Hi,
Is there any plan to make the account optional again? It’s getting to an annoying point having to login or change the account email address each time a player drops out of the network.
I have a Bluesound system as well (different location) and although this also suffers from occasional network issues with the wirelessly connected players, it’s very straightforward to get it solved.
It’s getting to a point I will drop the Sonos setup in favor of Bluesound which works without any registration whatsoever and has far less network issues. Sonos, you’re become Bose, great marketing but poor customer experience. Sorry I have to say that.
Hope you will get that snappy experience of pre 8 software version back anytime soon.
Account optional again?
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You have been given an answer which is quite obvious to everyone, i.e. because the new features require authentication, and the obvious form of authentication is the one that already exists.
You refuse to believe that reason, and instead have veered off into conspiracy land. That is your choice, but please do not keep asking for an "obvious reason" after one was given.
PS - You have also refused to answer our obvious question, which is: Why would Sonos need you to enter your username/password in order to spy on you, when they already have each and every unit registered to that username/password and collecting data every time you use them (unless you opt out). There is absolutely no reason for requiring you to enter it, except for the very obvious (to everyone but you) reason that some settings need to be secure from those who do not have the username/password.
Occam and his shaving implement comes to mind.
No, there is something hiding here which Sonos has yet to explain (and of course never will).
Not really hiding.. Sonos want to start making money with your user data. Wanna-be Apple/facebooks.
Of course in the next 10 minutes, one of their forum fanbois will do one of the following:
* Say that you always needed an account (which is nonsense).
* Cut and paste 2 pages of legalese saying they wont sell your data (and expect you to believe they never will).
* Claim that somehow "security" will increase by forcing you to register an account.
* Say that you only bought the hardware, and the software was always given to you out of sheer goodwill.
So you'll either have to suck it up and get an account. Or run your current system with the old controller version, but without adding new speakers. Or switch to a new system, e.g. Bluesound.
Good job, Sonos
+21No, there is something hiding here which Sonos has yet to explain (and of course never will).
Fingerprint as a login mechanism wouldn't be a bad idea, IMHO. Maybe we can get them to add Touch ID and the Android equivalent to their apps as a future feature. But even if they do that, it's still an account login, so as far as they're concerned, nothing's really changing.
Of course in the next 10 minutes, one of their forum fanbois will do one of the following:
* Say that you always needed an account (which is nonsense).
* Cut and paste 2 pages of legalese saying they wont sell your data (and expect you to believe they never will).
* Claim that somehow "security" will increase by forcing you to register an account.
* Say that you only bought the hardware, and the software was always given to you out of sheer goodwill.
Well, 5 hours have past. I don't consider myself a "fanboi", just a long-time Sonos user (though not as long as some in the grand scheme of things), but here are my comments on your points...
I needed to create an account back in 2012 when I set up my first Sonos device. Yes, you've ALWAYS needed to create a Sonos account. It's how they tracked device registration. You just haven't always needed to log into it when you add a new speaker. That change was made when their Cloud API started being used, to ensure that each speaker has the account data it needs to work with their cloud API.
No 2 pages of legalese... but it's in the first paragraph of their privacy policy that they won't ever sell your data. And material changes to such a policy could lead to legal action against Sonos if they were to renege on such a statement. Now, the music services that you use through Sonos... that's another story. They can see what you listen to, when you listen to it, how you're listening (mobile app, Sonos, etc.) and I'm sure they are finding a way to monetize everything about your listening data.
The "security" comment has always been a "eh... ok" kinda thing to me... but they are starting to put some advanced settings behind the login also, to prevent them from being changed by someone other than the account holder.
And the "you bought the hardware..." bit, yeah, technically it's true... but I am more of the mind that I bought the SYSTEM, which is the combination of hardware and software... yes, software can change over time, but as long as the core functionality of the system - playing music in one or many rooms, from either a local music library or internet-based service - is still there, I'm more or less happy with it. I'm not happy about some of the recent software changes (specifically, the loss of "admin" type settings in the desktop controller), but the system still plays music, and I can still group and ungroup speakers, so it still works as it always has.
Fingerprint as a login mechanism wouldn't be a bad idea, IMHO. Maybe we can get them to add Touch ID and the Android equivalent to their apps as a future feature. But even if they do that, it's still an account login, so as far as they're concerned, nothing's really changing.
According to Damon77, you only have to enter the login/password once. That took me aback first, thinking "so much for security", but I suppose this is per controller. That is, if I entered it once my phone that's enough, and it makes sort of sense, as I supposedly have some login mechanism on my phone. (And if I don't, I probably don't care about my security either.)
Anyway, if you only need to log in once from a device there is not really any need for fingerprints or similar.
I still don't like it being a Sonos login, but I would have preferred a local login, not only for privacy reasons. And I would have preferred to have been informed with the update where it came and gotten the chance to say "I don't need this". But, hey, Sonos is not known for giving the users a lot of options.
I don't think I had to do that when I got my first Sonos device, which was earlier than 2012. I don't really recall that I ever had to enter any credentials when adding new devices, and I have added devices since 2012 (I think). I did create a Sonos account early on, since I wanted to post to the forums.
However, I have a Spotify account, which I have tied to Sonos. Originally, this was a little messy, because I had to go the Spotify site to reconnect it Sonos monthly or bimonthly. Later they made an enhancement this by tying the Sonos account to the Spotify account, and it has been working seemlessly since.
I can imagine that there are people out there who never registered their hardware, never went to the forums, who never signed for Spotify or similar service, who now find that they can get into the room settings, because they don't have an ID. Or if they actually did register, they have no idea what username/password they used.
Little quoting snafu - MikeV wrote that.
I got my first device well before 2012, and there was no registration requirement. And for forum posting any account registered with a throwaway mail is fine.
What is frustrating is that Sonos take expensive devices hostage to force users into getting an account. The technical reasons cited and cited again here don't hold water.
All they do is hoping that the protest dries up (and it will), then they have their data-delivery user base they are looking for, and "it has always been like that".
There are alternatives. Too bad that I like Sonos's hardware, but I don't like being misled.
Sonos personnel have, several times now, confirmed that they have always required you to enter an account email in order to setup a Sonos system. You may not remember it, but the step was there. I personally bought my first units back in 2008, and distinctly remember the account info entry. So unless Sonos is lying and I (and many others) are also suffering from a mass delusion, it's a pretty good chance the step has always been there.
And by the way, it is still the case that you can register with a throwaway account. Create a dummy gmail account and you can move your Sonos to that email in one easy step. Sonos doesn't care about your personal data, unless they are directly supporting your system via a diagnostic. They don't care about linking your data directly to you or selling the data so you can be targeted. They care about the aggregate, and they don't need names for the aggregate. So use that dummy account and take off the tin foil fedora.
And by the way, it is still the case that you can register with a throwaway account. Create a dummy gmail account and you can move your Sonos to that email in one easy step. Sonos doesn't care about your personal data, unless they are directly supporting your system via a diagnostic. They don't care about linking your data directly to you or selling the data so you can be targeted. They care about the aggregate, and they don't need names for the aggregate. So use that dummy account and take off the tin foil fedora.
Nice takeover of my topic... I started this topic not for security or privacy reasons. But for the hilarious decision to force passwords on a system that runs in a private environment only.
We use our systems and tools in our company that are in the private, but used by us all, domain based on simple rules and trust. Any password or other hindrance in the way is annoying. And since Sonos requires such a thing for multiple simple tasks or settings it gets annoying very quickly.
We had our meeting and we decided to replace Sonos in 2019. Most likely with Bluesound devices since that's the brand we know by own experience and does what we need and does not require any passwords or even e-mail addresses. But we will make a project out of it for sure since it's too important for our daily business to have another mistake.
Have a nice day folks. And thanks Sonos representatives to share your thoughts. That has been very helpful.
We use our systems and tools in our company that are in the private, but used by us all, domain based on simple rules and trust. Any password or other hindrance in the way is annoying. And since Sonos requires such a thing for multiple simple tasks or settings it gets annoying very quickly.
We had our meeting and we decided to replace Sonos in 2019. Most likely with Bluesound devices since that's the brand we know by own experience and does what we need and does not require any passwords or even e-mail addresses. But we will make a project out of it for sure since it's too important for our daily business to have another mistake.
Have a nice day folks. And thanks Sonos representatives to share your thoughts. That has been very helpful.
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