There’s a few of possibilities that leap to mind, but likely could be more.

First, this could be simple wifi interference, or even a duplicate IP address issue. Or it could be that your router is experiencing a duplicate IP address problem. At the least, I’d recommend a network update, by unplugging all Sonos devices from power, then rebooting your router. Only once the router comes back up should you plug back in the Sonos devices, which will force them to get new IP addresses. 

I’m assuming, since you’re running a PLAY:5 gen 1, that it’s using S1, so you’ve updated your controller and the speaker to the latest build of software.

But it might be a hardware problem, too, in which case you should 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 Sonos system and network. 

If this is happening only when you stream Spotify - then it is because your Play 5 Gen 1 dont have enough memory to handle Spotify Streaming. It is a Known-issue at Sonos - but they dont want to spend time on fixing it in their software for S1 - so leaving old legacy customers in the dark :(  I have two Play 5 Gen 1 - they play perfectly fine  when streaming ie radio and other streaming services - only a problem with Spotify.  Its hard to believe that Sonos and Spotify could not solve this issue for our devices - if they wanted…..

As above. It’s a memory issue. As it’s on their legacy product line I don’t think they will resolve the software issues. 
they want you to spend more money and buy a new one. 
sad. What a waste

Good to actually see some confirmation that I’m not alone on this. Support was telling me that all my Play:5 had a hardware fault, occuring at the same time. But it’s beyond me why they can’t fix this, what could possibly have changed that makes ONLY spotify stop working like this? 

What you can do, is actually play Spotify from another, newer player (Play:3, Play:1) and then group your Play:5 to it. Then it will probably play flawlessly. 

Which is also kind of mind blowing, seeing that I believe it is still playing the same stream (albeit, the coordinator player might deal with some decryption which might be the culprit). 

But it’s a bit of an outrage to just drop support on legacy speakers without any information. Or rather, break a streaming service implementation beyond repair and leave it like that. 

Currently I am only using the Play 5 gen 1 in my setup and the issues have become much worse the last six months or so. I just moved and the issues persist.

I have connected only my cell phone to the same router as the Sonos product to rule out wifi interference.

The IP addresses are not identical.

Wifi connection is solid, 80/89 Mbit/s down/up.

Firmware is updated.

Just to add to the experiences already provided, the drop outs occur also using other streaming services available from the S1 app. Not only Spotify.

And to clarify, using the S1 app vs streaming ”directly” from Spotify makes no difference from personal experience.

Historically I have been able to adjust the SonosNet channel when looking for workarounds, but that is no longer an option for me in the S1 app.

So all in all, the memory issue mentioned above seem like a plausible root cause.

What is bothering me the most is not Sonos’ unwillingness to fix the problem for Gen 1, but the lack of transparency.

I simply don’t trust Sonos enough to get the discounted upgrade to next gen, as the history may well be repeating.

I’m not sure how connecting your phone to the same router does anything at all to rule out wifi interference , as certainly a large amount can come from outside the network. 

Assigning reserved IP addresses in your router can sometimes help, especially if the router frequently loses where it is in the DHCP table, and assigns a duplicate IP address to Sonos, when it reboots after a software update. 

For most purposes, your routers speed for up and down has almost no impact, the area you should be paying substantially more attention to is the speed between your router and the Sonos devices. 

Are you still using SonosNet? If at least one device is hardwired to your router, you should be able to adjust the SonosNet channel in use on the controller. However, if you’re no longer using SonosNet, but instead have everything connected to your WiFi signal, then the option to change SonosNet channels is greyed out. 

”Wireless interference can occur when two or more wireless devices compete for the same Wi-Fi space. If this overlap is causing performance issues, it can be quickly resolved by changing your network’s wireless channel or by moving Sonos away from the source of the interference.”
(From the link provided)

By having as few devices as possible in my home using wifi, I am trying to minimize interference. The cell phone needs to be connected to the same network to control Sonos.

I am not able to ask all neighbors to switch their equipment and appliances off so this was as far I was able to go to control the test environment.

How can I diagnose the speed between the router and the Sonos device? What are the recommended  specs?

Have you contacted Sonos support, as I recommended in my original ‘answer’ in this thread? Much of that data would be in the technical diagnostic that they would be reading. 

If you’re unable to tell what your neighbors are using, I’d definitely try other channels, just as a test. 

It is a nice quote from the document , but not the only source of potential interference. I’ve seen lots of issues with DECT phones, and I’ve had personal experience with both a failing microwave that when on was spamming interference across the WiFi spectrum, and a new neighbor choosing to use a channel I’d been using for SonosNet. Once I figured that out, a quick change to my own network channels resolved that. Oh, and I replaced the errant microwave. If it was causing issues for Sonos, there’s no way of knowing what potential effect it was having on me. 

Nor have we ruled out a potential hardware issue on your device itself, something that would likely be discovered in the data you provide to Sonos support. 

You made several assertions in your post that I’ve not found to be accurate, when talking about Sonos, and the way it interacts with the network. 

Hopefully, talking to Sonos directly might resolve the issue you’re evidently experiencing, or at least provide you with more hard data to consider. 

I have the same issue on my Play 5 Gen 1 when streaming Spotify. I’m assuming it is the lack of memory issue also. 

I’ve factory reset, set them up again and also connected one with ethernet but one speaker keeps dropping out while the other one continues playing (set up as stereo pair)

My Play 1 is too new to add to S1 so can’t try that workaround. 

The only thing I can think left to try before binning them is to reconnect them to a Bridge. Does anyone know if this is still possible? And will it work? 

I’m pretty miffed to be honest. Expensive speakers that can’t stream music when that’s the whole idea of them…..

I don’t understand your statement that says ‘ My Play 1 is too new to add to S1 ‘. All PLAY:1s no matter what the age will run S1. You would need to factory reset it, and then ‘add a device’ to your existing S1 system.

I wouldn’t touch a BRIDGE with a ten foot pole. I’d instead, if needed, use a BOOST, again setting it us as an S1 device…but it really isn’t required if you can wire to a speaker, The BOOST (and BRIDGE before it) is essentially just a standard Sonos speaker, without the speaker parts, but instead all the electronics/networking/CPU/Memory in a small package. 
 

You should always be able to share music across the same version of the Sonos operating system, either S1 or S2. If you’re having an issue, you should 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 Sonos system and network.

Hi Bruce

Thanks for your reply. I believe I reset the Play 1 correctly but when trying to set it back up, the S1 app said something along the lines of “this product requires S2 app” - I’m not 100% sure so I will try it again. I’m hoping that by grouping the Play 1 with my Play 5’s, it will stop the Play 5 dropping music intermittently. 

Thanks for clarification on Bridge, I didn’t know that. 

It is only Spotify that is causing an issue, I can stream radio all day long and nothing drops so I don’t believe it to be a wifi / interference issue. Also, the audio drop out on one speaker is exactly the same length of time - about 8 seconds so I don’t think this is consistent with wifi issues. I remain open to correction on this though….

I’ll try and eliminate as many scenarios as I can before submitting a diagnostic. 

Blair

Blair, 

I’d still encourage the diagnostic and calling in to Sonos aspect. If it’s just happening with one stream, that really points a lot more to issues on their side, rather than Sonos, but then each stream tends to have its own sensitivity to Wi-Fi interference, so checking in with Sonos would likely be a good thing. 8 second intervals could be anything, unfortunately, from IP conflicts, to interference, to issues with Spotify’s servers.  Without looking at that hard data in the diagnostics, that only Sonos folk have access to, it’s really hard to tell.

Your PLAY:1 definitely can run S1, sound like you may just need to fiddle a bit more. Might not hurt to bring that up on your call, Sonos could likely help you get that speaker reconnected to your S1 system. 

Thanks Bruce - I’m not sure I can call anyone in Sonos from Ireland? 

I’ll try submitting a diagnostic though and maybe they can help remotely. The issue can’t be on spotify’s side - one speaker continues to play the song while one drops out! And all my other (newer) Sonos products work fine with Spotify - we played it on the Play 1 for hours on Sunday night with no dropouts. 

I’m going to try the Play 1 route first. Appreciate your help!

I think you can call, although you might get shunted to the UK call center.

Hi Bruce and others!

A little update - I think the issue might be fixed

You were right about the Play 1 working on S1. First I had to downgrade the software in S2, this took a few attempts but then it worked. 

Now if I play Spotify to the Play 1 in S1 and then once it is playing, group the Play 5’s with it, the Play 5’s are not dropping out. I’ve only tested for a half an hour but it worked perfectly

I’ll report back once I try it more as this will be a neat workaround for anyone with legacy products that are dropping out due to lack of memory or whatever. 

Blair

Shouldn’t be any ‘memory’ issues on a standard S1 stream, however HD streams are much more sensitive to wifi interference due to their need for higher bandwidth. 

Fair enough - but why is there no drop out when I add the Play 1 ? 

The PLAY:1 is probably in a better receptive area for a signal, and is then sharing it via SonosNet with the PLAY:5. 

Wifi is a tricky thing, and constantly changing. It’s also affected by all sorts of external influences, up to and including solar flares. It isn’t ever a ‘set and forget’ system that never changes. Even wired networks are constantly changing for a multitude of reasons. 

Sorry, I just can’t accept that at all. The Play 1 is sitting beside the Play 5, like directly beside it. Previously, I swapped the Play 5’s L & R - it was the L speaker that dropped out - and sure enough it dropped out when in the location the R speaker sat. When the L speaker was powered off, the R speaker dropped when playing on it’s own. 

I’m happy to be proved wrong and I will admit it on here and buy you a virtual beer!!!  I’ll change the wifi 2.4ghz channel to see if this helps. 

I think I’ve got a workaround but would like to help others in the same situation. I love my Sonos speakers, I’ve got other S2 products in the house so I’d love the old 5’s to keep going!

Which is exactly why I suggested calling in. Just because 99% of the time, it is issue X doesn’t mean that you’re not in the other 1%. And not having access to anything other than your comments here, I’m somewhat hampered, and will almost always go with the 99%. 

Ok, fair call. 

I’ll try the channel change and if it still drops, I’ll submit a diagnostic log and see what the engineers say. 

Then I’ll buy you a beer!!!

I had vexing issues with my setup. Much fussing about before I sent in a diagnostic and talked with support.

My problem I had two different issues, a pair of Play 1 Surrounds that were too close together, inches, and a Beam and Play 3 that were also inches apart even though in different rooms.

Giving them both a couple feet of separation ended the issues.

Not my issue at all, and they are all within range of each other in the same room, as is the router. I was actually confirming that my system works perfectly with my Play 1 sitting on the Play 5 (as I now have to use it as a slave...)

As an aside, I cannot configure my wifi channel on the router supplied by Vodafone as they have this locked down. 

The more I read and the more Bruce tells me, I’m starting to think it is a network issue. I’ll continue to investigate, I don’t like these things getting the better of me (I’m sad)

My Play 5 Gen 1 has this issue. I spoke to support for over an hour. All they said at the end of that call was, try plugging it in via ethernet. Never mentioned this memory issue.

I get the same issue with my Play 5. I also have an Era 300 which works perfectly so there’s definitely a problem with something with the Play 5 combo. Enormously frustrating.

My case is perhaps a little different as the Play 5 has misbehaved for quite some time and in that period I’ve switched broadband supplier so it’s now using a different router but having the exact same dropout problem. So it’s difficult to argue it’s anything other than a Play 5 issue.

i get it’s an old product and Sonos must be keen to not have to support it but it’s still a fabulous speaker in most respects - better in some ways than the Era 300 - so I’m reluctant to bin it. Plus it’s hardly ecological to do so  - but then Sonos maybe would be supporting them if they were more ecologically minded…