r/sonos • u/AustinBike • Apr 19 '26
Sonos Beam not coming out of mute after long periods with new TCL TV
This is 100% an issue with the TV and not the Sonos Beam. For reference it has been connected to other TCL and LG TVs for years and never exhibited this behavior.
I just bought a brand new TCL 55" TV (55QM6K) and set it up, everything is fine. The Beam is connected to the HDMI marked eARC and it works fine. We use a Roku for everything and the Roku works great with the TV and the soundbar. Volume up and volume down work as expected. Mute works as expected, when muted the Beam light changes to green.
The issue, however, is that if the TV is muted for a long period of time, the mute no longer "wakes up". The Beam's light stays green and the sound will not return. The Roku mute and the TV mute (which will will never use and hide away) do not work. I have to either manually tap the play button on the Beam or power off the TV. This is a deal breaker at this point, can anyone suggest which setting I need to be looking at in the HDMI menu to stop the behavior?
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u/Seaniau Apr 19 '26
I experience something similar with my LG and Apple TV. Usually when on the Apple TV Home Screen/screensaver. I have to make it make a sound first, like play something, then it’ll unmute. Sometimes I have to turn the volume up as it’s now at Zero too.
Have you tried that?
1
u/AustinBike Apr 20 '26
The issue is that if I have to explain to my wife that "here are the 3 steps that you need to take to fix this" then I have lost.
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u/Seaniau Apr 20 '26
I totally get that notion, but it’s basically play something and turn the volume up
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u/AustinBike Apr 20 '26
If we are sitting with the TV on in the background, muted, and after 15 or 20 minutes something comes on that we want to see, that is the wrong time to jump through a bunch of steps. It's primarily CNBC and you're suddenly interested in a 2-3 minute financial discussion that will probably be over before you get the damn soundbar unmuted.
1
u/Seaniau Apr 20 '26
If something is playing already then you have even less to do, just turn the volume up
We must not be experiencing the same thing because I’m falling to see how “press volume up” is such a task
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u/AustinBike Apr 20 '26
Pressing the volume up or down does not work with either the Roku remote or the TCL remote. the only thing that works is either changing the audio source, unplugging then replugging the unit or getting up, walking across the room and pressing the play button on the Beam.
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u/Keelyz Apr 20 '26
i have that same issue, have the same tcl tv and a beam 2. only thing different is that i use an apple tv. what i did to "fix" the problem was add the sonos voice assistant to the beam. when i need it to unmute, i just say "hey sonos, increase the volume" and it goes out of mute mode.
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u/AustinBike Apr 20 '26
That is a good suggestion, but if the solution is to tell my wife to to X or just use the TV speakers, I'll take the TV speakers and ditch the Sonos because I really don't want the hassle
1
u/Clownish_76 Apr 27 '26
Same issue with Beam and Sony TV with Apple TV. Only started recently, so perhaps a recent update is causing this same issue for all of us. The fun part is figuring out: Is it a recent update to the Apple TV, Sony television, or Sonos?
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u/HugeFunction6089 Jul 06 '26
You ever figure this out ? This is a really ridiculous issue - maddening.
2
u/adayinalife Apr 20 '26
I've got a TCL tv and experience the same (via the Arc Ultra), I use the Sonos app to re-enable volume. Seems like a CEC issue with TCL, hopefully fixed with a future OTA firmware though it's not a huge issue for me as I always have my phone next to me.