Is your music cutting out? Or are your players disappearing from the app?


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Hi all,

If you’re experiencing any of the above, or your app is sluggish, then your Sonos set up may be suffering from “wireless interference”. In the video, you will see how to fix this annoying issue, and get back to listening to your favorite tunes, uninterrupted.



Feel free to let us know how to get along with the video. If you need any further assistance, we’re ready to help! :D

Please note that we also have a support article explaining how to change the wireless channel here: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1219

Still having problems? Grab a diagnostic and add it to your reply.

Sonos Controller App for iOS or Android
From the Sonos music menu, touch Settings > Advanced Settings menu > Submit Diagnostics.

Sonos Desktop Controller App for Mac or PC
Select Submit Diagnostics from the Help menu.

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385 replies

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I think I will "wait" before introducing Alexa to our Sonos household in that case .... I can see myself getting seriously agitated if ducking were happening around me 🙂
Heh. In a single person household, it doesn't really bother me. But I can see the frustration that some are having with it. If I had a daughter who was chatty with Alexa, while I'm listening to music in my den, it would make me batty, too. Well, more batty than I already am.
I have multiple sonos devices when they are grouped some will randomly fade in and out, music playback will either stop or skip to the next song but they work fine when not grouped.

Diganostic: 8167362
No problems with Sonos until most recent update! Now nothing but issues...
Userlevel 2
Hi,

I have been experiencing dropouts on my sonos system so I have changed a couple of things:
1. Adjusted the Wireless Channel for 2.4 and 5ghz for the main router - (11 and 36 respectively)
2. Moved any other wireless device (thermostat, telephone etc) away from the router
3. I have a 15Mb download so i dont think it is that

I still got some dropouts so I have now added a boost to the set-up (This is now configured for Channel 1) and all seemed fine for a few hours but then i started getting dropouts again.

Everything is updated to the latest versions, I have two play1 and a play5.

Would someone be able to take a look at the diagnostic and recommend any other actions that i might be able to take.

Diagnostic number is: 8192808

Thanks very much in anticipation :D

Chris
I too have had several drop outs of Sirius and Pandora. When I connect to pandora through Sonos the station drops often when I connect using pandora app it drops after about 29 minutes. Diagnostic 8200138
Mine is still cutting out and I am not sure if it is my iMac (I also have an iPhone, iPad, Mac Air, and an iHeadache) or the Sonos system. It keeps dropping after about 4 songs. I changed to channel 11 and I modified to a compressed setting. My diagnostic number I just sent in is 8219477. I have 2 Play-3's and 2 Play-5's together with one bridge. I've never had any problems before and I sense someone may be onto something with the most recent updates. Thoughts?
Any guidance is much appreciated.
I doubt it has much to do with the recent software updates, other than an issue being exposed during the soft reboot done by the speakers at that point. Basically, in most cases at least, what's happening is that the router is losing its place in the IP assignment table. Fairly easy to rectify, you have to unplug your Sonos devices, reboot the router, and then plug the Sonos speakers back in one at a time, allowing each to have enough time to fully boot up before moving to the next.

A more permanent fix would be to go in to the router manual, and figure out how to assign reserved IP addresses to all of your Sonos devices (and might as well do everything else, while you're mucking about in there).
I'll give that a try and check back in with you later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for the guidance.
Hmmm... Still doing it after about 6 songs... About 15 minutes. I noticed my iMac goes to sleep after 15 minutes. I'm adjusting that bar to "Never" to see if that makes a difference. (However, I could control music from my iPhone or iPad.
I just dug up the manual to my Asus RT-AC68U... Just trying to get it set up. So much for plug and play!
BTW... Does Sonos work with 5G? Would that make a difference?
Good catch. Yes, your Mac going to sleep would cause it to stop, if you're playing music that's on your Mac's hard drive. I've actually switched over to an always on NAS. I think you can also click on the "Wake for LAN access" box, but switching it to "never" should work too.

Heh. Not sure how to answer your other question. No, it doesn't work with 5Ghz, only with 2.4Ghz. Kinda. For streaming music and connection to the wifi, that's true. There's an odd case with the PLAYBAR and PLAYBASE where they communicate with the surround speakers and SUB via 5Ghz, as it has lower latency. But you don't have access/see that connection, it just looks like a normal connection to the app.

There's been a fair share of people who post in these forums about trying to connect their systems with only a 5Ghz connection, to no avail. It's pretty plain on the instructions / product sheet, etc that it's a 2.4Ghz connection. But few of us read that stuff. I just happened to look at the Sales website yesterday to look up something else and saw it, otherwise I wouldn't have remembered that it said so. It also was in the manual that came with the used PLAY:5 gen 1 I got on Tuesday. 🙂
I thought everyone should know that I have an iMac and with the recent update (by Mac), the computer snoozes after 15 minutes unless you adjust the time in your system preferences. This was the only fix for me and it works perfectly now! Give it a try!
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Has anyone got this fixed yet?

I only have issue where my 5.1 setup stops working. In the middle of watching something, all of a sudden the rear play 1's drop out. The sub may also be dropping but its hard to tell.

I disagree that it’s wireless interference because it only began happening after an update. I’ve tried new channel, my playbar is in boost mode, I have even plugged in other play 1s in other rooms to Ethernet as well.

It’s so annoying to be watching a movie and suddenly you lose surround sound. I’m pretty sure not just the play1s but the sub also drops out. It makes the entire 5.1 setup a waste of money. Last time I reported a diagnostic nobody replied. Wish I could just revert my Sonos back to the update before it stopped working properly. The new app is still a struggle to navigate anyway.
Connection problems which appear suddenly are often caused by network problems, not Sonos problems. The typical cause is duplicate IP addresses. These often show up after an update or power outage because a reboot requires the device to request a new IP, and the router, having lost track of current IP assignments, issues a new IP that is in use by another device. To cure this, do the following:

Reboot/power cycle your devices in the following order:

Modem
Router
Switches or hubs
Wired Sonos units
Wireless Sonos units
Computers/printers
Wireless devices - phones/tablets etc.

Allow each device to come back up before proceeding to the next. Note that you can permanently prevent duplicate IP addresses by assigning an IP to each device's MAC address in the router setup. See your router manual for details.
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Yeah... Restarting all my stuff can't be the fix. I have done that already and it comes back. It's whatever was changed in the 7.4 update I think.

It drops out randomly, out of nowhere. Last night it was in the middle of watching Ozark on Netflix. Then it goes back to being fine for hours.

When I bought all my Sonos stuff I was impressed with how flawless it was compared to something like airplay. Now its dropping out the same way as Airplay used to and its depressing me. I spent a ton of money on Sonos products that worked fine until that god forsaken update.

Up next I will try the last wireless channel I haven't tried yet, but I doubt that's the issue. If it were an IP conflict, they wouldn't work at all, not just stop working whenever they felt like it. I appreciate your suggestion but it's frustrating to see the same suggestion and there's literally page and pages of threads with people having the same issue.

Connection problems which appear suddenly are often caused by network problems, not Sonos problems. The typical cause is duplicate IP addresses. These often show up after an update or power outage because a reboot requires the device to request a new IP, and the router, having lost track of current IP assignments, issues a new IP that is in use by another device. To cure this, do the following:

Reboot/power cycle your devices in the following order:

Modem
Router
Switches or hubs
Wired Sonos units
Wireless Sonos units
Computers/printers
Wireless devices - phones/tablets etc.

Allow each device to come back up before proceeding to the next. Note that you can permanently prevent duplicate IP addresses by assigning an IP to each device's MAC address in the router setup. See your router manual for details.
In almost 10 years of helping out here, I can count on one hand the number of times a properly executed IP refresh did not cure what people insist is an "update problem". But hey, I tried. :8
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I have cutting out problems, songs rarely get to the end before skipping to the next. My system should be using the mesh network but is reporting it is using wm0, wm1 and wm2 wifi modes. Submitted diagnostic 8238201. It used to work quite well but songs are constantly skipping before they get to the end
Need help with a diagnostic. Thanks! DIAG: 8232915
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Hello,
I have multiple Sonos devices. Everything was working fine up until a few months ago. The last few months I'm experiencing frequent drop outs, my players disappearing from the app, the controller being unresponsive and unable to find rooms. I have tried everything suggested on the forum but the problem keeps on coming back. My Sonos system is extremely unreliable and i'm becoming slightly frustrated. Ant advice or help would be appreciated. DIAG: 8239752 Thanks in advance.
Hi there

Out of two speakers we have, one is always visible in the app, the other drops out/comes back/repeat.

I've switched off the offending speaker, reconnected it, etc.

Diagnostics sent - 8245950.
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IP Address conflict.

Best is to first go in and assign all your Sonos and other important network devices new IP addresses reserved in your router if you are able / know how to.

After you have done that / or if you don't know how - next shut off as many network devices as you can so as to close out the offending device that is incorrectly holding on to an ip address. Once as many network devices turned off reboot router. Turn back on network devices so they all get new fresh ip addresses.

This should solve your problems and even eliminate others you haven't noticed because of the issue.
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I have cutting out problems, songs rarely get to the end before skipping to the next. My system should be using the mesh network but is reporting it is using wm0, wm1 and wm2 wifi modes. Submitted diagnostic 8238201. It used to work quite well but songs are constantly skipping before they get to the end
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All your units in about my Sonos under settings should say wm:0 or wm:1. Which is it. And there is no wm:2
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All your units in about my Sonos under settings should say wm:0 or wm:1. Which is it. And there is no wm:2
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According to the “about my Sonos system” screen in the app 2 speakers are on “wm:2” 3 of them are on “wm:1” and the speaker that is connected via cable to the router is on “wm:0”. So according to the app there is a wm:2, screenshot attached