Problem Creating Zone Groupings With Sonos Speakers

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit
Intel Core i5 7500 @ 3.4GHz
16GB RAM
ASUSTeK B250M-C motherboard
Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 8260
I don’t know how to find the Roon build number. Google was not helpful. I think it’s 100700571, but I really don’t know.

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

WiFi AP: Netgear Orbi RBK50 with one satellite. Management is minimal with only a few DHCP reservations.
Netgear 16 x 4 DOCSIS 30 Cable Modem (no management, just a dumb modem, ethernet connection to WiFi AP and coaxial connection to ISP)
Synology DS412 has ethernet connection to the WiFi AP.
Everything else connects wirelessly.

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

Sonos devices listed below (All wireless except as noted below)
Sennheiser HD650 headphones (Headphone cable to headphone amp)
JDS Labs Objective2 Headphone Amp & ObjectiveDAC (USB)

Library Details
Music is stored locally on the Core. 60,399 tracks.
Streaming services: Primarily Tidal, Spotify, and Bandcamp. A few others are used sporadically.

Description Of Issue

I cannot create certain Zone Groupings. From Zones, I can see all of my Sonos speakers:

Bathroom: 1x Play:1
Living Room: 1x Playbar, 2x Play:1 (configured as surround sound group in Sonos app)
Lounge: 1x One SL, ethernet to WiFi AP
Office: 2x Play:1 (configured as stereo pair in Sonos app)
Portable: 1x Play:5 (Gen 2)

I can play to each of them individually without issue. However, grouping them is an issue. I’ve gone through the available Group Zones for each and have determined the following groupings are available:

Office, Bathroom, Living Room
or
Portable, Lounge

For example, from Portable, I can only group with Lounge. From Living Room, I can only group with Office and/or Bathroom.

I typically keep Portable and Office grouped together. From within the Sono app, when I group these two, Roon will play on both. However, when the second song begins, the group is broken and Roon is only playing through Office.

How do I get around this?

Hello @Stephen_Hargrove,

Which Sonos firmware version are you running on each of these devices?
Have you upgraded some to Sonos S2 but not all?
Please see: Sonos S2 Product Compatibility List

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

All speakers are running S2 and show the following:

Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)

Beyond this, I’m not sure how to find the firmware version. If there’s some other place I need to look, I haven’t found it.

I am seeing the same thing. I can group all my sonos Play 1 together fine. I can link my Play 5 and One together. Just not anything from both of those groupings.

To get your system info in windows app I went Help -> About my system

Sonos S2

GROUP ONE THAT WORKS TOGETHER

Play:5: Kitchen (L)
Serial Number: 5C-AA-FD-0F-B0-62:F
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.13.1.7-1.2
Series ID: C100
IP Address: 192.168.86.33
WM: 1


Sonos One: Allie
Serial Number: 78-28-CA-19-5D-BC:F
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.21.1.8-1.2
Series ID: A100
IP Address: 192.168.86.35
WM: 1


GROUP TWO THAT WORKS TOGETHER
---------------------------------
Play:1: Basement Bath (L)
Serial Number: 94-9F-3E-FD-94-C8:0
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.20.1.6-1.2
Series ID: A200
IP Address: 192.168.86.31
WM: 1
---------------------------------
Play:1: Basement Bath ®
Serial Number: 94-9F-3E-FD-97-64:5
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.20.1.6-1.2
Series ID: A200
IP Address: 192.168.86.37
WM: 1
---------------------------------
Play:1: Garage
Serial Number: 94-9F-3E-FD-99-16:E
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.20.1.6-1.2
Series ID: A200
IP Address: 192.168.86.32
WM: 1

---------------------------------
Play:5: Kitchen ®
Serial Number: 5C-AA-FD-F8-C2-9C:1
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.13.1.8-1.2
Series ID: C200
IP Address: 192.168.86.34
WM: 1
---------------------------------
Play:1: Laundry
Serial Number: 94-9F-3E-19-13-AA:4
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.20.1.6-1.2
Series ID: A200
IP Address: 192.168.86.36
WM: 1
---------------------------------
Connect: Living Room
Serial Number: 94-9F-3E-B3-73-C0:4
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.22.1.4-1.1
Series ID: D100
IP Address: 192.168.86.40
WM: 0
---------------------------------
Play:1: Parent’s Bath
Serial Number: 94-9F-3E-15-FA-D2:G
Sonos OS: S2
Version: 12.0.1 (build 58178090)
Hardware Version: 1.20.1.6-1.2
Series ID: A200
IP Address: 192.168.86.30
WM: 1

That’s were I found the information. Good to know. Thanks!

Hi @Stephen_Hargrove,

Thank you for sharing that information! Can I please ask that you reproduce this issue on one of the problematic groups and let me know the exact local time + date + track and which zone grouping it occurs on? Once I have that information I can go ahead and enable diagnostics mode for your account and take a look to see if logs reveal further clues.

I don’t think you understand the problem. I can only reproduce it by trying to add a speaker to a group, and then that speaker doesn’t show up as a speaker that can be added to that group. I never get to the point of actually streaming music. The speaker simply cannot be added to the group.

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Thanks to the clarification @Stephen_Hargrove.

Yes, this is the timestamp I am looking for, what is the exact local time + date this issue occurs? What is the track playing before you add the last speaker to the zone? Please let me know this info here and I can enable diagnostics and check to see if there are any specific error messages that Roon displays in logs.

Ok, on 7/13/2020 at 1:02PM local time, I was playing Ace Frehley’s Space Invader and grouped the Bathroom and Office zones. Roon lost control of the audio device but when I hit play again, both zones were playing.

I could not group Portable because it wasn’t available to be grouped, and that’s the issue I’m complaining about.

At 1:03PM, while listening to the same song, I removed Bathroom from the zone. Again, Roon lost control of the audio device but when I hit play again, Office continued playing.

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Thanks for the information @Stephen_Hargrove, I have enabled diagnostics mode for your account and what this action does is automatically upload a log set to our servers. I can confirm that the log report has been received and I have requested feedback regarding your issue from our technical team.

Thank you! Please let me know what they find.

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I made the following change and it may have fixed this. I noticed that the Sonos 5 and Sonos One SL appeared twice in Settings->Audio, once “via Airplay” and once “via Sonos Streaming”. I disabled the Airplay versions, leaving only the “via Sonos Streaming” versions.

Now everything appears as capable of being grouped. I have to pause the music before adding/removing to/from a zone or Roon loses control of the audio device and stops playing. But, all my zones show to be group-able now.

Was anything changed on the backend, or is this the fix? (But not the complete fix, since Roon is still losing control of the audio devices.)

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Hi @Stephen_Hargrove,

Thanks for those additional details! I mentioned this to our hardware team and it is peculiar that disabling Airplay allows the zones to be grouped. Is this behavior reproducible? As soon as you enable the Airplay zones, you are no longer able to group the Sonos zones?

I enabled Airplay on both the Sonos 5 and Sonos One SL. Roon allowed me to group them with other speakers. Roon also listed these 2 as devices that I could not group (because Airplay can only be grouped with Airplay).

Hi @Stephen_Hargrove,

When this issue occurred, did you also have Airplay enabled on the other zones?
It sounds like even with Airplay enabled, you are not able to reproduce the grouping issue behavior?

When this issue first occurred, I couldn’t select certain speakers. From my original post:

Office, Bathroom, Living Room
or
Portable, Lounge

If I was playing on the Office speaker and went to Zones, the only choices I had were Bathroom and Living Room. If I was playing on Lounge, the only speaker I could choose was Portable. I don’t recall spending much, if any time, in Settings past the initial setup. It was only when I was playing around 6 days ago that I went into settings and noticed that several speakers had both Airplay and Sonos Streaming. So I disabled Airplay since I don’t use that, and that’s when I was able to choose any combination of speakers.

And you’re correct. I can enable Airplay and still choose the speaker I want. It appears in the speakers I can choose from (as Sonos Streaming) and it appears in the “# zones can’t be grouped here” as Airplay.

I’m not sure exactly how I ended up here, but it is working now (other than when Roon loses control of the audio device and stops playing, but that’s a different issue.)

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