tomorrow if it can't be resolved.

​@Ithilla 

Did you try several bluetooth devices to pair and play from?

Also you can try to put the speaker to a different place. 
 

If nothing works, I would consider taking another speaker though as I said for me it works playing via bt when the speaker is offline from the wifi. 

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