This guide will show you how to repair basic sound issues with your wireless Sonos system.
2. Music Source
The Sonos sound system plays audio from a multitude of sources. They are grouped in the following kinds:
Radio stations and on demand music or podcasts from online music services
Audio files from computers, mobile devices or other networked storage
Any audio device connected to Sonos through the Line-In interface
3. Check Music Service
If you're having trouble listening to a music service there are a couple things for you to try:
Check if an outage has been reported for the music service you're using. To check for outages, visit: https://status.sonos.com/
Attempt playing music from another online music service and compare how the music services are performing.
4. Try Again Later When Services Are Online
Try again later when the services are back up.
5. What's next?
6. Check Other Devices
Check if other devices on the same network are having the same connectivity issue. This applies to situations when:
You are unable to connect to a Wi-Fi network:
Try connecting to the same Wi-Fi network with other devices.
You have no internet access or you have slow or intermittent connectivity:
Try loading webpages, watching online videos, listening to online music or playing an online game with other devices connected to the same network, preferably through an Ethernet connection.
7. Reboot Router
To reboot a router simply unplug the power cord, make sure that all the lights went off, keep it powered off for 30 seconds then plug the power cord back in.
8. What's next?
9. Reboot Speaker
Unplug the power cable from your Sonos device and wait 30 seconds.
Plug the power cable back into your Sonos device. Allow up to two minutes for it to boot up and connect to the network.
Once connected to the network, the light on the top of your Sonos device should light up a solid white color.
10. Reboot Router
To reboot a router simply unplug the power cord, make sure that all the lights went off, keep it powered off for 30 seconds then plug the power cord back in.
11. Range Check
The device needs to be within a reasonable range of the router in order to connect and have the best connection speeds.
In general, in most homes, you can be up to 30 feet from your router for a decent connection.
From 30' to 50' away, the speeds will be slower, and may drop occasionally, but it should be usable.
Greater than 50' away, and the signal will most likely be too weak to overcome interference. The speeds will be slow, and the connection may be sporadic.
The above numbers are approximates only. Optimal range may vary based on router make and model.
12. Reduce Wireless Interference
Wireless signal interference can cause performance issues such as slow or intermittent connections and even complete disconnects. This interference involves the presence of:
Electromagnetic fields created by other electronic devices such as: Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capable devices, cordless phones, baby monitors, remote controlled toys, microwave ovens, seasonal lighting, garage door openers.
Structural materials in walls, floors, furnishings or other large objects.
To reduce wireless signal interference, look for any of the above devices, turn them off temporarily and check if the issue persists. If it does, then:
Consider moving the affected device or any of the other devices further from the affected device.
Alternately, if possible, you can select different wireless channels in the devices' configuration. Consult the devices' manufacturers documentation for details on how to make those changes.
The potential of structural materials to absorb wireless signal and cause signal loss or undesired behavior is as follows:
Ensure the computer, phone, tablet or network attached storage (NAS) device that contains the music tracks is powered on and connected to your Wi-Fi network.
15. Power cycle
If you haven't already, please try power cycling the device you're working with. To do so, simply turn it off, wait 30 seconds and turn it back on again.
16. Reboot Router
To reboot a router simply unplug the power cord, make sure that all the lights went off, keep it powered off for 30 seconds then plug the power cord back in.
17. Range Check
The device needs to be within a reasonable range of the router in order to connect and have the best connection speeds.
In general, in most homes, you can be up to 30 feet from your router for a decent connection.
From 30' to 50' away, the speeds will be slower, and may drop occasionally, but it should be usable.
Greater than 50' away, and the signal will most likely be too weak to overcome interference. The speeds will be slow, and the connection may be sporadic.
The above numbers are approximates only. Optimal range may vary based on router make and model.
18. Reduce Wireless Interference
Wireless signal interference can cause performance issues such as slow or intermittent connections and even complete disconnects. This interference involves the presence of:
Electromagnetic fields created by other electronic devices such as: Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capable devices, cordless phones, baby monitors, remote controlled toys, microwave ovens, seasonal lighting, garage door openers.
Structural materials in walls, floors, furnishings or other large objects.
To reduce wireless signal interference, look for any of the above devices, turn them off temporarily and check if the issue persists. If it does, then:
Consider moving the affected device or any of the other devices further from the affected device.
Alternately, if possible, you can select different wireless channels in the devices' configuration. Consult the devices' manufacturers documentation for details on how to make those changes.
The potential of structural materials to absorb wireless signal and cause signal loss or undesired behavior is as follows:
Changing the audio compression setting to Compressed will be less taxing on the wireless network and may alleviate audio stops or skips. Here's how to do it on mobile devices:
Open the Sonos Controller app.
Open the Menu then select Settings.
Go to Advanced Settings.
Then to Audio Compression, set the settings to Compressed and tap on Done.
21. Reduce Wireless Interference
Wireless signal interference can cause performance issues such as slow or intermittent connections and even complete disconnects. This interference involves the presence of:
Electromagnetic fields created by other electronic devices such as: Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capable devices, cordless phones, baby monitors, remote controlled toys, microwave ovens, seasonal lighting, garage door openers.
Structural materials in walls, floors, furnishings or other large objects.
To reduce wireless signal interference, look for any of the above devices, turn them off temporarily and check if the issue persists. If it does, then:
Consider moving the affected device or any of the other devices further from the affected device.
Alternately, if possible, you can select different wireless channels in the devices' configuration. Consult the devices' manufacturers documentation for details on how to make those changes.
The potential of structural materials to absorb wireless signal and cause signal loss or undesired behavior is as follows:
If you have multiple speakers you have to choose which one you want to use. Tap on the room (speaker) name at the top of the screen then select the one you want to use from the drop down menu. This method works for both smartphones and tablets.
On a computer just click on the speaker on the left side of the screen.
24. Adjust Sound Volume
You can control the music volume for each speaker you select from the speaker selector at the top. When you have grouped speakers, you can raise or lower the sound volume to all of them at once by moving the volume control slider. All volume controls will pop up for the speakers in the same group which lets you control them separately as well. Tap on the speaker symbol to mute and unmute.
Here's how to do it:
Tap on the Now Playing bar at the bottom of the screen, from anywhere within the Sonos app
Then move the volume control slider at the bottom of the screen to adjust the sound volume.
If you have multiple speakers selected, all of their volume control sliders will show up.
On a computer you would see something like this when controlling the sound volume for grouped speakers.
25. Select Speaker
If you have multiple speakers you have to choose which one you want to use. Tap on the room (speaker) name at the top of the screen then select the one you want to use from the drop down menu. This method works for both smartphones and tablets.
On a computer just click on the speaker on the left side of the screen.
26. Stereo Sound
To listen to music in stereo with Sonos you need to:
Have a speaker that can play stereo on its own
Pair a couple of speakers to act as left and right channels and play in stereo
Sonos speakers that play stereo on their own are:
Play:3
Play:5 (gen2)
Playbase
Playbar
Play:3 and Play:5 (gen2) can only play in stereo on their own if they are positioned horizontally. Stereo playback is disabled if they are positioned vertically.
Sonos speakers that can be paired to play in stereo are:
Sonos One
Play:1
Play:3
Play:5 (gen1)
Play:5 (gen2)
To pair speakers to play in stereo you need to make sure that:
Both speakers are of the same type
Both speakers are positioned in the same orientation
They are positioned between 8 to 10 feet apart and you are listening from 8 to 12 feet from the pair
Here's how to pair a couple of speakers to play in stereo:
Open the Sonos Controller app on your mobile device.
From the Menu tap on Settings.
Go to Room Settings.
Select one of the speakers you wish to create a stereo pair with.
Select Create Stereo Pair and follow the in-app instructions.
Once paired they will show up as one speaker in the Sonos Controller app and will only play the same audio source.
27. Tune Speaker
The layout of a room and where a speaker is placed, can have a significant impact on the sound that you hear. Trueplay uses the microphone in your iOS device to measure how sound reflects off walls, furnishings and other surfaces in a room, and fine tunes your Sonos speaker to make sure it sounds great no matter where you've placed it.
Due to the wide variety of devices on the Android platform using different software versions, microphones and ways to process audio, Trueplay Tuning is only available on iOS devices.
Open the Sonos Controller app on your mobile device.
From the Menu tap on Settings.
Go to Room Settings.
Select the speaker that you want to tune with Trueplay. Speakers that require tuning will show a red dot next to their name.
Then tap on Trueplay Tuning.
Tap on Next on the introductory screen.
When ready, tap on Begin Tuning.
You will be shown how to hold your mobile device. You may be asked to rotate it upside down to not cover the microphone with your hand.
Remain quiet to test the background noise then tap on Continue to proceed.
You will be shown a demo video on how to perform the technique. Tap on Start when you're ready to being the tuning process.
After you've performed the technique the app will make the necessary adjustments. Tap on Finish to complete the tuning process.
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