What the hell happened to this product? - Hey Sonos

  • 12 February 2017
  • 32 replies
  • 1746 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

If I recall that was after you were incorrectly telling people to stop posting public beta stuff that they were having problems with and until you could recreate the problem yourself you didn't believe them. However when you did recreate it, you apologized and then deleted your post about your error. Other "regulars" were saying it was people's networks just like today. Sorry you can't recreate this. It's why I took pictures. I couldn't believe it either. I've never seen problems like this before with this system. And I've set up this system quite a few times and set up others sonos and networks as well.

And once I switched to OSX for the set-up things were fine. Weird huh.

You say network related yet you don't know anything about my network. I say buggy software which they won't let anyone see to pass judgement because I know my network is solid. I can't control sonosnet's mesh network nor see it or adjust any of the sonosnet's mesh networks settings. They don't want you in that network. I get it.

It was a bug last year. They do exist. I think there is one now in iOS. You don't.

I think that since that update last year which caused the alarm bug my system hadn't been the same as it had for the past few years. I couldn't prove it because I can't see into the Sonosnet Mesh's Network however my network was running fine. No log errors, no other hardware problems nothing - which is why I finally decided to make a change. First to get off sonosnet wirless mesh network which failed. It didn't propagate. I thought that would be the easiest way at the time. It wasn't. The same kinds of issues I had during the reset were present there. The software inside the hardware didn't want to let go of what it knew. I had moved it off of sonosnet and yet the controller was still showing me which wireless channel sonosnet was on. All sonos units didn't have to change IP addresses or anything. All was static. All they had to do was drop sonos net and hop on my mesh. What a mess inside Sonos it created. So then I decided it needed a reset. To start fresh. And then I had problems which is when I started this thread. It shouldn't have been that difficult for such an expensive system.

We have different conclusions. After the complete reset back to factory all seems good again. I'm on sonosnet wireless mesh network and the alarms went off as they should again, etc etc. And guess what - still no network errors. Still no touching of my router other than a reboot every so often to refresh. Still the same static IP's, same same same. Yet now it works. Hmmm. Sonos reset - now it works. Hmmmm.

My point is people expect this stuff to work. I expect it to work. Mine hasn't been working as it should since the bug of last year. When I made changes the Sonos didn't do what it should have - which is perform properly, easily and quickly to what I was asking it to do. If I wanted the kind of problem I've had the last few days I'd have hobbled together another kind of network that I could maintain and babysit regularly and post to the forums all the time with my problems. I bought a Sonos, I have higher expectations. And when they don't deliver I'm going to call them out for it. Which I have. In spades now.
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I expect it to work. Mine hasn't been working as it should since the bug of last year.
What did the Sonos helpdesk say when you contacted them?
Userlevel 7
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"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck...." You have a complex system and network issues. Call support, it's the answer you have been given from post 1 I just don't understand subsequent rants.
"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck...." You have a complex system and network issues. Call support, it's the answer you have been given from post 1 I just don't understand subsequent rants.

I have a sonosnet which didn't work and hardware containing software which was not working properly. And my subsequent posts demonstrate that. My rant demonstrates the problem with sonos at the moment which is the product has (had) issues.

There is no complexity in my network. It's a relatively simple system and really straightforward. I have 60 or so devices but they are all assigned static addresses via their mac address so nothing gets stepped on. Instead of one WAN I have 2. There are a few bandwidth controls set for users and that really is it. Nothing complex. It's straightforward stuff and I use enterprise grade equipment to run it..

The ducks quacking are a lack of performance on the mesh units and the mesh software. I was correct in knowing how to fix them in the end which was to do a full reset back to factory which appears for now to have cleared whatever issues that were dogging the sonosnet and software in the sonos system. What should have been an easy solution was made very difficult by the fact that the software in the Sonos wasn't doing what it was supposed to do which is release it self from previous settings and accept new settings. That was shown when I attempted to move it to my network and the system software of the sonos was still allowing me to see what sonosnet channel it was on yet it was supposed to be tying into my network now. It was also shown when I was trying to reset the system and some of the units wouldn't take the reset and accept the new changes. I'm only guessing because these settings are hidden from me.

Let me put it into layman's terms - have you ever tried to reset a device say a router or a POE device or whatever and you hit the reset button and it doesn't forget the some or all of the old information inside of it. It keeps wanting to go back to your old network name, or your old network setting. Or you get into the settings and change the network name and it won't refresh or update to the new name? That exactly what in my opinion, was happening when I tried to move the units to a new network and also when I tried to refresh the units. Firmware issues if you will. Everything on my end was ready to accept these guys back onto my network yet clearly they are buggy.

My sonos system appears to be normal now.

The only change I made was to reset the sonos software and hardware and add it back on to the same network under the same settings with the same router under the same sonosnet on the same WAN in the same locations connected to the same sonos nodes.

I have touched nothing on my network settings wise because it wasn't necessary.

My Sonos system has or had issues likely pushed out in a previous update and likely possibly fixed by this most recent update. We will see if the sluggishness, drops, and other sonosnet connectivity issues reappear or if they got their problems solved. IIRC there was an update I did a few days ago.

The Sonos performed very poorly when trying to be reset renewed. My rant is a walk through of what should have been an easy process made difficult by problematic Sonos product. It's an expensive system and should have perform better. Sorry if I don't sweep Sonos issues under the rug. It seems to be the norm here. I like the system but denying it has problems won't fix the problems.
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
Sorry if I don't sweep Sonos issues under the rug. It seems to be the norm here. I like the system but denying it has problems won't fix the problems.
What did the Sonos helpdesk say when you contacted them?
What did the Sonos helpdesk say when you contacted them?
Perhaps the mods should sticky this thread as an object lesson in why factory resets can land you in more trouble than you started with.

There are suggestions in this saga that the Household could at one stage have been split in two, and that it may have dropped into 'mixed mode' when it shouldn't.

As for determining what SonosNet's doing, without a basic understanding of the diagnostics you can't.
Userlevel 7
Badge +21
Sorry if I don't sweep Sonos issues under the rug. It seems to be the norm here. I like the system but denying it has problems won't fix the problems. Who's sweeping? You got two pages of suggestions all out in the open, and nearly everyone said to contact the support desk. So did you?