What the hell happened to this product? - Hey Sonos

  • 12 February 2017
  • 32 replies
  • 1745 views

The last 2 months has been a disaster. Every since the alarm issue in Dec of 16 my system has gone to pot. Let me clarify that I've been with Sonos as an early adopter probably close to 10 years now so I've got experience in how it used to be. I have multiple units including 1 soundbar, 1 sub, 6 plays, 7 connect amps, 2 bridges and 1 boost. First there was this alarm issue and the solution was to wait until the new year and that would fix it. Proactive for sure.

Ever since the alarm meltdown my sonosnet has been spotty to say the least. Yesterday with most of my system being unreachable or unplayable or not being able to group units I decided to move from Sonosnet to my wireless as the backbone. I'd always used and been happy with sonosnet but I believe all things change and perhaps it was time. Boy was that a mistake. Once all units showed up as ready I hit party mode and guess what, half of the units weren't added. A few tries later and every unit but one would come on. Volume up - some went up, some stayed. Volume down - some stayed up. Change music steams - some followed, some did not. Alarms that night failed after I reset them up. This was the second or third night now that alarms failed or chimed out when supposed to play music. So today I see most of my units ready to go. I notice units in my shop are green. They show connected but they aren't. Can't connect message on multiple units. Great. They won't connect back into the system. Great. I reset the controller and restore the units to factory. I start from the beginning working nearest to farthest away from the first unit. I hook the boost to the router, reset the boost and connect - done. I add the office amp right next to the boost - done. I go to the bedroom to add 2 play units, reset 1 and add it in. Done. I reset the second play and add it in and it asks me what room so I put in master - the same room as the first play 1. It deletes the first play one. I have to re-add it. Then I pair them - finally working. I go to bedroom 2 and add the first play one and assign it a room. As I add the second play one it asks me which of the 4 play's I'd like to add? I find the description and add it and then pair them. Done. I move to the patio and go to add an connect amp - I reset it and as it's flashing green I go to add it. The software then asks me which of the 4 play 1's I'd like to add. That's it I can go no farther. I'm stuck in this infinite loop of not being able to add any connect amps. Before the reset I tried multiple times to add multilple connect amps. None could be added to the system. They all would hang or say they are connected and then drop off.

I don't know what you got going on Sonos, but I'm getting tired of this. I've invested heavily in your ecosystem and you're not delivering the goods.

Now time to go back and start again - again and see if resetting the controller and using my wireless will finally put lipstick on this pig.

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32 replies

Nothing has changed about Sonos. You have network issues. My large system is rock solid. Have you actually spoken to Sonos Support? Had them remote access your system to see what is going on?
Plenty has changed. My alarm didn't used to go off randomly and then not be able to be shut off - along with a bunch of other people in this community. Search my threads to see the instance. Yup steady eddy. Same old Sonos.
Wait a few hours and have dinner. Come back to the same blinking connect amp, try again and viola. No network settings changed, same static IP's issued, same signal strength on mesh network, no reboots, same WAN rates coming in - nothing touched - even on the same sonosnet. Then I go to the living room to do the soundbar, sub and surrounds and it picks up the play 1 as the soundbar after the first failed pairing of the set. Yup, same old Sonos. I bought it because it was easy peasy. It's becoming a PITA.
So I reset the play 1 in the surround in order to get it from thinking it's not the playbar. I get the living room to pair and I have 1 playbar, 1 sub and 2 plays for surround. I then got in the room directly below to add a connect amp to the library, reset it and go to add it and it's asking to add the play1 I reset in the living room which is now connected to it's own group. Just like before when I was trying to add the connect amp and it wanted me to only connect to some paired play 1's which were already assigned to rooms. Ya, network issue for sure.
Rooms drop down doesn't show living room. It shows set-up playbar (which I've done multiple times and set up play 1 which I've done multiple times). I then go to settings-room settings-LIVINGROOM - and the sub, playbar and surrounds show they're connected - yet I can't access them through the rooms choices drop down because living room does not appear. I will now attempt to remove them so that I can hopefully create them this time in a room that will work. This software is buggy as SH^T.
Livingroom finally appeared. Sub added. Now the last surround causes a crash. I've reset both play 1's multiple times, when it says add left I've added right to settings-room-addsurround and it won't take the last speaker. So it's not the speaker because the left will add but the right will not. Both speakers are within 6' of the sub, 10' of the soundbar, 20' of 2 connect amps. They're surrounded. No go. I'll leave it for later. Maybe it will magically fix itself like the connect amps did. Off to try the library again - maybe this time I will have a choice to add the component I'm resetting and trying to connect to instead of a component already connected to another room. Maybe...
Nope, now I have to wait it out. The connect amp in library still flashing green from reset. Go to add player or sub and my only choices of things to add are the soundbar which is on the livingroom already, the sub which is on the living room already or the pair of play1 surrounds which won't pair to the livingroom. Easy peasy right...
Wow, I just opened up my laptop sonos app and low and behold are all 4 of the sonos devices which I haven't reset yet today tied to yesterdays network. My network must have a time warp. How do I reset my app? Fantastic! Getting easier every minute.

Edit: That is my fault. Reset controller, problem solved.
Room choices
Room settings
And even though my ios app doesn't show living room as a choice in rooms, the music plays through the tv. As you can see in the above screen shots it's there in ios in settings. And it's in my osx laptop app once that was reset. Buggy buggy buggy
Funny, that last post got me thinking. So I went down to the library and with my laptop and viola - drop down menu to add the correct type of unit and bing - done. Bugs in ios app?
Wow, 2 bridges, 4 connect amps done quickly. All on the osx app. No bugs there. The Play 1's on livingroom still wouldn't tie in so I'll reset and if not redo the whole package on OSX instead of ios.
Reset the play 1's in livingroom, they bonded and then the room set-up without issue. Not a problem on OSX app. Impossible on IOS app. The issue's I've been having were exacerbated a few days ago when I reassigned the Sonos units to different IP addresses. Prior to this I'd have issues being slow, non-responsive for moments, etc. Then after the IP readdress no matter what was done, rebooted, etc throughput was horrible and even though Sonos units showed up in app when it came time to play they wouldn't connect even though they were connected on Sonosnet. I could see the individual units streaming data but they couldn't be grouped without dropping music source. It was horrible. Then to have another Sonos issue with the ios app not functioning is a PITA. Fix your shit guys. People pay good money for this. I hope you've already looked at my logs and are working on this.
You have local network issues. I suggest calling Sonos Support
I have roughly 60 devices on my network. 9 mesh WAPS, multiple NAS and other various equipment which communicate with each other both internally and externally. The Sonosnet was the only item having an issue. And that isn't on my network. It creates its own network. Sluggish communication to it's units, stuttering and lapsing sound, alarms not triggering or only on occasion and finally what promoted me to move it onto my network the lack of lack of connectivity to it's own devices on it's own sonosnet. The IP change made the problem on Sonosnet worse. I've seen that happen on mesh networks before under similar circumstances. Then the bottom fell out of it when I took it off of sonosnet. It seems finally with a complete reset of the system to be back to operational status. There are bugs in the system. Look at the photos. Read the details. You shouldn't be able to add play units that are part of another room. It simply shouldn't show up as available. I had one part of the ios app telling me there was no living room present while another settings portion showed a sub and soundbar connected (while it was streaming sound from a TV). Those aren't network issues. Those are software issues.
I suggest you call Sonos Support
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I have roughly 60 devices on my network. 9 mesh WAPS, multiple NAS and other various equipment which communicate with each other both internally and externally.

So there is plenty of room for failures and to be fair, you do not seem to have any clue on how to manage this stuff. Call Sonos support...
The Sonosnet was the only item having an issue. And that isn't on my network. It creates its own network. .Not so, actually. It doesn't create a separate network. With SonosNet running your network has two segments, a SonosNet segment and a WiFi segment, bridged by the wired component. But all IP addresses are given out by your router, for example. It is all one network - your network. Given your lack of understanding of how your network functions, you are surprisingly confident that the problem isn't to be found there.

Call Sonos Support.
The Sonosnet was the only item having an issue. And that isn't on my network. It creates its own network. .Not so, actually. It doesn't create a separate network. With SonosNet running your network has two segments, a SonosNet segment and a WiFi segment, bridged by the wired component. But all IP addresses are given out by your router, for example. It is all one network - your network. Given your lack of understanding of how your network functions, you are surprisingly confident that the problem isn't to be found there.

Call Sonos Support.


Yes so actually - Mesh network - it's a network sonos creates which is hidden and likely communicating back to Sonos for assistance with data paths. It also creates it's own wireless hidden SSID. I have no control over how this network operates other than to give it ip addresses, an internet connection and no interference to it's wireless needs - which I provide.

The sonos units on my network are all static. I can't control how the mesh works but problems in the mesh will produce issues like I'm having. Unresponsive nodes, super slow connections, large lags in responsiveness.

Perhaps you should try answering the problems above since you are so knowledgeable about computing?

First question:
1) Why in the pictures above would I have in one part of my software two items (sub and soundbar) that have been assigned IP addresses, are streaming data through those addresses, and playing sound and yet they don't show up in another portion of the same software as being operational or set-up?

Second question:
2) If I go to add an item to my sonos system, and I click - add a player or sub - connect to power - power up - and then I see play1's that are already set-up and running in another room as options to add? They should not be showing up as they are assigned to other rooms. By showing that they are available to be added means that they are released from a location - but they aren't. The IP address likely needs some muffler grease right? Or perhaps one the PPPOE connections needs some fairy dust? I must have forgotten those things.

Compound the above issues with the alarm issue from December of 2016 which I'm happy to discuss how that is also my network naivety.

And then compound that with the stutters, drops, sluggishness I've been experiencing since December of 2016 and that's where I am in my post above.

Believe it or not I appreciate this product and want it to succeed. However coming onto this forum as you may or may not see brings risks. There are plenty of fan boys here who immediately point the finger away from sonos and to the poster. I read it time and again. And as a wireless product I can understand why. But there are issues with this product which I expect them to fix. I believe I've shown some of them above. Some I suspect is with the mesh while others I know from my posting above is with the software as you can see in my pictures. So I say again, fix your shit Sonos. And as for the two of you, answer my questions.
Answer to all your questions: you have local network issues. SonosNet is not a separate network, it is a mesh segment of your network, as I have already explained. You can rant about bugs (that surprisingly don't seem to be affecting 99.999999% of users) or you can phone Sonos Support and get your issues addressed.
Genius, thanks. Same fanboy answer I expected. Like I said, all I can do is give them addresses, give them a data stream and not interfere with their wireless needs - Which I've done. Beyond that it's a sonos problem. Here, have a read about mesh wifi networks: http://www.meshwifi.org/about.html - I'll bring the connected node.
Your symptoms are classic IP address conflict symptoms, although I cannot be sure that specifically is the cause. Throw in the large size and relative complexity of your system and getting help from experts in the system is the logical thing to do. But you don't want a solution, or you would be seeking help rather than ranting on here.
Every item on my network including all the sonos items have static IP addresses. LIke I said nothing changed. Not the addresses, certainly not the mac ID's, not the router, not the hardware, not the software. There are no conflicts, there are NO LOG ERRORS IN THE ROUTER, there are no problems with any of the other devices. Care to take a crack at why peoples alarms all over the globe where going Wonky in late December 2016? Everyone have the same network error? :8
You have apparently forgotten that on that day of the alarm issue i was the first person to suggest it was a date related software bug, as reports of problems multiplied. I was the first person to suggest changing the Sonos system date as a temporary workaround.

My post early that morning read "My suspicion is that it is a date-related fault in the software, rather than the result of an update. Setting my Sonos system date to 28 December seems to have cured it. However, I think it is too early for me to say that with any confidence".

I know a bug when I see one. I am not going to waste another second of my life on you.