All music in all streaming apps that includes apple music, amazon music , Spotify, work fine on my old sonos play 1's in its own sonos room. However, my new arc ultra, 2 era 300's, and sub 4, all using wireless connectivity to the router drop songs in all streaming apps intermittenly and consistently (Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify). My new Hisense 65 inch TV audio which is also connected via wifi works absolutely fine via Surround, HD, UHD, and Atmos fornats. Should I hard wire my arc ultra to my router and try?
From AI Overview
Yes, you should absolutely hardwire your Arc, Era 300s, and Sub to your router to improve their wireless performance and resolve intermittent music drops. Your old Sonos Play:1s likely work fine because they aren't part of the same wireless network as your newer devices, which may be experiencing interference or a weak connection. Wiring the new components will provide a more stable and reliable network connection, which is often the solution to this type of audio skipping issue.
Steps to Take
1. Connect the Arc to your router:
Use an Ethernet cable to connect the Arc to a spare LAN port on your router.
2. Confirm the connection:
After connecting, open the Sonos app and go to the system settings to ensure the Arc is now connected via Ethernet. You may need to reconfigure the new devices in the Sonos app to recognize their new network configuration.
3. Relocate other devices (if needed):
If you still experience issues, try relocating the Era 300s and Sub closer to the router, as their wireless connection might still be a factor even with the Arc wired.
4. Reboot network devices:
As a general troubleshooting step, try rebooting your router and then your Sonos system to refresh their network connections.
Why This Works
Improved signal strength:
Hardwiring provides a direct, stable connection, eliminating the "weak wireless connection" that can cause audio to drop or skip.
Reduced network congestion:
Your wireless network may be overloaded, especially with newer, bandwidth-intensive devices like the Arc and Era 300s. A wired connection offloads these devices from the wireless network.
Better system communication:
A stable connection between your new Sonos devices ensures they can communicate effectively with each other and the streaming services, leading to a consistent audio experience.
Looks like you own a Play 5 (Gen1) which is only compatible with the S1 Sonos app. The Play 1 will work on Sonos S1 and S2 therefore the Play 5 (Gen 1) and Play 1 can both work together.
The Arc Ultra, Era 300’s and Sub 4 are Sonos S2 only.
You essentially have two Sonos systems. The music services you have are probably seeing two accounts given your setup and favor the original account which is tied to your S1 products.
You will probably have to upgrade those services to a multi-user plan which in the case with Apple is a Family Plan.
Interesting. After a hardwire of my Arc Ultra, and should it continue to drop songs, I will perhaps try that.
We have 2 homes, so in the setup in question, I have the new Arc Ultra, the Era 300s, and Sub 4 in one room (Family room), and some old play 1's in their old room. ALL Being controlled by newest Sonos S2 app on my Android Samsung S25 ultra phone.
In both cases, it may be worth a full network refresh, by unplugging all Sonos devices from power, then rebooting your router. Give the router(s) a couple of minutes to come back up before plugging back in the Sonos. After waiting two minutes for the Sonos to boot up and connect, check the Sonos for updates in the controller.
Ok will do, I'll report back
We have 2 homes, so in the setup in question, I have the new Arc Ultra, the Era 300s, and Sub 4 in one room (Family room), and some old play 1's in their old room. ALL Being controlled by newest Sonos S2 app on my Android Samsung S25 ultra phone.
You say you have two homes. Are there Sonos systems in both? If so you are still going to run into problems with your music services as the IP Address for each account/location as it relates to Sonos is different. Therefore when you open the app in one home, connect to WiFi and sign-in to Sonos for that location the music services see a second account.
So I first bought 3 Play 5 speakers back in 2015 I believe. and they have been working fine with Spotify and Pandora in our Scottsdale, az home. I then bought 2 play 1 speakers for our second home in Payson Az. a couple years later. I have been able to travel back and forth, and successfully use Spotify and Pandora fine. I then bought a couple weeks ago the new Hisense u8qg 65 inch tv, Sonos Arc ultra, 2 300's, and sub 4. I subscribed and installed Apple Music, and Amazon Music, as I wanted to listen to Dolby Atmos, and lossless audio. First thought the music drops were only Apple music with Dolby Atmos playing, but then realized it was also Amazon prime and even Spotify (Spotify allows me to select the new Arc Ultra, Era's, and sub 4 as the assigned family room without launching Sonos app first, Apple Music and Amazon music require entering Sonos s2 app first). Did not matter what the audio format was, I got music stopping from all music sources. My Play 1 speaker are configured in their own virtual room called Bedroom. They work fine with all music services, same wireless router, and have never dropped any music. My new TV's earc hdmi is connected to Arc Ultra. All TV audio, including Atmos, has been working flawlessly, through the new Arc Ultra. Era 300s and Sub 4. So weird.
I will power cycle all speakers and router tomorrow, and report back.
Thanks so much, I love the speakers but it is frustrating.
Make sure the sequence is correct….the speakers are powered down while the router is rebooted. It makes a difference, for at least one type of issue.
Ok. After unplugging all speakers power. Then unplug power to router. Wait 3 minutes, plug power back into router wait 5 minutes, then plug back in all speakers. Did appear better no drops for 15 minutes playing dolby atmos tracks from apple music. Then it started dropping songs again. I will try hard wiring my Arc Ultra next when I get my new ethernet cable this Tuesday. and report back.
Not sure if a repeater would help.
I have a Altice 1735c9 router, and I have seen comments to split the wireless to 2.4 and 5, and put the Sonos on 2.4
Any comments are appreciated.
Then I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, they get sensitive about GDPR.
There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.
When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.
Ok, here is an update.
I hardwired my Arc Ultra via Ethernet cable to the router.
I have 2 rooms created in the S2 controller app on my Samsung s25 ultra android phone.
Living Room - In this room are Arc Ultra, 2 Era 300s, and Sub 4.
Den - 2 older Play 1 speakers
Summary Results and my conclusions
If I open Sonos app on my phone, then open any Streaming Music app (Apple music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora) and play any tracks from the Living room (New Arc Ultra, Era 300s, Sub 4) the music will stop within minutes, as I have rarely ever played a whole song without it stopping). I can restart the track just have it stop again.
If I do the same but this time I select the Den room ( the room with the old Play 1 speakers, it never drops music and always plays perfectly!!
I never have an issue playing music from the streaming services if I launch them from my 65 inch hisense u8qg tv, which is earc hdmi connected to my Arc Ultra.
I never have any issues with audio playing from my TV with any video or audio content (surround, hd, uhd, Dolby Atmos)
I tried all the power off speakers, power off router, wait power back on router. Power back speakers. Does not fix.
Conclusion for me. Sonos S2 Android app is defective running streaming services from within the app with the Arc Ultra, Era 300s, and Sub 4. Old Sonos play ones work fine by themselves selected .
So I can use my new speakers with my Music Services, I run the services from my Android TV. Can't use Apple music services from my TV as there is no Google TV available. You can cast the Apple music service from your Android phone app, but that really screwed up my speaker product configuration in Sonos s2 app.
Please comment Sonos support, or any others out there. Love to hear your comments.
I don't believe root cause is network issue, but rather the S2 Android app.
Sonos support doesn’t ‘live’ in these forums, only Sonos forum moderators, who occasionally get a chance to look at diagnostics, but not terribly frequently. Your best bet is to submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, they get sensitive about GDPR.
There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.
When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.
