Flaky control issues seem to be increasing

  • 19 November 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 177 views

We have a Play:5 and 3 Play:1s in our home system. Everything worked great for the first few years, but it seems like every time there’s an update, things get less reliable. Examples:

  • System loses a speaker and it has to be added back. Seems to happen every few months.
  • System can’t find the speaker when we’re trying to add it back.
  • App isn’t able to control the volume, mute, or un-mute a specific speaker -- this is especially true for a particular one of the Play:1s when controlling from a Macbook Pro. Happens several times a month, sometimes several times a week.
  • App isn’t able to add a speaker to or remove it from a group. Again, especially true for that particular Play:1. Happens several times a month, sometimes several times a week.
  • System loses track of a favourite source (especially CBC Radio, especially on one particular user’s iPhone).
  • Update fails because “something unexpected happened”. (I design software interfaces and this is … not what I would consider ideal interface design.)

It would be great to put these issues behind us and just enjoy the system, which -- when it’s working -- is great.


This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

1 reply

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @Stephen Aberle.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for bringing this to our attention and for doing the extra effort on doing the extra basic troubleshooting step. I do understand the frustration as it seems to work in the past and yet based on the situation it all of a sudden stopped working.

I would like to recommend some basic troubleshooting steps and check what would be the possible results once the issue re-occurs.

  • Can we try rebooting the router? (unplug the router from power and plug it back after 10-15 seconds)
  • Once the internet connection has been restored, let us reboot the Sonos device connected to the router via ethernet cable (if applicable). If not, Let us reboot the Sonos device nearest to the router. (unplug the Sonos device from power and plug it back after 10-15 seconds).
  • After the Sonos device displays a solid white light, let us try to reboot the next Sonos device until all of them are finally rebooted.
  • Then, we may want to consider relaunching the Sonos app. ( Force close the Sonos app from the running background and re-launch the Sonos app).
  • Let us check if the Sonos app would now reconnect to the existing Sonos system.
  • If the Sonos app still has the same problem, we may want to try rebooting the mobile controller.  (turn it off and turn it back on).
  • We may also want to consider trying a different controller to check if we may have a different result. (different mobile phone)
  • We may want to consider submitting a diagnostic so we can further check what is going on.
  • Can we also try having 1 Sonos device permanently connected to the router via ethernet cable so we can use SonosNet (Sonos wireless network exclusive for Sonos devices only) instead of your Wifi Network?

After following the recommendations above accordingly and still have the same issue, I would like to recommend provid9ong some details so we can check our internal articles to see what might be causing this issue.

  • Router make and model.
  • Wifi extender/Wifi Booster/Wifi repeater make and model if applicable.
  • Secondary router make and model if applicable.
  • Mesh system like Deeco, Ubiquity, Google Mesh, or eero mesh system if applicable.
  • Other devices connected to the router (wired connection).
  • Other devices connected to the Wifi network (wirelessly).

I hope this helps.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help out.

Thanks,