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A little while ago I had to change out my network controller and Firewall as they were legacy devices and no longer receiving security updates. I was running a UniFi USG and a Gen 1 Cloudkey with a couple of UniFi Access Points. I swapped out the controller and USG for a UniFi Express device and moved my network across. Everything went smoothly and I setup an IOT VLAN for all my smart home devices using a 2.4ghz network only for the WiFi. All of the devices reconnected fine (doorbell camera, rear cctv camera, LED Strips, smart lights etc.) apart from the Symfonisk Speaker. Now to compound the problem this was also around the time of the firmware not updating issue and I had to factory reset the speaker and hardwire it to get it to talk to the Windows client to update.

Since then I have tried numerous times to connect the Speaker to my WiFi and it fails every single time. When I go through the process on my Android phone it does everything fine up until it tries to connect to the WiFi and then it says it can’t connect. In the app it shows the correct SSID and I can enter the password (no fancy characters) but it just flat refuses and fails.

I spent over an hour with support via chat trying different things and the conclusion was it’s my WiFi that’s the issue!!! Which I don’t accept as I’m using the same Access Points in the same configuration that was previously working. I may have changed out the controller and firewall but they only control the flow of traffic and have no bearing on the WiFi signal itself. All the settings are identical to my previous setup and the Speaker is the ONLY device that will not connect to the WiFi.

Currently it’s connected via an Ethernet cable and will work fine the only problem is that I can’t get a cable to where I actually want the speaker to be. We also used to use it outside in the summer because it worked on the WiFi!

Open to any suggestions, ideas, thoughts, black magic, holy intervention…….

There are Ubiquity topics here with suggested settings.

My AP is working fine after the tweaks.


If your IoT VLAN is blocking access to your main LAN (as it should), then as soon as the speaker connects to the VLAN it will lose access to your phone.

You should either keep Sonos speakers on your main LAN (highly advisable) or somehow allow the speaker to be accessed from the main LAN by your phone (which defeats the IoT VLAN purpose and is not advisable).


A few questions… You said it was working and all went smoothly, but then also said the speaker didn’t connect to the IoT network. So did it connect to the new kit ok without the IoT? 

Once the app finishes setup and waits for the speaker to connect, what LED colour does the speaker show and does it flash? Is it just the app that seems to lose access to the speaker? 

Finally, have you enabled mDNS broadcasting between your main WiFi VLAN and the new IoT one? 


If your IoT VLAN is blocking access to your main LAN (as it should), then as soon as the speaker connects to the VLAN it will lose access to your phone.

I make sure my device is connected to the WiFi SSID that is associated with the IOT network so that both devices are on the same VLAN. Good point though as that nearly caught me out a couple of times.

 

A few questions… You said it was working and all went smoothly, but then also said the speaker didn’t connect to the IoT network. So did it connect to the new kit ok without the IoT? 

I haven’t tried a different SSID as they are both using 2.4 and 5. I learnt about having a sole 2,4ghz network for IOT stuff when I first got the speaker and I couldn’t get it to connect. The wife is going away for a few days so I may turn off 5 on the main network and have another go.

 

When setting the device up without the ethernet cable plugged in I was able to get as far as trying to add the Speaker to the IOT SSID I have setup. At this point it refused to connect and said it couldn’t find the network, even though it was showing as available. It let me type in the password for the IOT WiFi and then said “no”. My phone was connected to the speaker using the devices own WiFi for setup purposes so the speaker was able to scan and find the correct SSID to connect to. I also tried to connect to one of the other WiFi SSIDs with the same result “Couldn’t find network”

 

I can get the speaker to work fine via an Ethernet cable and with my phone connected to the IOT WiFi I am able to use the app to control the speaker etc. with them both on the same subnet.

 


You’ve not really answered the questions… which makes it quite hard to understand what you have, and what you’ve tried. 

Have you ever had the speaker connected to WiFi with the Uniti Express? 

How many SSID’s are active on what channels and what for? Do they have different IP subnets? Are they also configured as different VLANs? 

This old post may be some help, although apparently you can now set all this up through the GUI. 

https://www.neilgrogan.com/ubnt-sonos/

Any auto-optimisation for WiFi can be problematic for Sonos which could be at the heart of being unable to even logon. In addition, as above, you may need to look at enabling mDNS broadcasting between VLANs as well for the new Sonos App. 


Do you have WPA2 enabled on the IoT WiFi? And what about 802.11b/g?


OK, so I have taken the speaker to two different houses on the street where I live with two different ISPs and therefore two totally different routers. I have the EXACT same issuse at both houses. I can connect to the Speaker’s own WiFi and perform the setup process. It doesn’t recognise the tones being played during the setup and I have to manually enter the code from the back of the speaker. It then plays the chime and I press the button on the speaker which then gives me a tick saying it’s associated the speaker with the app. It then moves onto the WiFi setup process where it detects the Wireless network fine and shows it in the app. I enter the password for the Wireless and says it can’t connect and to “try again” I try again, and again and it fails then gives me the option to set up via ethernet. I made sure that in both cases the network was on 2.4 only before trying to set up the speaker.

I am now certain this is an issue with the firmware on my speaker as I had no problems with it up until it was updated a couple of months ago.

 

Is there any way I can downgrade the firmware on the speaker to test this assumption?


 No downgrade option, call support


Supports answer - Not our problem, contact IKEA!

 

Guess I’ll just have to have a wireless speaker that doesn’t work wirelessly! Thanks all for the input.


FIXED!!!!!!

 

I wasn’t prepared to give up so easily so I had another bash at it today.

The answer? Removed the Sonos app from my phone (for the Nth time) and download an old 16.1 version of the app. Factory reset the speaker and then launch the old version of the app on my phone. It then says it has to be updated to work so I selected the update option in the app, I did not go through the play store!!

The app updated and launched and then carried on as it did before. This time it went all the way through the process as before (ignored the audio pin) then asked for the pin manually. Entered the Pin and it skipped to the WiFi setup but instead of immediately rejecting the password it went to the next screen and showed it attempting to connect and then it popped a message saying the speaker required an update to the firmware. It completed the update and then everything connected!

I had tried about 5 times today using the app downloaded direct from the play store and did nothing different the only difference was using the old version of the app and updating the app to the latest version within the app and NOT from the play store. That was the only difference.

 

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.


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