App constantly losing connection to wave/soundtouch

[Jperk]

Thanks for the above post, to extend the connection time.  I figured out that "3600" is the number of seconds the router will hold the connection; which is one hour.  I changed it to 89,400 seconds, which is 24 hours.  It has improved the issue with having to re-boot the system every time I wanted to use it, but the system still drops the connection in mid-play, and I had to re-boot the speakers individually again today.

My expectation:  When I launch the app, I should be able to pick the music I want, hit "play," and have the music begin immediately.  I should then be able to pick the speaker I want it to play on, and "play together" to work using the button in the app.

The reality:  When I launch the app, the speakers never work, and must be re-booted almost every time.  I was thinking perhaps I needed to walk to each speaker and press the "power" button to wake them up first, but that's not been consistent either.  In addition, the music will randomly stop, and getting it started again usually involves a re-boot.

The lack of consistency is very troubling - not sure if it's in the app, or in the speaker firmware, but the Soundtouch system is not reliable enough to warrant keeping the system.  I have to assume the same is true for any Soundtouch product?

[Houndstooth]

I have much the same problem with my ST 10’s. I am looking at purchasing a Lifestyle 650 System but I’m holding off because I am loosing confidence in the ability of Bose to deliver. If an adequate and permanent solution isn’t delivered soon I’ll have to consider alternatives. Naim is the front runner at the moment.

[Brent_B]

Hi Robbster,

Absolutely. We've started to see 'drop outs' being reported recently as well. I have a few additional questions for you. Did you notice the dropouts after the 17.x update (most recent) or the 16.x update (the prior software update)? Does your router broadcast both a 2.4 and 5 GHz network? Is your system connected to the 2.4 or 5 GHz band? Do you notice an improvement if the speaker is connected to one band or the other? Are they named the same name? Just for testing purposes, if you adjust the "Music Streaming Quality" from within Settings > Music Services > Spotify; does that help at all? Does setting a static IP for you system help at all? We've seen some really unusual stuff from the DHCP bug and I'm curious if this is related or not. Please let us know.

Hi Jperk, 

Thank you for responding.  Yes, 3600 should refer to seconds. I might recommend trying to set a static IP from within the router if at all possible. Doing so would prevent the system from ever attempting to get a new IP address and prevent you from having to reconnect. If you don't have that option, can you try 604800, which is one week? Let us know if this helps or not. 

Kind Regards

Brent - Bose Support

[Brent_B]

Hi Houndstooth, 

I'm sorry to hear that you're having the issue with your ST10s. As I mentioned earlier, our software team is investigating a fix for a DHCP bug that has popped up after the last update. If you're having detection issues, can you try to lengthen your DHCP lease time or possible set a static IP for the systems, reconnect them and see if it clears up the issue? Let us know. 

Kind Regards

Brent - Bose Support

[Robbster]

Hi Brent

Ive the dropouts with both 16 en 17 software. The router has only 2.4Ghz. Static IP and lowering the streaming quality does not help. 

[RKim]

@Jperk You have described my experience exactly! Thank you for that. I have the Wave system and a Soundtouch 20. In reality even listening to the radio(!) is cumbersome. I sold my old 200 EUR system I bought 15 years ago. Never had an issue with it. I cannot even really begin to enjoy the (great) sound of the Bose systems because it is so annoyingly irreliable to use them. 

I hope you can eventually fix this issue. Glad I'm not the only one.

[Joropeza]

Hello everybody,

I'm facing the same issue with my ST10s. Are you too far from fixing it? It is really annoying...

Regards!

[Krumme]

I have the same problems with ST 300 after last update. Trouble finding speaker with the app. And also audio drop outs.
Hope new software is comming soon!!
/Jesper

[Joel_D]

Hello All,

Thank you for posting, we are aware of all the issues this DHCP bug has been causing. Engineering is actively investigating this, once we have an answer we will let the community know as soon as possible.

Kind Regards,

Joel - Bose Support

[MBZ]

I'd like to share my experience. I've had the system (ST-300, VI-300 and Acoustimass 300) now for about a year and overall it has been working great. However, I have been seeing this connectivity issue between the app and the ST-300.

     Here is my setup. I have the eero (1st gen) home mesh networking system which has both 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands running with the same SSID and no control over which band the ST-300 connects. I also have the ability to hard wire the ST-300 into a switch I have situated right next to the speaker.

     First, wireless connectivity. I can't explain why the app shows the ST-300 to have a "very good" connection at one moment just to look at it again later and see the it is "good". The speaker hasn't moved, the wireless access point hasn't moved, they have line of sight with one another and they are less than 15 feet apart.

     Second, wired connectivity. There isn't much to say here. it connects and shows up in my eero app that it is connected via wired connection and the "wireless" light indicator on the ST-300 goes out as expected.

      Third, I have had this set up with both DHCP and static IP addressing. Currently I have it set up as static. 

      Results? There seems to be no difference in speaker connectivity to the app whether it is wireless or hardwired. With the app shut down on my iPhone I launch the app. Consistently (read every time), the initial "Give us a minute" prompt leads to the "Hmmmm, Can't find your speaker". I then expand the menu at the bottom that reads "searching for Speaker" There it shows it is trying to find the speaker. it just goes and goes without success. 

      Here are my continued results after some testing. I couldn't believe that the speaker isn't working. For goodness sakes it is on right now working perfectly. This lead me to believe it is the App that is the problem. My belief is the app is simply not refreshing after it connects to the speaker. I confirmed this by simply "minimizing", "throwing the app to the background", "suspending" whatever you want to call it, the app and firing it right back up on my iPhone X. The speaker immediately shows up in the app as connected and available. I tried this both from the initial search and when viewing the blue "searching for speaker screen" after letting the app tell me it couldn't initially find my speaker. This process consistently works and my speaker is found. As a note, sometimes, I have to refresh the app two or three times. This could simply be the time it takes to connect.

    Sorry for the novel but I hope this helps the folks out there having problems. Hopefully someone can confirm this on Android.

     BOSE, please take a look at your app and see if this is indeed what is happening. I'm happy to try other testing if necessary. 

EDIT: For clairity, the only time I see this issue is when the app is being started up fresh. Read, completely closed out and started again. I am not seeing this issue when I suspend the app and call it back up. When I call it back up from being suspended it consistently shows that it is still connected properly.