Alexa on Sonos Beam won’t pause

I found the solution on YouTube. I had to change the room name on the Sonos App.

Guyincognito76 wrote:

I found the solution on YouTube. I had to change the room name on the Sonos App.

Was that because you already had another smart-home device with the same or similar name to your Beam? I’m just wondering if that was the main cause of your problem.

Ken_Griffiths wrote:

Guyincognito76 wrote:

I found the solution on YouTube. I had to change the room name on the Sonos App.

Was that because you already had another smart-home device with the same or similar name to your Beam? I’m just wondering if that was the main cause of your problem.

Pause was working out of the box, but I’ve been having a few Alexa issues.

Firstly, I couldn’t get the Beam to turn the TV on and trying to fix (ultimately successfully) that by renaming the Beam on the Sonos app, and Alexa app a few times seems to have caused this second issue. The YouTube video I found was on the issue you state.

I still have another problem where the Beam will not switch to TV whilst music is playing on it, and have tried all of these without luck:
"Alexa, switch to TV."
"Alexa, switch the Beam to TV."
"Alexa, switch to TV on/in Beam."
But at least I have now found the button to do this on the Sonos app, hidden under the browse tab. ?

Oh, ultimately the problem might be that I had a stereo pair of Play: 1’s in this room, before buying the Beam, and just unplugged those (and set them up in another room later) so they would’ve had the same name as the Beam.

Perhaps pause wasn’t working out of the box, and I just hadn’t noticed. Perhaps my eagerness to setup the Beam has been my downfall.

In the Alexa App, goto the Smart-Home Devices tab and see what devices are showing there. Just make sure they all have unique and individual names.. remove any old devices you no longer use. If you remove any current devices by accident, you can always ask Alexa to rescan and find them for you again.

By the way, I’m also having the same problem as you... if I switch on my LG TV, I get the TV Audio with no problem.
I then play some Spotify Music with this command “Alexa, Play music in the Dining Room” just as an example ... I get the Spotify music no problem, but then I cannot get back to the TV Audio using Alexa.

As an example I say 'Alexa, stop the music' and Spotify stops playing.

I have then tried the same commands as yourself, plus I’ve also tried these and a variety of others...
'Alexa, turn on the Dining Room TV” Alexa replies 'OK' but still no TV Audio
'Alexa, turn on the TV” Alexa replies 'OK' but still no TV Audio
'Alexa, unmute the Dining Room TV” Alexa replies 'OK' but still no TV Audio
'Alexa, set the volume to 3 on the Dining Room TV” Alexa replies 'OK' but still no TV Audio

I just can’t easily get back to the TV audio without either using the TV remote or the Sonos App.

There must be a simple solution to this issue, I just haven’t found it yet.

Yes, Ken I have already done the steps you’ve said. Incidentally it’s an LG I’m using, so perhaps there is a LG/Sonos issue with regards to switching back to TV.

Guyincognito76 wrote:

Yes, Ken I have already done the steps you’ve said. Incidentally it’s an LG I’m using, so perhaps there is a LG/Sonos issue with regards to switching back to TV.

Yes mine is an LG TV too. I have other ways to resolve the issue though, as I use a Harmony Hub to control the TV, which allows me to change channels too, using Alexa. It would be interesting to find out if this issue is just confined to the LG range.

It’s early days for the Beam firmware, so hopefully things may improve over time.

Having said that I’m happy with the Beams sound in my 5.0 surround setup with two Play 1’s.

Guyincognito76 wrote:

I still have another problem where the Beam will not switch to TV whilst music is playing on it, and have tried all of these without luck:
"Alexa, switch to TV."
"Alexa, switch the Beam to TV."
"Alexa, switch to TV on/in Beam."
But at least I have now found the button to do this on the Sonos app, hidden under the browse tab. ?

I’ve sent you a personal message regarding this issue.
Ken

Guyincognito76,

Regarding the below Alexa/Beam command that we have been discussing recently...

“Alexa, Switch to tv on (Room Name)” ... so if your TV is in the Lounge for example it’s ... “Alexa, Switch to tv on Lounge”.

Also noting, you must use the word 'on' in the instruction and not 'in the', which is quite significant.

Can you confirm if you have noted that once you have issued the above Alexa instruction to your Beam, you then (strangely?) find afterwards, that you can go onto use the more simple switching instructions, like this... 'Alexa, Switch to TV', at least until you switch off your TV then you have to revert back to using “Alexa, Switch to tv on (Room Name)”. So it appears you have to use this instruction on the first outing, every time.

I am currently trying to raise this issue with Sonos Support.

Can you kindly let me know in this thread if the above is also how things are currently working for you please.

Thanks ...

Ken

Yes, Ken. I mentioned it in one of the PMs I sent you but reading it back I wasn’t being very clear; It was what I meant by command chains.

Guyincognito76 wrote:

Yes, Ken. I mentioned it in one of the PMs I sent you but reading it back I wasn’t being very clear; It was what I meant by command chains.

I’m just trying to demonstrate to the Sonos Support staff involved, that other users besides myself, are having this issue, where we initially have to use “Alexa, Switch to TV on (Room Name)” and once that command has been used 'once' in a session, then a user can then switch back to TV audio using the simpler Alexa commands like 'Switch to TV' ...

I’m trying to explain to the staff that those simple Alexa commands however do not work initially, until after a user has given this main command “Alexa, Switch to TV on (Room Name)”. As you can imagine it’s a difficult situation to explain as they can often see the simple commands as working for themselves.

I hope that is making sense ?

I’m doing my best to explain the situation and showing that others are having the same issue, which may help support the case I’m trying to put forward to the Sonos Staff.

I don’t know if you are perhaps able to add anything further here?

Sorry, only had time for a quick reply whilst on my break.

I can confirm that if the connection phrase of ‘Alexa switch to TV on Lounge’ is followed then, ‘Alexa, switch to music’, ‘Alexa, switch to TV’ are then accepted until the TV is turned off.

This might seem like a fairly niche problem, however, as it would only occur if you wanted to listen to music (podcasts etc.) with the TV still on. If you’re playing music with the TV off then simply saying, ‘Alexa turn on TV’ switches inputs. I will often play music with the TV on during sporting events, during half-time or games I am only vaguely interested in, for example, but I may be in a small minority.

Guyincognito76,

Yes, thanks very much for that reply.