Are both of these devices connected to your router with an Ethernet cable when you’re doing this process?

Yes mate they are

Hmmm, that’s unusual, then. I think I’d call Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

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 network and Sonos system.

Thanks for your reply Bruce. Interestingly , I removed one unit completely and brought it home. Plugged it into my network directly into the router and it Factory Reset immediately and went to flashing Green. Must have been some glich in the other network not allowing the same to occur.

Huh? Removed it from where? 

It wouldn’t be uncommon for a work location to have some sort of VPN or port blocking that would obstruct the speaker’s ability to reach Sonos’ server that has the firmware update on it. You hadn’t mentioned this device was not at home…where are they when you’ve been trying to factory reset them? 

Oops, maybe I should have mentioned that. Yes it is in a Physio clinic. That may explain why they were starting to play up very regularly. Only now when I factory reset the others they have been much more stable again. I assumed they would just be auto updating all the time.

Having said that, the other 5 Play1’s all allowed me to factory reset them, just two of them seemed to be blocked

I would take them home, one by one, and get them updated to the latest software. There’s likely something in the office’s network that is blocking the ports/servers that Sonos uses to update the firmware on each. Or, you could check with your IT folks. Unfortunately, Sonos is designed to be a home solution, it is only recently that they came out with Sonos Pro, for business’s use. I’d think it has different requirements, but I’ve not looked in to it. 

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head Bruce. I just assumed they were always auto updating as needed. They have been fine for 6 years, and then started dropping off, cutting out and having glitches over the past few months.

i have since managed to update each one after factory resetting each unit. For anyone else reading this post, I managed to eventually factory reset by plugging it directly into the router while re-booting.

Bruce I appreciate your help and comments in troubleshooting thru this and hear what you say about being mainly for home use.

Mattyg444,

At the clinic are any of your SONOS units normally wired to the network? Have you recently updated the router or WiFi environment?

One thing I’d caution most people against is a factory reset. It’s almost never needed, you should let the system update itself, and not erase any diagnostic data that may be stored on the device…not to mention all the playlists, streaming accounts, etc. 

Yes, they are all wired in to the network.

How do I action a speaker firmware update with doing the factory reset? Is there an option to do it via the Sonos App? I can only see the option of doing updates to the Controller App. Maybe I haven’t searched deep enough

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/update-your-sonos-speakers

The controller and all of the speakers that are currently online will update. If you have multiple controllers, other controllers will complain and ask for an update the next time that you access one.

Don’t do the factory reset, unless a Sonos rep tells you to.