I have historically been able to control my sonos devices using Roon; however, since Sonos' recent spring update disaster, I can no longer control any of the Sonos devices with Roon. While the Roon app recognizes the devices, I repeatedly receive the message that Roon has lost control of the devices. While i suspect that the problem lies with Sonos, it still doesn't make sense given that Roon does show the devices. Any help would be appreciated because when Roon does work, it is vastly superior to Sonos.
Describe your network setup
Arris surfboard modem and netgear blackhawk router. Wireless, through Charter Spectrum, otherwise works fine. I have repeatedly rebooted, etec. We are currently in a summer place in Michigan, so I am anxious to see whether the problem persists when we return home.
Hi @brad_fleetwood,
Thanks for reaching out to us about this issue. The best way to start diagnosing this is to reproduce the problem and then let us know the date and time that it happened. We can us that information to track down any errors in the logs for your server.
Apologies for not replying sooner. The problem occurred each day and time I attempted to use Roon to operate my Sonos system throughout July and August while at a summer place in Michigan. I am currently not at that location, but plan to return in mid-October. That being said, you can track down any time on my server during July and August and see that Roon would not operate my Sonos system. Strangely, I have now returned home to Virginia and am able to use Roon to operate my Eversolo streamer and my Sonos system without any problem. The only distinction I can think of is that in Virginia I stream at about 1GB. In Michigan, I stream at about 300 Mbps. the Sonos app works fine in each location.
Thank you for your patience and for testing so far. We’ve examined earlier logs from August to further illuminate the problem.
The particular error message “Roon has lost control of the audio device” specifically indicates that the Sonos endpoint, while perhaps still visible to Roon, is no longer responsive to Roon’s commands. This most commonly results from WiFi interference, either between Roon and a Sonos device or between multiple Sonos devices in a grouped Zone setup.
However, in diagnostics from August, we see a pattern of RoonServer restarting after apparent crashing or machine reboots. Were you closing/opening RoonServer in the background on this laptop?
In any case, the best test at either location would be to hardwire the RoonServer machine directly to the router, and then connect the Sonos machine to the same router via a second ethernet cable. Can you reproduce dropouts in this setup?
My Roon core is my pc. I do use Roon to try to operate grouped Sonos speakers at both the Michigan and Virginia locations. Not sure how I can do what you suggest up in Michigan since Sonos is spread throughout the house. Seems counterintuitive since those same speakers work with Sonos app. Why does Roon work with my Virginia Sonos system and not with my Michigan Sonos system? Does a Roon core/server have to be hardwired to the router?
Does anybody know how to find out which audio device Roon has lost control of? The error message is better than nothing, but only slightly better than nothing. The Roon server must ‘know’ which audio device was the problem. Is there a log Ican examine, and if so, what should I look for?
Please let us know when you are back at the Michigan location so that we can troubleshoot this issue.
Unfortunately, logs only show the group ended, it is hard to say which of the devices triggered this behavior, but I have put in a feature request to the development team regarding this aspect, though I cannot comment on timelines.
Yes, Roon logs are freely accessible if you follow these instructions. I would try to line up the track / time of failure with the logging if you wish to investigate this on your end.
I have run into this issue multiple times over the course of Sonos constantly updating their devices. First, restart your Roon server and see if that helps. Second, what I found was that this occurred consistently in devices that were once on the S1 software and updated to S2. Products released after the S2 switch that only came within S2 software don’t seem to have this issue.
The ‘fix’ I found for this is to go into the settings of each Sonos product within the Roon app and switch the bitrate from 24 bits (S2 allows for 24/48) to 16bit. Roon will then transcode down to 16 bits and you should be able to play without an issue.