Enthusiast II

Sonos is forcing people to buy new hardware as they've broken the Connect:Amp and they refuse to fix it

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
December 31, 2023
294 replies
16586 views

Hi,

I'm recreating this thread, as the discussion wasn't finished, but it was locked. I also wanted to make it obvious this is a Sonos issue, not a client environment issue.

https://en.community.sonos.com/components-and-architectural-228999/connect-amp-keeps-dropping-out-audio-6885634/index2.html

I've been following this for a while because I've been having the same issues, and when I spoke to support they said the connect amp can't cope with modern software and that I should upgrade to the amp, which is clearly unacceptable.

This has been confirmed by people in that original thread who have been told the same thing.

BillJanzen

“FWIW, these issues seem to have occured after the June 2023 software update to S2 version 15.5. Interestingly, there is an alert posted in the release notes of the 15.6 update released July 25, 2023 about adjusting how older Sonos products use their internal memory. See below (copied from https://support.sonos.com/en-ca/article/release-notes-for-sonos-s2): Alerts: With this update, we’ve adjusted how some of our older Sonos products are using their internal memory. Because of this change, updates for Play:1, Play:3, Boost, Connect, Connect:Amp, and Sub (Gen 1 and 2) will take longer to complete than before. The reset process for these products will also take more time to complete after this update.”

BillJanzen

“We continue to have intermittent drop-outs on all 4 of our Connect:Amp devices, so here’s my update after 1.5 hours on the phone with Sonos today. They said the diagnostics for one of the Connect:Amp devices the chose to investigate showed multiple major alerts, including: Cannot allocate memory to full status Write failed Player crashed: out of memory OOM Killer These items all sound like they are related to memory issues with the older Connect:Amp product, as Big Bull mentioned in his previous post.”

Big Bull:

“Ok latest is I powered down 3 of my 4 units and just had the one I use most running hard wired to the router through my switch and it still gave dropouts so I sent 2 diagnostics to Sonos and they said :

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Thanks, so on this one in specific I can see the audio interruptions are caused because the product basically is old, and it is reaching its capabilities, there are some things that can be done to try to reduce the impact of this, but if it continues this product will need to be replaced with the upgrade program.

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I am being advised to replace any affected units with the Sonos Amp which can be costly.”

Birchan

“ Same problem, 4 AMP of which two lose sound... SONOS did a wrong analysis and accidentally said that there were memory failures in some of the units. But since they only give a 2-year warranty, mine was 2.5 years too old. How can SONOS sell products that obviously have manufacturing problems and then say that they can replace them with a 30% discount on new ones? Wonder if Tesla would sell cars that stop working after 2 years and say, sorry you have to buy a new car every two years because the warranty has expired. So bad from SONOS so I will be discontinuing my SONOS system and switching to BOSE... “

For context, in my situation I have a connect amp, connected via ethernet with WiFi off, and I started to get regular drop outs around June. It's incredibly annoying, the audio will drop out for a few seconds before continuing, if other speakers are grouped they will carry on fine.

It's absolutely 100% not a network issue. When I was debugging it, I briefly made the connect amp the only wired device and turned on WiFi, and other speakers in my house worked perfectly at all times. I've also reserved IP addresses, and I ran a ping monitor on it to check for any network dropouts. There were none. I've put the system back now, so the connect amp has its WiFi off.

So it seems to me that Sonos have released a firmware update that the connect amp cannot handle, and rather than take responsibility for it, they're just fobbing people off telling them to buy expensive new hardware to solve the problem, not even with any substantial discount. It's unacceptable. This connect amp worked perfectly before June.

Sonos needs to release a new update that solves the issue, or give people affected substantial discounts on replacement amps, and formally announce that the connect amp is end of life. Currently people with issues on this forum are being unintentionally gaslighted by well meaning people who don't know that this issue exists. Sonos cannot say the connect amp is supported when they've released a broken update.

People need to know about this issue, I've seen loads of topics about this issue and people get fobbed off with network issues, which is absolutely not the case, at all. Big Bull proved this by doing a replacement to amps which solved his issue.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Pinned Reply By Corry P

Hi @britcowboy

Thanks for bringing this back to my attention.

We now consider this issue to be largely resolved, and any remaining cases are being dealt with on an individual basis. If you still encounter the issue described here, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

I hope this helps.

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britcowboyAuthor

Enthusiast II

Disagree regarding your first comment. If someone is complaining about network drop outs with their Connect:Amp, it’s most likely to be a network. At the very least, network issues should be eliminated before assuming it’s a hardware problem.

The trouble is that what could be a firmware issue is being dismissed (quite rudely in some cases) by forum members as a network issue because the symptoms look the same and network issues are the most common source of problems.

The vast majority of times, these are network problems, despite people claiming that they know there is nothing wrong with theirr network. I guess I’m understanding a bit of skepticism when we see these claims. As far as them being rude, this your first day on the internet? 😀 The thread title sort of set the tone, even if OP didn’t mean to imply that Sonos was intentionally causing the issue.

It’s only when we get Sonos Help involved that they can discount network issues and interrogate the offending connect amp units to show that there is a memory issue.

Yes, because only Sonos has the tools to properly diagnose the issue.

However, there is no willingness on Sonos’ part to solve this problem - and this is for hardware which was only discontinued four years ago. The message now is to buy new hardware. But how long will that be good for? Another four years? I don’t have the wherewithal to be spending $1,500 (after 15% upgrade discount) on a couple of Sonos Amps every four years.

My rollback to S1 has been glitch free for the last ten hours so here’s hoping that I just saved $1,500.

However, people who have to stick to S2 for other reasons won’t be so fortunate.

Sonos tends to be quite about these issues. We don’t know the scope of the problem, in terms of how many units are impacted and how/if the issue can be fixed. We can’t assume that silence means their just ignoring the issue, as that has not been the case before. I’m sure some would just like to role back the change, but if the change brought in a new feature, or fixed a bigger issue, that’s not a viable option.

Yes the thread title was deliberately provokative in order to get attention from Sonos etc and to make it obvious this isn’t a normal support thread, this is a thread raising an issue with the Sonos device itself.

I understand that a lot of times the network is a factor, but when there’s a pattern here of a particular SKU having a similar issue, it’s probably more likely that the issue is with the device itself and not the environment.

Also this is exactly the issue, Sonos SHOULD NOT BE quiet about these issues, these are expensive products and we deserve updates, this isn’t the right way to run a software business. Most days I’m having cut outs with this device, and it’s incredibly annoying

jgatie

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up. It’s certainly been tried before.

S

SDTravis

Lyricist I

Joined the community to add another customer to the “was working perfectly until summer 23 and having to face reality of unnecessary and expensive upgrade.”

Hosted a large holiday party and guests kept asking me why the music kept coming on and off. :(

jgatie

And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”. Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

melvimbe

Joined the community to add another customer to the “was working perfectly until summer 23 and having to face reality of unnecessary and expensive upgrade.”

Hosted a large holiday party and guests kept asking me why the music kept coming on and off. :(

If you haven’t already done so, I’d contact Sonos support to eliminate the possibility that it’s a network issue. If it is hardware, that Sonos will be aware of another person with this issue.

Danny

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ANOpax

Enthusiast II

And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”. Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up. It’s certainly been tried before.

Your cynicism knows no bounds. You probably think the moon landings were faked too.🤣

Just because we’re at 20 posters and counting when you earlier claimed only two reported instances of this problem 😎

You’ll be checking IP addresses next 😉

S

SDTravis

Lyricist I

And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”. Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

Yikes! What’s going on in this community…. Can confirm, I am a real person, with a real problem that is going to cost me real money and time to fix. I had no reason to go through the effort to sign up for an account because, crucially - I had no reason to. This system has worked flawlessly since 2018. So here I am, adding my voice to what appears to be a handful of others, frustrated that we have a new problem occurring with strikingly similar timelines, symptoms, and frustrations.

jgatie

And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”. Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up. It’s certainly been tried before.

Your cynicism knows no bounds. You probably think the moon landings were faked too.🤣

Just because we’re at 20 posters and counting when you earlier claimed only two reported instances of this problem 😎

You’ll be checking IP addresses next 😉

I 100% know we landed on the moon. Several times, in fact. I've even seen the laser reflector we left up there reflecting back a signal. I also 100% know forums are rife with manipulation, sock puppets, and jury rigged polls. It's how Windows phone threads dominated this forum while never cracking 2% of the market, or how we are constantly getting brand new posters who know the entire history of this forum, and have the exact same posting style as an oft banned poster going back decades.

And I don't need to check IP addresses. The mods do that.

J

JEDward

Contributor I

I am unable to speak to previous "fake" accounts. I found this thread (the previous one actually) in an attempt to diagnose my problem via a Google search. I may make a separate thread in an effort to ask specific questions without derailing this discussion.

JD

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britcowboyAuthor

Enthusiast II

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up. It’s certainly been tried before.

Quite an accusation against me… This appears to be a problem, and I want to see it fixed, for everyone.

I don't get your hostility

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