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Sonos is playing but no sound from any source

  • 12 April 2021
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Sonos is playing, but none of my components is playing any sound. This includes my various speakers and my Port.  Tried regrouping, made sure system was up to date, everything.  Nothing works. Also tried different sources - my library, stations. In all cases, Sonos claims it is playing, but no sound.

And Sonos support is almost non-existent. I have been waiting for almost half an hour for a live agent on chat.

What happened to Sonos? Why has it become so unreliable?

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Best answer by Xander P 12 April 2021, 15:36

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32 replies

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Going back to SonosNet is still a possibility, but I will pursue this path for a bit longer. Since I posted my last message, the incident happened again, and I was able to solve it under our current theory. In contest, I never found a good fix to my SonosNet issues. 
 

I generated two sets of diagnostics - before and after my ad-hoc fix - and shared it with the support supervisor. Waiting to hear back.  

J

@HarvE .  I still think your determination to avoid SonosNet is misguided.  By all means, try everything else first if you wish, but if you cannot resolve your issues without it, please give it a try.

I hope that you get this sorted one way or another - I am totally convinced that that is possible.

Smilja

Also learned that, when using the Wi-Fi mesh, I should designate the Port as the group coordinator since it is operates at 5 GHz. I was following the protocol from trying to troubleshoot my older SonosNet - designating a closer Play 3 as the group coordinator but it operates at 2.4 GHz. 

 

The SonosNet is a dedicated MeshNet, where every node acts as extender to the mesh, so it makes sense to select the closest item to the Root Bridge as group coordinator. In WiFi mode there’s no such mesh, thus keep in mind that 5 GHz frequencies, while providing faster speeds at shorter range, barely penetrate walls.

»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)
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Just thought I would report back after working with a Sonos support supervisor earlier this week.

Apparently, during idle times, the devices are ungrouping, even though the app thinks they are grouped. When I start the system after this idle period, a low level message is not getting though to regroup. A fix is to ungroup and regroup in the app, but there may be a time lag of several minutes before it happens (again, despite the app behavior).

Also learned that, when using the Wi-Fi mesh, I should designate the Port as the group coordinator since it is operates at 5 GHz. I was following the protocol from trying to troubleshoot my older SonosNet - designating a closer Play 3 as the group coordinator but it operates at 2.4 GHz. 
 

Trying to reproduce the problem again empirically and generate diagnostics for further review. Trying to stick with eero since the SonosNet problems I had (audio gapping) were more chronic. 

 

J

@HarvE .When you have added the Boost and updated, check in About My System that every Sonos device except the Move has WM:0 next to it,  not WM:1. For speakers connected wirelessly WM:0 indicates that the speaker is connected to SonosNet.

You may need to reboot some speakers to achieve this.

You may also need to experiment with the SonosNet channel in Settings, System, Network. 

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Thanks. Willing to try (almost) anything at this point, except move to a new place.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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@HarvE 

But you suggest plugging the Boost into a non-gateway Eero mesh node, right? In the article above, Eero says NOT to do that (yes, they capitalize NOT). 

I suggest you do whatever works best for your enjoyment of your Sonos system - that’s the priority here. Ideally (and if you ask tech support they will say this), wire Sonos to the router or main Eero node (assuming you don’t have dual DHCP as discussed earlier) as mentioned in the Eero article. Simpler connections are usually better.

If that location has a particularly bad environment however (the router and the Eero hub are already transmitting WiFi and the Boost would add a third transmission. Add a WiFi-capable printer or a home automation hub to the mix and there’s four or more WiFi networks), then wiring to a node instead may be better, in your case. The router, Eero Hub and Boost (and a printer, etc.) would all like to have 1m space from each other and things just might get too crowded or impractical. Of course, even if your old router is still running the network, there’s no longer a need for it to transmit WiFi so you could disable this to improve matters.

But really, as you’re using large groups, I recommend you do both. Wire the Boost to the router/hub and a speaker to one of the nodes, or the other way round - whatever fits your setup the best.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Someone on Reddit pointed me to an article at eero that says the same thing: use SonosNet for systems with more than three zones: 

Eero article

But you suggest plugging the Boost into a non-gateway Eero mesh node, right? In the article above, Eero says NOT to do that (yes, they capitalize NOT). 
 

Despite my venting yesterday (again, sorry), I am open to suggestions. I also have a callback with a Sonos support supervisor tomorrow.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Large groups - the largest group is 6 rooms, one of which is a stereo pair.

When I used Boost in the past, we could never solve the music skipping problem due to interference. That’s why I migrated Sonos to eero in the first place.

Hi @HarvE 

6 Rooms is a fairly large group - we’d recommend 2 devices hard-wired for a group that size. The choice of speaker that’s put in charge is also very important. If you had wired speakers, one of those would be best, or one closest to the Boost (once it’s connected).

As Eero mesh (and other meshes) don’t allow separation of bands, the only way to really fix the deauthorisation issue is to bypass Eero and use SonosNet instead - I, or Sonos Support, can certainly help with issues that occur then easier than we can fix deauthorisations.

I understand that this is probably very frustrating to hear as it’s the reason you got Eero, but the mesh will still help other devices and home coverage. Although it’s not ideal from our technical perspective, now that you have a mesh you may find that the best place to locate your boost isn’t by the router but wired to one of your mesh nodes, elsewhere. There are certainly more options now, with the mesh.

 

 

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

Your best hope for a stable system is to try the Boost again in this new situation, and then if necessary to work with Sonos Support  (if you can get through) and/or the Sonos staff and users on this forum, if there are issues. 

It is of course your right not to try this but an unstable setup is the only alternative. 

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Large groups - the largest group is 6 rooms, one of which is a stereo pair.

When I used Boost in the past, we could never solve the music skipping problem due to interference. That’s why I migrated Sonos to eero in the first place.

Smilja

The SonosNet does provide a stable connection, when wireless channels are appropriately setbecause you are experiencing wireless interference and you ought to do something about that. Further, how many devices do you group together at the same time?

»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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@HarvE 

Due to the deauthorisations, I recommend you go back to the Boost and do what you can to minimise the skipping. Keeping the Boost 1m (3 feet) from and WiFi Access Points is a good start. If you typically use large groups, a second wired unit would definitely help, even if wired to a mesh node.

The dual DHCP issue is definitely worth checking in either case as that’s more to do with network management than WiFi reception.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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I am sorry my frustrations came through so strongly. But, the reason why you see a Boost in my account is that I tried this in the past, and no matter what I tried there was some type of interference that created skips and lags in different components. I upgraded my Eero to Pro 6 and migrated to that, and no more skips, but these events instead. It is frustrating. But apologies for losing mycool; I do miss the Twitter account. That was great.  

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @HarvE 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had such trouble getting in touch with our technical support team - all I can suggest is trying at a different time of the day.

It seems likely that at least part of your Sonos system’s issue is that some of your Sonos products - those that are not able to connect to 5 GHz - are being steered towards that frequency by your Eero mesh (band steering). This results in a Deauthorisation error, which I see happening on quite a few of your rooms. As you cannot separate the bands on a Eero mesh, I therefore recommend you hard-wire a Sonos product to the main Eero hub (or to a switch connected to the hub) via ethernet. This will let Sonos create it’s own WiFi that the speakers will be “happier” with. As you seem to have a Boost on your account which is not showing up in your diagnostics, I recommend you either reconnect this or check to see that it still has power. If the Boost is non-functional, please wire a speaker/player instead. Any Sonos device wired to your network should ideally be kept at least 3 feet away from your router or mesh nodes. You could ethernet-wire to one of your other Eero nodes, but the main one is highly recommended. As you have a sizable system, you may get better results if you ethernet-wire more than one device (ideally at opposite ends of your home/system).

If you added your Eero mesh to an existing network (as opposed to replacing the router), you will probably have a DHCP conflict, whereby random devices will end up on a second network (router or Eero) and not talk to each other. If this is the case, you can find instructions to put your mesh into Bridge mode here: https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/208276903-How-do-I-bridge-my-eeros-. Please reboot your router after doing this. This can fix many strange issues if it is indeed the problem.

 

Edit: I see two of us were working on this at the same time! Ah well. We both made good points.

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

 

Sonos is the only device on my home Wi-Fi network that behaves like this. Everything else, from computer to Roku to Peloton, behaves consistently. 
 


 

But Sonos isn’t a device, it is a number of devices that have to communicate with each other and with controllers.  Your observation that Roku or Peleton works could not be more irrelevant.

Put this multi-device aspect together with a multi-AP mesh network and there is potential for trouble.  If set up optimally it will be fine, but since you just insist it is a fault with Sonos, and won’t take advice, you WILL have problems again soon.

Xander P
Userlevel 6
Badge +15

Hi @HarvE, sorry to hear you’re having such trouble getting through to an agent on chat, it does look like it’s been a bit busy today.

Is there any difference in the status LED between the speakers which do play, and the speakers that don’t? I had a quick peek at a recent diagnostic from your system and a few of the devices were showing as being muted - if this is the case then they should have a green status LED.

Edit: Saw the most recent response after posting.

Glad to hear you’ve got the issue sorted out, however you certainly shouldn’t be having problems like this regularly, and it may still be worth getting in touch with the Support Team to take a closer look, and try to identify the underlying cause.

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I was able to fix it for now, without any help from Sonos “support.” Here’s how:

For each component not playing:

  1. unplug from power, wait.
  2. plug back into power. Wait until it rejoins.
  3. Add it to group that is playing. It will play audio for a second or two, then go silent.
  4. Ungroup it again, then add it back to the group again.

So, an ad-hoc fix for now. Just want to point out that when I went to bed last night it was working fine. Nothing else has changed on my network.

Sonos is the only device on my home Wi-Fi network that behaves like this. Everything else, from computer to Roku to Peloton, behaves consistently. 
 

And again, five unsuccessful attempts to get through to live support.


 

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Attempt #5 to get through to a live agent on the Sonos “24/7” chat has also failed.  Back to one of my original questions - what happened to Sonos?

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My fourth attempt to chat with a live agent has failed. I remember the glory days of Sonos when you could contact support on Twitter and get a response within 10 minutes.

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No, sorry, I do not have a separate SonosNet  now. I did in the past, but it was so problematic I upgraded my home WiFi to eero pro 6 and put Sonos on that instead. It has been better, but still random problems like this 

Smilja

BTW I have also set up a separate Sonos network using a Boost, but that was also unreliable.

 

Removing the WiFi details from the system did not help? On iOS or Android: From the Settings tab, tap System > Network > Networks. Select the WiFi network you'd like to remove, and tap Remove. Subsequently wait about 10 min, then go to 'Settings → System → About my Sonos System' and see if WM:0 is being displayed next to each unit (the Move will remain at WM:1).

 

If 'Auto channel' is enabled in your router/Eero mesh, then disable it and set a specific channel, either 1, 6 or 11. Change also the SonosNet channel ('More --> Settings --> Advanced Settings --> SonosNet Channel') to either 1, 6 or 11. That means when e.g. SonosNet is set to channel 6, put your router on channel 1 (or vice versa). See also Reducing wireless interference.

»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)
J

Good luck.

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And I have tried a SonosNet before, and still had problems - in fact, even more. This led me to upgrade my home Wi-Fi to a Eero Pro 6 mesh and put Sonos on that instead 

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What capable hands? I am waiting for the third time for a live agent on chat.

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