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Sonos One - Losing sound and unresponsive when using music services over wi-fi

  • 27 November 2023
  • 11 replies
  • 226 views
X

Hey all, 

 

I’m encountering an issue with my Sonos One that’s driving me crazy and I feel like I tried everything, so I’m looking for help at this point. 

 

I have two ‘rooms’ setup:

  1. The main setup with an Arc, Sub, two rear Play:1s that’s working perfectly - we’ll call this the Arc group
  2. A solo Sonos One that we bought around 2018 and has been used for ambiental music, especially at night on Sonos Radio. 

 

Everything has been working perfectly until recently and we’ve been adding/upgrading Sonos products in our system since we started. 

However, recently (about 1 or so months ago), the Sonos One started behaving weird, stopping and then becoming inaccessible until we unplug and plug it back in. I’ll detail the setup, the problem and what I tried - if anyone has ideas, i’m open to suggestions.  

 

The setup:

  • All speakers are on wireless network
  • The network is served by a fairly high-end Asus router - this is not a recent addition and the system has worked flawlessly until recently - no changes were done on the network config until the problems started
  • All speakers are on the 2.4GHz network, which has a separate SSID name from the 5GHz network, most devices are on the 5GHz network
  • Internet connection 500/500
  • Direct line of sight between router and speakers, signal strength listed as excellent
  • All speakers running 15.10 software, all speakers on S2
  • The sonos one is Gen 1, I believe (bought in 2018)

 

The behaviors:

  • When running Sonos Radio - the speaker is sluggish to start playing and might need several attempts to get to run. The first song will usually play and then during the 2nd song, the speaker just stops and becomes unresponsive - needs to be unplugged and re-plugged. Sometimes “song is not encoded correctly” shows up.
  • When playing Spotify - sluggish to connect. Multiple songs might play but it will eventually stop playing
  • TuneIn radio - i played a local station for an hour or so - no issues
  • If I start playing a song on the Arc group and then group the room with the Sonos One - the sonos one will play fine, no issues. 

 

What I tried:

  • Rebooting the router - no success
  • Unplugging all speakers and rebooting the router - and then replugging the speakers one by one - no success
  • Assigned fixed IP address to the speaker to prevent conflicts - no success
  • Changed network channel - from 9 to 6 to 11 - no success
  • Changed the location of the speaker to be next to the router - no success
  • Changed to wired from wireless - this actually works fine, but wired is not an option for its normal location
  • Changed SonosNet channel from 11 to 6 while the Sonos One was wired - no succes
  • Uninstalled assistant (alexa) - no success, but was unable to remove it while it was on the wireless network

 

That’s about it. In a nutshell, there’s something network-related going on, but only when playing music services on the speaker alone via wireless. Any other situation, including playing the speaker on wi-fi while part of the main Arc group works just fine. 

What I can’t figure out is if there’s something I can do more network-related on my end or is the speaker itself acting weird ? It almost feels like IT has issues when IT is trying to play the music services and it’s sluggish when doing so. 

 

If anyone from Sonos is reading this, I have two diagnostics that I sent:

  • One after the speaker stopped playing: 202848322
  • One after the speaker stopped playing AND the speaker became unresponsive as well: 1846011918

Anyone any ideas ? 

 

Thank you, 

Xil

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Best answer by Jamie A 6 December 2023, 10:43

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11 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Xilin 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Neither diagnostic that was submitted actually contained any data from the problem speaker - it didn’t respond to the request to submit.

As a result, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team for some real-time troubleshooting.

A couple of points first, however - you mentioned a speaker that was close to the router. If it was within 1m (3 feet), please separate them by at least that amount, even if that’s not the speaker with the problems. No WiFi-enabled devices should be within 1m of any other WiFi-enabled devices, including (and especially) the router. Also, if the speaker is near a wall, please consider what is on the other side of the wall when looking into Reducing Wireless Interference.

I hope this helps.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
X

Proximity to the router is not a factor in this case, since it started encountering issues when it was 5m away with direct line of sight and no other wi-fi devices around. The proximity here was for testing. I have also tried moving it again but same behavior. 

 

However! I might have fixed it now - by switching it to the 5GHz network, it is now running fine, been blasting Sonos Radio for some hours now and I even moved it back to its original position and still running fine. 


The Arc group has remained on the 2.4GHz, since it’s been running fine all along, but thinking of switching that as well now.

 

I knew this is something network-related but I still can’t explain why this one speaker is the only one with issues.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Xilin 

Great news! - Thanks for updating the thread.

That’s interesting - 2.4GHz has better range and mass-penetration than 5GHz, so it seems likely the issue you had was due to congestion on 2.4GHz due to your neighbours’ WiFi.

Please note that as Arc (and other Home Theatre primary devices) reserve their 5GHz radios for communicating with surrounds and/or Subs, they will not connect to 5GHz - only to 2.4GHz.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
X

I tried to change the 2.4GHz channel multiple times with no luck, both on the router and on the SonosNet. Tried 1, 6, 7, 9, 11. Only two neighbours around. So still puzzling to me.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Xilin 

I might still be able to figure it out if you submit a support diagnostic and reply here with the number given - I never did see a report from that speaker, and I should be able to now.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
X

Alright:

  • Changed network back to 2.4GHz (deleted the 5GHz network)
  • Verified the speaker is on 2.4GHz
  • Played sonos radio - started fairly quickly
  • Tried changing the volume of the speaker from the phone app - no response on the speaker
  • Music stopped before the first song finished

Diagnostic: 1072727819

It’s the only Sonos One in the speaker system

 

Here’s one more after i tried pressing “pause” in the app (it still showed the song as active) and getting back “unable to connect to the speaker”: 449913249

X

+1 more after unplugging and re-plugging the speaker and changing the channel to “auto” (it went to channel 12) on the router and getting a “song is not encoded correctly error” while radio station is playing (had not stopped yet, but sure enough before the first song was done, it stopped): 1530354861

C

The Sonos One presents a frustrating issue with sound loss and unresponsiveness when utilizing music services over Wi-Fi. Users have reported disruptions in audio playback, coupled with unresponsive controls during such instances. This impediment compromises the overall user experience, raising concerns about the device's reliability in maintaining a seamless connection with music streaming services over a wireless network. Addressing these connectivity issues is crucial for the Sonos One to deliver a consistently high-quality audio experience.

 

Moderator Note: This post is assumed to be AI generated.

Airgetlam

What users? Are you experiencing an issue yourself, or is this just a Chatbox post?

For what it’s worth, my Sonos Ones deliver a consistently high-quality audio experience.

Any Sonos device relies on the capabilities of the network, wired or WiFi, in order to receive and play music. 

Bruce
Jamie A
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Hi @Xilin,

I’ve looked into the diagnostics and only the last one had any information on the Sonos One. A corrupt file from radio was recorded at the time of the last diagnostics, but also low signal strength to the router which could have caused that error.

You’ve already tried all the solutions that we would suggest on the Community, so it’s probably best for you to reach out to our support team for live troubleshooting. You can provide them with this thread when you contact them as to show what troubleshooting you’ve performed. 

X

Thanks everyone for the help. Since switching to the 5GHz network there have been no further issues with that speaker. I understand the behavior on 2.4GHz is consistent with a low signal from the router, but it’s happening at any distance from the router, direct line of sight or not, 1m or 5m, while no other devices are exhibiting this behavior. 

I’ll just use the 5GHz network from now for this speaker :)

 

Thank you

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