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ERA 100 won't show up in Sonos App but shows up when I use Apple Airplay

  • 21 March 2024
  • 3 replies
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I set up my 3rd ERA 100 a few weeks ago.   Set up went as planned, the Era 100 was found and linked to my Wi-Fi and after unplugging and plugging it back in, it showed up int Sonos App.  After about 2 weeks it disappeared from the App and I tried several times to get it back...including resetting it at original location I set it up and also in the same room where I keep my Wi-Fi router.   Every time I reset the ERA was found by the App, I got the chime, it connected to my Wi-FI...but under no circumstances could I get it to show up as part of the Sonos System that shows in the App.   But the kicker is that it shows up when I use Apple Airplay on my phone, iPad or IMAC.   The Airplay list of devices lists my other 2 Era 100 speakers by named room and the 3rd now just at “Unnamed Room”...and it works perfectly fine using Airplay.   I guess my question is simple...the ERA 100 is certainly working and connected to my W-Fi, why won’t it show up in the Sonos App?

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 21 March 2024, 21:48

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The ‘discovery’ of the Sonos products by the Sonos controller App can sometimes be a slightly complex area to explore, but briefly… 

SSDP (the UPnP simple service discovery protocol) is used to initially discover the Sonos players and is done via multicasting via UDP to 239.255.255.250:1900 and, for good measure, broadcasting to 255.255.255.255:1900. 

Both the Sonos players and controllers must share the same network subnet. However if the Sonos devices are connecting to multiple access points, the recommendations (from myself) are that they be set to the same WiFi channel and channel-width. This is for optimum performance particularly in groups and for some reason with some (not all) mesh-based WiFi systems, it appears some will work okay with Sonos, but others may not, particularly if the satellites/AP’s are perhaps auto-selecting their own WiFi channels. I’ve seen some people report issues with Google ‘nest’ mesh WiFi, for example, although others will occasionally say it works for their ‘small’ Sonos setup.

What is certainly not supported though by Sonos, are wireless range extenders, as some can mangle device MAC addresses and EoP (powerline) adapters.. so if you are using those type of wireless access points, to extend the wireless network coverage, then that may cause such intermittent device discovery issues by the Sonos Controller App.

Reserving the IP addresses in the routers DHCP reservation table can often help with device discovery, so consider making your Sonos IP addresses static. The router user-manual will normally assist you to do that in most cases.

Just to add aswell, it can sometimes be Apps/software running on the mobile ‘controller’ device that interfere with ‘device discovery’ Examples to perhaps consider are…

  • VPN Client 
  • Firewall software
  • Antivirus software
  • WiFi Calling/Dial assist
  • Private network address (MAC address spoofing)
  • Mobile data enabled for the Sonos App  

So consider disabling these features, even temporarily, just to see if that may fix your device ‘discovery’ issue.

Userlevel 7

Hi

Your profile shows you have a Play 5 (Gen1). Your Play 5 will only work on Sonos S1. Your Play 3 will work on Sonos S1 and S2. The Era 100 will only work on Sonos S2.

The point being if you are still using the Play 5 and also have Era 100’s you are running a Sonos “split system”. You may be viewing the S1 version which will show the Play 5 and Play 3 but not the Era 100(s).

Below is an excert taken from this link 

  • If you’d like to update to the new S2 app but continue to use your S1 Sonos products, you can split your Sonos system into two separate systems and control them both using two apps. The new Sonos S2 app will control your S2 products and the Sonos S1 Controller app will control your S1 products. Most people will not need to do this.

So you need to switch over to the S2 version to see the Era 100(s) assuming you are running a spit system. If this is not the case then we need to look for other issues (most likely with your network). 

Thanks for your replies.  After reading your responses I remembered that my wi-fi router (eero) is quite quirky and generally I have to reserve an IP address for everything on the network.  As soon as I did this the Era 100 reappeared in the Sonos app.   Thanks again for your help.

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