I miss the REAL mute button!

  • 29 October 2013
  • 29 replies
  • 1166 views

Hi I REALLY miss the ability to mute a single zone! Why did you change this! So many times I want to mute just one for a moment without stopping the other grouped zones. This is really a downgrade for me. Any chance you can make this configurable, or somehow still allow the mute button to function as an actual mute button?

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29 replies

Badge +18
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.
Yeah but rapidly decreasing by pressing the button and holding, and quickly pressing a button to instantly mute are two different things. Especially when you consider that pressing mute again doesn't return it to its previous setting volume! This is NOT the same. Please consider making this configurable. This is really inconvenient the way it is now configured. Roger
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

Cool and all, but is not discoverable for someone not used to Sonos and just wants to mute the player. The speaker with a line through it is much more discoverable, but now with unintended consequences. Someone wanting to simply pause one player in a back room at a party to make a phone call wouldn't know this and could inadvertently kill the music for the whole party. Not cool.

If you're going to drastically modify behavior for a subset of people, then I would suggest doing something like holding down the mute button for pause rather than changing existing, default behavior. Your suggestion is a crappy backpedal for a feature Sonos knew would be disliked.
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

+1   Well said Jeff, your example of throwing a party and wanting to mute one room is excellent.  As another example, my wife is sometimes working in her office and would just like that room muted without having to go into the app to do it.  

I also like your suggestion of holding down the mute button to pause (or mute for that matter).  

Sonos, you do so many things so well, this is the first time I can think of that you messed up.  At best this is confusing from an interface standpoint, at worst you've managed to remove a really nice piece of functionality with no realistic replacement.  Please fix this!

- Roger
Userlevel 1
This should be changed back to the old way, press to mute and light on solid.
If you need a pause function it could have been done with a long push/hold and flashing light.
The only way to actually mute is with a controller. Volume down is not a proper mute, if grouped it will come back up if the volume is turned up on other units with the controller.
Found this out the hard way at half six in the morning. Volume turned up in the kitchen and the unit in the bedroom that was "muted" came on. No alarm needed. Thanks Sonos! 
The Sonos sales are rightfully increasing so if you are going to make changes based on requests, which is fair enough, they should include the option to select it and not do a blanket change that has to be accepted like it or not. 
Userlevel 1
This change is havoc for parents with kids! The kids are now in control of when music starts and stops by simply tapping on the "new" Mute button.

REQUEST: Make the button configurable. This will appease those asking for the new functionality as well as help parents maintain sanity.
Userlevel 1
I have already registered my displeasure at this change but now I find if you go to a controller or desk top you can only "unpause" all not just that zone. Please please can we get back to the system that I purchased and has worked well for years, or as some have suggested make the switch configurable. Regards Cliff
Userlevel 2
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Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

John,
Do you have the ear of Sonos? If so, what is being considered. From what I can see from the numerous posting on this thread and many others, it is a serious issue. As Roger suggests, we need a middle way: one that is acceptable to both of the polarised user groups.
If I could roll back to a previous software version I would, but that's clearly not possible. For me, the solution is a configuration option; perhaps for each group or device. Funny button pushing may work, but usability will be confusing and therefore poor.
Please, if you can, state the case to Sonos and post some kind of issue status. I feel sure that, if we know that this major issue has been recognised, we will relax a little and look forwards to the next  roll-out.
Thanks for your time.
Cheers, 'Nic
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

John, not to pile on, but building off what 'Nic said, do you know where this issue stands and what if anything is being done to resolve it? If nothing is being done what can I(we) do to push it into the spotlight more? Thanks much, - Roger
Userlevel 1
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

I last posted a comment according to this some three weeks ago but no official response.
It looks like Sonos have three choices

  1. Do nothing. Cheap option and ignores us. 
  2. Put the function back to what it was. Not going to make everyone happy.
  3. Make the button option user selectable.
Come on Sonos

Cliff
Userlevel 3
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

John,
Except holding down Vol- is not the same as the old mute button functionality. Holding Vol- sets the volume to 0, which is not the same as mute. For example, group at least 2 zoneplayers together. Then hold the Vol- on one to "mute" it. Then take a controller and turn up the global volume slider. The previously muted zoneplayer un-mutes and starts playing again. This is unintended behavior brought on by not having a proper mute function anymore.
Userlevel 3
Yes, please make this option configurable. It's the only way to accommodate everyone's needs.
This broken functionality is affecting a lot of people and it is taking a long time to get it fixed!
Userlevel 5
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Can I reiterate this. It's a mute button. It's labelled as a mute button. Its role should be to MUTE. The current behaviour is absolutely idiotic! If you insist that it's a pause button, please send me a set of replacement buttons with the right image on them for all my devices! Since you didn't do the sensible thing and make this behaviour a user-selectable option through the settings mrenu, is there any other way to restore rationality, e.g. by http calls to the embedded uPnP servers in my Play: and Connect: units?
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
Play:1 it is labeled play/pause.  But I agree with you in that all the buttons should be user assignable so you can pick the way you want for each.
Userlevel 5
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Play:1 it is labeled play/pause. 
You're right. I've had two new Play:1s sitting in the corner of my office for the past few weeks. I've been so disappointed in my Sonos system since the v5.0 controller fiasco that I haven't bothered to install them.

I'd still like 7 new buttons for my other devices though.
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

The only way that Sonos can end this problem and make everyone happy is to create a setting on the Controller app to allow the "mute / pause" button either to control only the speaker of which it is a part OR to control all speakers on the system.
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

The only way that Sonos can end this problem and make everyone happy is to create a setting on the Controller app to allow the "mute / pause" button either to control only the speaker of which it is a part OR to control all speakers on the system.
Userlevel 1
Hi Roger,

You can still effectively 'mute' a single zone in a group by holding down the minus button.  Holding down minus will rapidly decrease the volume on the player until it's muted, at a much faster rate than before.  Give it a try, it's a quick way to drop the volume in a single room, much like the old mute button functionality.  

Plus, you'll also have the new ability to easily pause and resume the music everywhere, and quickly skip tracks with a double-tap of the button.

Why are we not getting through to them, do they care?
Start sending letters to the press and all those magazines that rate their products so highly.
Cliff
Userlevel 1
I just want the product I bought back.
I'm new to Sonos so don't know the exact behavior how it was before. But for me, the actual issue is not 'muting' a single speaker, I can live with using the volume buttons for muting a specific speaker if required.

The actual issue for me is that 'play' will start playing on all speakers. Here is the scenario that I don't think is too special. I've 3 speakers all grouped since I like listening to the same music during the day in all rooms. Speakers are in bathroom, sleeping room and kitchen. Now my wife gets up an hour before me in the morning. When she wants to start the radio in bathroom using the play button, music will automatically start in the sleeping room and in the kitchen and thus wake up me as well as most likely the kids that are close to the kitchen.

So we have to remember to turn down the volume on all speakers before we go to bed or she has to ungroup the speakers on her phone before starting the music in the bathroom. Both not really convenient. Instead I would expect the Play button only start that speaker in the according room, and other speakers to join using their play buttons. Was this the behavior before the 'play button behavior change'?
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
Set up a silent alarm n each room for the middle of the morning. That will break the group - Volume will need increasing.
Hmm, but after breaking the group you can't continue listening in the kitchen then but instead need your phone again.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
I set an alarm every weekday which starts the radio in the kitchen for when I get down for breakfast. Why not do that?

Other than that you probably need the arrival of voice control.

Either that or train the Mrs better. Just sayin'!
Why not set an alarm in the bathroom to go off at the time your wife normally gets up? This will break the group and have the music already playing the program she wants at the volume she wants. You would need to add the bathroom back to the group later in the day if you want to include it in your whole house listening but you will be well rested at that point so the small extra effort will not be such an issue.