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Ever since we took the plunge for S2 (including upgrading/purchasing 6 new Sonos unit for S2 compatibility) it’s been a real mess (system stability and WiFi issues)! 

The iOS version of the S2 app is very slow to load, lags almost always, and has a terrible screen refresh rate compared to ANY iOS app we have in the household.   Now 20-40 seconds might not seem like long for an iPhone/Pad app to load/refresh, but if you’re trying to get some quick control over the volume or switching songs this is a STUPID amount of time! 

 

S1 was almost instant across all platforms and apps.  While I realize Apple can take some blame for issues with iOS apps, why is S2 slow on PC and Amazon Fire (Android) devices as well?  

I’m guessing I’m not the only one, but Sonos sure seem slow to address this no matter how many times I’ve reported it to support. 

Anyone else think this degrades the Sonos experience beyond the obvious annoyances (especially compared to the hundred or so other apps we use with NO lagging)? 

This thread should not be marked as answered


I have tried the “solutions” offered in the answer and agree with you @Trenty. This should not be marked as answered.

I have 10 unit system and there is no lag when it comes to playing music, but the S2 system is pure *nonsense*.  Very slow to open, and each time I try to add a song it is spinning wheel time for 5-20 seconds before it tells me it is either added to playlist or not available. 

It was working perfectly until i upgraded to the S2 system and ever since it has just not been the same. I have even tried deleting the whole system and setting it up as new, but to no avail. 

I’ll contact the support team next (my own damn fault for not doing it earlier). 

Good luck everyone!

 

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*


I am a person who uses SONOS library - I don’t use Spotify/ etc.   I play downloaded MP3 from shows, and SONOS has to fix the lag when it comes to working with libraries and switching between speakers.   It’s drastically slow.


I’m just throwing my experiences into the ring for whatever value they are to others...

Background: Up until two weeks ago, my Sonos system consisted of four Play:1 speakers, a Connect (gen 2), and a Bridge. I then purchased a Sonos Roam and had to upgrade my system to S2 (and also lost the use of the Bridge).

App on iPhone (running iOS 14.5): While I don’t think the lag I have experienced is as much as some other people, there is definitely longer lag than with the S1 Controller. For me, the largest lag is with opening the app and it can take 20-30 seconds to populate anything. Typically, when I select a song or radio station, etc. there is also more lag than there had been with my S1 Controller -- maybe 10-15 seconds. Occasionally, it just spins for a bit and nothing actually plays and I have to select the music again. And as others have mentioned, the artwork is often not showing up, or well behind of the music. This hasn’t affected what is playing or the ability to control what is playing. Finally, another issue I have had is with the app is, at times, when I have been scrolling -- especially through my music library -- it will reset me back to the top (much like a webpage when you hit refresh will often put you back at the top of the page). This doesn’t always happen, but it happens enough to be annoying. I did not have that problem with the S1 Controller either. 

App on MacBook Air (running macOS Big Sur 11.2.2): For me, this app has also been glitchy. It is a little slower than the S1 was (as best as I can tell), though not as slow as the phone app, which is why I have begun using it more. But it does constantly have a glitchy appearance. Basically, every few seconds it looks like the whole thing “resets”. The names of all my speakers stay put, but whatever is listed as playing disappears and then reappears. So, for about 5 seconds it looks normal, then for one second words disappear from the screen, then reappear. This is even more noticeable with album artwork because it does the same thing on this app. It will look normal for a few seconds and then vanish (replaced with the default icon) for a split second and then come back. It doesn’t seem to have any impact on the functionality of anything, but it sure is annoying to look at. 

Overall, I miss how well the S1 Controller worked in comparison to my two weeks using S2, but I am hopeful it will become more refined over time.


@skilletP You’ve made two changes to your system:

  • You went from S1 to S2; and
  • You removed the Bridge that made your speakers use Sonosnet.

I’m wondering if your current problems aren’t more related to the removal of the Bridge. You could try cable connecting one of your speakers or buy a Boost to build a Sonosnet again.

 


I am having the same issue. iOS App takes anywhere from 20-60 seconds to load/refresh. Even after I have opened the app and playing music, if I go back into the app to change the volume or the song, I experience this lag. Terrible user experience!!


The slow loading is tiresome. I’ve gotten fed up with having to tool around and fix Sonos issues. I’m quitting Sonos altogether.


The slow loading is tiresome. I’ve gotten fed up with having to tool around and fix Sonos issues. I’m quitting Sonos altogether.

@Anthony George .  This thread is five months old and has unearthed a handful of users experiencing this issue.  There are millions of users out there using the app.  The app is just a remote control and its speed is 99% down to network communications.

So if you choose to dump Sonos rather than sort out what is actually going wrong, that is your loss.


..  worked hard on this and other Sonos issues. Excellent network in my house, the best, actually. All other streaming platforms are working perfectly well.

 

The tone of your response is pretty bad .. “it’s your loss”.  I’m your loss. 
 

I’ll treat the Sonos hardware as a wireless speaker system and dump your app. 
 

Good Bye. 


Pretty sure John B didn’t write the app, as he isn’t a Sonos employee.


As Bruce has said, I am just a fellow user. Your network may be the best on the planet, but may just need a setting change to work fine with Sonos. I was not implying that your network is faulty.

But the Sonos app is not inherently slow. It is just a remote control. It cannot, itself,  be slow.


My Sonos system became unreliable lately. Speakers drop, lose their pairing. And S2 is awful. Slow to load, sometimes not showing devices. Every time the screen saver starts on my AppleTV I know that I’m in for an annoying few minutes of waiting for the app to load, waiting for devices to finally appear . . . It’s painful. And yes, I’ve rebooted things, reset speakers, etc. These issues are new. Go back to May and everything was great.
 

It’s definitely the app. I just paired my Arc with a Play5. The lag was incredible. 
 

Also, I don’t want to hear from the troll who says this isn’t an issue because the thread isn’t packed with people complaining. This is a real issue.


I won’t say this isn’t an issue, the app is slower these days when booting up and reconnecting to all devices.

That being said, all your complaints point to a network issue on your side. Likely some sort of wifi interference , but without more specifics, that is just a guess. The next time you boot up your system, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

 


I’m the same.
 

Ever since switching to S2 I’ve had severe lag problems.  Never had them before with S1.  I hadn’t complained on the forums as I thought surely they will update the app soon. But many months later and nothing has changed.
For me, the app refresh lag can be up to a minute and it’s impossible to control anything during this period. Sometimes this even causes my speakers sound to lag and they come on 20-30 seconds after other parts of the network start. Generally I must say that the upgrade to S2 hasn’t been a good experience.

It was also quite annoying to be forced to upgrade because you buy more products! I bought a Roam and it only works on S2 forcing my whole system to S2. 

Sonos, please consider the customer experience when releasing products. Many of us are long time supporters and great advocates for the product amongst our circles. And please update the app!


As I said before, the symptoms you’re describing point to an interference issue. 

Yes, the app is slightly slower to connect to all devices, but it certainly should not take a minute. 


Thanks for the reply but, as others have said, it doesn’t seem likely to be an interference issue. I’ve done the interference checks others had noted and the same speakers worked perfectly well on S1 without an lag issues. 


Device discovery is entirely the same whether it is S1 or S2. Your router is by far the most probable cause, please tell us what kind it is (and whether you are using WiFi [likely] or SonosNet [less likely].

Device discovery is:

SSDP broadcast (3 seconds per UPnP spec)

SSDP multicast (3 seconds concurrent with broadcast)

mDNS search (concurrent)

When a device is found (on the correct Household) then it is scanned for services, and the interesting services are subscribed to. Some UPnP calls are also made to each device.

That is all local network device-to-device calls, and as we have seen too many times, some routers suck at this.

None of this has changed between S1 and S2.

If using a PC or a Mac then there are some human-readable logs generated which might give a clue. On all devices you can always generate a Diagnostic for Sonos support to take a look at.


I also had this Problem, changed my Network Setting on the Router.

2,4 GHz-Network channel from 1 to 6 and my Problem is solved. 


I would like to add my concerns. It seems to have gone worse recently- Nov 2022. It seems to struggle to produce my recent playing history. In S1, i deleted this function, but cannot with S2.

 

As I am not suffering short-term memory loss so this is a completely useless function, in any event. I would much rather be reminded that Ii have not played Album X in the last 2-years, or similar. Sonos is collecting data for no useful reason.


I would like to add my concerns. It seems to have gone worse recently- Nov 2022. It seems to struggle to produce my recent playing history. In S1, i deleted this function, but cannot with S2.

 

As I am not suffering short-term memory loss so this is a completely useless function, in any event. I would much rather be reminded that Ii have not played Album X in the last 2-years, or similar. Sonos is collecting data for no useful reason.

Are you not able to switch this off in the Sonos App ‘Settings/Data & Privacy’ by switching off ‘Use Personalization Services’ and hiding the recently played list in the ‘My Sonos’ tab?


Hi

 

I’m having similar issues - I’ve four systems in four locations using separate WiFi networks.  Three use S2 and one S1. Very recently, ALL apps (irrespective of S1/S2) are slow to respond to volume changes and to load search results - Amazon Music/ Hype Machine results returned seemingly instantly but Quobuz and Spotify(My go to choice) take twenty seconds or more to return results.  Using iPhone 13 iOS 16 generally but elsewhere iPads 6s or 9s using latest software.  Sonos software up to date.   Each system uses Boost for network and has 73 Mb/s BT internet.  Disconnected and reloaded S1/S2 Apps but issue remains.  Search results used to be returned almost instantly.   iMac controller still functions as it should with no delay.


Hi

 

I’m having similar issues - I’ve four systems in four locations using separate WiFi networks.  Three use S2 and one S1. Very recently, ALL apps (irrespective of S1/S2) are slow to respond to volume changes and to load search results - Amazon Music/ Hype Machine results returned seemingly instantly but Quobuz and Spotify(My go to choice) take twenty seconds or more to return results.  Using iPhone 13 iOS 16 generally but elsewhere iPads 6s or 9s using latest software.  Sonos software up to date.   Each system uses Boost for network and has 73 Mb/s BT internet.  Disconnected and reloaded S1/S2 Apps but issue remains.  Search results used to be returned almost instantly.   iMac controller still functions as it should with no delay.

Likely going to be WiFi interference from the Wireless networks and SonosNet channels in use. Can you perhaps outline the SSID’s/Wifi channels/Channel-widths in use by each network and state the SonosNet channels too. Maybe then some suggestions can be made to reduce the interference.

It would also help to describe how far away each Boost/Wired Sonos device, is from its nearest wireless AP.


Hi - thank you.  However it’s unlikely to be wifi interference since the same situation has only recently arisen in four different distinct properties, each of which has behaved impeccably before.  Moreover, the issue is the same no matter what the distance from the controller device (app) and the boost.   No other WiFi issues eg interference which has necessitated change of Sonos channel.   The fact that I’m experiencing the same issue, using various app carrying devices, in four separate geographical locations with different WiFi networks suggests to me some glitch between the Sonos app and iOS software version.   IMac controller nit experiencing the same issue even though furthest away from the Boost.  Even within a couple of feet the iOS devices still  experience issues  


That’s okay 👍 

If I use an iPhone XR running iOS 16.2 and S2 App 14.20 build 70435282 and search, then it’s almost instant here. I’ve attached an animation to somewhat show the results being quickly returned when searching for Phil Collins, just as an example, but I mostly use Amazon Music Ultimate and Deezer Music streaming services, aswell as the Spotify (Free) service. So I don’t think it’s a glitch between the S2 App and latest iOS software.. My other thoughts are to perhaps try a different DNS server and see if that resolves the issue.


Thank you - not sure how I change the DNS server - all properties use BT routers on BT contracts as internet provider but are geographically hundreds of miles away from each other. 
 

it is effectively as if four separate households were experiencing the same issue, the only common connection being all Sonos players are identified as belonging to my account (but set up as four separate households systems) and the same issue arises whether S1 (one household) or S2 (three households) are being used, by the same (this iPhone 13 or my wife’s iphone13 which move between properties) or the iPads which remain as controllers in the specific properties.  The only controller which works as normal is the iMac (on an S1 system). 


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