Sonos S2 app search field weird behaviour

A
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I am having problems with the search field in the Sonos Android app S2. 

The problem is that when I type something into the search field, after a few characters the text gets selected, and than the next character that you type deletes the already inserted text. 

Hard to explain, but watch the inserted Youtube movie, where I am trying to search for Supertramp. 

 

The problem occurs on all my devices: Samsung S22 Ultra, Oneplus 6, Oneplus 3, Motorola g7. Also my wife's Oneplus 8Pro, which uses my Sonos account. The problem does NOT occur on my iPad Air 4.

So it would be safe to say that it is not device-dependant. 

 

It is driving me crazy, it is impossible to search this way.

What I have tried so far:

  • new install of app
  • empty cache of app
  • empty data of app
  • clean install (on my new S22 Ultra) 
  • Different soft-keyboards, with all settings tried out (auto correct, autofill, spell-check).
  • Hardware keyboard
  • Voice command
  • Deleting music services

Nothing helped, what can I try more?

Is my account corrupt or something? 

 

 

 

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
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23 replies

Corry P
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Hi @albertvanderiet 

Thanks for your post!

I’ve tried to recreate your issue on my own phone, but was unable to (Android 9, Samsung). The same goes for my colleagues.

The list of things you’ve tried so far is pretty extensive - I’m not sure what I can add to it. Perhaps there’s a piece of software installed on all of your devices, except the iPad? Are all of those devices you listed on the same Android version? The thing to look for, I suppose, is the same behaviour on any other apps - if you see it elsewhere, then it’s not Sonos-related. My initial thought was a custom keyboard, but I see you’ve already tried changing it.

If this doesn’t help, I can only recommend you get in touch with our technical support team to document the issue and double-check some settings for you.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Hi Corry, thanks for your reply. There are no other apps on my devices that show this behavior, and the devices have different Android versions. I don’t remember having this issue in the early years I had Sonos (S1 app).
 

I just reset my Motorola g7 to factory settings and installed ONLY the Sonos app, to rule out another app in my account, on my devices.

I connected the freshly installed app on a factory clean device to my Sonos system and…. had exactly the same issue. Nuts!
 

I’m beginning to think there is something wrong with my system and/or account?

You think there is something that can be reset server-side?

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
Corry P
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Hi @albertvanderiet 

I don’t see how something on our servers could make the app behave in such a way, to be honest. It is very strange though - especially after resetting your phone! Multiple colleagues of mine are unable to reproduce it, and we’ve not heard any similar reports from other users.

All I can recommend is getting in touch with our technical support team, who will create a case for you - that’s the best way of getting an engineer looking at the situation, after escalation. Be sure to include all your troubleshooting steps - especially resetting a phone entirely. Letting agents you speak to know about this thread will reduce the amount of time you need to spend explaining things.

One thing I want to be sure of - you are getting the app from https://support.sonos.com/s/downloads, yes? If you’re searching on Google Play, you may be picking an imposter app of some kind.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Just to be sure I tried the download link, but all that seems to do is lead me to the Playstore, the app that I allready have. Downloaded the app it lead me to, but the issue is still there.

I think Sonos would have a huge problem if a search on the Google Playstore would lead to an imposter S2-app that looks exactly like the real thing 🥸.

Will try contacting technical support. Thanks for your effort so far!

 

 

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
Corry P
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Hi @albertvanderiet 

It would indeed be a big problem - I just wanted to make sure, as it was the only explanation I could think of.

Your situation was brought up in a technical meeting I had today (no devs included, unfortunately), but no-one else is reporting having the same issue.

I hope you/we find a resolution.

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

I just found out that this whole issue only occurs when I'm connected to my 5Ghz wifi. 

When I connect the phone to my 2.4 Ghz wifi, the issue does NOT occur..…

I'm absolutely baffled that changing wifi to 5 Ghz has this effect on the search field in my SONOS app.

Anyone any thoughts?

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
Airgetlam

As a guess, that’s an issue with your router allowing “conversations” occurring between the two bands.

Bruce
Corry P
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Hi @albertvanderiet 

Only one thought from me - replace your router! Unless you can find a setting which disables such behaviour, that is - some “isolation” option, presumably.

I am glad to hear that you have finally discovered the root cause of the problem though - that’s a weird one!

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

I thought this was weird until you mentioned that it only occurred on the 5GHz band.  At that point it went off the weirdness scale.

J

It looks like your keyboard might be set up for bilingual English and Dutch?  Does the problem occur with either as single language?

There is absolutely no logic to this suggestion.  I am therefore quite hopeful that it will prove to be relevant.

A
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Nevermind….

changing wifi SSID's does not give consistent results…. it happened on the 2,4 SSID again...

It does seem to help, but only for a few searches, Then the problem returns. 

 

Changing router is not an option, it was provided by the ISP; own router is allowed but not supported.

 

I do have a bilingual English and Dutch keyboard, but this problem also occurs using a connected hardware keyboard. Changed it to only Dutch anyway, no positive result. And English only, no luck.

I switched off the 5Ghz SSID, to prevent  “conversations” occurring between the two bands. Did not help. 

 

The only sure way to type without the issue is to switch OFF WIFI on my android phone, then enter the search words (issue does not occur), and then connect to wifi again and hit search. 

It looks like the search results, that start appearing after typing the first 1-2 letters, are messing with the search field. Is that making any sense?

 

 

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
Corry P
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Hi @albertvanderiet 

The Sonos app itself does not actually perform a search - the “Associated Player” will do so on the app’s behalf. This Associated Player (AP) will be the first Sonos player to respond to the app’s discovery request when the app opens, so can vary from session to session. As you type a query, each character is sent to the AP and the refined results list is sent back to the app for display. I can only assume that the link between the AP and the app is somehow being affected while it is being utilised, causing a “reset” of the search box.

Due to the fact that the broadcasting of SonosNet from your Arc doesn’t seem to reach all your other devices (perhaps it’s surrounded by stone/brick construction?), your system is in what we call mixed mode. Some players are connected to SonosNet, one (the Beam) is connected to 2.4GHz WiFi, and the rest are connected to 5GHz WiFi. As the AP can change each time you open the Sonos App, this may explain why you’ve had different results from time to time - depending on which band your phone is connected to. On your most recent diagnostic from about a week ago the Beam was the AP, meaning the most direct route to it was via 2.4GHz WiFi (as opposed to using the bridge between the router’s 2.4 and 5GHz radios).

Having said all of this, I have literally never heard of this happening to anyone before, so I have to presume that there is a fault with the router. If it were simply down to which model of router you had, I’m sure someone would have come across this issue before. I think it may be difficult to convince your ISP of this issue, however - their contract with you likely only concerns getting you online and not to do with you having a great networking experience. If you have a single device connected to the internet, they’ll likely consider their job done, though to be fair it may vary from company to company, country to country. If the router isn’t actually faulty, then the only explanation I can think of would be electromagnetic interference near it causing issues, but if it were as simple as that I’m sure I would have come across this behaviour many times before.

Free routers provided by ISPs tend not to be the best, or anywhere close to it - ISPs literally have to give millions of the things away. They can be told to stop doing the job of routing, however, and instead perform as modems - you could purchase a better router for around €60 (I wouldn’t recommend going lower than that) to perform the routing duties instead, or spend about double that on a mesh WiFi system for better coverage. The important thing would be not to have to two devices configured as DHCP servers on your network, and to disable WiFi on your original router. This is exactly what I have done in my own home, and you can always return items if they don’t immediately fix the issues. More info can be found in my troubleshooting article:

It may be worth performing a factory reset of the router first - I think that’s likely the only thing that may actually help, other than getting a replacement.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A
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Thank you @Corry P for this wonderful new insight!

The way Sonos search obviously works (through the AP) explains why this issue occurred on EVERY(android) device in my house. The device/app apparently wasn’t the cause, but the communication between the app and the AP!

We have a new baseline to work from. I proceeded with the next steps: 

Step 1: I unplugged all speakers except the Arc (wired LAN connection), and now I had flawless search entries! 

Step 2: factory reset the router.

Step 3: I kept all speakers unplugged except the Arc, and tested for one hour, because I wanted to be absolutely sure ;-). I used both WIFI SSID's on my phone (2,4 and 5Ghz). Still no issues.

Step 4: Plugged in the other speakers one by one, beginning with the ones closest to the Arc.

Two hours later I had all speakers connected.

 

Unfortunately the issue returned….

But I'm happy with this insight and will try to troubleshoot some more and perhaps invest in an add-on router. Or an iPhone because the issue is non existing on iOS devices. 

Will keep you posted.

 

Question about Sonosweb: not one of my speakers connected to the Arc's Sonosweb, they all have WM:1, (except the ARC and it's surrounds). Not even the One that is 5 meters away in the same room, no obstruction. I hoped the Sonosweb would be a stronger, more robust AND preferred connection. That is not the case? 

 

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
Smilja

Question about Sonosweb: not one of my speakers connected to the Arc's Sonosweb, they all have WM:1, (except the ARC and it's surrounds). Not even the One that is 5 meters away in the same room, no obstruction. I hoped the Sonosweb would be a stronger, more robust AND preferred connection. That is not the case? 

 

Each of your Sonos devices should display WM:0 next to it. If you don’t own a Move or Roam remove the WiFi credentials within the Sonos app since they are not required when operating the System in SonosNet mode.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3488?language=en_US

 

If you have by any chance disabled the WiFi radio on the wired device (the Arc?) re-enable it first.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3684?language=en_US

»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)
A
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The Arc is wired connected and shows WM:0. Wifi is ON, Sonosnet is shown in the Network page of the app.


The other speakers (except the Arc surround One’s) show WM:1.

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
Smilja

@albertvanderiet, Submit a diagnostic report for @Corry P to take a look into it, please.

 

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/141?language=en_US

 

In the Sonos app, change the SonosNet channel, subsequently reboot the speakers that show WM:1; it might help them along.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1219?language=en_US

»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
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Hi @albertvanderiet 

In the diagnostic I was looking at, TV KAMER is wired, with ZITKAMER and MONIQUE connected to SonosNet. The reset were connected to WiFi and would have been showing WM:1 instead of WM:0 - I assume these speakers are simply out-of-range of the broadcast coming from the Arc. This is why I guessed the Arc was near stonework of some kind, as it would limit the range.

As @Smilja suggested, it might be best to submit a support diagnostic again so I can get an updated picture of what’s happening. Just reply here with the number given. Thanks.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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To begin with: I really appreciate your help so far!

Okay, next steps were:

  1. Changed Sonosnet channel from 11 to 1 and rebooted speakers → they returned to WM:1
  2. Shut Down my Sonos Roam and removed the 2.4Ghz network in the app
  3. Rebooted the speakers → they connected to WM:0
  4. Tested the search function: worked flawlessly!
  5. Factory reset Sonos Roam and connect again, this time to my 5Ghz wifi
  6. 15 minutes later all speakers still show WM:0, except the Roam of course
  7. Search function: no issues up till now (30 minutes testing, phone connected to 2.4 and 5 Ghz).

Could the connection to the Roam have been the culprit? Perhaps it was corrupted or something?

@Corry P @Smilja I just sent a diagnostic report 180228859

Will keep testing and keep you posted!

 

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
Corry P
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Hi @albertvanderiet 

Ok now, that looks much better!

You shouldn’t have had to go through all that to get where you are now, but now that you’re there, all should be good!

When you give the Roam the credentials for WiFi, they get shared across the whole Sonos system, but only those units that are portable or not within range of SonosNet should use them. Why your speakers were ignoring SonosNet I’m not sure, but they’re not any more. Well done!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A
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After a few days of testing now I've narrowed it down to the presence of my Roam in the system and the need for a wifi network in the Sonos system to get it connected. 

If the Roam is online → the issue occurs

If the Roam is offline (switched off) → the issue is gone

If I remove the wifi network (then to Roam goes off-line) → the issue is gone

 

The good news is that my other speakers are still on SonosNet (WM:0). 

I find this acceptable; shutting down the Roam is a good workaround to get good search results.

Perhaps I could get it fixed by changing my (IP provided-) router, but that could be the start of a whole new set of issues ;-). 

Thanks everybody, specially @Corry P for your input! 

 

Why don't they make the whole aircraft out of that black box stuff
Corry P
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Hi @albertvanderiet 

Well, that’s interesting and weird.

I have SonosNet active on my own system and I also have a Roam (which is always plugged in and on), and was unable to reproduce your issue so it does indeed seem most likely to have something to do with your router. I too had (different) issues with my ISP-provided router and purchasing a better one sorted them right out. Perhaps it’s time to contact your ISP to see if there’s an updated model available?

I’m glad you have found a way to search properly, at least.

And, you are most welcome!

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

Hi everybody

So I'm facing exactly the same issues...

Initially I was using my System in wireless mode since I've got wireless access points in my flat (not wifi repeaters, ethernet backhaul ones).

This worked out perfectly fine up until a couple of weeks ago, it was around the same time as I've added my roam.

I've noticed weird refresh behaviour on all clients, even the desktop app. My phone became almost unusable since it tries to refresh the connection to my sonos sytem every few seconds.

I switched the setup to sonosnet yesterday, and all speakers are in WM:0 mode - still the same issue, no matter if my roam is connected or not.

I've got a pretty new and powerful router in which I can fiddle around with almost everything. But I'm not sure if that'll change a lot.

Resetting it is an option, but only as a last resort since it is one of the core components in my homelab.

What I've noticed since switching to sonosnet, is that all the speakers are now seemingly connected to my network via ethernet when looking at my router. Also I've noticed that the associated product in my sonos system is never the one that's connected to the router via ethernet..

Some small info about my setup:

- Asus RT-AX89X (Main Router)

- 3 x Asus ZenWiFi AX Mini XD4 (Access Points)

- ip range is 10.0.0.0/8 (because of ocd reasons ;) )

- 2.4GHz & 5GHz are splitted

- 15 Sonos Speakers (1 Roam, 1 Amp, 1 Beam, 6 Symfonisk Table Lamps, 6 Symfonisk Picture Frames)

- IPs are bound manually (also the access points before switching to sonosnet)

I'm completely at a loss as for what could cause this, so any help/input at all is much appreciated! :)

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @lazarnerd 

I can only recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports. They would also be able to check your router for any likely culprit settings.

What I've noticed since switching to sonosnet, is that all the speakers are now seemingly connected to my network via ethernet when looking at my router.

This is normal and expected.

 

Also I've noticed that the associated product in my sonos system is never the one that's connected to the router via ethernet..

The associated product is simply the one that responds first to each session in the app. It can be any product. This is nothing to worry about either.

I hope this helps.

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