I’d add playlists to the “good idea” section, maybe in bold, as they may be the biggest time investment many users have in their setup.
I’d add playlists to the “good idea” section, maybe in bold, as they may be the biggest time investment many users have in their setup.
Very good call, Stanley. I’ll add it in right away.
Sometimes, we just wish we could start over. Though if you’re considering factory resetting your Sonos devices, there are a few things you should know first.
What a Factory Reset is Not:
- A cure for skipping music.
The majority of cases where music is cutting out or skipping are caused by interference in the WiFi environment (Even if everything else seems fine, and yes, even if you seem to have good bandwidth in that room). Sending music from room to room (or device to device), is rather demanding. Just because one device works fine, it doesn’t mean that all others will as well. Location, distance to router, devices nearby, there are many things that can influence a WiFi device and its ability to effortlessly send and receive information.
- The solution for a room disappearing from the app.
Factory resetting your speaker to solve this problem is rarely (almost never) the answer. You would be better served by doing an evaluation of your network environment, to ensure there is no interference present. Factory resetting the speaker will not address any other existing problems on the home WiFi.
- A good idea for one device households.
Your added music services, room names, EQ and Trueplay settings, you name it - it’s all stored on the speakers themselves. If you are to Factory Reset your only speaker, you are effectively starting from scratch. What can be even more irritating about this is that, as we said above, the underlying problem you were trying to solve is likely still there.
- An answer as to why playlists are incomplete / missing.
Depending on the types of playlists that are not functioning correctly (i.e. those from a music library vs. those from a music service), the causes as to they are not working properly will vary. However, regardless of where they are kept, this issue is not solvable by a factory reset. If you are having problems with your playlists, please visit the link above. If that doesn’t help, start a new topic describing what the source of the playlist is (music service, local library, etc.), as well as what you’ve already tried.
When a Factory Reset might help:
- Your speaker is changing owners.
If your speaker is changing hands, you will want to wipe all of the existing settings and services from it. When you add a device to your system, all of the information from your other Sonos devices is kept on the speakers themselves. (As said above, this includes your added music services, room names, EQ and Trueplay settings, etc.)
- You’ve been advised to do so by a Sonos representative.
At times, a device may actually need to be Factory Reset to resolve the problem. For instance, if there is a suspected hardware fault and all other measures have failed, a Factory Reset can be used as a last resort. This can only really be determined by working directly with a Sonos Technician.
We do not recommend performing a Factory Reset unless explicitly advised to by a member of Sonos staff.
We don’t keep the method of performing a Factory Reset a secret but we strongly advise against doing this unless explicitly advised. The overwhelming consensus of our technicians is that it has the potential to cause far more issues than it’s worth. If, however, you are selling your speaker or giving it away, you can follow these instructions to perform a Factory Reset.
Why can’t I factory reset to an older version as my 4 year old phone apparently isn’t good enough to run Sonos anymore? The first app that has stopped working. Can we get a refund on this product?
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Why can’t I factory reset to an older version as my 4 year old phone apparently isn’t good enough to run Sonos anymore? The first app that has stopped working. Can we get a refund on this product?
Hi there. That’s not quite what a Factory Reset means, I’m afraid. Factory resetting is the act of wiping everything from the speaker so that it can be set up from scratch. The intention being that during setup, it is placed on the most current version of the Sonos software. Furthermore, Sonos devices should always be kept on the most current version available. This is to ensure that our products function correctly.
With respect to your device being outdated, we do try to support mobile phone firmware as long as we can. However, at a certain point we have no choice but to stop offering updates to these older versions. Even when the manufacturer of a device is no longer offering updates, we do still try to keep new versions of the controller app available for as long as possible. Unfortunately, there is only so much we can do in that capacity. Have you contacted the manufacturer of your phone yet, to inquire as to whether you can update your device? If you do, it may be worth asking why a 4 year old device can’t be updated.
I have had several years of maddening drops from what I finally realized was a single SONOS connect on my network which has multiple SONOS devices (AMPS / CONNECTS / SPEAKERS). Did troubleshooting with SONOS 6-9 mos ago which worked for a while then the problem recurred. I DID finally on my own factory reset the offending SONOS connect. I am now 60 minutes in and still streaming when it could not pass 2-3 minutes without failing for the past several weeks. The failures were occurring only while streaming music services and playing via an RC cable connected AVR, audio sent to the CONNECT via RCA cable and streamed to other devices, no issues, only music services were failing. Not sure why factory reset worked other than possibly some bad streaming info hanging around causing an error and stoppage of streaming.
I have had several years of maddening drops from what I finally realized was a single SONOS connect on my network which has multiple SONOS devices (AMPS / CONNECTS / SPEAKERS). Did troubleshooting with SONOS 6-9 mos ago which worked for a while then the problem recurred. I DID finally on my own factory reset the offending SONOS connect. I am now 60 minutes in and still streaming when it could not pass 2-3 minutes without failing for the past several weeks. The failures were occurring only while streaming music services and playing via an RC cable connected AVR, audio sent to the CONNECT via RCA cable and streamed to other devices, no issues, only music services were failing. Not sure why factory reset worked other than possibly some bad streaming info hanging around causing an error and stoppage of streaming.
Hi, Kapdoc. I’m happy to hear it’s resolved. Though Factory Resets can solve some issues some of the time, these instances are in the vast minority. We have found that customers factory resetting too eagerly causes more issues than it resolves. Not to say you were not warranted in doing the reset on this occasion - it sounds like you were rather thorough in your troubleshooting. Unfortunately, it tends to be the case that users will factory reset before trying anything else at all. If you do have any further issues, please be sure to let us know.
