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Arc stops working with TV , was working fine

  • 9 November 2020
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My Sonos Arc has been working fine the last weeks but a few days ago the audio from TV stopped working? Seems like the Audio Return Channel function just stopped?

I still see the wallpaper from Sonos when I choose the HDMI - ARC source on the TV, but no audio.

 I have tried all the regular stuff like unplugging the HDMI, cutting power and fiddled around in the TV settings.

TV: LG 65UH7700

Sonos Arc+sub

nothing else attached to the TV

This seems to be a similar issue that many people have, but I have found no definitive fix. Any ideas?

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Best answer by Xander P 3 May 2021, 10:09

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55 replies

Having the same issue here, and it seems like there is not really any good solution. My setup had been working fine for months, and I recently unplugged the sonos from the arc port to plug in another device.

When I tried plugging the sonos beam back into the arc port, the audio would no longer come from the beam/system. I tried running the setup on the app, and the app would tell me that there is no Arc cable connected.

I shut the whole thing off following the steps outlined here, unplugged every device. I did this multiple times until I gave up last night. I tried pretty much every combination of TV on first, Beam on first, which end to plug the hdmi cable into, each with at least a 5 minute period in between. I had every other device unplugged from the TV and powered down while doing this. I left everything unplugged and all hdmi cables unplugged until this morning where I tried again thinking maybe it takes longer than expected to do a full reset. Exact same issue.

HDMI cable works with other devices, and again, had been working fine until it was unplugged.

  • Sonos is fully updated.
  • TV is fully updated.
  • It is not a cable issue, was working with same cable, and same cable works with other devices. Also tried 2 other hdmi cables that I use for my computer setup (both function in that capacity) and get the same issue.
  • Settings on the TV are to use the ARC for audio out, including the eARC checkbox another user was talking about.
  • Have done a factory reset on the TV, redownloaded/installed updates, hasn’t worked.

 

TV model: OLED55C1PUB (LG 55” OLED Class C1, 55”)
Sonos Details: Beam Gen 2, with 2 Sonos Play 1s


Sonos has always been super finicky when it comes to connecting to ARC properly. No idea why as its a hardwire connection. I didn’t realize that unplugging the hdmi for a few minutes would forever destroy my ability to use this system. When googling what could be the issue pretty much the only things I found were “did you try resetting it” and “but did you reallllly try resetting it??” and that is it. Super disappointing that there is such apparently such a pervasive issue with connecting and hdmi cable.

Getting ready for my hour long sonos help call where they will make sure I reallllllly reset it though.
 

You stated that “the same cable works with other devices”. Unless you’re talking about other ARC devices, there are unfortunately some cables that were produced before the introduction of ARC and don’t have the necessary connections to do ARC, as required by Sonos. And it’s even more unfortunate that most cables aren’t well labeled. I’m almost at a point where I want to throw away many of my HDMI cables, which are HDMI 1.2 or  HDMI1.4, and not HDMI 2.0 or HDMI 2.1, and replace them with newer cables. But they work fine for video, and I’m such a hoarder…..

You stated that “the same cable works with other devices”. Unless you’re talking about other ARC devices, there are unfortunately some cables that were produced before the introduction of ARC and don’t have the necessary connections to do ARC, as required by Sonos. And it’s even more unfortunate that most cables aren’t well labeled. I’m almost at a point where I want to throw away many of my HDMI cables, which are HDMI 1.2 or  HDMI1.4, and not HDMI 2.0 or HDMI 2.1, and replace them with newer cables. But they work fine for video, and I’m such a hoarder…..


The cable that was originally in use was HDMI 2.0, which should be arc compliant. Again, it worked for months before the unplug/replug seemed to throw it all off.

The other cables I have no idea, so true they could just be the wrong kinds. It was more of a last ditch effort by trying to replace each individual part that might be causing the errors. 

I’m going to order a new cable now just to be 100% certain it is not the cable before moving forward.

Probably a smart thing, although there’s also the very slight possibility of corrosion in the actual connector, either on the cable ends (the male part) , or the receptor on either device. Most frequently, this can be overcome in some fashion by simply pulling out and then re-seating the cable. It’s a pretty rare condition, but not impossible. I’ve had it occur on non-HDMI cables mostly. RCA, in particular, but I used to do support for my mother’s elementary school’s video equipment, long before HDMI came out, and ran across it mostly due to poor maintenance by people who were unfamiliar with electrical connections. Just throwing it out there.

As you say, HDMI 2.0 should have covered it. Unfortunately, there are so many different variables here, so attacking them one at a time makes good sense. I don’t think, based on all of the other devices that do work, that it’s an endemic issue with the Arc, but it’s entirely possible that it is specific to yours. Manufacturing isn’t always perfect, but issues are pretty rare. One of the reasons to do that doing a diagnostic and submitting it to Sonos, and calling them so they look at it makes some sense, at the least to remove that as a potential issue. Allows you to focus elsewhere. 

I have the same issue. My ARC stopped working with my SONY A80J TV. I called SONY and they took remote control of my TV and could not work it out. They asked me to call SONOS which I did and they could not work it out. So, I went back to the store from where I purchased the SONY TV and SONOS equipment (JBHIFI) and they thought it was the TV. So, they sent out a brand new SONY A80J and guess what...same problem.

I had no issues with my previous TV. Also when I originally got my SONY TV it was also fine for a few weeks but then the problem started. This is extremely frustrating. I have tried 3 different HDMI cables. I even purchased an expensive high quality 2.1 HDMI cable.I have tried powering this off and on, unplugging HDMI cable's etc etc. I have tried everything!

I also the TV Setup in the SONOS app does not allow me to connect the ARC to the TV. The app just hangs.

To me this is clearly a SONOS issue. Maybe a HDMI connection issue? Something wrong with the HDMI port maybe??

Given this looks to be a common issue? Is there a recall on the SONOS ARC??

Does anyone have a fix for this??

Please help.

BTW - the ARC works just fine with music streaming. It is just s TV issue.

 

 

I’ve not seen thousands upon thousands of posts about this, so I’m going to have to say it’s not a common issue….but it may be an issue, for sure, there’s no way around that. And specifically, no there has not ben a recall on the Sonos Arc.

The fact that the Arc works with music streaming, and not while playing the TV stream suggests a couple of potential things to look at. I like your thought of an HDMI issue. I’d certainly be trying a different cable (of at least HDMI 1.4, and preferably higher than that) to ensure that it’s not an issue inside either the cable, or the end ports of the cable not making appropriate connections to the pins on either side. Although if you’ve replaced the TV completely, you’ve re-seated the connection at that end, it’s worth still reseating the connection in the Arc to make sure the pins that carry the ARC connection are working. And I’d be really tempted to try a new cable. Unfortunately, I’m one of those packrats, and I’ve got HDMI cables from the beginning, and most of them aren’t labeled well or at all, so it’s hard to tell which version of HDMI they actually are. I should just throw them away, if they’re from before HDMI 1.4, they’re essentially no good for me at this point.

I’d also be checking, although I’d assume both Sony and Sonos asked you to, the TV has HDMI-CEC (which contains ARC) turned on. If the TV isn’t sending a signal on the ARC pins, the Sonos certainly won’t play anything. There was a poster in another thread today who’d accidentally  crimped his HDMI cable and was unaware that he had, it was only when he put in a new one and it worked that he realized when moving the device, the cable had been crimped, and likely had broken.

To be honest, I’d also be double checking what sort of signal the TV is sending to the Arc. There’s a limited number of types of signal the Arc can process, and since you haven’t told us what your test case is, it’s an open possibility. 

But, as you say, you’ve tried multiple cables. It’s hard to remotely figure this out, with only what you’ve provided. I’d certainly suggest that you run another diagnostic on your Arc, and contact Sonos again, and ask for level 2 support. Unfortunately, even a diagnostic wouldn’t show anything if it was a physical issue with the connectors on the Arc, but it gives them a good starting place to eliminate the more common issues that they have on their scripts.

Thanks for your quick reply Bruce. I do feel like I have exhausted the cable side of things. I tried 2 HDMI 2.1 cables as well as an older HDMI cable. 3 cables I have tried and 2 of those are brand new.

I will take your advice regarding contacting SONOS again. I will ask for level 2 support.

Annoyingly, this started a couple of weeks after the 12month warranty period. Hopefully they will still honour it because I know I haven't done anything wrong. I take care of my gear. Hope it doesn't get to that. Hopefully it is not a physical thing but I fear that it is. The HDMI connection into the ARC is not convincing. I would say almost loose. This could be the problem.

I just wanted to post an update about my situation with some thoughts.

After calling with Sonos we confirmed it was the hdmi port on the sonos itself that had been broken somehow. Still unsure of how that could really happen, but that connection on the beam was the issue.

My Sonos was out of warranty, but they gave me discount on a new one and were able to ship one to me before I even sent the old unit back which was nice (had to put a hold on my cc but thats understandable).

I love Sonos, but man, there has got to be something funky going on with the hdmi ports. I’ve never had an hdmi port break on anything before, and I have been a video editor for ten years, gone through all kinds of machines, monitors, and audio systems with hdmi cables. It’s not like I was plugging and unplugging all the time, I maybe unplugged it 4 times in its life. 

Anyways, Sonos responded quickly and helped me right away, and people on here responded fast so there’s not a whole lot to complain about. Just a couple frustrating hours troubleshooting. Hopefully everyone else’s issues resolve as smoothly.

I hear you….but I’ve got two Arcs, and never had an issue with either them, despite the fact that they both have been disconnected and reconnected several times with various HDMI cables as I’ve both moved and installed the HD Fury Arcana device. 

That’s not to say that there wasn’t a “run” of bad HDMI ports, but so far, it’s only really been you two commenting about that, which sure makes it not feel endemic to me. But that doesn’t make it not a problem, either, so I hope that both of your situations end up well. At least in your case, BenAltrac, it seems like it has, mostly. I’ll hope the same for Dazzia72

I’m a 20 year AV guy with a small company, and have sold and installed probably 50 or 60 Sonos Arcs since it was launched. I have run into this problem with at least 8 or 10 installs (that’s getting close to a 20% failure rate). In every case, the Sonos tech support solutions did not work. It wasn’t the cable. It wasn’t the TV (Sony, Samsung, LG, client’s existing Vizio, Panasonic, etc). Unplugging things for 5 minutes did nothing.

 

The problem has come around too often and I find it incredibly hard to believe that all of these TV manufacturers are implementing HDMI standards in such a way that they don’t work with Sonos. After all, Sonos only started using HDMI fro Audio Return Channel a few years ago. TV manufacturers have been working with HDMI, for nearly 20 years for US models. Their sheer experience over the years, and the fact that other sound bars using A.R.C. don’t seem to have this problem lead me to believe Sonos needs to figure out why there are problems with their products using A.R.C. Is it a software/firmware issue? Is it a bad HDMI chip set? Is it poor construction (bad soldering, assembly)?

 

With that said, my most recent Sonos Arc TV audio communication issue is intermittent and I can’t replicate the problem while in the client’s home (3 times in the past week). Unfortunately, the client ends up texting or calling me in the evening to tell me it has dropped AGAIN.

 

Does anybody have a solution that worked, and has not been mentioned in this thread?

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I’m a 20 year AV guy with a small company, and have sold and installed probably 50 or 60 Sonos Arcs since it was launched. I have run into this problem with at least 8 or 10 installs (that’s getting close to a 20% failure rate). In every case, the Sonos tech support solutions did not work. It wasn’t the cable. It wasn’t the TV (Sony, Samsung, LG, client’s existing Vizio, Panasonic, etc). Unplugging things for 5 minutes did nothing.

 

The problem has come around too often and I find it incredibly hard to believe that all of these TV manufacturers are implementing HDMI standards in such a way that they don’t work with Sonos. After all, Sonos only started using HDMI fro Audio Return Channel a few years ago. TV manufacturers have been working with HDMI, for nearly 20 years for US models. Their sheer experience over the years, and the fact that other sound bars using A.R.C. don’t seem to have this problem lead me to believe Sonos needs to figure out why there are problems with their products using A.R.C. Is it a software/firmware issue? Is it a bad HDMI chip set? Is it poor construction (bad soldering, assembly)?

 

With that said, my most recent Sonos Arc TV audio communication issue is intermittent and I can’t replicate the problem while in the client’s home (3 times in the past week). Unfortunately, the client ends up texting or calling me in the evening to tell me it has dropped AGAIN.

 

Does anybody have a solution that worked, and has not been mentioned in this thread?

You say it’s not the tv.. how do you know it’s not? I have a Sony . When I got my Sonos system ( Arc, sub, one SL’s… and Sonos in every room of my house) I had issues with no sound from the Arc. I blamed Sonos for the longest time. It turned out to be the Sony tv. They had to do a software update. It resolved the issue and I’ve never had it happen since. Many with Samsung TV’s have this issue. 

Userlevel 5
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I’m a 20 year AV guy with a small company, and have sold and installed probably 50 or 60 Sonos Arcs since it was launched. I have run into this problem with at least 8 or 10 installs (that’s getting close to a 20% failure rate). In every case, the Sonos tech support solutions did not work. It wasn’t the cable. It wasn’t the TV (Sony, Samsung, LG, client’s existing Vizio, Panasonic, etc). Unplugging things for 5 minutes did nothing.

 

The problem has come around too often and I find it incredibly hard to believe that all of these TV manufacturers are implementing HDMI standards in such a way that they don’t work with Sonos. After all, Sonos only started using HDMI fro Audio Return Channel a few years ago. TV manufacturers have been working with HDMI, for nearly 20 years for US models. Their sheer experience over the years, and the fact that other sound bars using A.R.C. don’t seem to have this problem lead me to believe Sonos needs to figure out why there are problems with their products using A.R.C. Is it a software/firmware issue? Is it a bad HDMI chip set? Is it poor construction (bad soldering, assembly)?

 

With that said, my most recent Sonos Arc TV audio communication issue is intermittent and I can’t replicate the problem while in the client’s home (3 times in the past week). Unfortunately, the client ends up texting or calling me in the evening to tell me it has dropped AGAIN.

 

Does anybody have a solution that worked, and has not been mentioned in this thread?

Try looking this post up …started w years ago andit’s got 740 replies and the title is “ Arc tv sound cuts in and out” .  
https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/arc-tv-sound-cuts-in-and-out-6842963

The Sonons fails to provide TV audion all the time on both systems I have. It really sucks. Unplugging everything is painful. Makes me question if Sonos was the best buy.😑

I’ve had a sonos Arc and a LG GX 77 inch tv for about a year now. Everything was working great until suddenly I had the same issue as most people: TV audio just stopped working for some reason (although music playback worked just fine).
 

I went into my LG tv settings as follows: All settings —> Sound —> additional settings —> I then noticed “eARC” was turned off. I turned it back on and everything works perfectly again.
 

I’m not entirely sure if the eARC setting just turned off on its own or there was some automatic update on the TV that unchecked it.  Anyway maybe this will help someone out there.

Mine did the same thing. This worked for me!

I’ve had a sonos Arc and a LG GX 77 inch tv for about a year now. Everything was working great until suddenly I had the same issue as most people: TV audio just stopped working for some reason (although music playback worked just fine).
 

I went into my LG tv settings as follows: All settings —> Sound —> additional settings —> I then noticed “eARC” was turned off. I turned it back on and everything works perfectly again.
 

I’m not entirely sure if the eARC setting just turned off on its own or there was some automatic update on the TV that unchecked it.  Anyway maybe this will help someone out there.

 

This exact situation happened to me. Sound stopped working seemingly randomly with LG TV. Promoted by your post, I checked the eARC settings and sure enough, it had toggled itself off. After turning back on everything returned to normal. Thank you for your post.

My Sonos Arc has been working fine the last weeks but a few days ago the audio from TV stopped working? Seems like the Audio Return Channel function just stopped?

I still see the wallpaper from Sonos when I choose the HDMI - ARC source on the TV, but no audio.

 I have tried all the regular stuff like unplugging the HDMI, cutting power and fiddled around in the TV settings.

TV: LG 65UH7700

Sonos Arc+sub

nothing else attached to the TV

This seems to be a similar issue that many people have, but I have found no definitive fix. Any ideas?

My Sonos Arc has been working fine the last weeks but a few days ago the audio from TV stopped working? Seems like the Audio Return Channel function just stopped?

I still see the wallpaper from Sonos when I choose the HDMI - ARC source on the TV, but no audio.

 I have tried all the regular stuff like unplugging the HDMI, cutting power and fiddled around in the TV settings.

TV: LG 65UH7700

Sonos Arc+sub

nothing else attached to the TV

This seems to be a similar issue that many people have, but I have found no definitive fix. Any ideas?

I don’t know if anyone remembers the old school N64 or even earlier Nintendo systems. But the red white and yellow cables would always be difficult. You would have to jam a Lego piece a certain way so the male and female parts would catch and you would get picture and sound. That’s exactly what I did with my arc and it started working again. I pushed the hdmi cable in and bent just slightly so a better connection was made to the Sonos HDMI port. I used a rubberband to put some tension on it and give it tgat slight bend. Hope this helps!

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I came here because I just experienced this problem (Arc works fine for streaming music, but nothing from the tv even though it worked fine for months and nothing else has changed). 

For me, I fixed it by going to the Expect Settings in the TV’s Sound menu, disabled HDMI e-ARC mode, set Digital Output Audio Format to Auto, and disabled Dolby Atmos. The sound started working. I then changed the settings back to Auto, Pass-Through, and Enabled respectively. Everything is working normally again. So it did appear to be an issue with my TV  

Hope this helps someone. 
TV: Samsung QN90A

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HELP!  I have a Sony Bravia and Arc.  My Arc was working fine for a couple of weeks and now, all I get is the Sonos screen saver, with no audio.  I’ll call Sony and Sonos, but something tells me neither will be any help to me.  I would hope that Sonos knows how to make their products work with various TVs, but I have a feeling they’re going to just hand me off to Sony and Sony will hand me back to Sonos.  I’m also hoping that someone here has figured out what’s going on and can pass along solutions. 

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HELP!  I have a Sony Bravia and Arc.  My Arc was working fine for a couple of weeks and now, all I get is the Sonos screen saver, with no audio.  I’ll call Sony and Sonos, but something tells me neither will be any help to me.  I would hope that Sonos knows how to make their products work with various TVs, but I have a feeling they’re going to just hand me off to Sony and Sony will hand me back to Sonos.  I’m also hoping that someone here has figured out what’s going on and can pass along solutions. 

Disconnect everything from the TV and unplug the Arc and TV from power for a couple of minutes. Plug everything back in but keep everything disconnected. Make sure Bravia Sync is enabled in the TV settings. Run TV Setup in the Sonos app and follow the app instructions. When the app instructs you, connect the Arc to the TV’s HDMI ARC port using the Sonos-supplied HDMI cable. After the Arc has been successfully connected, connect any other devices to the TV.

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I came here because I just experienced this problem (Arc works fine for streaming music, but nothing from the tv even though it worked fine for months and nothing else has changed). 

For me, I fixed it by going to the Expert Settings in the TV’s Sound menu, disabled HDMI e-ARC mode, set Digital Output Audio Format to Auto, and disabled Dolby Atmos. The sound started working. I then changed the settings back to Auto, Pass-Through, and Enabled respectively. Everything is working normally again. So it did appear to be an issue with my TV.

Hope this helps someone. 
TV: Samsung QN90A

This happened to me a second time recently, and I decided to try each setting one by one to narrow it down to which one actually fixed it. 

This time I only changed the HDMI e-Arc mode from ‘Auto’ to ‘Off’, and the sound started working again. I then changed that setting back to ‘Auto’ and everything was back to normal.

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I came here because I just experienced this problem (Arc works fine for streaming music, but nothing from the tv even though it worked fine for months and nothing else has changed). 

For me, I fixed it by going to the Expert Settings in the TV’s Sound menu, disabled HDMI e-ARC mode, set Digital Output Audio Format to Auto, and disabled Dolby Atmos. The sound started working. I then changed the settings back to Auto, Pass-Through, and Enabled respectively. Everything is working normally again. So it did appear to be an issue with my TV.

Hope this helps someone. 
TV: Samsung QN90A

This happened to me a second time recently, and I decided to try each setting one by one to narrow it down to which one actually fixed it. 

This time I only changed the HDMI e-Arc mode from ‘Auto’ to ‘Off’, and the sound started working again. I then changed that setting back to ‘Auto’ and everything was back to normal.

I have a similar problem with a Samsung Q95T and to solve the problem what I usually do is reboot the TV with the remote control in order to have sound again. 

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On my Samsung I have to hold the stand by button a bit longer for that. You hear a faint click and see Samsung QLED on start up.

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On my Samsung I have to hold the stand by button a bit longer for that. You hear a faint click and see Samsung QLED on start up.

Yes, that is what I usually do.

I had the same problem last night. Spent hours trying to solve it.  Music streamed fine. 
Today I started on HDMI cables. Unplugged HDMI 1 by mistake instead of HDMI Arc. Thought I would see what happens before I went further. Like magic it just worked again.  HDMI 1 input was Apple TV.  I plugged it into HDMI 4 & it everything still works. Didn’t even take out HDMI Arc. 
I sometimes feel between Sonos, Apple & Sony TV things just conflict. 
Hope it keeps working 🙏
 

First I’ve heard of this with an Apple TV. I’d probably double check if the TV has any outstanding updates and apply them, then reboot the TV by unplugging it from the wall for tow or three minutes. 

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