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Question

Google Assistant not always responding and timer not stopping


Hi all

I have recently been experiencing problems with my Sonos One with GA. Everything was working fine until around a couple of weeks ago when Google does not always respond when saying "Hey Google" or "Okay Google", even when the chime sounds. The problem appears to have been getting worse. Also recently, when setting timers (say for cooking etc.) when the time is up and we tell Google to "stop the timer" or "cancel timer" etc., it stops for a bit but then starts beeping after a few seconds. As you can imagine this can be infuriating and the only way to stop it has been to switch off the Sonos from the mains.

All in all, i.e. general responsiveness of the Sonos to GA commands seems to be fairly laggy when compared to our Google Home minis which are a lot more snappy and responsive. I'm wondering whether these are just teething issues which Sonos is working through and whether anyone else has experienced patchy performance?

Thanks

TT
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32 replies

  • Lyricist I
  • 2 replies
  • July 22, 2019
I'm having a similar issue, it seemed to start happening for me 4-5 days ago and as you've said, slowly gotten worse. It's now at the point where it basically doesn't respond to anything.

It can hear me fine, 'Okay Google' trigger works perfectly across the room, whatever I say after the chime happens seems to just be discarded, I've switched back to Alexa and that works perfectly fine too.

I've done factory resets, unlinked my Sonos account from Google Assistant, swapped speakers in and around different rooms, reset the controller, several times - and nothing seems to work.

Basically, Google Assistant just doesn't work for me now. On the odd occasion I have been able to get it to work, e.g. when setting timers like your example - I haven't been able to get it to stop the timer either.

When Google Assistant first went live in the UK on Sonos (not so long ago), it worked pretty much perfectly for me.

Ken_Griffiths
Qassim,

A few things that perhaps need clarifying and checking ...
  • What is your default GA language setting? Ensure there is only one installed.
  • What is your premium music subscription service and have you set it as default?
  • Can you perhaps post a screenshot of your “Google Home” from the GH App... Ensure only one 'Home' is in use.
  • Have you ensured the same MSP Account/credentials are installed in the Sonos App.
  • Is the GA voice assistant showing in your Sonos One Room Settings?

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 23, 2019
I have the same issue on sonos one gen 2

gen 1 in same house is fine

Ken_Griffiths
jimmyjamesh wrote:
I have the same issue on sonos one gen 2

gen 1 in same house is fine

It's unusual to work on one Sonos device and not the other.

Is the gen2 speaker name perhaps clashing with other smart home device names perhaps? Make sure you are using unique names for each of your devices.

Have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling the google voice assistant in the Sonos App room settings?

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 23, 2019
They have diff names, have tried reinstalling to

they worked fine a week ago

Ken_Griffiths
Did you try removing the GA assistant from the speakers room settings in the Sonos App and then re-adding it?

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 27, 2019
yeah tried that, still same, have put alexa back on my sonos one gen 2 and that is fine.

I dont get why GA works fine on my sonos one gen1 but not 2

Ken_Griffiths
jimmyjamesh wrote:
yeah tried that, still same, have put alexa back on my sonos one gen 2 and that is fine.

I dont get why GA works fine on my sonos one gen1 but not 2

Have you got a screenshot of your 'Home' devices and the relevant 'Rooms' .. just to see if that might help throw some light on the matter.

Here is a small part of my Home, just as an example...(see attached).

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 27, 2019
here you go


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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 27, 2019
it will resond to some questions eg whats the time, but wont answer tell me a job or set timer - these commands are all fine in the kitchen on sonos one

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 27, 2019
it seems in the living room it no longer understands half of my commands


Ken_Griffiths
jimmyjamesh,

Your Home setup looks okay to me ... it’s strange the assistant is not hearing you correctly. Have you tried powering off/on the device you are talking to and maybe also toggling off/on the small mic/LED ?

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 27, 2019
sure have

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 27, 2019
all this has started in the last week since the outage, was 100% perfect before

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 27, 2019
just asked it the weather twice and it responded once for the midlands and once for wales - crazy!

Altho it seems I would be warmer in Wales for info


Ken_Griffiths
ha ha ... I assume you have checked your Sonos profile language is set correctly and that the language in the Google App is English (United Kingdom) ...the GA App should have one language only.

I’m sure you will have checked that already and the fact it was okay prior to the recent outage, makes me think there are still some issues that have not been resolved. It may pay to give Sonos Customer Care a call on Monday and maybe refer them to this thread.

Ken_Griffiths
jimmyjamesh,

Here is my recent test, just a few moments ago, showing my Google activity. The Speaker in this instance and utterances are to a Sonos One (gen 1) with Deezer set as the default music service. Language is set to English (United Kingdom).

My speaker is working okay and myActivity is working fine too (see attachment)... I’m just wondering why mine would work and your Sonos One (gen 1) is not picking up your utterances correctly?

It can’t be a faulty mic if it works okay with Alexa...so its really an unusual issue. It must be a local issue. My only thoughts are to perhaps change the DNS on your router to the Google DNS server at 8.8.4.4 and see if that makes any difference.

  • Lyricist III
  • 7 replies
  • July 28, 2019
I also have the unknown voice commands for weeks now. It worked perfectly fine before GA was officially released in the Netherlands. It misses 5-10 commands now. Hope someone can find a breakthrough in this issue

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  • Lyricist III
  • 12 replies
  • July 29, 2019
Ken_Griffiths wrote:
Qassim,

A few things that perhaps need clarifying and checking ...
  • What is your default GA language setting? Ensure there is only one installed.
  • What is your premium music subscription service and have you set it as default?
  • Can you perhaps post a screenshot of your “Google Home” from the GH App... Ensure only one 'Home' is in use.
  • Have you ensured the same MSP Account/credentials are installed in the Sonos App.
  • Is the GA voice assistant showing in your Sonos One Room Settings?


Why only one language?

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  • Trending Lyricist II
  • 21 replies
  • July 29, 2019
I have sonos support on the case and they say others have report similar issues on certain devices

I have created these videos to demonstrate the issue

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UxiVxPwxQpvS1jgD8

  • Lyricist III
  • 7 replies
  • July 29, 2019
Hi Jimmyjamesh,

Good job. I think I'm going to do the same. Do you have any experience with the response time from Sonos on issues like these? Thx!

Ken_Griffiths
Gialloblu wrote:

Ken_Griffiths wrote:
Qassim,

A few things that perhaps need clarifying and checking ...
  • What is your default GA language setting? Ensure there is only one installed.
  • What is your premium music subscription service and have you set it as default?
  • Can you perhaps post a screenshot of your “Google Home” from the GH App... Ensure only one 'Home' is in use.
  • Have you ensured the same MSP Account/credentials are installed in the Sonos App.
  • Is the GA voice assistant showing in your Sonos One Room Settings?
Why only one language?

Just in case the language setting, maybe causing an issue Not all language settings are supported at this stage. I would just choose to set one only, which is actually known to be supported by GA on Sonos.

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  • Lyricist III
  • 12 replies
  • July 30, 2019
jimmyjamesh wrote:
it seems in the living room it no longer understands half of my commands



I've had the same! Phew, nice to know it not just my sonos

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  • Lyricist III
  • 12 replies
  • July 30, 2019
I've already in the past showed this to sonos on twitter

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7AtUa8BqTQLF3f1K6

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  • Lyricist III
  • 12 replies
  • July 30, 2019
It's gettting worse, look:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LP715SCUSfXLXbx99

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