Android app unable to connect with products that are in the same network

  • 29 November 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 251 views

Help! My Android Sonos app suddenly stopped connecting to my three Sonos products yesterday, without me having made any changes. It just suddenly says "Unable to connect to Sonos", and when I follow the instructions to try to fix it, none of it works. Essentially my phone tries to bring the products into the wifi, even though they are already in the same network.

The Sonos apps on my two laptops as well as another family member's Android phone still work, and the Sonos products are happily connected both within the wifi and into the internet. I’m currently listening to music with the speakers! It's just my phone that claims Sonos is not visible in the same network.

I use a wifi booster, and we also have both 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks. I have played with different permutations, but even when I unplug the booster and disable the 5Ghz and am left with only one unique 2.4GHz source for the wifi, my phone still claims the currently-happily-playing speakers are not in the network where they in fact are - as can be seen from my router's list of currently connected devices. Yes, also my Android phone is connected to this network and has a functioning internet connection via the wifi.

I have uninstalled and re-installed the Android Sonos app multiple times, and naturally re-started (and shut down and re-opened) the phone multiple times in between (and a few extra times because why not). I have rebooted the router, I have disconnected and reconnected the Sonos products, and now I'm running out of things to reboot.

Any further suggestions?


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7 replies

If you haven’t tried this already, perhaps see if setting your WiFi Booster to use the exact same SSID/Credentials, WiFi channels and channel-widths as your main routers 2.4GHz and 5Ghz bands will resolve your connection issues.

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Hi

Can you please confirm where you are based and what router you have?  You may also want to read my article here: Tips & Tricks - Resolving random issues impacting Sonos devices.. | Sonos Community

Does the troublesome Android device have a VPN installed? Does it have the fall-back from WiFi to 4G enabled when WiFi is weak? What make/model of device is it? 

Thanks everyone for the quick replies! I feel super guilty for not having had the opportunity to actually be home to try out anything or reply, but here I finally go!

If you haven’t tried this already, perhaps see if setting your WiFi Booster to use the exact same SSID/Credentials, WiFi channels and channel-widths as your main routers 2.4GHz and 5Ghz bands will resolve your connection issues.

I have been playing around with the SSID, and they are currently (again) identical. Regarding the channels and channel-widths, I must admit I don’t even know how to edit them in my Wifi Booster, only in my router. But since both the router and the booster are the official default devices coming from my internet provider and both of them can be managed via their official app, I presume there is a high likelihood that the channels and widths are identical.

Hi

Can you please confirm where you are based and what router you have?  You may also want to read my article here: Tips & Tricks - Resolving random issues impacting Sonos devices.. | Sonos Community

I’m in Switzerland, using UPC with a UPC Connect Box. I also checked the article and as a result tried if DHCP Reservation for all my Sonos products as well as my mobile phone would help (and the reboot afterwards), but so far that didn’t make a difference.

Does the troublesome Android device have a VPN installed? Does it have the fall-back from WiFi to 4G enabled when WiFi is weak? What make/model of device is it? 

It does indeed, a Freedome VPN, but I have tried to connect without it as well, without luck. It also has WiFi fallback to mobile data, and I switched off mobile data entirely to see if that would help, which it doesn’t. :(

So I’m currently still looking for a solution, but learning a great deal about my home network and devices while I’m at it! :D

Does the troublesome Android device have a VPN installed? Does it have the fall-back from WiFi to 4G enabled when WiFi is weak? What make/model of device is it? 

Oh yeah, and the phone is Nokia 8 Sirocco, running Android 10.

 

Does the troublesome Android device have a VPN installed? Does it have the fall-back from WiFi to 4G enabled when WiFi is weak? What make/model of device is it? 

It does indeed, a Freedome VPN, but I have tried to connect without it as well, without luck.

Did you try uninstalling the VPN? Even when turned off they can get in the way. The Sonos controller will only bind to the regular WiFi interface. 

 

 

Does the troublesome Android device have a VPN installed? Does it have the fall-back from WiFi to 4G enabled when WiFi is weak? What make/model of device is it? 

It does indeed, a Freedome VPN, but I have tried to connect without it as well, without luck.

Did you try uninstalling the VPN? Even when turned off they can get in the way. The Sonos controller will only bind to the regular WiFi interface. 

 

Good heavens, that was it indeed! Uninstalling did the trick. Well don’t I feel silly now. I’ve had the same phone-VPN-wifi-Sonos setup for ages without trouble, but I guess something somewhere updated itself and brought all of this down…

Thanks ratty!!