I have had the ERA 3 for about 1.5 years, and after Sonos made an update to its system last year, I am now unable to pair this speaker to my computer or my iphone. I have spent hours trying to figure this out with the help of Sonos technicians and with the Sonos community. I am beyond frustrated and disappointed in Sonos for not fixing this problem and am disappointed that I bought this speaker as an upgrade. It has been anything but better.
Question
Help with pairing ERA 300 to my computer
+7When you say pairing, it’s through Bluetooth or using the Sonos app?
I guess that all the IT solutions (restart, reboot, resomething) have been done already.
If it is a Bluetooth issue is sounds strange, as should be a matter of remove devices and try pairing again. If it’s a problem with the Sonos app, could be related with your network, router, etc. but I suppose Sonos staff must be try different things.
Please, give us more details to help you.
This is a problem with the Sonos app. We have done a lot of troubleshooting with Sonos staff, and all the obvious problems have been checked - network, router, etc. and all are working fine. The Sonos app will not recognize my music library on my computer, and none of the fixes that have been recommended by Sonos staff have worked. I am on a shared network with my spouse, and Sonos will not recognize his music library on his computer. Again, we have done a lot of troubleshooting with Sonos staff regarding shared networks, etc., and none of the solutions have worked. The previous Sono speaker we had recognized both computers on a shared network so we believe this is an issue with the Sonos app that has not been resolved as our previous Sono speaker had not trouble with the shared network recognizing music libraries on our computers.
+7I’d never tried to play music from my PC because I’m used to stream it, but I’ve discovered that it’s fun!
I’ve suffered a bit, but finally, inserting the whole folder route, user and password (the Windows one) here they are.
Anyway, as every time I dive into a new Sonos feature I start to discover limitations an errors. Could be my fault, or Microsoft fault 😅, but if the folder has a lot of files, the app is getting crazy and reading a different file that the one I clicked in 🤦🏽♂️
I found moving my music library off Windows and onto a NAS eliminated many odd issues and unexpected things following updates.
A NAS offers many other benefits if you go for a commercial design or can be pretty cheap if you build your own. My original NAS to serve my Sonos music files, built on a Raspberry Pi cost around $20.
What is an ERA 3? I’m familiar with the Era 100 and the Era 300, but not an ERA 3.
+7My bet is Era 300 😬
+7I found moving my music library off Windows and onto a NAS eliminated many odd issues and unexpected things following updates.
A NAS offers many other benefits if you go for a commercial design or can be pretty cheap if you build your own. My original NAS to serve my Sonos music files, built on a Raspberry Pi cost around $20.
But with a NAS, don’t you have the mentioned problem with folders with many files?
I don’t know if I have the knowledge to mount it, because I assume it need some programming. I’ve mount computers from scratch, but I assume this is different because there is no OS, or at least a simple one that needs programming, right? And 20 bucks is enough? I’ve seen that just the raspberry is close to 100… how you did it? If there is a source in internet with the information let me know, I don’t want to bother you explaining all details 😃
+17I am with
There has been a lot of improvements since the app release and by now most users have no issues.
With the operating systems on Windows PCs and Mac being pushed out regularly, it is my guess that sometimes there can be security updates that can cause connection issues on a shared folder. If you have connected more than 10 devices to that shared folder on a Windows PC, that may be causing the issues you are experiencing. Remove some of those old connections and try again.
No programming involved in using a NAS, it just shares files like any other computer BUT without the problems caused on Windows and Mac with all the non-filesharing stuff. The music library "confusion" is not related to the source device for the music so a NAS will make no difference there.
You can spend a lot of money on a high end Raspberry Pi, which will sit 98% idle while sharing four high-res music streams to your Sonos. A much better choice is a Pi Zero at a fraction of that cost that will still be under 10% use.
I have several, old and more technical, posts at the link but I'm finding the directly linked Open Media Vault option is more attractive to most folks and brings additional benefits to the direct sharing options.
https://stan-miller.livejournal.com/940.html
Pricing varies and you might find a kit with case, cables and power brick if you don't have the needed stuff handy. $15 base price, $35 basic kit.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w/
https://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w.html?cid=usd&src=raspberrypi
If not the Pi, Amazon and others have more than adequate NAS boxes in the low $100 range, single or two drive ones that are plug and play. These have no disk drives so you would either buy one or pull one from an old computer. A very small one is more than you need for your music.
https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WD3200BVVT-5400RPM-Notebook/dp/B011PSX3AE/ref=sr_1_1
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