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How do I stop my new Sonos One SL dropping off my controller?

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My new Sonos One SL drops off my controller, or stops functioning on the controller like as if it loses signal. It keeps playing with my Beam and Play 1 in the other room, but at times I can’t change the volume until it finds the system again on the app. Or like just now, I go to listen to music on the One SL and it’s not on the app, unlike my Beam or Play 1. They’re only in a room next to one another, and the room that the SL is in, does not have signal issues for any other devices like an Echo Dot, mobile phones, or laptops etc.

All the devices are wireless. This is happening daily.

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Best answer by Corry P 14 April 2021, 16:44

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This whole thing is ridiculous really. I’ve paid £150 for a speaker that I now don’t want to use, because the moment I switch it on, it’s going to blow my whole system. So what do I do from here? It could be months, to years, before Sonos or BT solve this issue. I would’ve been better getting another Play 1 thinking about it...

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @scottyboi08 

I completely understand how you feel, and sympathise, but Sonos cannot take responsibility for changes to 3rd-party hardware, software, or firmware changes. As mentioned, Sonos makes use of your network in ways that many devices do not, therefore our systems often highlight network issues that other devices do not. This does not mean, however, that we are culpable for those issues.

I don’t like telling people to spend more money in any situation, but if you’re looking for the quickest solution to this problem I can only recommend you replace your ISP-provided-at-the-lowest-possible-cost router for a 3rd-party device that will be more reliable. As you’re with BT, you will either need an ADSL router or configure your new router to use your existing router’s internet connection but run the local network itself. A mesh system (which expands the reach of your WiFi) will also act as a router and will also suffice (but these are typically much more expensive). If you do purchase a router, I highly recommend spending at least £60 on it (from previous personal experience) and go for a known brand.

A slower option would be to wait to see what BT are going to do - I’d certainly contact them if you haven’t already as the more people who do, the more likely they are to action a fix.

Finally, disabling 5GHz on your router, or wiring any one Sonos product to ethernet should bypass the issue for now.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Corry P
Userlevel 7
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I did think so, otherwise this would solve all issues, but thought I’d ask. Right so my options are:

1 - I’ve got to buy a Sonos boost.

2 - I’ve got to get an engineer to extend my broadband to the socket behind the tv, to allow me to wire to the beam.

Any recommendations to which option is cheaper/better?

@scottyboi08

We are hoping BT will resolve this with another firmware update, so I would first recommend the temporary use of a long (they can go up to 100m, so length really isn’t an issue) ethernet cable - if you can convince the Mrs and if it’s practical. To be perfectly honest, it would actually be cheaper (and better for your network as a whole) to get a third-party router that’s better than the one you have than to get a Boost (though I recommend you don’t spend less than about £50-60), or a BT engineer in. A Boost would certainly be a lot less hassle to set up, however, and no appointment necessary.

If you are going to buy a Boost, I recommend you first log in to your account at www.sonos.com/login and select Upgrade to see if you have any discount codes available - once activated, it will be automatically applied to the most expensive item in your shopping basket on our website (if signed in). This is of course about the smallest value discount you can get, so you may want to save any vouchers you have for a future purchase and bigger savings.

 

The more people who contact BT about this issue, the more seriously they’ll take it and the quicker it’s likely to be resolved. So, if anyone out there is experiencing this issue too, please contact BT Broadband support (check my previous post for wording).

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Corry P
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The Smart Hub 2 firmware causing this issue is V0.26.03.01286

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
D
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I have just read out the notes (see earlier post) to BT and they are going to send me out a new hub to see if that resolves the problem.

Fingers crossed!

Airgetlam

It would revert. It’s the connection of the ethernet cable that causes the speaker to create SonosNet. As soon as you remove that cable, it would revert back to your own wifi. 

Bruce
Corry P
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Is there a negative for doing this?

 

That depends on your internet connection. If it’s 70 Mbps or less, you’re unlikely to notice the difference, unless you make a lot of use of screen mirroring to your TV, or something else bandwidth-heavy and local.

If you have 1 Gbps internet (lucky you) then 2.4 Ghz will provide you with less than 1/10th of that, so disabling 5GHz would limit your access speeds.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Corry P
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I was on the chat with Sonos all night last night. We got the beam and play 1 to appear again after endless reboots etc, but then it dropped off again within 5 mins and hasn’t returned since, again only leaving the SL. My controller can’t find them anymore. My BT hub shows the SL is on 5ghz and the other two are on 2.4. Not sure if that is the issue?

Anyway, they couldn’t solve it, so now I need to call the Sonos tech team. What time are they open til? I’ll do it tomorrow.

 

Also, BT are sending me out a disc to see if that sorts out the issue with the speakers, and will move my master socket on from the 21st for me.

We are open 9-5, Mon-Fri in the UK. It’s such a new problem that the agent you speak to might not be aware of it (though there was an internal email about it today) - if this seems to be the case, ask the agent to search for “System not Found on iOS with BT Smart Hub 2”

I’m glad to hear BT will take your router out from under the stairs - once we get past this router issue, that will help WiFi in general, I feel.

To be honest, I don’t think adding a extender disk will help in the slightest, but I guess we’ll have to let them go through their process.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Hi @scottyboi08 

You could use a Boost, yes, but we only recommend you purchase one of those if you cannot get an ethernet cable to a Sonos player, as a wired player will perform the same job as the Boost.

As @Smilja says, that’s a telephone socket - you cannot connect Sonos to it, though yes, you may be able to get your router working there instead (though it should be kept 1m away from your TV and Beam).

 

What should I then do if I can get an Ethernet connected to one of the Sonos? Do I restart all devices, and then set them up. Could you give me instructions.

I did try it with my Play 1, but it then didn’t bring any of them up onto my controller, so didn’t think it would work, but maybe I didn’t follow the correct process.

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What I don’t understand is the Beam and Play 1 have worked perfectly when we moved in June last year. Literally since I bought the SL 2 weeks ago, everything has gone to pieces.

So it’s not the internet, it’s the SL that I believe has caused it to become unstable. This is why I said could it be that the SL is on the 5ghz frequency, and that’s why I can’t see the 2.4 devices on my Sonos controller, because it’s thinking they’re on separate channels? The beam still projects sound through the TV, just can’t control volume via the app, only the remote.

The only issue with calling between 9-5, is you’re likely to ask me to reboot the internet etc, which doesn’t help when working from home now. So not sure how I can do tech support with you, if when I finish work, you’re no longer open to take the calls?

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Update: I remembered that I turned my Sonos One SL off and have kept it turned off, and then turned off the beam and play 1 this morning, and booted them both back up, and now I’ve just checked my app after writing the prior message, and low and behold, they’re both back fine. So it is the SL that is doing something to cause an issue, as the other two work fine without it turned on?

 

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I have around 133mbps. Just ran a check.

So not sure if that will be heavily impacted.

Now as an update, the Sonos One SL is on my controller but the other two have completely dropped off. I just ran another diagnostic 1820905494. 
 

Just all over the place since I got the new SL last week.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Update: I remembered that I turned my Sonos One SL off and have kept it turned off, and then turned off the beam and play 1 this morning, and booted them both back up, and now I’ve just checked my app after writing the prior message, and low and behold, they’re both back fine. So it is the SL that is doing something to cause an issue, as the other two work fine without it turned on?

The Sonos One is the only Sonos device you have that’s willing to connect to 5GHz, and that’s what it’s doing. This is why it’s only this speaker that’s affected (and your iPhone, because it’s doing the same). So, if your iPhone is connected to 5GHz, you’ll presumably only see the Sonos One in the Sonos app. If your iPhone is connected to 2.4 GHz, presumably you’ll only see the Play:1 and Beam. This is a new issue, however, so some of this is supposition on my part. Which frequency band your iPhone connects to will mostly be dictated by it’s distance from the router, objects in the way (like walls) and possibly where the last successful connection to WiFi was found.

Although this seems to be the router at fault, it seems Android devices are not affected in the same way by this BT Smart Hub 2 issue, which, to be honest, is pretty weird. Presumably, that’s why we want anyone affected to call in and create a case so we can get metrics and data on the situation.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A

Update: I remembered that I turned my Sonos One SL off and have kept it turned off, and then turned off the beam and play 1 this morning, and booted them both back up, and now I’ve just checked my app after writing the prior message, and low and behold, they’re both back fine. So it is the SL that is doing something to cause an issue, as the other two work fine without it turned on?

The Sonos One is the only Sonos device you have that’s willing to connect to 5GHz, and that’s what it’s doing. This is why it’s only this speaker that’s affected (and your iPhone, because it’s doing the same). So, if your iPhone is connected to 5GHz, you’ll presumably only see the Sonos One in the Sonos app. If your iPhone is connected to 2.4 GHz, presumably you’ll only see the Play:1 and Beam. This is a new issue, however, so some of this is supposition on my part. Which frequency band your iPhone connects to will mostly be dictated by it’s distance from the router, objects in the way (like walls) and possibly where the last successful connection to WiFi was found.

Although this seems to be the router at fault, it seems Android devices are not affected in the same way by this BT Smart Hub 2 issue, which, to be honest, is pretty weird. Presumably, that’s why we want anyone affected to call in and create a case so we can get metrics and data on the situation.

 

A

Hi, I’ve been directed here from another thread.  Although my problem is different to the one above, disabling 5ghz on the BT router has solved the problem. Obviously I’m now having problems with speed. 
 

I would also like to add that country to the above comment my problem is also affecting android version of the app. 
 

hope this helps in some way. 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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HI @scottyboi08 

What should I then do if I can get an Ethernet connected to one of the Sonos? Do I restart all devices, and then set them up. Could you give me instructions.

I did try it with my Play 1, but it then didn’t bring any of them up onto my controller, so didn’t think it would work, but maybe I didn’t follow the correct process.

Connecting the cable is all you should need to do, other than wait for it to then reboot - other speakers will pick the signal it broadcasts, then immediately prefer that connection over WiFi and reboot too. So, connect the cable then wait about 2 minutes - that's usually all you need to do.

If you are able to connect in the app, you can go into Settings » System » About my System and check for WM:0 next to each room - this means they’re using SonosNet. Some speakers may need a manual reboot - they’ll say WM:1, but it’s unlikely. You can ignore any that say WM:2 - this is satellite speakers connecting directly to a Home Theatre product.

If you are unable to connect, make sure you are connecting the speaker to a LAN/Network/Ethernet port on the router and not a WAN/Internet port. Try another cable if you have one.

Aside from physically moving your router, you can get ethernet cables up to 100m long so by no means are you restricted to the 1m cable you probably have.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @scottyboi08 

Ok, so 2.4 Ghz will only give you half of your total internet speed. Any ethernet-connected devices will not be affected.

Unfortunately, the BT Smart Hub 2 doesn’t allow separation of bands - all you can do is disable one completely.

I recommend that you disable 5GHz temporarily, long enough to see if that’s what the actual issue is, and then decide what to do from there.

To disable 5GHz on BT Smart Hub 2 (it looks like that’s what you’ve got) please do the following:

  1. Open http://192.168.1.254 - this is the configuration page for your router. You can open this on any browser, but I recommend using a screen bigger than a phone’s.
  2. When you see the purple boxes, click on Wireless
  3. At some point (perhaps not right now) you’ll be asked for a password to log in. This can be found on a sticker on the router, and is called the Admin or Settings password
  4. You’ll see a page with details for 2.4 GHz and for 5 GHz. Turn off 5GHz only - there will be an on/off switch for it.
  5. Save your changes.

Test for a day or two until you’re happy it’s better or have determined that it hasn’t helped. If it hasn’t helped, turn 5GHz back on again. If it has helped, but you’re not happy with the loss in speed, I recommend you get in touch with BT and see if they’ll swap the router for one that can split it’s bands (like a BT Hub 6). If they refuse, you’d be better off splashing out on a 3rd-party router instead anyway. Just don’t spend less than about £60.

Best of luck and if you’re unsure about anything, just ask!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
D
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I have been directed here also as my Sonos keeps dropping out and it’s driving me mad!

I have recently upgraded my BT Smart Hub 2 to the Halo 3+ and have had nothing but issues since then.

It is reaching the point where I was going to look for a different music system as it is so frustrating!

I will try going down the BT route to see if I can get some success there but thank you so much for this post - I was beginning to think I was mad!

S
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My Sonos Beam and Play 1 will no longer return.

I even reset my beam, and the controller said it won’t appear in your system tab, but is connected? It plays sound from the TV through HDMI but I can’t adjust anything on the app other than the One SL. I’m not gonna lie I never thought buying another Sonos system would make me want to get rid of them all.

 

It’s infuriating. The 2.4ghz change was a mess, it was so slow. I couldn’t do anything, so had to change back to 5, too.

Smilja

You can ignore any that say WM:2 - this is satellite speakers connecting directly to a Home Theatre product.

 

No, WM:2 is indicator for the satellite speakers being connected to the HT theater product in WiFi (station) mode. In SonosNet the surround speakers (and the Sub) also display WM:0.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
Corry P
Userlevel 7
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No, WM:2 is indicator for the satellite speakers being connected to the HT theater product in WiFi (station) mode. In SonosNet the surround speakers (and the Sub) also display WM:0.

Thanks @Smilja, I’m more used to using a diagnostic than the About My System page!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @scottyboi08 

Thanks for trying.

Please don’t reset Sonos products without being advised to by Sonos technical support - it only helps in very specific circumstances and comes with an inherent risk. Often, you just end up with a worse situation, like not being able to add the speaker back on due to environment issues.

Speaking of environmental issues, what is within 1m of your Beam, other than the TV? On average, whenever your Beam transmits to your router it has to repeat itself 80% of the time. This is not good, and I can see it’s not due to a weak signal.

In addition, what is near the Living Room Play:1?

Edit: And in addition to that, what’s within 1m of your router?

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
S
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HI @scottyboi08 

What should I then do if I can get an Ethernet connected to one of the Sonos? Do I restart all devices, and then set them up. Could you give me instructions.

I did try it with my Play 1, but it then didn’t bring any of them up onto my controller, so didn’t think it would work, but maybe I didn’t follow the correct process.

Connecting the cable is all you should need to do, other than wait for it to then reboot - other speakers will pick the signal it broadcasts, then immediately prefer that connection over WiFi and reboot too. So, connect the cable then wait about 2 minutes - that's usually all you need to do.

If you are able to connect in the app, you can go into Settings » System » About my System and check for WM:0 next to each room - this means they’re using SonosNet. Some speakers may need a manual reboot - they’ll say WM:1, but it’s unlikely. You can ignore any that say WM:2 - this is satellite speakers connecting directly to a Home Theatre product.

If you are unable to connect, make sure you are connecting the speaker to a LAN/Network/Ethernet port on the router and not a WAN/Internet port. Try another cable if you have one.

Aside from physically moving your router, you can get ethernet cables up to 100m long so by no means are you restricted to the 1m cable you probably have.

 

If I connected a speaker temporarily, and then after disconnected it from the router, would that then hold the new network it created, or revert back to the previous settings? 

S

Update: I remembered that I turned my Sonos One SL off and have kept it turned off, and then turned off the beam and play 1 this morning, and booted them both back up, and now I’ve just checked my app after writing the prior message, and low and behold, they’re both back fine. So it is the SL that is doing something to cause an issue, as the other two work fine without it turned on?

The Sonos One is the only Sonos device you have that’s willing to connect to 5GHz, and that’s what it’s doing. This is why it’s only this speaker that’s affected (and your iPhone, because it’s doing the same). So, if your iPhone is connected to 5GHz, you’ll presumably only see the Sonos One in the Sonos app. If your iPhone is connected to 2.4 GHz, presumably you’ll only see the Play:1 and Beam. This is a new issue, however, so some of this is supposition on my part. Which frequency band your iPhone connects to will mostly be dictated by it’s distance from the router, objects in the way (like walls) and possibly where the last successful connection to WiFi was found.

Although this seems to be the router at fault, it seems Android devices are not affected in the same way by this BT Smart Hub 2 issue, which, to be honest, is pretty weird. Presumably, that’s why we want anyone affected to call in and create a case so we can get metrics and data on the situation.

 

It affects my android device.

 

Totally useless for the last week and bit - almost ties in with the new android update to the sonos app. Coincidence??

 

No idea if my smarthub 2 has had a recent firmware update. Any idea how i would find that info?

S
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Hi @scottyboi08 

I completely understand how you feel, and sympathise, but Sonos cannot take responsibility for changes to 3rd-party hardware, software, or firmware changes. As mentioned, Sonos makes use of your network in ways that many devices do not, therefore our systems often highlight network issues that other devices do not. This does not mean, however, that we are culpable for those issues.

I don’t like telling people to spend more money in any situation, but if you’re looking for the quickest solution to this problem I can only recommend you replace your ISP-provided-at-the-lowest-possible-cost router for a 3rd-party device that will be more reliable. As you’re with BT, you will either need an ADSL router or configure your new router to use your existing router’s internet connection but run the local network itself. A mesh system (which expands the reach of your WiFi) will also act as a router and will also suffice (but these are typically much more expensive). If you do purchase a router, I highly recommend spending at least £60 on it (from previous personal experience) and go for a known brand.

A slower option would be to wait to see what BT are going to do - I’d certainly contact them if you haven’t already as the more people who do, the more likely they are to action a fix.

Finally, disabling 5GHz on your router, or wiring any one Sonos product to ethernet should bypass the issue for now.


Rather than buy a new router, wouldn’t a Sonos Boost not resolve my issue full stop?

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