Sonos Alexa Problems – How to Fix

Has Alexa lost her voice or is she moody and doesn’t want to talk! Well, nothing can block these kinds of thoughts once your Sonos Alexa fails to act on your voice commands. Alexa is the most reliable virtual assistant designed to make life simple, especially for smart homes, and when she doesn’t respond it is usually because of a software glitch that makes it unable for it to synchronize properly with your Sonos device.

Integration problems between your Sonos and Alexa application don’t really need a specialist because most of them are DIY as you will discover below.

Sonos Alexa Problems –How to Fix

At certain times Alexa may completely fails to respond to your queries, or fails to follow voice commands, or even respond with an error message if it does not understand your voice commands. So there are a couple of ways with which you can fix these problems. First, check to ensure that the microphone status light on your Sonos speaker is on, and if the light is off, proceed to tap on the microphone icon, to switch it on, and then voice the command.

Another reliable technique is to disable and re-enable the Sonos skill, just go to the Alexa application, then tap on the menu that is in the top left, and on the option for skills and games, tap on your skills, then Sonos and then proceed to disable skill, give it a few seconds and then Enable skill again. After the above process, you will likely receive the response to enable the Sonos skill or link music services from Alexa. As you implement the above ensure to respond via the Alexa application.

Important to note is that when you open an Amazon account, you cannot use it on two Sonos systems at a time, meaning that if you have more than one Sonos system then you are going to need two Amazon accounts, the above is to ensure that Alexa seamlessly integrates with the two systems.

The other remaining option, therefore, is to open the Alexa application, then proceed to the skill & games option under the menu and then disable skill. Then open the Amazon’s website, where it will walk you through the process of de-registering your Sonos speaker, on the website find the option, deregistering the device, and then enable skill again. You will then go back to the skills & games option and tap on enable skill.

If you successfully complete the above process, you should again try to give Alexa another command, to which it will respond, but if it does not, you will have to contact Sonos customer care for assistance. Important to note is that there are some basic things that many people tend to overlook, and which might be contributing to no response from Alexa.

For example, you have to ensure that your Wi-Fi is up and running and that both the Sonos and Alexa devices are connected. Sometimes the microphone could be inactive, so check to ensure that the small round led light, lights up white when the microphone is turned on. At times Amazon Alexa will experience an outage and if that is the case then you can expect the regular service to resume in due time.

Many people have complained that at times, Amazon Alexa fails to respond to their commands to play music but will respond to the commands that ask for information on weather and time. The likely problem above would be that you don’t have a specific music service assigned from where Alexa can stream.

Reset the voice service application in the Sonos application

For as much as the right configuration processes are followed when setting up the voice service application, Sonos is expected to offer a good service, however, when working with applications there are many things that could go wrong most of which are never intentional. Some of the problems, therefore, arise when you try to integrate external services to the Sonos smart speaker, such as integrating with Amazon Alexa.

And if you have noticed from the beginning of this article disabling and re-enabling some of the settings seems to be the cure pill. So, if you are having problems with the voice service in the Sonos application you should try to reset it by first removing it from the problematic speaker and then re-add it. So to remove Alexa from Sonos, you will go to the Sonos application open it and proceed to tap on the settings tab.

Then select the services option, and proceed to the voice category and select Amazon Alexa, then select the speaker that is at fault from the Sonos products, then tap to remove Alexa and click confirm when prompted. To re-add Alexa to Sonos just follow the above process, to go to the Sonos products page, and select the Add to another product option.

You might receive a prompt Add to Sonos, on the next screen and here you will select the speaker that you wish to reinstate or the room name. You will then proceed to the Add Amazon Alexa option and then sign in to the Amazon account once you get the prompt, and when Sonos finishes authorizing click done.

You will then try the voice control of your selected speaker with a simple command, and voice a simple command like asking for a particular recipe, if Alexa responds with the relevant information then all is well.

Conclusion

We understand that dealing with the set and reset options can be utterly frustrating, so don’t start pulling hair out of your head yet, because Sonos has a published telephone number with which you can reach the Sonos support customer care team. Sonos smart speakers are one of the most customizable units available in the market, such that they even give you the option of eliminating, so that you can use the room name through the creation of an Alexa group. The above is available in the Amazon Alexa application.