Sonos Connection

[Mick Brown]

Hi Paul / Martin

Have followed the instructions on the website re connecting the B2 to Sonos, have got to the stage where I click the add button on the NAS section, get the spinning wheel of death for approx 30 seconds and then get one of two alternate messages, either "Sonos was unable to add the music folder" or "B2 has refused the connection".

I'm working from a MacBook Air, as far as I know, my Sonos software is up to date (it says it is) and the B2 software version is Software Version May 11 2018 08:31:01

Any help would be much appreciated.

Best

Mick

[RaymondO]

You B2 firmware is very out of date. Update it to 1 March 2019 and try again!

[Daniel Taylor]

Mick,

The software version you report does have NAS cabability.  Although a software update might help, it also might not make any difference.

Can you connect to your B2 as NAS on your computer?  That's a good first step. 

Sometimes these problems stem from a sketchy WiFi connection.  So that's something else to look into.  Here are the basic WiFi trouble shooting steps:

Check your WiFi signal strength using Settings > Maintenance > WiFi Strength.  (I got that from the Brennan website on the Menu page.)
Your signal strength should be at least -60 (-50 being better, -70 being worse) and not fluctuate wildly.
To improve your signal strength, try the following:
Move your B2 closer to your router.
Switch the WiFi dongle to USB C.
Move your WiFi dongle to the end of a USB extension cable.
If none of that helps, you could try plugging a network cable between the inside back of the B2 and your router.  If that solves the problem, then it was definitely a WiFi problem.  If that does not solve your problem, then it's worse than I can help you with.

[Mick Brown]

Just coming back in on this and really asking if there are other Mac users out there who have experienced similar problems or maybe have connected with no problems.

The reason for asking is that after several frustrating attempts to do this myself following the advice from both Raymond and Daniel, (software updated, thank you both again), I contacted Sonos. I spent five hours back and forth with an online "expert" whose advice was basically, "unplug everything, reboot and start again". I finally got to talk to a specialist in the US who tried everything via remote access to the Mac, but eventually said that the problem was that the Mac would not recognize the B2. There's no problem with wi-fi strength, he ran an independent test. He said that the instructions on the Brennan website seemed to be for a PC and not necessarily a Mac and suggested contacting Brennan to see if there was a "workaround" for a Mac.

Maybe relevant, maybe not. The Sonos tests to connect to local music folders on the Mac all worked and the FE Explorer Air Drop I phone app connecting the B2 to Sonos works too (albeit really erratically), so the problem would appear to be solely that of connecting the Brennan to the Mac.

I bought the B2 because I wanted to play FLAC quality through my Sonos 1 speakers, as although I love their sonic quality, it's somewhat wasted on the standard MP3's on Apple and Amazon streaming services.

Any help or shared Mac to B2 experiences most appreciated.

Thanks

Mick

[Daniel Taylor]

Mick,

This may not be helpful, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway.  If it was me, I would get an ethernet cable and plug the B2 into the router directly to totally eliminate the possibility that the problem was WiFi related.  It may not be, but that test would definitely close that door.

I don't know Macs.  But I do know that the network principals apply both to Macs and PCs.  So steps involved should be quite parallel.

Good luck!