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Sonos has become really unstable over the last month or two

  • 3 January 2024
  • 26 replies
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B

Hi - I have a connect amp, two play 3s and two two play 1s. Everything about the system has become really unreliable recently, the iOS app constantly attempts something and fails (e.g. ‘unable to play) and says to ‘try again’. Recently it’s been unable to play certain playlists too. The connect amp has been dropping in and out constantly. Has anyone else been seeing odd/bad behavior? I’ve tried restarting everything, restarting my router, restarting the wifi etc., and I probably try killing the app once every few days at a minimum. I have been a huge fan and promotor of Sonos, but this has become really frustrating, it kills the Sonos value prop of ‘just works’.

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Best answer by Airgetlam 3 January 2024, 06:37

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26 replies

Airgetlam

Despite your efforts, it’s still most likely the network. Make sure your Sonos devices are unplugged when you reboot the router. If that ‘fixes’ the issues you’ve been experiencing, I’d suggest looking in to your router’s manual on how to set up reserved IP addresses. A router that has gone astray once could do it again. 
 

However, if that doesn’t fix this, I’d submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

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 phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

To answer your direct question, no, my system continues to be stable. 

Bruce
B

Thanks - I’ll try support (I submitted a diagnostic). I asked here because the app is also (incredibly) unreliable lately, which shouldn’t be directly related to any subtle network issue (it loses its mind even when the system is working fine).

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

You do need to call support as they don’t pull up the diagnostics to look at until you contact them.

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

@billq The app is a remote to the system, that it connects with using your network. If it can't connect to the system there all the more reason to believe  the network is your problem.

B

Thanks, and understood re calling support ;) Talked with them, the most acute issue seems to have been an issue with the connect amp, several power disconnects seem to have fixed it.

Regarding the app, I understand it’s a remote, it’s not just connecting to the speakers that’s an issue, it has problems playing albums and playlists that I play all the time, and frequently can’t even display recently played or other status, that doesn’t seem like something that should be related to the network. I think lots of other apps would be breaking. Unless it’s funneling everything through the connect amp, which would seem like an odd choice? Regardless, thanks all for the help.

Airgetlam

Remember, the app isn’t really doing anything but showing you what’s going on in the computers on the devices. So it may not be the app’s connection to the devices, but the devices’ connection to your network. 

Most apps you use run locally on your device. Sonos, for all practical purposes, doesn’t (well, it does, but only after getting all the necessary information from the speakers/CONNECTs).

When you initiate playback, you choose the initial device (room) that controls what’s going on. If the device that you start with is your CONNECT, it’s considered to be the ‘hub’ through which all the music runs through to be distributed to all the other connected devices.

Try starting playback from something other than your CONNECT, and then group the CONNECT with that ‘room’, and the first room in the list, which you started with, becomes the ‘source’ of the music stream. When you do that, the CONNECT is no longer the parent device (hub), but the child. It also can sometimes help if you start playback from a wired device. Which means it may benefit you to unwire the CONNECT, and instead wire another device, which you would then start playback on. 

Bruce
buzz

Occasionally my Gateway’s WiFi gets its knickers tied into knots and needs a reboot. Wired network clients don’t have the issues. I need to remember to reboot it every month or two, else things start to get weird. An Internet search digs up some ‘fires’ burning around this Gateway. There can also be periods of interference. A WiFi scan can discover about 70 nearby access points. And, there is a medical facility next door. I wire as many network clients as possible.

C

You’re not the only one billq. We noticed our system going in/out for months especially when using the connect amps, Then we noticed the playbar (as center channel) dropping out frequently...And as of today...Sonos says cannot find my system. Nothing changed here. Nothing with the network...the only thing that did change was adding two new Sonos Moves to the system. But the connect amp issues were prior. (Yes, I have done many resets...and since I have so many products its takes up too much time.) SO I JUST GAVE UP...This is on Sonos end.

Airgetlam

‘Nothing has changed with the network’ is a bit hard to accept. Many routers automatically update their software, they lose their place in the DHCP table and hand out bad IP addresses when the Sonos asks for new ones when it updates it’s software, and outside influences can change. You certainly may not have made a change, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a change. 

And it’s also possible this is an issue with the Sonos. The only way to be sure about that is to submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

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 phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Bruce
P

Ive been having issue with Sonos for a lone time now, although ever since the launch of the latest S2 App, its been dreadful, i have a large set up, 6 x play 1s 1 x play 5, 2 x play 3s 3 play bars, and a Arc plus a Sub. So I invested heavily, Sonos ALWAYS blame your network, ive been told its my Hive, then it was my Mesh network (provided by Virgin) then my Router (Ive gone through 3 now) then its because they are wireless and not wired, due to logistics of the house running miles of cable wasn't feasible. then they blamed the Boost they made me buy in place of the old Bridge, out went the Bridge in came the boost, now im told the Boost isn't supported. I reboot all my products daily, makes no difference which way in circles we go round, the end result remains the same. Drops out are something you have to live with despite investing close to £10k on these products, the app is S**T, its unresponsive, unreliable, slow, and as glitchy as hell, will loose speakers, or when you attempt to turn the volume up or down, it just dosent respond. I would NEVER recommend sonos as a reliable system to use, the speaker sound are literally the best you'll get but try watching a movie, with the surround speakers going up and down a lot is irritating to say the least. its live with it or move on, and on we go with never ending support tickets, and tinkering which seems to make no difference what so ever. maybe a smaller system would work better, but its a little too late for me for that, as I was told this was the best, which the speakers are, sadly the app you need to work the system is utter junk

 

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Airgetlam

Sorry you’ve had so much difficulty. Sounds a lot like a duplicate IP address issue, caused by confusion in your router, but I’m just guessing. 

Bruce
P

Sonos is consistently unstable. I will lose access, run the diagnostics, turn the speakers on and off, turn the router on and off, follow the app prompts. It will fail, then inexplicably and hour or two later it will start working.
Then when it’s working, you go to turn it off, and the app will fail again.
I am no technical numpty, I have checked my router tables, removed devices, looked at the DHCP leases, you name it.
------------ 
The thing is, Sonos… is your customers don’t give a toss about what the problems are. We don’t care if it is our network settings or not. All we bought was some speakers, that we want to turn on and play music. That’s it.

Remember the good old days? You bought a stereo, put on what you wanted to play, and turned it on.

You didn’t have to jump through 7 circles of hell just to play some music on the device you invested your hard earned cash into.

You have lost sight of that, and I am looking at any and all opportunities to get your products out of my life.

 

Airgetlam

You purchased a speaker that is a network device. It will only ever be as good as the network it is connected to. Sonos, most unfortunately, has no control over your network. It relies on a stable connection to work.

It is unfortunate that you’re unable to provide such a clean connection. I’d encourage you to get rid of this network system that is causing you frustration, and perhaps fall back to older tech, that doesn’t have such demands. 

Bruce
N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18


I am looking at any and all opportunities to get your products out of my life.
 

Hi @Putney I’m sure there are plenty of folk on the community boards here that have sorted their network and are looking to expand their product ownership - me included. Here’s a suggested opportunity for you: offer them up for free collection - or even post them. That’ll get them out of your life. 

B

I think some of the comments are missing the point. You have several technically savvy people here saying that their networks work very well for every application they have, except for Sonos. I can simultaneously run lots of simultaneous 4K streams, video conference, etc, and all of these applications run perfectly fine, all of the time. But, when I have nothing except Sonos traffic (I do understand shared mediums), it’s hypersensitive and doesn’t work, often enough to be a problem. That’s a problem that Sonos might want to consider addressing. Not to mention that the app is, although getting better, not exactly world-class (I still use it most of the time, but I know people who absolutely hate it and rely exclusively on airplay from Spotify/Apple Music).

The point is that lots of other stuff works just fine; I get that syncing audio is not simple, but it’s not crazy difficult either, I’ve been involved in developing the underlying wifi technology for these types of applications, but some of the problems I’m having are a function of questionable system design creating an overly fragile system. I love Sonos, I don’t want to get rid of mine, but I sure would like it to work better before I consider spending any more money on it. 

Airgetlam

99% of networks work fine. There are some routers that are sub par in creating an efficient and intelligent network, those may need a little massaging in order to help Sonos work. 

None of the efforts are super challenging, nor are they terribly technical, as they can be done by the average person. 

It’s perhaps unfortunate that Sonos chose to make their special computer/speakers work off of a WiFi network, rather than requiring them to be directly wired with Ethernet, but some of the issues that we go on about are network, and not simply WiFi issues. The simple fact is that carrying data from one place to another using someone else’s protocols can be challenging. The ‘old’ style direct cable carrying simple voltage modulation was much easier. 

Bruce
B

And yet, everything else works just fine.

Bumper
Userlevel 6
Badge +13

And yet, everything else works just fine.

You own a connect amp. Is it a Gen 2/S2 compatible ? If so might be this:

 

 

jgatie

And yet, everything else works just fine.

 

How many other devices are there on your network which must maintain perfect sync between up to 32 devices by communicating back and forth thousands of times a second?

Airgetlam

As @jgatie states, Sonos certainly uses a network in ways that most other devices do not. 

Bruce
B

Your point is that Sonos is perfect?

jgatie

Your point is that Sonos is perfect?

 

Please show me where I used the term “perfect” anywhere in my post. besides describing the sync, a single element of the Sonos system.  If not, I respectfully ask you to stop putting words in my mouth. 

V

Reboot your whole house. Trip the main breaker and wait 5 minutes. That works… sometimes. 
 

N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Reboot your whole house. Trip the main breaker and wait 5 minutes. That works… sometimes. 
 

Oooh, sarcasm! 😜

M

I have the same problems with my Sonos system. I first noticed the lags in communication some months ago. A delay in issuing a command in the app, like turning the volume down, taking up to twenty seconds, yes, maybe a network issue.

But playlists disappearing? Or the whole system dropping the active playlist after playing well for some time?

And what about the situation where multiple people access the system at the same time and get to see different music on the active playlist? 

And yes, I have several other systems relying on the same network. No problems there. 

One addition: I have hosted parties where at least five people were adding songs to the playlist at the same time, no problem. Now the system just seems to give up with two or more people accessing it at the same time.

But to end on a positive note: the combination soundbar, sub and two one players creates an absolute astonishing experience. I always show visitors some favorite scenes from, like the first episode, first season of Foundation. Gale on the water planet. Magnificent. 

 

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