Microsoft Surface Pro 4, Intel i5, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB Samsung SSD for music library
Windows 10 Home
Networking Gear & Setup Details
Core connected via Ethernet to router via Western Digital powerline connectors
Router is Century Link C4000XG (fiber connected)
Connected Audio Devices
System outs are Sonos Connect Gen 2 and Sonos Move over wireless (2G)
and HP TP01 Desktop, 12 GB Ram, 256 GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 11 Home over wireless (2G) connected to PS Audio Sprout via USB
Number of Tracks in Library
13,200 tracks
Description of Issue
I was not having any problems with the Sonos devices until their previous software update, when Roon lost all of them. This was fixed when I added the “nosonosflac” to the startup string as recommended on your community pages.
After the Sonos 15.3 software update, things seemed to be OK for about a week and then the Sonos devices started stuttering and stopping and the “Roon lost control of audio device” message would come up.
I have factory reset both Sonos systems, reset their network connections, rebooted the router and reloaded the Roon core numerous times.
The Sonos devices show up in the Audio setup but the playback problem still persists.
The Windows wireless connections have no problem at all. Both Sonos devices are less than 20 ft. from the router and, as I noted, there were no problems until the last set of updates from both Roon and Sonos.
Any suggestions on where to start to fix this? Thanks.
Microsoft Surface Pro 4, Windows 10 Home, Intel I5-6300, 4 GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Roon library on 1 TB Samsung SSD connected via USB
Networking Gear & Setup Details
Century LInk/Greenwave C4000XG router (fiber connected), the Surface server is connected to the router via Western Digital powerline ethernet connectors, Netgear EAX 20 range extender
Connected Audio Devices
Sonos Move and Sonos Connect (Gen 2) via wireless (2G), HP TP01 desktop wireless going through PS Audio Sprout 100 connected via USB (5G)
Number of Tracks in Library
13,000 tracks
Description of Issue
The Sonos devices were working great until their software update prior to 15.3, when Roon lost all of them. This was temporarily fixed when I added the “nosonosflac” to the startup string as recommended on your community pages.
After the Sonos 15.3 software update, things seemed to be OK for about a week and then the Sonos devices started stuttering and stopping and the “Roon lost control of audio device” message started to come up. After only a few minutes of intermittent connection the stream stops.
I have factory reset both Sonos systems and reset their network connections, rebooted the router and reloaded the Roon core a couple of times. I have added and removed the “nosonosflac” adder to the startup string. Sonos streaming via their app works fine and the wireless connection to Squeezebox radios works in locations further from the router than the Sonos devices. The Windows PC/Sprout wireless connection has no problems.
The Sonos devices show up in the Audio setup but the playback problem still persists. Is anyone still having this problem and any suggestions from support on what might fix it?
Hi, Ben - thanks for getting back to me. Removing the nonsonosflac was the first thing I tried. The connection still stutters and eventually stops with the same “lost control of audio device” message. I would suspect problems with the router or server except the Windows-based end points, which are also on wireless, work fine. The Sonos products are the only ones that do this. The router does have both 2G and 5G and the Sonos products are on 2G. I can’t get them to connect to the 5G wireless. Could the slower network speed be part of the problem?
Thanks for the update! I agree with where your direction is heading with next troubleshooting steps.
Great question! I wouldn’t pin it specifically to the slowness of the 2G band, but more so, if there are a handful of other active devices also running on 2G, there could be additional noise that may be playing a role in this.
If possible, are you able to do an IP scan to see how many devices are currently using the 2G band? And taking it a step further, testing out moving some devices over to 5G to free up space and network noise?
Ben, sorry for the delay, many things have come up that prevented me from getting back to trying to troubleshoot the Sonos problem. I haven’t been able to figure out how many things are on the 2G vs. 5G network connections, but I don’t have that many wireless network connections, less than 10, and my house is not large. The wireless strength for all the options shows “excellent” in the Sonos app. The problem may be that there is a range extender in the system and I’ve read that Sonos doesn’t like that. The odd thing is that I can get the Sonos products to connect to the range extender but not to the main wireless router network. I’ve tried numerous times to reset the Sonos items, reboot the router, try to connect to different network channels and do all the things that Sonos suggests. The extender connection is the only one that Sonos recognizes and that stutters and loses the connection to Roon. I did attach the Sonos Connect directly to the range extender with an ethernet cable and it worked via Roon like it should. However, I don’t have any way to get a cable from either the router or the extender to the Connect without a major effort. I also have a Move which is only wireless. I’m about to give up and just go with a Sonos Boost attached to the main router in order to set up the separate Sonosnet network. I assume Roon will work with that?
One more thing - supposedly I could use Airplay on the Move but Roon doesn’t see the Airplay connection.
You are undoubtedly correct and it is probably the range extender that is the culprit. However, I have now tried Jriver media center via DLNA to the Sonos end points and everything works fine on the same network connections where Roon is having problems. I think that I need to get into the range extender setup and block the Sonos/Roon connections so that Sonos only sees the main router. However, right now the range extender firmware is not functioning (although the extender itself is working) so I’m about ready to give up. Guess I’ll plan on spending 2 hours on hold with Netgear to see if anything can be done. If you have any other suggestions please let me know, otherwise you can close this topic out. BTW, Airplay is enabled on my Move but Roon still doesn’t see it. Thanks.
It would be good to review a set of Roon logs from your core device. If possible, could you please reproduce the issue, and use the directions found here and send over a set of logs to our File Uploader?
This is definitely odd. Have you tried a hard reboot on the router recently?
Thanks for your response. I did a hard reset on the main router but not on the extender and things didn’t change. The extender is my next try, keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t lock me out of the firmware. It doesn’t have a direct ethernet connection so everything has to be done via wifi (will not make that mistake again!). I’ll run the Roon logs and send them to you.
Ben, I was finally able to get into the range extender and block Sonos.ZP. That got the Move working in Roon via the router, but the Connect still had problems finding it, probably because it has both 2.4 and 5G radios that are on simultaneously. Apparently the Connect only works with 2.4G and doesn’t like the 5G going on. I decided to not try turning the 5G on and off in the router on the chance that might work and got a Boost. After messing around for quite a while with the new Sonos net (factory resetting everything, changing channels, etc. - I think Sonos software is terrible) everything seems to be working now. In any event, I uploaded my log files in case you all see anything else that might be screwed up. Thanks for all your help and responses.
Cal
