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Sonos playback issues with Play: 3

K

 

Hello Sonos community.  I have been having serious issues and difficulties with my Sonos for a long time, and I am desperately hopeful that I can find some solutions here.  I will provide as much detail as possible.  

My setup: Two (2) Play 3s, one (1) Roam, and one (1) Connect Amp, which is hard wired to speakers and a record player.  I have had the Play 3s and the Connect Amp for about ten years.  I use the S2 app on my Samsung phone.  We mostly listen to Spotify, but I also have a music library on my computer's hard drive.  We listen to vinyl records as well. 

Over a year ago, I started having playback issues, where the music would cut in and out, sometimes in one room but not the others, an sometimes all of the rooms at the same time.  It got so bad that we could not listen comfortably at all.  In addition, the responsiveness on the app was generally very slow.  While music is playing, I open the app to adjust the volume or pause, and the song title showing is incorrect (it shows a song that is several behind in the queue), and the running time shows many more minutes that is accurate.  For example, if it's been about half an hour since I opened the app, the running time will show 30+ minutes and counting.  After the app is open for a minute or more, it finally updates to show the current song and running time.  This is difficult because I cannot pause the music or even adjust the volume when I need to.  App gives messages such as: "Unable to Connect to Sonos Product at this time" or Error 1001.  

(My wifi works perfectly fine with all other devices and applications in my home.  Only Sonos has problems.)

When these problems occur while listening to Spotify, I can switch to using my record player, and the playback issues go away, but the app responsiveness problems remain.

I have called Sonos tech support several times.  First they just told me to unplug all of the devices as well as the router, and then plug everything back in to reboot the system.  This helped temporarily, but the same problems gradually returned.  I have rebooted the system completely many, many times.  I also always run Sonos Updates when they become available.

Later, I was told by Sonos tech support that the Play 3 speaker has problems that Sonos is actively trying to find a solution for.  They recommended connecting one of the Play 3s to my router via ethernet cable, so I did that.  This has improved the situation, but the problems still remain to a lesser degree.  When it gets bad, I reboot the system, and sometimes this helps for a while, and sometimes it does not.  

I am considering purchasing new speakers (either the One SL, or the Five) to replace the Play 3s, in hopes that this will eliminate my problems, but I'm nervous that the problems may remain.  

Any suggestions, advice, or information of any kind would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you very much.

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Best answer by kandras 3 April 2024, 02:09

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11 replies

Sotiris C.
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hello @kandras, welcome back!

I’m sorry to hear about the performance issues you are facing with your Sonos system and the Sonos Play 3.

Let me just first mention our Upgrade program. If applicable from your older products, you can receive a discount on a new purchase from Sonos.com.

By purchasing directly from our website, if eventually the newer product will not better your experience, you can take advantage of our Money Back Guarantee policy.

The Sonos App performance issues might also be due to Wireless Interference, worth checking out in case you haven’t, although since you had contact with our Support I imagine basic troubleshooting steps have already been taken.

I hope this helps you decide.

 

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A
Badge +1

I have the same issue with a Play:3 stereo pair, submitted diagnostics, contacted support - surprisingly wasn’t told to reboot my WiFi devices - and was advised it is under investigation. I have a WiFi 6 Mesh and I can run Hi-Def audio and video calls over it without a hitch. I find the S2 app is very sluggish, takes forever to load queues and update volume levels. I use S2 on an iPhone XR which I know is a slightly older handset but it is not ancient. Spotify Connect on iPhone connects immediately to all my Sonos products, no dropouts, no lag, instantly updates. I notice it more on my Play:3’s, the Move and Amp seem to be less affected in the S2 App. Quite honestly I would remove the S2 App and just use Spotify were it not for the fact I have to change my Amp from Streaming to a turntable. The app regularly cannot connect to WiFi - ‘Let’s Fix It’ - then I turn the Move on and off and the S2 App suddenly connects to the network.

Airgetlam

That seems like a potential for duplicate IP addresses in your system. What happens when you unplug / power down all Sonos devices and reboot the router, allowing a couple of minutes for the router to come back up before plugging back in / powering up the Sonos? Does the responsiveness of your Sonos pick up?

Bruce
A
Badge +1

There’s no duplicate IP addresses in the mesh logs and the system reboots every other night at 2am.

Airgetlam

Interesting. I’ve never seen a router that shows IP connections over time, which would be the only way I can think of to show duplicate IP addresses. What mesh system do you have that shows this data?

Bruce
Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Even the rather extensive logging in my pfSense router doesn’t show any clues about the DHCP IP address glitches. I spent many hours looking and testing.

What I do see is without them the system is unstable, particularly after updates and power cycles. With the static/reserved IPs in place things are completely stable.

1

Just adding my voice to this thread. I have the exact same issue with frequent drop-outs and the sluggishness of the app.

 

I have 1 x Play3, 1 x amp (port), 7 x One, 1 x Play1

 

I have an ethernet cable going to the play3 and then utilise sonosnet. 

 

The system can become unusable at times. Very frustrating given the investment into the system. It worked better ten years ago... 

Airgetlam

Sluggishness of the app is an indication of network issues, which may or may not be contributed by the alleged memory issues. The above posts should detail rather substantially the steps you could take that would mitigate this, particularly with regards to duplicate IP address issues.
 

It also may be useful to refer to the wifi interference FAQ.

Bruce
Bumper
Userlevel 6
Badge +12

Sounds like the firmware bug that’s affecting connects/connect amps as well. Connecting to Ethernet doesn’t fix it. 
 


 

 

K

Thank you all for your replies.  I changed the wireless channel from Channel 6 to Channel 1, and since I did that, the audio dropping issues have all but vanished.  What a relief.  The S2 app is still somewhat sluggish, but overall I am much happier than I was.  

 

A
Badge +1

This morning I split my system into S1 and S2. I downgraded the Play:3 stereo pair to S1 leaving my Amp and Roam on S2. The difference is night and day. S1 with the Play:3 stereo is as rapid as it should be and S2 is fine with the Roam and Amp. Luckily Spotify connect on PC does not care if the products are S1 or S2 and I can still play to all from PC with Spotify Connect. S1 uses SonosNet on Ch1 and S2 uses SonosNet on Ch11. Grouping loss isn’t really a concern as I rarely grouped the office stereo pair with the Amp or Roam.

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