Question

Can I move some of my Sonos speakers to another house (network) for a day?

  • 9 November 2017
  • 20 replies
  • 21142 views

Userlevel 4
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I was wondering if there's an easy way to show off some of my Sonos system to a family member in THEIR home. I'd love to be able to take a couple of my Play 1's to my family Xmas for the day, next month. I actually tried to use one of my Play 1's for a neighborhood Halloween party at my next door neighbor's house two weeks ago. I thought I could just connect to my neighbor's WIFI network, and even installed the Sonos app on his phone, but it wasn't worth the trouble in terms of being asked to set up a new account, etc... Has anyone else done this?

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20 replies

Userlevel 7
Don not setup the speakers as a new install it will destroy any play list(s) you have setup (i.e Factory reset)
Connect your Phone or Tablet to the family members WiFi
Connect one of the Play 1's to family members network via Ethernet.
Open the Sonos App.
You should be able to play music that is resident (downloaded) to your phone or tablet.
I'm not sure about streaming services (i.e. Spotify etc.)
You'll have to reverse this process when you return home
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Thanks for the reply, AjTrek1. I'd like to connect to my parent's WIFI without having to mess with Ethernet cables. But you're saying that's not possible? I don't keep any music on my Galaxy Note 8 either. The whole point would be to stream music (probably Holiday music) from something like Amazon Music, Google Play, or iHeart. I'd think that SOMEBODY has done this, or at least tried to. I'd like to know if they were successful without doing a factory reset, and if they were able to stream from their music services and not deal with an Ethernet connection. I'll stay tuned. Thanks, again.
Userlevel 7
Didn't say it was impossible not to use Ethernet....I recommended Ethernet as it is the most reliable. You can try a Standard WiFi setup if you like. 🆒

Also, after further research I believe it's possible to play music via a Sonos supported streaming service. I'm sure there's a forum moderator out there who can verify the use of a streaming service in your scenario. Is anyone listening :8
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Thanks again for the prompt response, AjTrek1! When I was trying to move a speaker to the neighbor's for the Halloween party, I was really under the gun from a time standpoint and should've tried to do it a day BEFORE the party. If I recall, I really didn't have the option to just connect the speaker to my neighbor's network without it being treated as an entirely new setup, which I didn't want to do. Hopefully somebody else has done this successfully and can share that it IS possible. There's nothing more that I hate than the word SHOULD. The last thing I want to hear is, "It should work." 😃 I was hoping this would be an easy thing to do. We'll see...
Userlevel 7
My apologies ROBBSKI for not being clearer about New setup vs Factory reset. A lot of people interpret them as one in the same; which is why I referenced Factory reset to avoid someone doing just that and losing everything.

Below is a link to a Sonos video on how to reconnect your Sonos system after changing routers. Connecting your Sonos speakers to a family members router/network is going to be very similar to what is discussed in the video. I hope this helps 🆒

Note: In the video it talks about a Boost setup. Connecting Ethernet directly to your Sonos speaker is a Boost setup without the Boost.

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1072/
All sound advice ftom AjTrek1. As he advises, having one wired device makes it SO easy to move between networks you would be crazy to do anything else. When I do this I just have to power everything up and everything works, including music services. Take them home and everything works. No resets, no entering wifi details into Sonos
Userlevel 7
All sound advice ftom AjTrek1. As he advises, having one wired device makes it SO easy to move between networks you would be crazy to do anything else. When I do this I just have to power everything up and everything works, including music services. Take them home and everything works. No resets, no entering wifi details into Sonos

John B...

Thanks for signing off on the advice I gave as well as the clarification regarding music services. Hopefully, ROBBSKI will reconsider using a speaker with Ethernet vs the Wi-FI of his relative to setup his Sonos speakers. Using Ethernet will also reduce the possibility of having to deal with Wi-FI issues.

Cheers!
Userlevel 4
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Thanks, guys. I'm headed to my parent's place next weekend to store my Summer vehicle for the Winter, so I'll give this thing a test run with Ethernet and see what happens. Thanks, again!
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We've rented an apartment in a different city for my wife during the 6 weeks she'll be getting cancer treatments. I brought our SONOS ONE for her use, but I can't figure out how to get it set up to work using the apt's WiFi.

Instructions I've found online all include a step that requires connecting irmt using an ethernet cable - I didn't bring one & - in any event - I cannot find an ethernet port anywhere in this apt. All I have is the name of the WiFi network and the password, which work together fine for her cellphone & computer.

How can I connect this SONOS ONE to use this apt's WiFi without an ethernet connection?

I don't mind a complete reset, as we don't have any playlists or the like to worry about.

I've downloaded both the SONOS App & the Alexa App to her Galaxy S7 phone.

In her phone, I "deregistered" my account in the SONOS App and "un-enabled" the several SONOS locations & other Alexa devices at our house, planning to just start over here.

But that doesn't seem to be enough. When the SONOS App 'looks' for the SONOS ONE, it reports that the phone is connected to the correct WiFi, but says the SONOS isn't on that network & then takes me to network setup to 'find' which other network it's on (as if that woukd help - I don't have access to any others!). There, it lists 15-20 other 'locked' WiFi networks, but it doesn't provide any other info.

So can someone tell me how to completely reset this SONOS ONE & how to then get it connected to this apt WiFi without an ethernet cabelled connection & to have it properly "seen" by the SONOS and Alexa Apps on this Android phobe so my wife will be able to use it?

Thank you very much,

Paul
Userlevel 7
We've rented an apartment in a different city for my wife during the 6 weeks she'll be getting cancer treatments. I brought our SONOS ONE for her use, but I can't figure out how to get it set up to work using the apt's WiFi.

Instructions I've found online all include a step that requires connecting irmt using an ethernet cable - I didn't bring one & - in any event - I cannot find an ethernet port anywhere in this apt. All I have is the name of the WiFi network and the password, which work together fine for her cellphone & computer.

How can I connect this SONOS ONE to use this apt's WiFi without an ethernet connection?

I don't mind a complete reset, as we don't have any playlists or the like to worry about.

I've downloaded both the SONOS App & the Alexa App to her Galaxy S7 phone.

In her phone, I "deregistered" my account in the SONOS App and "un-enabled" the several SONOS locations & other Alexa devices at our house, planning to just start over here.

But that doesn't seem to be enough. When the SONOS App 'looks' for the SONOS ONE, it reports that the phone is connected to the correct WiFi, but says the SONOS isn't on that network & then takes me to network setup to 'find' which other network it's on (as if that woukd help - I don't have access to any others!). There, it lists 15-20 other 'locked' WiFi networks, but it doesn't provide any other info.

So can someone tell me how to completely reset this SONOS ONE & how to then get it connected to this apt WiFi without an ethernet cabelled connection & to have it properly "seen" by the SONOS and Alexa Apps on this Android phobe so my wife will be able to use it?

Thank you very much,

Paul


Hi pdalton

First and foremost my best wishes to your wife and you while she undergoes her treatment. Stay strong!

OK...this is the quickest way to get things up and running.

1. Factory reset the speaker. Since you know the consequences we can skip all the warnings. Here's a how to link: https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1107/kw/factory

2. Delete the Sonos app on the device you want to use and re-install it.

3. Delete the Alexa app and reinstall it.

4. When prompted by the Sonos App Look for the SSID for the Wi-Fi of the apartment network and type in the password to access it.

5. Setup your Sonos speaker as a new unit and register it to an email address of your choice. Here's a link on Wi-Fi setup:https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2638

6. Enable Alexa voice in the sonos App

7. In the Alexa app enable the Sonos skill

8. At the Sonos One ask alexa to "discover devices"

That's it! Cheers!
I think that it's ridiculous that I have to plug a wireless device into a wired ethernet port in order to reconnect it to a wireless router. This makes no sense to me.
How is the wireless device that has no display or keyboard supposed to know which of the signals it is receiving to connect to?
Userlevel 7
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By telling it on your phone (that can communicate with the speaker).
I think that it's ridiculous that I have to plug a wireless device into a wired ethernet port in order to reconnect it to a wireless router. This makes no sense to me.Sonos is a networked system. To control it the controller needs to be on the same network as the speaker. Until the speaker has the wifi credentials for the current network, it cannot connect wirelessly to the same network as the phone. Therefore a temporary wired connection is the ONLY way to make the change. It is not ridiculous when you understand what is going on
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I don't need to connect my Echo Dot (no screen) to an ethernet cable for it to get my systems' Wi-Fi credentials and connect to it.
I don't need to connect my Echo Dot (no screen) to an ethernet cable for it to get my systems' Wi-Fi credentials and connect to it.As can Sonos in an initial Standard setup
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I agree. I think the question is why is it needed afterwards. There may well be a reason it's needed (think it may have been mentioned before) but I don't think saying it needs the cable so it can get the credential is it. That's the point of Apps for all sorts of devices isn't it?
Those are fair points and I don't have a complete explanation for you. But a couple of observations.

1. I think that in an initial Sonos Standard setup the first player creates a direct wireless connection to the first controller. This enables the home wifi credentials to be entered. I can only assume there is a good reason why Sonos cannot or don't want to go .back to that place once a potentially multi room, multi controller working system has been set up.

2. The Sonos. app doesn't do very much. Nearly everything is done and stored on the players. Whether and how that is relevant here I am not sure!

As an aside, an initial Boost setup does not require the direct wireless link because the controller can talk to the router over home wifi, and the router talks to the speaker via the cable
Just to add another item to the list, only the android version of the controller app can connect to SonosNet. As far as I know, there are no iOS, Mac, or PC ways to do that.
The fundamental answer to @hardtimesnatl's comment is that wifi network connections require not just wireless connections but permissions. When Sonos speakers have the 'wrong' permissions for the current network the obvious solution is wiring. Unlike a phone, Sonos speakers are deliberately designed to retain only one set of credentials.