Multi-Room Music - Be Careful It's Tricky...Or Can Be

quote:

---

Yeah you're not doing it right

---

Ha, nope I am. I did get one to connect. Then, when I connected one, it erased the other. So I factory reset everything restarted the router and started again.

Got the Sonos One to connect, play music etc. But the two Play:1's I have just won't connect. Turn on, wait for green blink, use the app, press the two buttons down with the chime...."No connection." Brought them closer to the router, used the ethernet cable, restarted the router a dozen times, nothing. Just blinking orange to solid orange to no connection. The Forums are no help. I reached out to Support, but that's all I got.

I've reset the Play:1's almost every time I try to reconnect them. Unplug wait for 10 seconds, etc.

I even found some obscure ASUS router setting that some guy online said worked, and yeah that didn't work either.

quote:

---

Do you want to sell your terrible new speakers?

---

I'd rather some help or options, but maybe. Has anyone experienced Sonos issues?

quote:

---

Could possibly be a hardware problem with your play 1s?

---

That's what it almost has to be I think.

quote:

---

Is the sonos 1 working consistently?

---

Except when I've been restarting the routers fo rthe Play:1's, yes. Although something odd did happen. One time when I restarted, I couldn't see the 1/Room in the app, but if I hit the play button on the device, it played the last song I was playing. Took another restart for it to hit back up on the app.

Other than that, it's fine.

quote:

---

I have a boost since some of the speakers have a fair distance and walls for signal to travel through. Have 0 problems at my house with it.

---

Mine are all within 200 ft. or so. Not far at all, and all on the same floor. Actually, the first one I got working was in the furthest room away, but once I reset it, it stopped completely and hasn't connected again.

It was the one that was erased when I connected the 1.

quote:

---

have a boost since some of the speakers have a fair distance and walls for signal to travel through. Have 0 problems at my house with it.

ETA: or as previously stated, you could be just doing something wrong

---

I mean, it isn't that hard:

1. Plug in speaker
2. Wait for blinking green
3. Hit button/buttons for connection

And it isn't the system/router. I have a couple of other smart home systems up and running that have 0 problems - Hues, Lutron, Smarrtthings and Alexa devices. 0 issues with any of that.

I've never heard of anyone say that Sonos was hard to setup. It may not be the best sounding speaker for the price point but simplicity and ease of use is one of it's main features.

A couple of questions:
1) It sounds like it's only your Play:1s having issues. Are they hardwired to a router or wireless?
2) Assuming wireless, are they within a decent range of your router?
3) Assuming they are, make sure in your setup guide that you choose the correct sonos play:1 model from your phone app.
4) Any more info you can tell us to assist.

Also, make sure you only have 1 plugged in at a time while doing setup. Sometimes I have to unplug it and redo the setup to get it to recognize new play:1s.

quote:

---

1) It sounds like it's only your Play:1s having issues. Are they hardwired to a router or wireless?

---

Wireless, but I tried both hardwired. I actually setup the One hardwired, and that worked, but it also erased the previous Play:1 that did work. I factory reset it and restarted again and set it up that way and it has worked.

Interestingly enough, whenever I try to setup the Play:1's wireless - it automatically finds them and pulls up their Mac address on the app. When I try wired, it doesn't find them automatically at all.

quote:

---

2) Assuming wireless, are they within a decent range of your router?

---

Yes. The router is in a central location, so at worst the furthest is probably 4 walls away, no more than 40 feet. I have an Asus RT ac88u, so not a shabby router.

quote:

---

3) Assuming they are, make sure in your setup guide that you choose the correct sonos play:1 model from your phone app.

---

Yup. Sometimes it finds it automatically, but then the networking connection never works. Blinks orange after pressing the buttons and hearing the chime....then blinks and blinks and blinks. Then solid orange and "Not connected. Your Sonos product was not found."

quote:

---

4) Any more info you can tell us to assist.

---

Thanks.

quote:

---

Also, make sure you only have 1 plugged in at a time while doing setup. Sometimes I have to unplug it and redo the setup to get it to recognize new play:1s.

---

Yup. I've actually tried it both ways because it does find both when I hit "Add Speaker." Tried both, tried one, Nothing.

1. Add them one at a time. Don't even plug in the other speakers.
2. Do the factory reset on each one before you attempt to add it. The speakers can get into an unstable state if they "sort of" install.
3. Android or iOS app? Sometimes the iOS app just works better.
4. Plug in, wait for blinking green light then go to "add speaker" in app.
5. It SHOULD go forward 2-3 screens where it identifies you are trying to set up a play 1.
6. Let it run and error out.
7. UNPLUG SPEAKER.
7. Use the "alternate setup" option when it presents it to you. DO NOT PLUG IN ETHERNET YET AND DO PLUG IT IN YET !!
8. follow prompt EXACTLY. Connect Ethernet only after it says to.
9. Connect power to speaker when it prompts you AND WAIT FOR FLASGING GREEN!! MAKE SURE YOUR SPEAKER IS FLASHING GREEN.
10. Follow prompts and it should connect and then begin software update immediately. This is a good if you make it to this point.
11. Once the software update is done..UNPLUG IT IMMEDIATELY AND DISCONNWCT ETHERNET.
12. Set it somewhere nearby and plug it in again and just wait and see what happens.

It should be good to go and the app will prompt you to register it to your account.

You will have to repeat this for each speaker and if you miss any of these steps you'll have to start over. It's very very picky.

Eta if this had been my first Sonos experience I would have been just as mad as you.

quote:

---

1. Add them one at a time. Don't even plug in the other speakers.
2. Do the factory reset on each one before you attempt to add it. The speakers can get into an unstable state if they "sort of" install.
3. Android or iOS app? Sometimes the iOS app just works better.
4. Plug in, wait for blinking green light then go to "add speaker" in app.
5. It SHOULD go forward 2-3 screens where it identifies you are trying to set up a play 1.
6. Let it run and error out.
7. UNPLUG SPEAKER.
7. Use the "alternate setup" option when it presents it to you. DO NOT PLUG IN ETHERNET YET AND DO PLUG IT IN YET !!
8. follow prompt EXACTLY. Connect Ethernet only after it says to.
9. Plug speaker in when it prompts you AND WAIT FOR FLASGING GREEN!! MAKE SURE YOUR SPEAKER IS FLASHING GREEN.
10. Follow prompt and it should connect and then begin software update immediately
11. Once the software update is done..UNPLUG IT IMMEDIATELY AND DISCONNWCT ETHERNET.
12. Set it somewhere nearby and plug it in again and just wait and see what happens.

It should be good to go and the app will prompt you to register it to your account.

You will have to repeat this for each speaker and if you miss any of these steps you'll have to start over. It's very very picky.

---

Android

Cool.. Before I start - This is sort of what I did before. So I add 1 Play:1. It worked perfectly and easily. Played music, etc. So, I unplugged it, and proceeded to add the One. So when I fire up the app....and you don't have a speaker it - It looks for a new system...so I added the One as a new speaker....it automatically did that - but it added it as a New System instead and erased the originally added Play:1. Make sense?

Maybe that's an android thing, but I can't get to "the system controller" to click "Add Speaker" to add to the system. It automatically looks for a speaker and creates a new system if it doesn't find an active speaker. At least that's what it seemed to do. Both speakers "Worked" but I couldn't control them at the same time. Only one room would show and I'd have to restart the app and turn off one speaker to get the other room to show. Did you experience that at any point?

quote:

---

I'm so sorry! No no no. Leave any speakers already successfully paired ON because you want to be building up your system.. I just meant any that you were struggling to set up should not be powered on.

Sonos can get stuck thinking it's setting up the wrong speaker if the process failed along the way. You don't want any added variables.

Eta what is working right now? I would start with the One if you can get it to pair because my process is for adding play 1s and it may not work the same with the One. You don't need any more frustration at this point.

I curse Sonos for these confusing speaker names.

---

The One is up and running and is actually furthest away from the router, but fewer walls than the others. I am setting them up right next to the router.

So leave the one on and follow the steps? Got it.

So I just tried to use the ipad as the controller, with the currently running One...and that doesn't work either. Can never find the device/sonos system.

Odd.