SOLVED - Keeping SoundTouch Speakers connected to PC App

[Beachview]

Like plenty of other folks I've had trouble keeping my SoundTouch speakers connected to the PC app.  They always show up and work fine on our Android phones and tablets but they only showed up on the PC app for random periods of time after a network reboot.  There are plenty of theories of the underlying problem but what's worked for me consistently for the last month was 'reserving' their IP addresses on the router.  I have a Google WiFi system with four wired hubs delivering the mesh on 2.4 & 5 GHz, seven SoundTouch speakers and two Wireless Link adapters so corraling all of them has been a determined focus of mine.  There's several ways and varying launguage to 'reserve' an IP or make it 'static' depending on what router you're using but once I did it everything has been fantastic. 

I waited a month to post this so I didn't jinx it but I just turned on some classical in the livingroom to settle the toddler grandkid, linked the patio and dock to some Beck channel on Pandora, and I'm in listening to Amazon music Classic Rock in the office on the computer (all controlled from the PC app... which wasn't working like this for me for over two years).

I hope it stays, I'm confident it will at this point, and I hope everyone else has the same luck.  Can't explain it, shouldn't have to do it, if it truly works consistently Bose should recommended it during setup, and I'm just glad it's cheap and easy.

Good luck everybody!

(Figure it out Bose 😉 )

*I'd have posted this in the thread I origionally found the suggestion in as a reinforcement but it's a long convoluted thread and locked now (my problem wasn't fixed by whether I was using 2.4 or 5GHz channels or several of the other flavors of attempted fixes in that thread)

**Did same thing on neighbors Netgear dualband system and he's been connecting to the PC appropriately for a week now.  

[KyleHancock]

Glad to hear that.  I have a similar setup (8 ST devices, 5 Mesh units) and my only complaint has been when different speakers drop off at different times depending on where I'm at in the house.  I'll definitely try reserving IP addresses as I had wondered if having a 2.4 GHZ and 5GHZ with the same SSID and Password was part of the problem.

[Beachview · Accepted solution]

I've seen plenty of hints at 2.4/5 GHz potentially being an issue but with a single SSID and Google Wifi I wasn't able to chase that (and didn't want to have to).  I just added a screen cap showing the STs are all still alive on the PC app and we're a couple months into the experiment now.  I bring up the PC app near daily to rearrange who's playing what and where and it's never failed since locking down the IPs. (**The Portable 20 is actually unplugged right now... not missing... it's an ST20 we drag to other rooms or the deck if we want it... so that's not a 'failure')  Prior to reserving the IPs the speakers would be greyed out randomly, only a speaker already playing would show up, fascinatingly the 'Livingroom' ST would never show up whether playing or not, or there'd be a message about being unable to find speakers blah blah...

Bonus- The Andoid tablets and phones also seem to 'find' all the speakers quicker now too when I open the app.  Sometimes there used to be some stumbling and random greyed out STs that would come back to life if I swiped the app closed and reopened, now they're just all there all the time quickly.  Again, there are folks that have given great details as to how the speakers find eachother and the apps, their protocols etc, and how Bose really should sort it out but this approach fixed it for me and I'd have felt irresponsible not sharing it.

****Bose - maybe you should recommend assigning IPs in the manual...  And add a sleep timer to your app!! 😉

[Brandon_M]

Hi Beachview,

Thanks for the posts!

I'll send your suggestions up to the product team for their consideration.

Best,

Brandon - Community Support

[MikeDVI]

I have this exact problem, but have no idea where to start with “ reserving an IP address”. Is this something I can call my isp about to assist with? The router is theirs.

Thanks!

Mike

[Beachview]

It is easily done in the router admin menus.  I'd suggest downloading the manual for your router and even though it's the ISP's you should have login capability.

What you're looking to do is set up a 'static IP' or 'assign IP' etc.  Different routers use different language but you're giving your devices a specific address rather than one that changes depending on who joins the router when.

Google 'static IP' and it'll start making sense.

Chris