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Changing the name of a speaker

  • 6 January 2017
  • 32 replies
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I just moved a speaker to another room. How do I change its name so I don't have multiple speakers with the same name?
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Best answer by jgatie 6 January 2017, 19:03

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32 replies

Userlevel 7
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You are no longer allowed to change the name of a speaker using a PC or a Mac. Because Sonos hate us.
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You are no longer allowed to change the name of a speaker using a PC or a Mac. Because Sonos hate us.
Are you telling me I can no longer use use windows (or a PC) any more to update my rooms. Let me say this, I do not think Sonos hates us, but as a retired IT person of 30 years I will say this: Sonos is losing their innovative edge or in other words losing perspective of technology. I am a Canadian but will quote a famous US president : not because they are easy, but because they are hard: Sonos is becoming a company that is taking the EASY way out.

After thousands of dollars invested in Sonos and losing components yearly, I conclude: when I lose my Play 5 (about a year or 2 out), l will go back to hard wiring speakers to amplifies. Strange, all my old speakers and amps still work! Out lasting Sonos by 30 or more years. (this is Fn true).

Here is a thought for you millenniums, Why do we spend money on stuff and shortly send it to the landfill. So not environmental!

Have a Nice Steve
Seting->Room Settings->(Room name), tap on the room name to edit.
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I changed the name of the speaker through the mobile app and it resorts back to the original speaker name. For example I moved a Sonos one from an exercise room to a MBR, renamed and retune and it changed for awhile and then resorts back to the original name, exercise room. Same with a speaker in the kitchen. I rename via the app and retune and then it stays for a bit and then resort to back to the original name. I have two sets of speakers with the same name which is annoying. Currently on hold with Sonos to find a fix.
I'd say maintaining four separate paths for the code base was onerous, and expensive. The decision to remove that support came around (but not concurrent with) when the company went public. I'm taking the position that it was an effort to concentrate the available resources where the user base was. While we don't have access to numbers, I'm sure the person who took this decision did, and I'd guess that the number of desktop OS users were much smaller than user numbers for mobile controllers.

It's mildly inconvenient at times, but not terrible, for me.
Also, one should distinguish between the number of desktop OS users, for simple playback control, and those who configured their systems that way. The latter could well be a small proportion of the former, given the convenience of a handheld device for set up, and the desire for follow-on activities such as Trueplay and adding voice control.
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Having run Trueplay in 3 Sonos-equipped rooms, I can say that switching it on and off does make a noticeable difference, and the difference is a big improvement.

Since Trueplay can only be run on an iPhone, the suggestion for non iPhone owners is to borrow one.

if you are doing so, then borrowing it to add/reconfigure speakers and setups, and running Trueplay, is not so very different, and usually doesn’t take very long.

Agreed, for non-iPhone users this is not ideal. There’s a lot in life that’s like that.
Sonos is losing their innovative edge or in other words losing perspective of technology. I am a Canadian but will quote a famous US president : not because they are easy, but because they are hard: Sonos is becoming a company that is taking the EASY way out.

I’ve been saying that for years. I owned a software company for 25 years. No matter how you look at it, maintaining four sets of code is part of the business. Yes, some things they can’t fix like the ‘from this iPhone’ feature when it is an Apple requirement, but like removing the renaming feature from the desktop version... what’s the point? It’s already in there. Instead of maintaining, they remove. First rule of thumb in software development is NEVER remove a feature. Sonos doesn’t care. That’s just incompetent and/or lazy.
Renaming a room is part of Room Settings, which is now behind a sign-in authentication. To retain it on the Desktop Controller would have meant adding in all the sign-in code. Not lazy, just a business priority decision on where to focus resources.
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Renaming a room is part of Room Settings, which is now behind a sign-in authentication. To retain it on the Desktop Controller would have meant adding in the all sign-in code. Not lazy, just a business priority decision on where to focus resources.

I think this is probably true. The small number of people affected by this - which has a simple workaround - compared to the number of people clamouring for Alexa and Google voice support, and improvements on the initially released capabilities of that feature, make it an obvious business decision.

Of course, the alternative would be a huge price hike for new speaker purchases, which would upset existing users wanting to add to their setup and would reduce new-to-Sonos-ownership numbers so that Sonos can build its software development team.
The hardware is software driven. A software development team should already be part of the numbers. Judging from the amount of time it takes for relatively minor features that make it into an update and the amount of time between those updates tells me that team is lacking and inept at best.
Whether the software team's productivity is X or Y, they're a finite resource whose priorities must be set. My point was that to retain the renaming option in the Desktop Controller was not just a question of "leaving it there", there would have needed to be not insignificant effort to port the user account authentication functionality across.

Hello,

 

I am using the desktop app for a while, but the renaming speaker options is removed. I would like to report a bug.

Hello,

 

I am using the desktop app for a while, but the renaming speaker options is removed. I would like to report a bug.

Desktop App has limited abilities and some settings are unavailable. You will need to use a controller that meets the Sonos System Requirements as shown here…

Sonos System Requirements

 

Userlevel 7
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Renaming a room is part of Room Settings, which is now behind a sign-in authentication. To retain it on the Desktop Controller would have meant adding in the all sign-in code. Not lazy, just a business priority decision on where to focus resources.

Not remotely true. The only room setting behind Auth is max-volume-limit. Everything else is still on the long-existing LAN APIs. It actually took a lot more work to remove the Room Rename feature on Desktop than it would have to have left it in. Its not like this API has changed, ever, so maintenance cost is zero. This particular feature deletion really didn't make any engineering sense at all, unlike some that arguably did (eg Setup, Add Speakers).

Room Rename was about the simplest feature I added to my own app: one UPNP API call, and a UI so simple even I could code it up quickly.

Renaming a room is part of Room Settings, which is now behind a sign-in authentication. To retain it on the Desktop Controller would have meant adding in the all sign-in code. Not lazy, just a business priority decision on where to focus resources.Not remotely true.

Do this:
  • reset a controller (I just tested on an iDevice)
  • restart it and associate it with the household
  • hit More/Settings/Room Settings
  • you get a 'sign in to access more features' screen before you can proceed
I'm not interested in what you can do behind the scenes. I was talking about the functionality presented to the user.
THankS!
What is the recent way of editing a speaker name? The “room setting” ability appears to ave been removed....
On a mobile controller touch More on the tab bar, then just as in @jgatie's post.
How can this be so hard? All I want to do is change tne name of a speaker in my system. I don't seem to have "more" either.
How can this be so hard? All I want to do is change tne name of a speaker in my system. I don't seem to have "more" either.

It is only available on the mobile app - More highlighted in red:



From there go to Settings->Room Settings->(Room name), tap on the room name to edit
Userlevel 7
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You are no longer allowed to change the name of a speaker using a PC or a Mac. Because Sonos hate us.

No. It's only you lot.

They told ME they love ME!
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Hi Oceanswim

Are you in wired or wireless mode?
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Wireless. My router is linksys velop. Verizon gigabyte. I just got off the phone with a Sonos support. Based on the rep recommendation I hard wired a sonos one to the router and then change the names of the speakers. I then remove the sonos one from the router. I will monitor now to see if issue continues. The rep suggests that I get a Boost as the speakers are not all on the same channel. The next step is to reset to factory setting.
Don't factory reset it is pointless at best. Do you have Apple Homekit by any chance?