App doesnt see my Speakers anymore

And when that doesn't work?  What then?  I'm having the same issue and can't find a resolution or get anyone at sonos to help fix it.  

Unfortunately, you haven’t given us any information to give intelligent suggestions to you.

Several things that have worked for others are:

Wiring one Sonos device to the router with an Ethernet cable

Removing mesh nodes, at least temporarily, to help see if it is a mesh network issue

Setting up reserved IP addresses in the router’s DHCP table

And of course, calling in to 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.

Thank you for the tips.  I have not tried directly connecting a speaker through ethernet cable.  No one at sonos sugested that and it didn't occur to me to try that.  Ill do so tonight.  Other than that, nothing (that I know of) changed.

You're correct the sonos speakers and the sonos app were working together a few days ago, and the next day the app couldn't see or communicate with any of the speakers. I dont get an error message in the sonos app, it just says "no devices detected". I hadn't made any wifi changes in my phone or router or any software updates to any of the above before the issue started. It's possible the sonos app automatically updated as I have that app set to auto update but that would have been the only possible change that occured.

Sonos service says my speakers are working fine, and that's confirmed with the speakers in my TV room still work even though the sonos app says there are no devices detected. Similarly sonos service says my phone is working perfectly with the wifi router, and also similarly confirmed through use. The problem is isolated to the sonos software losing contact with the sonos speakers. 

Since this occurred I have contacted sonos service three times and done the above troubleshooting, but they were unable to get their app to reestablish contact with the speakers, and offered no solutions. Since then,  I (on my own) have tried various methods to reestablish the connection by uninstall and reinstalling the sonos app, performing a soft reset of the speakers, and performing a full factory reset of one of my speakers. When i did that, it instantly disapeared from the app and it again said "no devices found".  None of these attempts worked to resolve the communication issue. 

I'm now at a dead end and have zero leads, which is why I'm reaching out to the community for help. I have a home full of speakers that I can't use, except in the TV room, because those speakers were previously synced to my TV and are currently operating independently of the app. I'm very disappointed and irritated that I spent a premium on purchasing these sonos speakers that I'm unable to use.   

I know one fellow who had a somewhat similar issue -- no SONOS system. It turns out that the phone’s WiFi had been turned OFF. Web browsing and email were fine because the phone was using the cell network for external communication.

I suppose that the phone could have switched to the router’s Guest WiFi. This will also allow web and email, but the phone will not be able to connect to SONOS.

Don’t Factory Reset any other SONOS units.

The sonos diagnostics confirmed the cell was connected properly to the wifi router, and the speakers were all also connected to the same router.  There's no mesh in my house and I've never had any connectivity issues with any other devices before or after this issue started. I wouldn't know how to connect to a guest wifi even if I could. 

Agreed on the factory reset thing. I didn't want to do the factory reset, it was my last ditch effort.  I was literally out of ideas.  I'm hoping the direct connect will work.  I know all the speakers are talking together except maybe that one I did the factory reset on.  Diagnostics confirmed all the speakers in the system were on and communicating properly.

Can you provide any more details on what "Setting up reserved IP addresses in the router’s DHCP table", means?  I'm not too savvy with router settings or even how to do that.  I'm much more likely to mess something up than to recognize and fix a problem. My wifi router has just always worked and I've never had any other issues with it.  

I tried directly plugging the sound bar into the router with a cat5 cable.  The router just blinks orange, all the other direct connections I have are solid white.  The app still says no devices found.  

Hmmm. Forum lost my reply.

As setting reserved IP addresses is something that changes from model to model of router, Sonos doesn’t have an FAQ on that, but you should be able to look in the manual for your router. 

Since I don’t know what router you have, I’ll hazard a guess that blinking orange isn’t a good thing. The first thing I’d try is a different Ethernet cable, and being careful when inserting it at both ends that the receptacle isn’t ‘broken’ in some way. But there’s also the possibility of a failure in the speaker, something that might show up on a diagnostic. Unfortunately, you haven’t specified which speakers are in your system, nor which speakers (all?) that you’re having trouble with. 

I’d be tempted to make a second call to Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

It’s similar to stopping at the reception desk as you enter a building. You are given a number (IP address) that identifies you while you are in the building. The numbers are logged on cards in a little box (DHCP table) sitting on the receptionist’s desk. If someone spills coffee in the box or the receptionist runs off to get married, the cards are dumped out and the numbering starts over. Unfortunately, there is no general notice sent out to the clients suggesting that they return to the desk to get a new number and the clients continue to use their current number. As you can imagine, there is high risk of the new numbers duplicating an existing number. This will give rise to “where is my order?”, “I didn’t order that!”, “xxx is not answering!”, and on and on.

There is another, confusing complication. The numbers are “leased” and clients must periodically return to the desk and “renew” their lease. The renewal might result in a different address assignment. This can result in confusion for the human because leases are typically 24hrs. This means that, due to duplicated addresses yesterday, today (after all of the renewals) the situation might have resolved (no guarantee). “Reserving” an IP address gives the device a VIP sort of status and a guarantee that it will always be assigned the same address.

The best action plan for the user is to reboot everything, forcing new, unique addresses to be assigned. Then reserve IP addresses for all regular clients. Yes, this can be a little messy, but this does not need to be repeated until the router is replaced or factory reset. All of the Community regulars reserve addresses and we have not had IP address mayhem in years.

Ive called 3 times, and before that 3 times on chat.  Every diagnostic has shown all speakers are on and functioning properly and connected to wifi properly.

Regarding the mix of speakers I have they are soundbar, 4 play ones, a play 5, a sub, and a move 2.  The sub, bar, and 2 play ones are on one "system", the play 5 and two play ones are on another system, and the move is solo.  That's the one I tried the factory reset on.  

Regarding the cables, I did try two different cat5 cables one 6' and one 10', they both acted the same.  Orange blinking on the router, but green and white blinking on the soundbar. I tried multiple ports on the router with both cables all with the same result.  

I have rebooted the router several times, and my phone several times, and Uninstaller and reinstalled the app several times.  The results of the diagnostics are always the same.  Everything is on and functioning properly, but the app doesn't see or communicate with any of the speakers.  

When I did the factory reset of the move 2 the app set it up as usual, but the instant it completed the set up, the speaker disappeared from the app. And the app again said no devices detected.  

I wouldn’t bother with chat, you’re most likely talking to a ‘bot. I’d call back in, and suggest, due to the light on the router, and several different tries with various Ethernet cables and ports on the router, that there might be a fault.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a Move or Move 2 to test with. 
One final thought, though. Is there any chance that when you factory reset the device, you set it up as a ‘new’ system? That would certainly cause one speaker not to be seen by all others, and vice versa. Might be worth doing a factory reset on just that one speaker, and trying the ‘add a device’ function while your controller is connected to all working speakers. Just make sure you’re not setting up a ‘new system’. But that doesn’t really address the yellow light on your router. Given that you’ve tried many different cables, I’d suspect a bad port there, or a failure in the speaker. But if you’ve tried multiple ports on the router, it points to an issue with the speaker.

I really wish I had access to the data from your diagnostic, it might be hugely helpful to know what router you’re using, or other details you’ve not shared, such as network types. I’m forced into guessing, based on your frustration and limited details. 

I’d still call Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

Rgbeek;

Reading back over the posts, I’m confused. If your phone cannot communicate with the system, how did you submit diagnostics?

There are usually two lights associated with each network port. One light is steady when there is a valid connection. Steady green is typical tor this light -- indicating a Gigabit connection. SONOS uses 10/100  network connections and this light will be another color, usually yellow, but I would not be shocked if it was orange. This light should not blink. The second light flashes with each packet sent over the connection. Yellow is the typical flashing color. If you were using a high end network and mesh, points the light behavior might be a little different. The router documentation will clearly lay this out.

Which model router are you using?

The diagnostics for each of my three calls to sonos support showed the move two is communicating properly with wifi and with the other speakers. I did the diagnostics through the app on my phone and the diagnostics gave me a number that I relayed to the sonos person.  I couldn't see the results of the diagnostic, but they could.  The problem is isolated to only the app that can't communicate with any of the speakers.  The issue isn't with just one speaker it's with all of them.  According to the diagnostics they're all working fine.

Also, my router is a netgear nighthawk pro if that helps. To be honest you've already spent more effort and had more suggestions than I got from Sonos support.  They literally had zero recommendations after doing the diagnostics.  They were less than helpful, and utterly useless in solving this problem.  At this point I'd rather talk to a chatbot.  They're at least programmed to seem human like.  

Regarding the network router, I don't have any mesh, just the router base. And I've rebooted the router several times with no change.  

The diagnostics don’t display anything for the user. Only remote SONOS staff can access the diagnostics. (they are stored remotely)

I’m still confused about one point. In order for you to see and report the diagnostic confirmation number, your phone/pad/computer must be communicating with the players.

Can you capture any screens and post them here? For your own security you should remove any account identification details and diagnostic confirmation numbers.

I'm not sure what screens you would need.  The screen I get is literally just the initial screen you get before installing any speakers.  When I click on either "join existing system", or "set up new product" it just says no products found.  The only exception is when I did a factory reset of the move 2. The app saw it, and let me set it up as usual, but the instant the setup finished, the speaker disappeared from the app and it says no products found again.  I havn't tried doing the factory reset on any of the other speakers since that experiment failed.  

You're correct that the diagnostics found my speakers and reported all were working normally, as well as confirming my phone and app were connecting to the wifi properly.  The issue isn't the speakers or my phone, it can only be between the app and the speakers themselves.  And sonos support literally offered zero options or solutions.  

I FIGURED IT OUT.

I FIXED IT.

IT'S WORKING AGAIN. 

So here's what I did. Previously we had isolated the issue to the app not communicating with the speakers through wifi.  The speakers router, wifi, and app were all working correctly according to the diagnostics, so the issue had to be between the app on my phone and the speakers themselves.   

With that in mind, during one looong sleepless night I decided to look at literally every phone setting, and every app, and every app seeting that had anything to do with wifi.  I loged every setting one by one on a tablet and changed each one, then went back to the sonos app to see if anything changed, if nothing changed in the app, then I'd go back to that setting set it back to the original, and move on to the next. Rinse and repeat, brute force troubleshooting. After literally hundreds of setting changes...I found nothing that fixed the issue.  

BUT, along the way I spent a considerable amount of time with the VPN settings on my phone and I found one obscure note. In the tunneling settings within Nord I discovered that it said VPN tunneling was incompatible with Sonos. So I went back to sonos to see when the last app update occurred, and it coincided with the issue I was having.  

Apparently this latest sonos app revision is incompatible with the revision of NordVPN I'm using.  For security reasons I don't want to state what revision that is in case there's an exploit that I'm unaware of. 

So long story short I adjusted that setting and when I went back to the sonos app it's magically working again.  Someone should tell sonos to beta test their stuff before releasing it, and they should quit thinking they are the only product that uses wifi.  Their shit needs to be compatible with the other stuff, and ignoring that is exactly why their app is so buggy.  The sonos app may work perfectly in their test environment in isolation, but that's not how their product is used in the real world.  

If their product doesn't work in the real world, it doesnt work period.  Fix it.  

Thanks for posting your resolution. This may help some others who are struggling.

Your experience does expose an industry issue. Should or can manufacturer ‘A’ notify all potential product users that ‘A’s latest implementation creates issues with ‘B’, ‘C’, …, regardless of who is ultimately responsible for the fault.

Ideally A, B, and C should be designed to be compatible with each other. That's what industry standards are for.  Every wifi router is compatible with a set of industry standards, and every product should be compatible with those standards.  As the standards are updated, the app and products should concurrently be updated to be compatible.  That's why the standards for the next revision are released to the developers a year or more in advance of implementing the new standards.  

To your point though, I believe yes, if your product is going to be incompatible with the industry standards (for whatever reason) they should be transparent in informing their customers and ensure the customers don't mistakenly adopt (or be forced to adopt) the new build unless and until they have confirmed the compatibility issues, and have passed that on to their product support team.  That's the whole point of beta testing.  Identify and correct any compatibility issues BEFORE releasing a new product into the world.