Switch off WiFi and Bluetooth PERMANENTLY from Sonos One

  • 27 January 2020
  • 92 replies
  • 4623 views

Hi All

 

I have a very quick and simple question:

  • Can I SWITCH OFF the Wifi and Bluetooth PERMANENTLY from my Sonos One?

I am keen on using Sonos One connected to my Router via a Ethernet cable and also because I want to reduce the EMF Radiation in my Flat.

 

Thanks in advance

N


92 replies

Several people making fun of the BT topic in this post - that seems unproductive to the question.  The point is that many people want to have control over the WiFi and BT signals from their devices.  Sonos made an improvement and provided the WiFi control but seems to have then taken a step back with their new devices support of BLE.  Beam and SL have BLE and it is operating 24/7 (not simply during config). The Bluetooth footprint is over 6.00 V/m which is considered very high. Sonos has unfortunately now elevated themselves to the level of Samsung where they impose a technology that the end user cannot selectively turn off. From the end user perspective (the people who paid for the device) that is not okay.  WiFi and BT should be controllable but unfortunately new gen Sonos devices are imposing a BT signal that cannot be managed.   The original question on this post was asking if there was anyway around this issue.  I believe the answer is no. If this is correct Sonos should reconsider the way they are using / imposing required BLE. 

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My biggest question here is why would someone worried about Bluetooth and WiFi buy a system that uses them?

If you are concerned about “emission for hours every day, close to your head”, I strongly suggest you refrain from buying any WiFi speakers; regardless if they allow you to turn Bluetooth off or not.  Also stay away from cell phones, microwaves, plane rides, sunshine, walks outdoors, and other activities which expose you to EMF levels which exceed that of BLE by tens of thousands to millions of times. 

The number of supposedly dissatisfied customers who keep returning, and even keep purchasing new Sonos devices, would surprise you.  If I had a dollar for every person who claimed to toss their Sonos in the trash or sell it on e-Bay who returns months later to post a complaint about some other problem or ask about a new feature, I could buy a new Sonos immersive set.  That bunny gets threatened all the time, but he never seems to die.

As a veteran here for 15 years, I see most of those posters as never satisfied, only happy when they are bitching about something, or issuing idle threats to get a company to give them attention and the ego boost that goes with it.   None of whom deserves to be catered to, and Sonos has demonstrated in the past they are quite aware of this fact.

I just found out by accident that the Sonos One has Bluetooth enabled permanently (both speakers in my bedroom were found by my phone when I turned on Bluetooth and scanned for available devices) Although I’m not afraid of EMF, I don’t need 2 EMF emitting devices next to my bed. I replaced the Sonos One speakers with the Sonos Play:1 which I had no longer used.

In my opinion there is no need for an always on Bluetooth device in the Sonos One. I can control the speaker via voice or the Sonos desktop app on my PC or Mac. Even if I had Wifi turned on and wanted to control the speakers with my phone, I could do that via already available Wifi – no need to add more EMF sources.

I had decided to purchase the Sonos Ones because they were the only smart speakers which could be used with a wired connection and had Alexa Support. Had I known that Bluetooth is always enabled, I could have bought Amazon speakers for less money. Unlike Amazon’s or Apple’s speakers, from which is known up front that their devices work with WLAN only, I feel mislead by Sonos – no mentioning of always on Bluetooth on their web side’s product description or Amazons, where I bought the speakers. At least I didn’t see any notes.

I’m thinking about selling my 2 Sone Ones. And I think I will invest no additional money into Sonos products. Their rivals speakers are getting smarter and are cheaper. The Sonos USP is gone for me with always on Bluetooth.

I consider Sonos’ behavior in this matter disrespectful to their customers health. We simply don’t know yet how the long-term exposure to today’s massive EMF exposure will affect ones health over 50 or more years.

Can the Sonos One  product owner/manager please comment on whether Bluetooth can be turned off in the future. Thanks.

 

Bluetooth is only active when setting up.  WiFi can be turned off in the settings menu:

How to disable or enable WiFi on your Sonos players

Wrong.  Bluetooth is always on even after setup

Thank you vey much for your clever advice! 

Greetings! 

 

I'm serious.  Being worried about BLE and not those far more powerful sources of the same type of EMF radiation is like being worried about red dye in one M&M while smoking 2 packs a day, drinking irradiated barium shakes for every meal, getting chest X-Rays for fun, and taking your biannual month long trips to sunny Chernobyl.

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Thank you vey much for your clever advice! 

Greetings! 

 

I'm serious.  Being worried about BLE and not those far more powerful sources of the same type of EMF radiation is like being worried about red dye in one M&M while smoking 2 packs a day, drinking irradiated barium shakes for every meal, getting chest X-Rays for fun, and taking your biannual month long trips to sunny Chernobyl.


That’s a bit of an exaggeration. It’s more like 1 pack a day, and the barium shakes every evening meal. 😜

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I have Bluetooth LE hearing aids, stuck behind each ear for about 18 hours per day. Looking at RF total exposure levels they are still likely lower than the 2.4 & 5 GHz access point I’m five feet from, my tablet that is in my hands several hours a day or the cell phone I’m usually three feet from unless it is in a pocket.

If you are serious you need to prioritize the RF issues and solve the worst ones first.

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Anybody who is so obviously unaffected that they can carelessly throw $200+ of electronics in the trash, and yet are angry enough to bother to register here and post such, should be ignored.  

Look at the list of products @rexabush has; it’s a heck of an investment for products where the “sound is meh”. 

Hi All

 

I have a very quick and simple question:

  • Can I SWITCH OFF the Wifi and Bluetooth PERMANENTLY from my Sonos One?

I am keen on using Sonos One connected to my Router via a Ethernet cable and also because I want to reduce the EMF Radiation in my Flat.

 

Thanks in advance

N

Just disconnect the top cable, you lose the buttons, light and mic, but no BT signal any more 👍

Hi All

 

I have a very quick and simple question:

  • Can I SWITCH OFF the Wifi and Bluetooth PERMANENTLY from my Sonos One?

I am keen on using Sonos One connected to my Router via a Ethernet cable and also because I want to reduce the EMF Radiation in my Flat.

 

Thanks in advance

N

Just disconnect the top cable, you lose the buttons, light and mic, but no BT signal any more 👍

No warranty either.

Yep, I know.

Extreme, destructive measures for eliminating a tiny amount of RF energy (the clue is in the name ‘BLE’) when there’d doubtless be more from neighbour WiFi signals. And that’s assuming one doesn’t have WiFi of one’s own (which happens to be a Sonos system requirement). 

Ask my girlfriend(tiny amount), se is glad that i solved it. only for installation wifi is required. 8 screws and a cable, that’s all, and reconnecting is easy.

The system is by cable connected.

We do not use WiFi or 4g.

And we use protection against WiFi from the neighbours and cellphone towers.

Now 0.8 uW/M2 in the living.

0.2 in bed.

BLE was 25 uW/m2…. 24/7 that’s a lot.

BLE was 25 uW/m2…. 24/7 that’s a lot.

At what distance?  

BTW I hope you don’t go outside, especially when it’s sunny, still less get on an aircraft. 

2 meters, close by, 1500 +

going outside in the city is a problem.

bt is a different signal the WiFi and 4g.

it hops 1600 times per second, and that’s what se is feeling. Nasty signal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivity

Enough said.

And frankly, although I have no numbers to back it up, I suspect the market for non-Bluetooth speakers is significantly smaller than it is for those who have it. Either BLE, for ease of setup, or full blown Bluetooth for carrying a music signal. If it were the other way, I suspect Sonos would have jumped on it as a money generating differentiation. So far, they haven’t, which supports my expectation.

Which isn’t to say that there isn’t such a market for that, just that it’s small enough not to appeal to the Product Managers at Sonos. I could easily see another manufacturer of smaller size grabbing that market, but I would expect due to smaller number of potential sales, the cost to the consumer would be much higher for an equivalent quality speaker. 

I understand your concern with respect to potential biological consequences of emissions. There are considerations for manufactures and consumers.

On the manufacturing side it is much more expensive to add a mechanical switch than to provide another option on a menu. Also, over the long term, the mechanical switch is a failure point. Yes, there are very reliable switches -- at a higher cost. A network jack (and the cable) are also costs and small reliability risks.

On the consumer side “everything is wireless now, right?”. There would be backlash if a wired connection was required in order to re-enable the radio. Less and less consumers are aware that their Gateway has network jacks because the ISP’s installer simply makes sure that the user’s phone can access the service, then leaves the premises. This confusion would result in more support calls -- increasing costs for manufacturers. There will also be rants in communities, such as this, complaining that their BT has now stopped working. suggesting that a class action lawsuit is needed.

I would welcome a switch. My personal experience with BT has not been great and I don’t have much use for it, but I do have a noise cancelling headset that I’ll occasionally use to protect my hearing from excessive noise in my environment. Of course this places the BT radio very near my brain. I must choose between potential brain damage and well documented hearing damage. I’m constantly struggling with BT connectivity issues of my various devices. Maybe there is a wired noise cancelling headset somewhere.

The latest SONOS models do include a mechanical switch associated with BT. I don’t know if this completely removes power from the BT radio or simply disables it’s function. The switch is a simple pushbutton and I suspect that a reboot or Factory Reset will enable BT again. I haven’t bothered to test this.

I don’t think that we have a complete understanding of potential long term outcomes on evolution caused by radio emissions or if the public will care. There is a large amount of data documenting bad outcomes for consuming certain foods, yet production continues and the public continues to gobble them.

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Did that device use Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy?

I have several Bluetooth LE devices that do not have that warning.

Who knows :-) 

I've noticed that manufacturers don't like to brag about the transmitters they put in their devices. Here is the source of the instructions for the equipment I wrote about (not cheap one):
https://assets.denon.com/documentmaster/master/ceol_n12_owners-manual-eu-en.pdf
Interestingly, the fine print in this manual states that you must turn on Bluetooth on your phone if you use the phone app to control the device (HEOS app). It's unclear whether it's only during installation or all the time, but from the description it looks like it's all the time...
 


That doesn’t sound like they’re using Bluetooth Low Energy: “you must turn on Bluetooth”. If so, comparing energy emissions like this and Sonos BLE is rather like comparing apples and oranges. And not knowing for sure makes it more like comparing apples with chalk. 

Userlevel 7
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Make sure to wrap your flat in a Faraday cage to prevent everyone else’s BT and WiFi signals from getting in. And cellphone signals.

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I just bought a new Sonos One. The bluetooth is still on after the setup and there is no way to disable it.


How can you tell that the Bluetooth is still on?

 

I just bought a new Sonos One. The bluetooth is still on after the setup and there is no way to disable it.


How can you tell that the Bluetooth is still on?

I have a device that can measure EMF radiation. And the WiFi is turned off in the speaker and it is still emitting radiation. My other Sonos One speaker dosen’t do that, so I assume that it is the bluetooth.

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Consider the used market, sadly it is far smaller than expected given the number of folks that have posted that they are selling all their Sonos.

I’m a big fan of having options, sadly it seems the ones I want aren’t popular enough to see Sonos implementing them.

I just found out by accident that the Sonos One has Bluetooth enabled permanently (both speakers in my bedroom were found by my phone when I turned on Bluetooth and scanned for available devices) Although I’m not afraid of EMF, I don’t need 2 EMF emitting devices next to my bed. I replaced the Sonos One speakers with the Sonos Play:1 which I had no longer used.

In my opinion there is no need for an always on Bluetooth device in the Sonos One. I can control the speaker via voice or the Sonos desktop app on my PC or Mac. Even if I had Wifi turned on and wanted to control the speakers with my phone, I could do that via already available Wifi – no need to add more EMF sources.

I had decided to purchase the Sonos Ones because they were the only smart speakers which could be used with a wired connection and had Alexa Support. Had I known that Bluetooth is always enabled, I could have bought Amazon speakers for less money. Unlike Amazon’s or Apple’s speakers, from which is known up front that their devices work with WLAN only, I feel mislead by Sonos – no mentioning of always on Bluetooth on their web side’s product description or Amazons, where I bought the speakers. At least I didn’t see any notes.

I’m thinking about selling my 2 Sone Ones. And I think I will invest no additional money into Sonos products. Their rivals speakers are getting smarter and are cheaper. The Sonos USP is gone for me with always on Bluetooth.

I consider Sonos’ behavior in this matter disrespectful to their customers health. We simply don’t know yet how the long-term exposure to today’s massive EMF exposure will affect ones health over 50 or more years.

Can the Sonos One  product owner/manager please comment on whether Bluetooth can be turned off in the future. Thanks.

 

I agree. Unethical and unhealthy for Sonos to not allow bluetooth to be turned off.  I will not buy another Sonos speaker again and will tell everyone that i know not to buy sonos speakers due to them being unhealthy.  Why have an ethernet port if you can't turn off both the wifi and the bluetooth?

I also found that bluetooth is always on. I bought the Sonos One primarily because I wanted to avoid the EMF radiation of Wifi-only devices like the Echos. Sonos, please respond whether there is/will be a solution.

Agreed that bluetooth is always ON as measured with an RF meter emitting ~200uW/m2 continuously after initial setup which is totally unnecessary. The fact that it's bluetooth LE is irrelevant.

My workaround is to wrap my Beam with RF shielding metal thread material and it lowers the level to ~3uW/m2 which is acceptable to me.  The bluetooth antenna seems to be in the middle of the Beam near the buttons. The issue with this is that you need to cover the touch buttons with the RF shielding.

I have some One’s outside wall mounted and it's not really practical to cover these.

Next, I plan to pull them apart and either a) cut the bluetooth antenna or b) shield internally.  If anyone has circuit diagrams please yell out.

To SONOS product engineers, this is a simple fix in your next hardware build.  Just add a physical on/off button for WiFi and bluetooth please, rather than driving a growing number of electrosensitive people away from your great products.

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