I am not sure if there has been an “update” or such like in the last week or so but in that time, when I seek to connect to the Sonos on my iPhone, it fades through the connection screen and comes up with the error message and “fix it”. Each time I have to go through the process and 75% of the time I have to turn the router off and back on again, hence disabling house WiFi for about 10 minutes. I would say it has happened every 2 or 3 days in the past week. Connection to my Mac remains fine in the meantime just the iPhone app. It is a pain. Before you ask, it is not a new router etc. I have also had to hard wire the Sonos via ethernet to get it to locate it. Again, only from the iPhone app and not the computer. Answers on a postcard please
The iPhone failed to connect again this morning, hanging on the Rooms tab as normal. I checked and the Private network address is still disabled. The iPad is still connected and works fine as it always has.
soooo frustrating!
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Hi
We have identified a new occurrence of BT Smart Hub 2 devices now not bridging their 2.4GHz and 5GHz connected devices into one network properly. Please see this post I made on a similar thread, specifically the part in blue:
I would very much like you both to contact our technical support team, confirm and document the issue (so we can better identify it for others in the future), then they will refer you to BT for a resolution. Thanks for your patience!
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Ive turned off the 5 GHz channel and it has worked over the last couple of days, but it does seem more sluggish to bring up the rooms than it used to.
This is why we only consider this a temporary workaround - it reduces the speed of your WiFi, sometimes to speeds slower than your internet connection (though on a Smart Hub 2, probably not by much as ADSL is limited in performance).
I’ll contact BT on their forum, and make sure to not mention Sonos. If I’m asked why I am so sure that the two bands are not communicating though, what would you suggest I say, to not bring Sonos into the conversation?
We recommend that you contact BT, not mentioning Sonos, but to state that “devices connected on 5ghz are not able to communicate with devices connected to 2.4Ghz and it appears the connections are being erroneously isolated.”
If they do push you, sure mention Sonos, but let them know you have already been in touch with our technical support (that’s me) and we’re spotting this issue only with the latest firmware available for the Smart Hub 2, have tested it, and confirmed that it is not only Sonos that’s affected.
I might also look at getting a high quality ADSL (?) replacement for the Smart Hub 2….any particular recommendations that have great coverage, and full gigabit port support?
I can’t, but I’m sure someone in the Community can.
Just as a follow up. On the BT forums, many were saying an update that was pushed out fixed their issue with Sonos, however when I checked I was still on an older firmware.
I contacted BT support, aided by the recent BBC article that highlighted the issue, and when they checked they said my router had for some reason failed in the update pushed out.
So they sent me out a new Smart Hub 2 which I set up today and after reconnecting everything, Sonos is working great (even when my Play 3 isn’t wired into router) and I’ve been able to keep the 5Ghz band on.
So all good. My BT firmware version is v0.24.04.11017-BT which came preinstalled on the router, just in case anyone wants to compare and they are still having issues.
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Hi All
A little advice for making sure what the issue is: If any one Sonos app on a particular device can always connect to Sonos, then your Sonos system is not the source of the problem, and the network or it’s configuration is where you should look next.
If contacting BT (or any other networking-related company), it’s best not to mention any other brands as those brands will be blamed. So, if contacting BT due to this particular issue, you should mention to them that “the router does not appear to be bridging the connection between the two frequency bands and so devices connecting to 2.4 GHz are unable to communicate with devices connected to 5GHz as the router seems to be erroneously isolating the two bands”. Ask them if your router recently updated it’s firmware and if so can it be rolled-back?
If you mention Sonos, they will say to get in touch with us. Frankly, the identity of the connecting client devices is irrelevant - your router’s job is to allow connected devices to communicate, end of story.
so decided to turn off the 5 GHz wifi in the Smart Hub 2, and then found this lengthy thread. Everything has started working again, so far - I will see if it still is in a couple of days, and might try turning the 5 GHz wifi back on.
All of our devices still work after a day with the 5 GHz wifi turned off.
The firmware of the BT hub was updated on 8 April to v0.26.03.01286-BT (see Home → Advanced settings - Technical log - Information).
I am hoping that BT fix the issue before I need more wifi bandwidth.
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It should be pointed out that most ISP-provided routers are somewhat sub-par - which makes sense, as the bigger operators have to literally give millions of the things away for free, so they are, by definition, cheap.
In all cases of a BT Smart Hub 2 suddenly not allowing your iPhones to connect to your Sonos, a third option is to replace your router with a third-party ADSL router (I personally recommend spending at least £60, from personal experience), or to add a router and tell the BT router (which would still act as a gateway to the internet) not to run the network. Configuration will be required, but should be explained in your new router’s manual. If the new router is an addition, the BT router should be told not to broadcast WiFi or perform DHCP and you shouldn’t ethernet-wire anything, other than the new router, to it.
If you do this, it’s easiest to make the new WiFi credentials exactly match the old - then you don’t have to reprogram all your devices.
Options 1 and 2 are to disable the 5GHz broadcast on the BT router or to wire a Sonos product to the router with ethernet. Edit: Both of these may be needed.
Hi, and again thanks for the reply.
I do apologise, yes I meant it is a BT smart hub2.
in answer to your question, when I say ‘it works’ I mean it can find the Sonos system immediately without any trouble shooting or re booting the wifi. The wifi works fine on all my devices but the two I mentioned never find the Sonos system unless I reboot the router even if it’s currently in use and being controlled by either the laptop or the old iphone.
All the devices connect seamlessly to the wifi / internet. I wouldn’t be posting in this forum if there was an issue with my wifi, I’d be speaking to BT.
I’ll give you an example, I start Sonos S1 with my laptop, choose some music and play on all 4 rooms grouped together, it starts playing and is working like a dream.
I walk into the kitchen, let’s say I want to change volume or skip a track, take out my iPhone load Sonos app and the system can’t be found by that device. Even though music is playing and if I walk back to the laptop I can change volume of skip no problem.
last night I completely gave up and hard wired one of the play 5s via Ethernet cable to the router now all devices work fine… for now. I expect that’s why you have no trouble seeing it all from your end.
I guess I will have to live with the fact that one of my speakers needs to be hardwired but it’s not ideal at all. It is sitting in my hallway where I never listen to music. It’s now a ‘£500 enabler’.
I am also having similar problems.
In the last 3 or 4 days I have had problems connecting to Sonos system via the Sonos 1 Controller on both my iPhone and iPad both recently updated to IOS 14.4.2.
It works for part of the day and then when I try to change the radio station or play music it tells me I am not connected. I initially thought it was a problem with Amazon Music but I have now deleted this service from the Sonos and both the phone and iPad and am still having problems connecting to Sonos system.
Like others I have
- repeatedly disconnected from the router and that works temporarily,
- I have rebooted both my phone and iPad and that doesn’t work for any length of time either
- removed the app from both phone and iPad and reinstalled and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I get a message saying it can’t find the system and when I go through the process of reconnecting to the system by pressing the relevant buttons on one of the speakers it tells me it’s connected only then it takes me straight back to the screen telling me it can’t find the system.
The router is a BT Smart Hub 2 but no changes have been made to that and we have used it since September 2020 with no problems, it is only the last few days I have encountered problems.
For some reason my husband is able to use his iPad (also on 14.4.2) to access the system.
I note that there was an update to the Sonos 1 Controller recently and wonder if this could be part of the problem?
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Have BT ever produced a router that didn’t have some issue with Sonos gear? Asking for a friend...
I appear to have resolved my connection problem now after moving some furniture around to let move the router and one of my Sonos 1 speakers close enough to plug the speaker into the router via a Ethernet cable. It has now worked for 24 hours without losing connection ...fingers crossed it keeps working.
I am having the same problem, my windows laptop works fine…. every morning, afternoon, evening and night if I want to use my iPhone to control my system (Sonos S1, running 2 x gen1 play 5s, 1 x Sonos one and 1 x play one) I have to trouble shoot and end up turning my router on and off. I’ve updated my OS, S1 app, changed privacy setting and every other fix possible. THIS IS DRIVING ME MAD!
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An update: Android devices are in fact affected by this issue (which, frankly, makes a lot more sense), so if you have an Android device and a BT Smart Hub 2, then this thread relates to you too.
Hi Cory and thanks again for your speedy reply, it’s nice to know you care!
I will ask my boss for some time off work so I can call tech support then be referred back to BT and call them also.
Bring on the pain!
I think I have done all the suggestions - and whilst I thought disabling privacy settings on the iPhone Wi-fi connection worked, it doesn’t. The iPhone still loses connection to the Sonos and again, the only way to reconnect is to reboot the Wi-fi. BUT …. it seems that if I disable privicy settings on the iPhone Wi-fi - sometimes the iPhone finds Sonos. If it doesn’t, if I turn privicy back on again - it generally does locate the Sonos. Clearly this isn’t ideal and there is clearly a problem between an iPhone running iOS 14.4.2 and Sonos - who knows whose “fault” that is but this fudge seems to be working for me now.
Note. It doesn’t seem to relate to the iPhone model. I have an old iPhone 6 - same thing on that. I’m on an iPhone 11 - same issue. My daughter has an iPhone 12 - same issue. Between Apple and Sonos it would be nice if you could sort this out for your customers - please!
There are a few threads on the BT Community board where other people have been having issues since a firmware update for Smart Hub 2 version 0.26.03.01286. No one has mentioned having problems with Sonos but having problems with connections to other things. Seems the update was end March/beginning April.
Thanks for the reply, I have nothing that extends the wifi, I have BT home hub2, as I stated above, twice. Nothing has changed in the past few weeks. Below are the things I have done.
Updated Sonos S1 app on all devices, changed Local Network permissions on iOS, turned OFF the privacy setting, disabled Extended UPnP Security.
Nothing works for more than around 12 hours, today I worked from home so didn’t leave the house, same thing this evening. Could not find system but then found system when I turned the router on and off again.
I find it very hard to accept that this is anything to do with my wifi, my old iPhone se running OS14.4.2 works perfectly every time.
My windows laptop also works perfectly.
It is only my new model IPhoneSE running the same OS, 14.4.2 and my partners android phone that have the problem.
Any more suggestions ?
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Hi
Welcome to the Sonos Community!
As your Mac connects, we know your Sonos system is online (I can also see it’s online right now). Therefore, we have to assume that whatever the problem is, it’s to do with the network or the phone.
When you turn your router off, do you leave it off for a good 30 seconds or so? If not, please try that. Please also reboot your iPhone too.
Please also check which WiFi your phone is connecting to - if you are connected to a guest WiFi, for example, you’ll get connected to the internet but not to Sonos.
Do you have another phone/tablet you can try? Does it do the same?
You mentioned hard-wiring Sonos to ethernet - does that make the system connect on your iPhone?
Thanks. I’ve tried all of this but sadly, it doesn’t eliminate the issue. It seems that every time my phone loses the Wi-fi (say because of leaving the house) the connection to the Sonos is lost and the only way to restore it is via a reset of the entire Wi-fi. If it was once in a blue moon it wouldn’t be an issue but it’s literally every time. If the app was updated a few days ago (I don’t know how to check when it was last updated) then that might imply a glitch in the update? I’m going to try uninstalling the app on the phone and reinstalling to see if that makes any difference.
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If the app was updated a few days ago (I don’t know how to check when it was last updated) then that might imply a glitch in the update? I’m going to try uninstalling the app on the phone and reinstalling to see if that makes any difference.
In my experience, it’s more to do with the reboot that happens during the update than the update itself, though this isn’t impossible, of course.
There are a couple of new settings on iPhones that can directly affect it’s ability to connect to Sonos:
- Local Network permissions on iOS 14+. This option can be found in the iPhone’s settings, under Sonos.
- Private Address on iOS 14+. It’s not clear to me why this causes an issue, or if it’s confirmed that it does at all, but there’s a thread about it here:
Reinstalling the Sonos app is a good way to fix both of these issues/options in one fell swoop, so please do so - good idea!
I have exactly the same problem on my iPhone 11, iOS 14.4.2 It’s only been doing it in the last week or two. My iPad 14.4.2, still connects all the time but my wife’s older iPad has the problem. No router change or WiFi change, it’s just happening and driving me nuts. It’s Sonos 1, with two Play 5’s, a play 3, Sonos One with Alexa.. and Alexa operates it fine. I note that my iPad has not updated the Alexa app that is pending but my iPhone updated it a week or so ago…. could it be that. We can’t be the only ones with this problem recently occurring. I’m in double figures for router reboots, iPhone reboots after leaving Sonos devices off for 30 minutes….very fed up and disappointed
Ah, I just saw the link to Disabling Private Address, I did that on my iPhone, opened the Sonos 1 App… and it worked straightaway!!
What’s weird is my iPad has the same setting still enabled but works perfectly.
Does the app need updating to cover a bug causing this?
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I have exactly the same problem on my iPhone 11, iOS 14.4.2 It’s only been doing it in the last week or two. My iPad 14.4.2, still connects all the time but my wife’s older iPad has the problem. No router change or WiFi change, it’s just happening and driving me nuts. It’s Sonos 1, with two Play 5’s, a play 3, Sonos One with Alexa.. and Alexa operates it fine. I note that my iPad has not updated the Alexa app that is pending but my iPhone updated it a week or so ago…. could it be that. We can’t be the only ones with this problem recently occurring. I’m in double figures for router reboots, iPhone reboots after leaving Sonos devices off for 30 minutes….very fed up and disappointed
I don’t see how it could be the Alexa app, no. Did you follow the steps above and reinstall the apps? If so, and you’re still getting the connection issue, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system.
Thank you Corry.
Yes I have deleted the App and data twice, along with router reboots and Sonos devices being off, then switched on after router and iPhone reboots. Reinstalling the App, worked but only until the next morning, when it failed to connect again on both occasions and hangs on the Rooms tab.
As I posted earlier, disabling the Private network address, allowed the Sonos 1 app to come straight back into life….but lets see if it still works tomorrow.
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Sorry to hear you’re still having problems. Do you have a mesh network, or anything that extends the reach of your WiFi?
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