Help creating SONOS automation (newbie)

Configuration
1

I’m trying to create my first automation but I always get into error and I really want to just give up on this Home Assistant thing.

Here’s what I wrote:

alias: New automation
description: ''
trigger: []
condition:
  - condition: device
    device_id: xxxxxxx
    domain: device_tracker
    entity_id: device_tracker.iphone
    type: is_home
action:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    target:
    entity_id: media_player.sonos
  data:
    media_content_type: "music"
    media_content_id: "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/...
  - service: media_player.shuffle_set
  data:
    entity_id: media_player.sonos
    shuffle: true
mode: single

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help out a newbie.

2

The automation has no trigger (so it’s effectively a non-functional automation) and it has a few syntax error where certain lines are not indented correctly.

Even if you fix the indentation errors, it won’t be functional until you provide a proper trigger. What do you want to happen in order for this automation to execute? Perhaps the condition you created is what you actually want as the trigger?

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3

Thanks for the response. I haven’t put anything in it because I wanted to later activate this automation linking it with the iOS Shortcuts app with an automation there so that when I snooze or stop an alarm on my iPhone my SONOS speaker plays a specific playlist.

4

Where do I find a guide on how to use the correct syntax in Home Assistant? I’m finding everything a bit overwhelming :frowning:

5

In that case, it should be a script, not an automation.

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6

You could avoid most of the errors with using the UI automation editor …

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7

Alright, thanks

8

I tried to but I couldn’t get past the selection of an entity when selecting media_player.play_media as a service to then tell what to play.

9

In the official documentation. Here are the docs for scripts:

You should familiarize yourself with it (and for Automations) even if you intend to compose scripts and automations using the UI-based editors (as suggested by m0wlheld).

When you use the UI-based editors, they allow you to switch from visual mode to YAML mode. It’s a good way to see the YAML that’s being generated when you use the UI-based form.

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10

to add one more thing…

If you wrote this manually you can’t use device “stuff” (triggers, conditions, actions) in anything that is written in yaml by hand.

11

I started with the UI and then added using YAML the things that I wasn’t able to do with the UI.

e.g.

data:
    media_content_type: "music"
    media_content_id: "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/...
  - service: media_player.shuffle_set
  data:
    entity_id: media_player.sonos
    shuffle: true

At least I wasn’t able to do it.

12

When saving what I add to the “call service media_player.media_play” via yaml it defaults back to the UI standard yaml, not saving the extra code… how do I add what media it should play?

13

No issue on my side, but even then you can always switch that specific section to YaML to check proper indentation.

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14

Thanks for the screenshot, I selected the wrong service “.media_play” instead of “.play_media”!

15

I suggest reviewing the documentation for media_player. It explains how each one of its service calls works.

It’s easy to mix up those two service calls because they have nearly identical names. One is used to “un-pause” a paused player (that’s the one you mistakenly used) and the other is for selecting and playing media (that’s the one you wanted).

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