Call Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, there are more options available for them to assist you, and if it is indeed a hardware failure, it can’t be handled in the forums. 

Hi @RF7.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for bringing this to our attention. I understand the situation you’re in. Having a device that suddenly not work and not power on is not a good experience to have. Let us help you out.

As what @Airgetlam has mentioned, It is in your best interest to call our technical support team to conduct a more in-depth troubleshooting step or possible product replacement. I would also like to suggest the following basic troubleshooting step that might help out.

• Can we unplug the power cord from the power outlet and from the Sonos One and plug it back after 10-15 seconds. We just want to make sure everything fits snuggly.
• If the Sonos One is plugged into a power strip and not a power outlet, can we bypass the power strip and plug it into a power outlet and check if the Sonos One would get any light indications at all?
• If the Sonos One is plugged into a power outlet, can we check by either plugging another device (that works) on the same power outlet that the Sonos One is plugged into to make sure that there is power supplied on that power outlet?
• Can we try also plugging the One into a different power outlet and check if we have any improvements?

If after following the above recommendations and still we have no signs of activity on the Sonos One, I would then try contacting our technical support team for more in-depth troubleshooting steps or possible product replacement.

I hope this helps.

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

Thanks,

Thanks.  I contacted customer support, shot them a video of the product failure as per their request, and received this response:

“Thank you for taking the time to go over everything with me regarding  your Sonos System. It is a pleasure for me to assist you.
 
I appreciate that you took the time to share the previous information, just checking on it I could notice that there is Boot failure on the unit; by checking the info on the speaker we could see that it is not under the 12 moths warranty period we offer for speakers, however I could get a discount of 30% for you to get a new player because of this situation. Please, let us know if you want to proceed with this.
 
If you have any additional questions or if there is anything else I can assist you with, feel free to reach out by replying to this email and we will be happy to help.”

I’m thinking what to do about it.  If I should be calibrating my expectations of Sonos’ product lifespan to less than 2 years, and having to budget 70% every 2 years to replace it, seems a bit much.

To add, the product is about 22-23 months old.  Bought in end-Nov 2018.

Hi @RF7.

Thanks for the update and immediate response. 

I understand it will cost to replace the Sonos One. However, We can always take advantage of the discount indicated on the email. It is not normal for a Sonos One to have a very short life span. There could be multiple things that happened beyond our knowledge. Since this is always plugged into power a possible scenario could be a fluctuation of power that caused the Sonos One to no longer respond. We have up to this date devices that are still functioning beyond 5 yrs. I will leave this to your personal preference on how you want to proceed.

Please do not hesitate to reach out or create a new topic if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help out.

Thanks,

Thanks Paul. It is not so much that it will cost to replace per se. It is more that it broke down in less than 2 years, and costs 70% to replace. The suggestion of power fluctuation is but a convenient means of casting doubt - the factory-installed fuse remains intact, and my other Sonos One (1-year-old) remains operational (touch wood). Since Sonos will not stand behind its product, I cannot see myself doing so. I won’t pursue this further.

The same thing just happened to my Sonos One this week (approximately 2.5 years old, one of two I own, plus a Port) and I received the same support and resolution from Customer Care - here’s a 30% discount on a new one, sorry about your bad speaker. 

The speaker sat on the same shelf plugged into a power surge protector outlet for the duration of its life.  The only thing I had done recently was flip the breaker to that outlet to work on a wall switch. Therefore, something akin to unplugging and plugging the speaker back in fried it. Why would I be compelled to spend that much money to replace an item that has a limited 1 year warranty but goes bad soon thereafter?

Sorry to hear that the same thing happened to you.  I have already decided to walk away from the Sonos brand.  I figured it is what it is, and decided no point being unhappy about it any further.  Many other good audio brands out there with products that do a similar job.

Yep, but unfortunately with the investment in the Port to utilize my main stereo (including mounted Polk outdoor porch speaker) and another One, switching tech at the moment isn’t in the cards.

I was also told the replacement would be a refurbished model! Pretty funny they expect me to pay ~$100 / year “rental” on the first one and then pay another $100+ for the same speaker with the same parts. Yeah I’m good  

Another review will be going on external sites outside the Sonos community. 

I just bought a One SL from Best Buy. DOA  Will not turn on.

I have connect amps working fine but apparently these speakers have issues

Return it to Best Buy, and get a replacement.

For what it’s worth, I’ve purchased the majority of my 24 Sonos devices from Best Buy, with the exception, if I recall, of four devices from Sonos directly. I’ve never had an issue, including the couple of ‘open box’ devices. 

Ditto for me too.  I had one One SL go out after ~8mo.  I was able to RMA that one.  I then had the second one go out 5 months later, and the RMAed one died a month after that.  The second one to go out was a month out of warrenty, so no luck there, and the RMAed one was noticed (we don't watch much TV) 2 days before I left on a 6mo vacation.  

Sad to see that these have almost no lifespan, and that Sonos doesn't stand behind thier products.  

Same here in Spain, my Sonos One (Gen 1) which has been working fine since bought in May 2018 has powered-off today and will not power-on; I’ve tried unplug/plug-in, different socket, different cable (from a still working Play:1) all to no avail. #AnotherOnebitesthedust! 

I’m new to Sonos and am completely disappointed in the quality (assurance) of their products at this point.  When they work … they work and sound great, but they seem to have a VERY short lifespan for when they work.

Same issue as others on this thread, only I’ve purchased two (2) Sonos One devices - one in April 2021 and one in May 2021 - from the local Best Buy.  The one purchased in April stopped working by May and the one purchased in May stopped working in June.  BOTH devices only lasted about one month before they completely failed to power up any longer.

I have a significant amount of tech and A/V experience and lots of both in my homes.  I only decided to try the Sonos One option for my one summer home as it seemed like a nice cheap way to test their tech.  Glad that I did because it failed miserably.

Glad I didn’t invest in the various other options.  Was planning to use Arc/Sub on three TVs in this home and use the architectural series for a bunch of in ceiling and outdoor whole house audio work in a new home.  Sticking with my other vendors who have worked solid for 5-10 years already for me.

Sad that Sonos can make products that sound nice, but can’t make them reliable or with a consistent quality.

I have owned over a dozen Sonos products going back to the original ZP80/ZP100 bundle.  Not one of them has failed.  Matter of fact, my S1 products are humming along just fine at a relative’s home.  

So be careful which anecdotal brush you use to paint so broadly.  

It’s odd, as my experience has been diametrically opposite of yours. I have 20 some odd Sonos devices, probably a third of them purchased as ‘open box’ items at Best Buy, dating back ten plus years, and have never had a single device fail. 

I’m sorry you’ve had such trouble. I do expect electronics as complex as Sonos to have a small failure rate, but it does seem egregious that it’s happened twice to you. 

It kind of sad that Sonos does not back the Sonos One. Mine too has failed after a very short period. I have read too many bad reviews.

I’m not sure I understand what you mean by Sonos not backing the Sonos One. The device is fully covered by the same warranty as all other Sonos devices. If it is under warranty, Sonos replaces it, if it isn’t under warranty, I believe they offer a discount in the purchase of a replacement device, something they don’t have to do. If that isn’t backing their device, I’m not sure I understand what is. 

Well Bruce, How many speakers have you owned in your lifetime that went out in just a couple of years. Most of mine would have lasted a life if I didn't think I needed an upgrade.

I live in a gated community and I handle most of the IT problems here. I sold a lot of Sonos here  with little problems. After hearing how a few of these went bad and Sonos will not replace them. I will not recommend these speakers.

I’ve never owned a speaker that was also a computer and network device before I owned a Sonos. Sure, the old ‘passive’ speakers had much longer lifetimes due to the fact that they had both limited electronics and were not directly plugged in to the wall, instead dealing with only the ‘filtered’ electricity through the amplifier. Nor did they have a built in operating system in them. 

But I’ve owned a Sonos since around the PLAY:5 Gen 1 was released, and am now north of 20 installed devices. While I’ve purchased newer devices, I’ve never needed to ‘upgrade’ a device, and they all continue to function. I have gifted that original PLAY:5 to another home, but at last check, it continues to operate on S1, whereas my home runs on S2. 

Beyond setting them up with reserved IP addresses in my router, something that should really be done with any networked device, I’ve never needed to do much fiddling with them. My WiFi, on the other hand, is a different thing, but that isn’t Sonos’ fault, they’re just a client of that network.

I would heartily recommend them, and in fact I have, to anyone looking for a ‘wireless’ solution. 

As Airgetlam noted these are active speakers (containing electronics), not simple passive speakers. Ask anyone who owned a pair of passive speakers in the 1970’s and 1980’s with foam surrounds and they’ll tell you that “life” was 10 years at most.

In your IT experience, how many funky routers have you encountered?

My Play5 failed with no power on.  A few here claim that it is an electronic unit and Sonos is justified in not offering an easy service but instead offer a 30% discount for a refurbished unit.  Their recommended reset solution is useless.  Changing the cable as a solution is total nonsense.  I have a Nakamichi sound bar that has run well for nearly 7years now.  I have a 50” TV with its sound system functioning flawlessly.  I have an old Sony shortwave radio that still pulls in stations from far east.  And for people to accept a two year old sound system to fail within this short time and trash it must be quite happy with mediocrity - what a shame!  And then comment that offering 30% discount on a “new” unit is “something they don’t have to do. If that isn’t backing their device, I’m not sure I understand what is.”  - a Sonos -fanboy?  I fully agree with Stymie222.  Adding a WiFi/BT interface to a speaker amplifier is so common when you look at all the wireless headphones one can buy these days.  Sonos does not want you to see how little electronics they have inside so they have a fully sealed unit.  I am tempted to force open it (since it is dead and not usable anyway) and see it for myself. The mistake most people make is to accept a product and fail to read the fine print warranty statements.  And the products are essentially throw away units like the ones we complain about coming from China.

Whilst I sympathise with anyone whose electronic devices fail, Sonos are shipping many thousands of speakers each year, so the failure rate seems quite low. I had an expensive Linn amp fail after only about 2 years, some time back, and they were not interested in offering any financial help replacing it. Since the Gen2 Play:5 was released in November 2015, your Gen1 version did last at least 6 years - not great, but not far short (so far) on the Nakamichi. 

I have the SAME issue, I don’t quite understand how many more people are having the same issue and they aren’t doing something about it...obviously there is a defect. My speaker was never moved nor was it unplugged, it just quit working out of no where. I was about to expand our household with more speakers as well but now I am having second thoughts….I was offered a discount on a new speaker, however I am not quite satisfied when I spent my hard earned money just for it to fail so SOON after a year and 3 months. I understand if it was dropped or damaged, but it was not! This just leaves a bad impression after having spent so much money on various speakers just to be told sorry we can’t fix it however heres a discount please SPEND MORE even though we are refusing to replace your defective Sonos one brick….Beyond frustrated!