Sound occasionally drops from one speaker in a Play 3 pair

All players have assigned IP:s.

I guess calling Sonos Support may be required in the long run, but I figured that I would reach out here first, as calling Sonos Support is not a very good experience. (“Right now there are many calling us. Your place in the queue is 32.”.)

Do try the WiFi interference link above.

 showing the link: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3286

I will have to admit that I am sceptic that WiFi interference could be the issue. I’m thinking in that case, the problem would come and go without my interference. But I will try switching channels, next time it happens. As for other devices in the vicinity, the closest device in my flat is the other Play 3 speaker, but I the speaker is about 80 cm below the ceiling, and I don’t know what my neighbour above might have there. I’m considering as a test to let the two Play3 change places with each other.

Don’t just look at WiFi devices, I had an external hard drive that killed my poor Play 3 if it got too close, a meter away all was fine.

An update:The problem came back this week, and I did have the time to call Sonos support this afternoon.

I had sent in diagnostics at a point when the left player was silent. Interesting enough the player was absent in the diagnostics.

When I sent in new diagnostics, the support lady noted that the memory of the problematic player was not in best shape, and she recommended a factory reset. She explained that with these older models, the updates do not always work and apparently that can somehow clog the memory. This kind of aligns with my theory that the players are getting old and a replacement may be a good idea.

On her recommendation, I also did a factory reset of the other Play3 and the Sub. It is way too early to see that this solves the problem, as it has always been the case that unplugging and plugging back has resolved the problem for the moment, and then it has come back after a few weeks.

Interesting titbit: When I reset the second Play 3, the orange hadn’t switched to green to after more than 30 minutes. But I found googling a tip that plugging in an ethernet cable could help - and indeed, within minute after I had connected the player to the router, the lamp switched to green.

Yet an update: No, the reset of the speakers did not help. The probles keeps coming back.

I tried swapping the left and right speaker sin the pair physically, but I did not tell Sonos. Not unexpectedly the same speaker was the one that dropped out. I had an idea that this would rule out WiFi interference, but maybe not.

The next test was break up the stereo pair and re-pair according to the swap above. The effect is that it is again the left speaker that drops out. That is, not the same physical speaker as before. That sort of disproves my idea that this particular speaker was getting tired and worn out. (I also had an interesting situation tonight when zone was playing, but none of the two Android controllers nor the Windows controller was able to contact the zone and stop the music.)

My next test is that I have moved the Sub. It was standing next to a cupboard in which there is a printer, a NAS, a WiFi, and, on the other site of the printer, a desktop computer. It’s now in a different corner with no electronics around it.

I believe you have the answer - it’s a memory issue. The Play:3 is old, and the hardware contains only 64mb of memory and 64mb of storage. I think that in a speaker pair, one speaker will be the ‘master’ and that one will run out of memory first, which is what you have experienced by re-pairing in your troubleshooting. The fact is this issue doesn’t only affect paired speakers - I have the same issue on a single play:3. 

What may help, and what I am currently trying in my own troubleshooting is reducing the memory usage. My understanding is that if you use a local music library, the index for that will take up space. Adding additional streaming services will also use more memory. I rarely use my local music library any more, so I have removed that completely. I also removed a couple of services I didn’t use. I am still testing, but hoping this will prevent me having to use a smart plug to reboot the Play:3 every night in order to free the memory so I can use it the next day! 

Thanks Ricardo!

I have quite a hefty music library with maybe 35000 songs. And I am actively using it. The only service I have is Spotify which I use to try new music. (And if I like it, I buy the MP3.), but my Spotify listening is mainly in another room.

So if what you is saying is correct, there is certainly all reason to look into get a set of newer players. But I may try a few more troubleshooting steps before I get there. So far I have not have any issues since I moved the location for the Sub, but it’s too early to tell.

If you are running S2 It might be the faulty firmware issue that is reported for Connect Amps but also some P3 owners IIRC. 

SONOS says a new firmware will be released to address this issue at some point. 
 

There is an owner who has said that reverting the system to S1 has solved the drop out issue FYI.