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Beam disappers while using streaming music services


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Hi Everyone, I bought a Beam (Gen1) less than 2 years ago. By end of 2021 I added a Sub (Gen3). They have been working fine for some time, but a couple months ago Beam started disappearing from the app.

Music stops playing, then, in the System info, Beam (sometimes Beam and Sub both) appears without any info, then Beam disappears completely and I get the message: “Sub (?+Sub) - Device is not configured” ” instead of “Living room (+Sub) - Beam” in the System-products menu. After some time, just few mins, the Beam appears again and starts working (till next time).

A few additional info: this happens only using streaming service (Spotify, Amazon Music, Sonos Radio). It never happens when playing TV or streaming from phone or music library (NAS).

At first it happened randomly. It could work fine for 30-45mins or more. Recently, this happens every few mins. Usually, no more than 10, sometimes even in a couple mins.

Sub is wired to my router, Beam is on wifi. They are on Sonos Net - both are listed as “WM: 0”. This is the network matrix:

But sometimes this is what I get:

Todayt I tried a complete factory reset: App, Beam, Sub: no improvements.

I submitted a diagnostics after this happened (and Beam appeared again), ref number #159356607.

 

Can you please help me? This is terribly disturbing.

Thanks in advance, Paolo.

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Best answer by ratty 9 July 2022, 17:20

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6 replies

Sub is wired to my router, Beam is on wifi. 

 

There’s your problem. A home theatre satellite cannot be the sole wired device. 

See https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3209

“Surround speakers or Sub cannot be used as the single wired product.”

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There’s your problem. A home theatre satellite cannot be the sole wired device. 

See https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3209

“Surround speakers or Sub cannot be used as the single wired product.”

 

Bloody...

Thanks! 

Since it works for TV and library, I wasn’t expecting that. And it works for some time with streaming services as well.

I unplugged the Sub and it seems it’s working (for the last 15mins).

Case closed, I hope.

Cheers!

By “unplugged the Sub” I assume you mean the Ethernet cable. Presumably the system is now operating on your WiFi, in ‘wireless’ mode. 

Just for reference, the reasons an HT satellite can’t be the system’s only wired connection are essentially two-fold:

  • The direct wireless connection to the HT master player fluctuates. It changes channel and band automatically, under the command of the HT master.
  • The extra traffic on the connection, caused by it being the main trunk, could affect the latency. Since the buffers on the HT setup are very shallow, to maintain lip-sync, excessive latency could cause dropouts. 
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By “unplugged the Sub” I assume you mean the Ethernet cable. Presumably the system is now operating on your WiFi, in ‘wireless’ mode. 

Exactly. Sub removed from the room, ethernet cable removed, reconfigured the Beam via app (it lost the connection, since Sub was acting as root), Sub added again to the room. 

In the system info Beam is “WM : 1” (wifi) and Sub “WM: 2” (satellite). I’m still perplexed by the Network Matrix: 

I’d probably need to reset the system but, as long as it’s working...

I’ll keep an eye on it for a few days.

You don’t need to reset anything. WM1/WM2 is correct.

The network matrix is pretty meaningless in WiFi mode. The only useful data would be in the left column (the ambient RF conditions), except yours are devices with the latest radio module which doesn’t actually return data in the matrix left column…

In short, you can totally ignore the matrix.

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Just for reference, the reasons an HT satellite can’t be the system’s only wired connection are essentially two-fold:

  • The direct wireless connection to the HT master player fluctuates. It changes channel and band automatically, under the command of the HT master.
  • The extra traffic on the connection, caused by it being the main trunk, could affect the latency. Since the buffers on the HT setup are very shallow, to maintain lip-sync, excessive latency could cause dropouts. 

Thanks for clarifying. This can explains why it used to work for some time and then the Beam would drop.

Probably it could keep with TV and local streaming.

 

You don’t need to reset anything. WM1/WM2 is correct.

In short, you can totally ignore the matrix.

Thanks again!