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Dear community,

I have, as it seems, a common problem, with one of my Sonos products disappearing or not connecting sporadically. I’ve read most of the help pages and some of the posts here but so far it didn’t help much. I’m trying to give a thorough description of my setup and of what I’ve tried so far. 

Setup:

  • Two Play:3 in two different rooms (Kitchen, Office)
  • One Play:1 in our bedroom
  • My home network consists of two Asus RT-AX92U mesh routers, connected by a cable. The main router is in the kitchen, the second one in the office. 
  • The Sonos products are connected through the Wifi, not through SonosNet.
  • Both Play:3 are close to the respective router (1-3 m) without obstacle.
  • The Play:1 is in another room, 10 meters away, with 3-4 walls in-between.
  • I’m using Sonos mostly through Spotify connect, both on iPhones and from my MacBookPro.
  • All products are up-to-date with the latest controller/firmware/version.
  • I have some units close to the kitchen router that could possibly cause interferences: an IKEA smart hub, a DECT phone base station, and the alarm hub.

Problem:

  • The Play:3 located in the kitchen is often disappearing from Spotify/Sonos; or the application cannot connect (when selecting it from Spotify it shows “connecting” for a while and then nothing happens); or the music plays for a while but then stops.
  • The other units are in general fine. The one that works best is, ironically, the one furthest away from the router (Play:1). The one in the office (Play:3) generally works but sometimes has the same issues as the one in the kitchen.
  • I’ve noticed that sometimes one of the family’s iPhones (or other units) can connect while the other one(s) cannot. 

What I’ve tried so far:

  • I’ve swapped the two Play:3, to control that it was not the product itself that had a problem, but it was not the case.
  • I’ve changed my router (had an old one before). It became better in the two other rooms, but not in the kitchen
  • I’ve tried different channels for the 2.4 GHz network, among which 1, 6, and 11. The 11 seems to work better, but I still get some issues.
  • I’ve disconnected the other units that use the 2.4 GHz network, without noticing a large improvement.
  • I’ve tried to connect the Sonos via SonosNet, but the network doesn’t reach the one in the bedroom. I don’t have the possibility to have a ethernet cable there.
  • I’ve tried to move the Play:3 in the kitchen in 3-4 different locations. Some work slightly better, but even in the best possible location (which is not the best location sound-wise) I still have problems.
  • I’ve measured the signal and noise of the wifi using NetSpot, and in the very location of the Play:3 I measure -37 to -40 dBm and -92 dBm noise.
  • Switching to another channel and back to 11 seems to solve (for a while) the issue. 
  • Restarting the router also seems to temporarily solve the issue. I’ve set my router to reboot every night, and I’ve noticed some improvement, but not on the long run.
  • Restarting the unit also seems to improve things, temporarily. 
  • I’ve looked at the “Network matrix” found in the diagnostic tools (http://192.168.XXX.XXX:1400/support/review), and I often get “green” or “yellow” results. The values I got just now (while it’s actually working) are the following for the unit that has issues: Noise Floor: -115, -112, -111; OFDM ANI level: 2. I’m not sure what that means though… I’ve noticed that the ANI value tends to increase with time. Why that is I have no idea.

Any idea would really help. I’m getting very frustrated with my Sonos at the moment. I like the products, but not being able to connect to the system at many occasions is not good enough. Anything that I missed to try?

 

Hi @Lionel Guy,

Thanks for reaching out to the Sonos community and for letting us know about your concern. Let me help you with this.

There are reports that Sonos devices experiencing association failures with Asus routers that cause Sonos players to drop off the system.

Here are the steps that you can follow to check in your Asus router.

  1. Check that your Asus router is not blocking Sonos
    • Download the Asus app on your mobile device
    • Confirm the mobile device is connected to WiFi and launch the Asus router app.
    • Tap Devices.
    • Scroll to the blocked Sonos device and tap on it to open a new menu.
    • Disable Block Internet Access.
    • Test the Sonos app feature (connect, update, playback) that the customer has contacted us about.
    • Note: You may need to reboot the affected Sonos players.
  2. If you're still having issues, you may proceed to the next step.
    • If you have access to your router settings, below are the settings that need to be verified. You can contact your Interner Service Provider or router manufacturer for assistance.
      • The auto channel must be set to Off
      • Choose the best non-overlapping channel (1,6,11)
      • Set channel bandwidth to 20MHz
      • Both 2.4GHz and 5GHz should be enabled
      • UPnP should be enabled
      • 802.11 bands should be set to b/g/n
      • Airtime Fairness should be disabled (if applicable)

After performing the steps above, continue to monitor your Sonos system. If there's no improvement, I recommend contacting our phone support to perform in-depth troubleshooting and understand your full network setup including the make and model of each device. Our phone support has the tools to check what's going on in your system and to remotely access your device to provide the best option for you.

Please feel free to reach out in the future if you have any other questions. You're always welcome here.