Your One SL’s are bonded as surrounds to the Playbar? Or are they set up as separate speakers and grouped with the Playbar? When you turn off your TV do you cut power to the Playbar and Sub only?

You can find more about grouping here: https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/group-and-ungroup-rooms

Does the Playbar stay powered on when the tv is turned off?

Are the One SL’s grouped with the Playbar or bonded as surrounds?

If you turn off the tv and stream music to the Playbar room, do you get sound from Playbar and the Ones?

Can you stream music just to the Ones?

It sounds like it.

Hello All,

Thanks so much for the quick responses.  You rock!  And Merry Xmas eve.

To answer your questions and comments:

As stated in my original post ONLY the TV gets turned off, the player and sub stays on.  I just confirmed that.  Remote turns the TV off and all other devices stay plugged in and on. 

RE: Are they “bonded” to Playbar?  That is a good question.  I do not know.  Everything is set up wirelessly and the One SLs were added later so they are likely set up as independent?  I will read the link provided by 106rallye and see how I might resolve.  

Since the answer is YES - sub and playbar stay ON when TV is turned off (and they always reconnect with TV no problem when TV is turned back on), if you have any other words of wisdom please share.  

“Bonded” means set up as surrounds, and would show up as PLAYBAR’s room name] (+LS+RS) in the controller.

”Grouped” means these speakers are set up as a stereo pair in another Sonos ‘room’ (which could be the same room name), and would show up as uRoom name] (L+R)

The distinction is important to answer the issue properly. 

Sometimes, asking specific questions - even when the op thinks they’ve already provided the answers - can help clarify the problem and lead to a solution. 
 

You’ve not yet answered all of my questions: can you stream music just to your Ones? Does music come from One’s and Playbar? 

They are indeed bonded as you can see in photos.

Here are a few more variables:

1.  When the TV is turned off, the One SLs actually stay connected for a small amount of time (exact time unknown).  When I turn the TV back on, let’s say 10 minutes later, the One SLs work fine and are synced.  
    
2. It appears when the TV is off for longer periods (many hours?) that is when the One SLs do not reconnect or resync, even though no other network changes have occurred during that time.  
    
3. I read the very simple grouping and ungrouping link and it’s very easy to understand but my Sonos app simply doesn’t display grouping and ungrouping (small monitor icon) in the same manner either on iOS or Windows?  I can’t find anywhere to group or ungroup?  I looked at every option.
    
4. The only setting I found that may be related is “ungroup on autoplay”, under Home Theatre, which was previously on.  I just turned it to the off position to see if nothing is impacted after the TV has been off for several hours.  
    
5. a couple photos attached that may be helpful?

Thanks again all - really appreciate it!  Getting this resolved will make my 8-year old and 7-year old’s Xmas for the surround speakers to always stay on and for me to not have to turn everything off and resync it all the time.  

Hmmm… From that info: yes, they are bonded as surrounds. 
 

Have you tried powering down the whole system and restarting the system in the order: router, Playbar, Sub, surrounds, waiting till rack has fully restarted (especially the router and wifi signal) before starting the next? If so, maybe de-bond the surrounds and then re-add them? Or generate a diagnostics within a few minutes of the issue occurring, and then contacting Sonos support to discuss it? 

Yes.  Many, many times.  This method indeed fixes the issue - short-term.  Everything works great until the TV (only the TV) remains off for x hours.  At that point, the One SLs somehow become unsynced, while Play at and sub do not, and following your above-stated method always resolves the issue until the next TV power cycle off for x hours?  
 

It’s a baffling puzzle for sure!  I haven’t tried any logs shortly after yet, only because the issues doesn’t start until an unknown time after - x hours?  The immediate logs after rebooting everything may show as fine?  
 

Thanks again!

Those diagnostics are purported to save 10 minutes worth of information. It certainly would make sense to submit one or two, and call Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

@HK2300,

See attached highlighted image - I’m just wondering if you’re ‘perhaps’ using a ‘guest’ WiFi network, in addition to your main WiFi network? If so maybe switch off the guest ‘WiFi’ and see if that resolves your issue.

Thank you.  That’s a wise observation although it’s nomenclature.  We do not use a guest WiFi, we just named it that way “Hoku-guest” for anyone who comes over or family staying over.  That is actually the 2.4GHz band name.  We have a tri-band system with 2.4, 5 and 6e.  My wife and I have most of our items secure throughout the home on the 5GHz band, and only use 2.4Ghz for our guests and for Sonos because Sonos is limited and doesn’t work on 5GHz network.  I guess it requires 2.4, so it’s set up that way.  

Perhaps someone more experienced can answer this: might this be a time for fixed ip addresses? Also: @HK2300 do you have your wifi running on a fixed channel 1, 6 or 11, or is it set to “auto”?

@nik9669a it never hurts, but it doesn’t feel like this is the answer. 

I’d be tempted to temporarily wire the PLAYBAR and see if that makes any difference. But then I’m also wondering about incipient failure in the WiFi system of the PLAYBAR, something that would likely be exposed by a diagnostic and call to Sonos. 

The Playbar only uses the 2.4Ghz band - the ‘bonded’ Sub and One SL’s do not use your WiFi signal, but instead they directly connect to the PlayBar over an ‘ad-hoc’ 5Ghz wireless connection. My thoughts were perhaps that the 5Ghz router WiFi band (and the Guest WiFi) might have been interfering with the ‘ad-hoc’ 5Ghz connection, but if there’s no guest WiFi, then there’s less chance of that.. but still we can’t rule it out.

My thoughts are to unbond the surrounds from the Playbar and try swapping their physical location and then bond the surrounds back to the Playbar so that they change place and just see if the same issue then occurs with the speakers. It’s also worth rebooting the Playbar too.

Thanks again All!

I‘ll try some of the ideas above and also reach out to Sonos support soon.

As an update - same thing again happened today.  So it appears the “ungroup on autoplay” switch off did not resolve the issue.  
 

1.  I rebooted all devices and everything synced fine. Everything worked great today - all day - even with TV turned off periodically for 15-30 minutes at a time (don’t have exact times).
2. Then we took a break for Christmas Eve dinner and family time for approx. 3 hours.  Only the TV was turned off during this time.  All other units remained plugged in and turned on.  
3. When I turned the TV back on after that multi-hour break, sure enough One SLs are not synced.  No sound coming out of them.  See attached photos from the app.
4. I followed the app recommendations including turning the One SLs off/on and they eventually synced back up.  

The riddle remains - why do the One SLs disconnect themselves from the system ONLY when the TV is turned off for extended hours?  Weird.  

Thanks again and happy holidays!

I think it is worth setting fixed ip addresses to see if that helps. Something is causing the setup to “lose” those two speakers…

Since the Playbar seems to lose the surrounds after a couple of minutes after the TV has been powered off, could you check if it is still able to play music from another source after, say, a quarter of an hour?

I had that thought yesterday. Can you play just to the Playbar? Can you play just to the Ones? 

I think I’d be looking to see whether the surrounds are still connected at layer 3 by an IP ping, and if that fails then check at layer 2 by poking around in x.x.x.x:1400/status. 

If all this seems too geekish then a submitted diagnostic when in the ‘fault’ state would reveal the above, and a whole lot more. 

Thank you and Merry Xmas!

To clarify some more recent posts, the One SLs only lose connection when the TV is turned off for longer than an HOUR (approx.)?  If it’s a short-term TV off (< hour?), or when the TV is ALWAYS on, the connection is never lost.  

Even if the 5Ghz band floating throughout the property influences the One SL radio somehow (if true), it only happens when the TV (and only the TV) has been off for an extended period of time.  If the TV remains on, nothing breaks the connection.  This suggests it might not be the 5Ghz band in the airwaves?  Not sure.  Hmmm.

The Playbar, Sub and One SLs (all Sonos units) are always left powered on, and the Playbar and Sub never have this issue even if TV is powered off for a long time.  

Hope everyone is having a great day!

It could be related to the 2.4GHz environment. Although they use a direct 5GHz connection in operation, when idle the surrounds (and Sub) will eventually revert to 2.4GHz. It’s still a direct connection to the home theatre master unit, but it’s obviously more susceptible to disruption caused by interference.

As an update, I spoke with Sonos support yesterday and submitted a diagnostic. As I suspected previously in this thread, the diagnostic shows as “normal”, nothing wrong, because all devices were connected fine at the time.  Since the time the failure occurs is unknown (after the TV is turned off) and since it appears turning the TV back on (prior to failure) appears to possibly reset the ‘failure clock’ to zero, I am now just waiting for a failure to occur (disconnect) and will submit a second diagnostic.  

We did not make any system changes yet and they are closed this weekend and Monday so will update this thread, if and when, any progress is made.  

RESOLVED

Hello All!

I think this will be the final answer.   Crossing my fingers that current resolution remains  stable.

I misplaced my glasses, so I am voice dictating this. Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors.
 

After sending many diagnostics, conversations with Sonos Support, and two escalations up to the most senior engineer level possible, two potential issues came to light. The first is that the playbar appeared to be issuing, faulty, IP addresses, or sometimes none to certain devices including the sub, even though the sub always works. The 2nd potential issue was as someone stated above in this thread, that the 5 GHz channel may have been conflicting with the 5 GHz radio on the Sonos one SLs.  So when the speakers go into a rest or hybernation-type of mode (with TV off) they lose connection after some time.  

Because of the playbar fault, the senior engineer sent me a Sonos BOOST device.  And now, finally, all of the Sonos devices connect to the boost, and so far after 48 hours,(again crossing my fingers) the issue has not occurred.

Many thanks to all of you and to Sonos engineering for helping to resolve this strange anomaly.  
 

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2024!

Odd. as I understand it, the surround speakers get their IP addresses from the router, not from the PLAYBAR. They also connect to the PLAYBAR, and not to the BOOST. 
 

While I’m happy your system is working, I’m not sure I understand why. Except the BOOST connects to your PLAYBAR via a 2.4 GHz signal, not a 5Ghz signal, so that isn’t blocking the 5Ghz signal that the PLAYBAR connects to the surrounds on.