Skip to main content

I have had a Sonos set up since April 2017.  I have a pair of Sonos Ones in the kitchen set up as Stereo pair and a TV Soundbar plus Bass unit in the living room.  I have another Sonos one in a room my wife uses as a Studio.  To avoid overload on the house Wi-Fi network I have a separate Sonos Boost plugged into the router.  All of the units are at least five years old.

All of this has all worked perfectly until recently when we have started to get ‘drop outs’ on the set up in the living room when playing music or internet radio.  The sound will continue in the kitchen and Studio but drop out for a few seconds in the living room before coming back in again.  Any ideas on what could be the cause?

I have done some searching on a possible cause but the suggested answer is poor wi-fi and that I should move a offending unit closer to the source.  I struggle to accept this as for five years everything has worked perfectly and it has only recently started to misbehave.  In any event, the Boost is only about twenty feet (6m) away from the TV soundbar and the only wall in between are internal stud partitions.

I have also had problems updating the Sonos app on my mac mini.  I keep getting a dialogue box advising me “Update failed. try again”.

I have carried out a Diagnostic on my system, the report number is 2048400122.

A common cause for this kind of ‘dropout’ when playing music or internet radio is duplicate IP addresses, caused by your router losing its place in the DHCP table, and handing your Sonos devices duplicated IP addresses. 

Note that this issue can occur in any Sonos system, wired, or unwired, since it depends on IP addresses, which are assigned by your router to the Sonos system (including a BOOST connected system). 

For clarity, I’m assuming you have a PLAYBAR, a Sub, and three Sonos Ones, but this solution applies to all Sonos speakers.

Sonos doesn’t make a device called a ‘soundbar’, but have made four different soundbars, the PLAYBAR, the PLAYBASE, the Beam (2 generations now) and the Arc.

Try unplugging all of your Sonos devices from power, including the BOOST, and reboot your router. Give the router a couple of minutes to reboot, then plug back in your BOOST. Give that a minute to load, then plug back in the rest of your Sonos devices. Give them all a few minutes to boot up before testing.

If this fixes things, I’d recommend that you look in your router’s manual in order to learn how to assign reserved IP addresses for your network devices. 

Excellent advice from @Airgetlam. I do have one question….looking at your profile it doesn’t list a Boost. Not that you must list all your devices but I’m curious to know if you own a Sonos Boost or if it's the older Sonos Bridge which can cause problems?

The item I have referred to as a ‘Sound bar’ is actually a ‘Playbar’ and the Boost is definitely correct, it is not a Bridge. 

I have several wired Sonos, had a Boost hooked up too but all the un-wired Sonos liked other connections better so I retired it.

In my setup I’ve had issues with one or another Sonos acting up, in every case it was local WiFi interference, some of the problem causing devices didn’t even have radios in them, just noisy design. I’d look around the problem speaker, withing about 3 feet for possible problems.

Thks for the suggestion Stanley, the only problem is that I haven’t bought or installed any new devices recently and it is a fairly recent issue. 

Thks for the suggestion Stanley, the only problem is that I haven’t bought or installed any new devices recently and it is a fairly recent issue. 

The issue may have been triggered by an update to another device on your network, or by a change to a neighbour’s wifi that wasn’t causing interference before now. 

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings