Playbase Music Streaming Issues

I give up. I just typed a reply and got the dreaded message “Something went wrong”. Someone else please help this OP. I’m signing off. Geeze...Gainsight!!

IP addressing on ‘older’ routers still seems to be an issue, along with wifi interference across all devices. Unfortunately, your network isn’t just impacted by your settings, but all sorts of outside influences, both internal to your home, and often, and more concerning, outside your influence. It seems that Sonos saw some of one of these (they’re basically known by their impact, one often can’t tell where the issue is coming from), and suggested you change the broadcast channel / frequency that your router uses. 

If you’re having trouble logging on to your own router, there are issues you need to deal with. If this router was supplied by your ISP, you need to contact your ISP, and work with them. If this is a router you purchased, you need to contact the manufacturer’s CS to get access again. Sonos, nor us in the public, have any access to this data. It’s something you have to do on your own, sorry.

One thing that might potentially help in the meantime is a full network refresh, which doesn’t occur if you just restart the router. Unplug all your Sonos devices from power first, and once that is complete, reboot the router again. Wait two minutes for the router to load back up, and then plug in your Sonos devices to power. Wait another two minutes for the Sonos devices to boot, and reconnect, then check for updates, and apply them. Finally, once that is done, you should be ready to test. 

Ha!! I also had “Something went wrong”, but I was prepared by copying the text before attempting to Send.

Were you working with the support bot or phone support? Phone support is much better.

It’s possible that your wireless environment has become more congested or PLAYBASE has developed a hardware issue. Are any of your SONOS units wired to the network? Are you using S1 or S2?

If a SONOS unit is wired you can change SonosNet channel without having access to the router. In wireless congestion situations this may help.

As suggested, if your router is many years old, a new router can better deal with wireless congestion.

The router is fairly new but it is an Xfinity router.  I realize the router login issues are my problem.  Xfinity’s solution was to factory reset my router (I can’t just reset the password) which would remove my my wifi network and according to them I would need to reconnect all of my (50 or so) smart home devices.  Which I am willing to do if absolutely necessary.  I wanted to exhaust other options before I blow everything up.  I will need to set aside a bit of time to do this.

Buzz:  I was chatting with a person on support.  I don’t have any devices hard wired, but could probably connect one temporarily.  I am using S2.

As I mentioned earlier, i just started having this problem, and none of my other speakers are having issues.  Which leads me to believe there is something going on with the Playbase.  This is my 2nd playbase,  My first one had a wireless card issue, Sonos gave me a good discount on the replacement but I have been wondering how long this one was going to last.  I got 8 years out if it so I guess that is good.   I was very close to pulling the trigger on an Arc Ultra a couple months ago.  I guess I should have.

Well...I’m back 😂

Just FYI….You can factory reset your router (Xfinity or not) and still use the same password. It would be like setting up the router as new. However,..before you do so….

1. Unplug all Sonos
2. Factory reset your router *
3. Use the same password as before when setting up your network
4. Power cycle your devcie
5. Connect your device to WiFi
6. Delete the Sonos App
7. Plug in all Sonos and let them comeback
8. Reinstall the Sonos app
9. Select “Join and existing system” and follow prompts 
10. Sign-in with your credentials

 * The reason to factory reset your router is to clear out any wrong settings and allow setup on a clean pallet. The password has no contaminates therefore using the same password is OK. As you are using a Playbar and possibly an older sub and One’s set the encryption level to WPA2/WPA3. Default setting of WPA3 may not agree with older devices.

I haven’t messed with an XFinity router in around 5 or 6 years, I suspect they’re different…but a reboot, as both I and ​@AjTrek1 suggested, is perfectly OK. 

But the fact you can’t  log in to it needs to be taken up soon with XFinity’s customer service fairly soon. Even if they’re ‘leasing’ it to you, you need to be able to log in to it.  

Does the Playbase have the network section available in the settings for it? If so you can check your signal strength there and compare it to your other Sonos.

Something to consider, for many good reasons and not just Sonos, is buying a quality router and having the ISP device placed in bridge/transparent mode. That gives you full local control and reduces the problems cqused by your ISP changing things.

I had Xfiinity a few years ago. Most ISP’s will allow changing the password (or they will assist) but none that I recall will allow any deep dive into administration.  When I had Xfinity (router/modem combo) they had to set the router to Bridge mode remotely. Of course they squawked and gave the semi-threatening response “We can’t troubleshoot any network problems with a third party router”.

They left me shaking in my boots with that last remark ….so I got rid of all their gear and went Google Fiber 😂

Sorry to be late to the party: I was away. I have the same Playbase/Sub/Ones setup and all is fine for me, despite the kit being elderly (like me 😜). The “dropping… service” suggests a wifi issue, to me. I’d certainly explore those issues first before contemplating updating kit. 
 

As a temporary measure, if the earlier suggestions don’t help, can you run an Ethernet cable to the Playbase rather than rely on WiFi, at least for testing purposes? 

Just a note: you may not be aware that the router’s administration password is printed somewhere on the case and is separate from the WiFi password.

The Playbase has a history of the WIFI card going bad. What you can do in this case, is to grab an ethernet cable and hardwire it to your router to see if the issue persists. It it solves your issue, you know its a hardware problem inside the Playbase. If the issue is still present with the ethernet cable, its a network issue.

If the Ethernet cable is needed you can use it with minimal disruption of your system by selecting the Disable Sonosnet option.

NOT the Disable-Wi-Fi one, that disrupts Sub and Surround use wnich you do not want to do.

So after multiple days of frustrating calls with Xfinity and Sonos support I think my issue is finally resolved.  Sonos support was great, Xfinity support was awful.  I dealt with conflicting or just wrong advice making and canceling appointments not returning calls. 

Once I was finally able to login to my Xfinity router and access my settings, i found that I was still unable to change the channel on the 2.4ghz wifi network.  It turns out since I use the Xfinity pods wifi extenders which channel is being used is automatically managed and cannot be changed. Their solution was not to use the pod extenders if I want to change then channel.  Not really a solution for me with a 4,000+ square foot house.

Since Xfinity support was less than useful, I jumped back on with Sonos support.  They did some troubleshooting, disabled, my rear speakers and sub.  The issue appeared fixed for a few hours then started happening again.  The issue was the escalated to 2nd tire support,  It seems the issue is related to the pod wifi extenders.  Sonos support told me that I want the playbase connected directly to my router not one of the pods and offered a couple suggestions to fix the issue:

1.  Move the pods further away from the playbase so it connects to the router.  I was able to get the playbase connected to to the router and the streaming issues have not happened in a couple days.  But I checked again this morning and the playbase was back connected to one of the pods.  I haven’t streamed any music today but  the issues were not happening yesterday.
2. Connect one of the speakers to an ethernet cable to activate Sonosnet.  Unfortunately none of my speaker are in a room with an ethernet connection.  I am actively searching Facebook Marketplace for a cheap Play:1, One or Play:3 that I can connect via ethernet to mitigate any issues.
3. Purchase an Eero Mesh system.  With the size of my house I should probably be looking into this but will hold off and see if the above corrects the issue.

What is somewhat frustrating is the issue seems to have stopped but nothing has really changed with my setup so I think it is likely that the issue will pop up again.  Hopefully Sonosnet will help.  Thanks to everyone here for the suggestions.

ISP routers can be a pain. The ISP tends to think that, if the TV plays and your phone can access the Internet, then the system is “perfect”. SONOS requires full network support. In many cases the only practical approach is configuring the ISP’s router into “Bridged” mode and installing a full service network that can be configured to properly support SONOS.

It‘s time someone spoke the unadulterated truth and I’m just the person to do it...😂

• ISP network gear is designed for people with very a limited understanding of networking and/or none at all. Think...my four score + ten and eight year old mother for example.

Here’s an AI generated synopsis that covers the essence of what I’d say…. 

ISP-supplied routers and modem/router combos often struggle with Sonos because they lack advanced network management features. Specifically, they tend to mishandle multicast and broadcast traffic (which Sonos speakers use to "talk" to each other 

Issues with Sonos commonly arise from the following limitations in ISP gear:

• Band Steering" used by many ISP routers which frequently causes devices like Sonos  to lose connection with each other.  
• Blocked Multicast Traffic: Sonos devices must communicate continuously across the local network. ISP routers often restrict or misroute this specific type of traffic (known as Bonjour/UPnP or Multicast), leading to speakers constantly dropping out of the app. 
• Channel Congestion: Basic ISP routers do a poor job of automatically assigning the cleanest Wi-Fi channels. If the router is on an overlapping or congested channel, the Sonos mesh network struggles. 
• Lack of Advanced Protocols: Features like IGMP Snooping are crucial for stable multi-room audio. Basic ISP-provided models often disable or lack these
• Airtime Fairness is typically on by default which is another obstacle to Sonos. ISP supplied gear often negates the option turn it off.

I’m not telling anyone what to do; but I’ve not used ISP networking gear since for-never 😂