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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)? 

Would someone try searching with the pan streaming service search magnifying glass instead of the browse search and see if for them the search is slow .  Thanks 


Sorry - ignore the last post - I can’t seem to replicate what I’ve written ie there doesn’t appear to be general search function within browse only suggestions based on search history.  Not sure what I must have been looking at 


I use BBC Sounds, but don’t use Qobuz - but maybe it’s one one of the streaming services that I don’t use, that are holding things up. Try removing the services perhaps one at a time and see if you can pinpoint the culprit. I just checked the Sonos Services Status Page HERE (just in case) and that’s not showing any reported issues with any of the services however.


Hi Ken 

 

Here’s the latest : Sorry - once more.  What I wrote about using browsing and then searching is generally true and returns instant results if a new search artist / album is requested which has not previously been requested using the magnifying glass - all very strange


So what appears to be happening : if the search is focused on a specific streaming service - lets say Spotify - different ways of doing this - through S½ apps Browse function (music notes) / select Spotify/ search artist album - or using Mac controller (which can’t do cross platform searches) - the results are instant.  Similarly by using Spotify app directly.  However using the magnifying glass icon to do a cross platform search very recently appears to have been corrupted and hangs seemingly for ever when searching 


Note that the servers that Sonos has been told by Spotify to connect to are different servers than the Spotify app itself. 


@IJN,
So can you give a sloooow search-example, so I can try it here.


Expanding on this - the results on my system are returned as follows : Amazon (non- subscription) hype machine qobuz then Spotify.   Given that the direct Spotify search is quick, it seems that there is a delayed search across other platforms ahead of Spotify search.  This did not used to Be the case


Search in artists for Scott Walker using magnifying glass and then by browsing/ selecting Spotify and then searching 


Artist selected makes no difference - always same delay 


The multi-service search (which is junk IMHO, desktop single-service search rocks for so many reasons) is subject to issues if one of those services is slow. In order for someone to reproduce your issue, they may well need the same combination of services as you have.


Here’s what I am seeing … I still am not noticing any significant delay. Seems almost instant to me.

 

 


I’m just wondering if it’s a DNS issue? Maybe someone else will chime in here from the UK, if they use both BT and Spotify and can ‘kindly’ do a similar Artist search.

Anyhow it seems to be working okay here.


I’m not sure if this has always been the case or not - don’t think so- but if I perform a search for say Beatles - typing initially “be” will quickly return search results across all streaming platforms with which I have an account- will include, in all platforms , the Beatles alongside other “be artists such as Beach boys and the Beastie Boys - I can therefore in my streaming platform of choice select the Beatles and it’s immediately populated by all albums etc.

 

very bizarrely, if to the initial “be” search criterion I now add “a” ie “Bea”, the results diminish with less showing across fewer platforms and if o continue to the “Beatles” it now takes seemingly forever to load - this did not used to be the case. 


I’m not sure if this has always been the case or not - don’t think so- but if I perform a search for say Beatles - typing initially “be” will quickly return search results across all streaming platforms with which I have an account- will include, in all platforms , the Beatles alongside other “be artists such as Beach boys and the Beastie Boys - I can therefore in my streaming platform of choice select the Beatles and it’s immediately populated by all albums etc.

 

very bizarrely, if to the initial “be” search criterion I now add “a” ie “Bea”, the results diminish with less showing across fewer platforms and if o continue to the “Beatles” it now takes seemingly forever to load - this did not used to be the case. 

 

So this is what I see if I search for ‘Beatles’ using the S2 App on an iPhone XR (see attached)…


Hi …thanks - I don’t get that - yours works logistically and the options become less and quicker as you hone down with more letters. Mine stutters and restarts the search. 
 How do I do the Gif screen shot ? 


Hi …thanks - I don’t get that - yours works logistically and the options become less and quicker as you hone down with more letters. Mine stutters and restarts the search. 
 How do I do the Gif screen shot ? 

I really don’t doubt what you’re seeing, but anyhow, I simply record a screen-capture video and then use an App called ImgPlay to convert it to an animated.gif (other Apps are available) - The only issue is the upload limit here in the community is 5mb - so the quality is affected greatly with such a small file size limit, but usually when compressed to 10fps enough detail can be shown to demonstrate the issue in the finished uploaded file.

However, moving on, it would be more interesting to see if you get the same issue with an Android mobile controller and also, you could perhaps consider shifting the local system (whichever one you’re nearby now) over to perhaps a mobile wireless connection instead, particularly if you have a decent 4G/5G LTE connection available to the Home environment and see if eliminating the BT connection improves the matter. It’s also still worth trying a different DNS in the router configuration pages, thats if BT routers allow that?


Hi thanks once again.

I wasn’t suggesting that you doubted what I see; the purpose of uploading similar video was to demonstrate to the community/ Sonos what the issue is.  There are a number having similar issues on various threads but probably small relative to all users.  Don’t think the solution has ever been bottomed.

My son came over yesterday and the issue is the same with his recent Android. 
I’ve no means of moving the router to 4/5G unfortunately (there are back up devices available on some ISP packages but I don’t have one here).


Hi thanks once again.

I wasn’t suggesting that you doubted what I see; the purpose of uploading similar video was to demonstrate to the community/ Sonos what the issue is.  There are a number having similar issues on various threads but probably small relative to all users.  Don’t think the solution has ever been bottomed.

My son came over yesterday and the issue is the same with his recent Android. 
I’ve no means of moving the router to 4/5G unfortunately (there are back up devices available on some ISP packages but I don’t have one here).

Could you not switch a couple of the speakers temporarily over to a mobile hotspot - just simply add the Hotspot WiFi network to the ‘existing’ Sonos Household via ‘Manage Networks/Update Networks’ and then switch off the local router - note however you need a separate controller and hotspot device (eg: iPhone Hotspot and iPad controller). Just something you could try (perhaps?) to see if the issue was related to the BT network.

Mind you, I would have expected more people to be openly complaining about this matter if that were the case. I’m surprised people have not chimed-in here from the UK, as there must be quite a few who use Sonos on the BT network - but I guess it could just be one of your accounts with the MSP’s you have installed as controlav suggested earlier.

You could also maybe try removing each/all the music services and re-adding them back, one at a time, to see if you can perhaps pin-point the issue down to one specific MSP.


Hi Ken - thanks for your many suggestions.  I’ll try hotspot as last resort since everything set as wired through boost to router.  I’m going to another home with Sonos /BT in two days so I’ll see if have same issue there - that will rule out issues with individual networks etc 


Finally I’ve found the solution to the laggy controller in my case.  Out of my four households, I found two (S2) were functioning with no search/ app control lag.

The other two households (S1 and S2) were both experiencing the same issue of severe controller lag, sometimes not even returning search results.

I’ve submitted diagnostics from the two affected households and it was discovered that each household had “phantom” players (not visible in the app but picked up by the diagnostic) belonging to the other laggy household.  There was therefore some confusion over the network of speakers. I had upgraded some speakers and given a couple away but moved a Play 1 between houses.  Seems the factory reset may not have been effective and caused a bridge between the two households.

Finally resolved in one of the households (not yet visited the other) by totally factory resetting everything.

(That in itself was a nightmare since in the time since I originally set the system up I’d changed the router from BTHub6 to BT Superhub2, just by changing the wired connection from the Boost to the hub with no resetting required.  It wasn't apparent then since effectively I just “plugged and played” a ready configured system, that starting from scratch with Superhub2 would be so problematic.  Unable to get any speakers to be found other than eventually the Boost, but even hardwiring other players to that wouldn't connect.  Numerous repeated factory resets to no avail. Sonos help on the phone for longtime with suggestions but still no success.  Apparently there was an issue with original Superhub2 software in 2021 but this was fixed.  Mine is running latest version.  Fortunately I had the predecessor BTHub6 and setting up Boost and Sonosnet using that was relatively straightforward (with few connection problems which needed hardwiring / factory resetting (again) before finally up and running.  Then switched Boost and connected system to Superhub2 ethernet and it continues to work fine.


Hmmm, my 2 Canadian Cents (so not much value) … on my Desktop or Laptop (Windows) loads fairly quickly and is snappy when I want to make changes. When I use my Lenovo Tablet (M10 Plus) a year old, Oh Sweet Moses, … it sometimes won’t add zones. Searching Google, I deleted all active Widgets on my tablet Home Screen and Icons I really don’t need that bad but were nice to have and S2 was better. The 2 Year old Samsung Tablet I have confirmed I was on the right track as it was faster than my newer Lenovo Tablet. Bottom line for me is that while SONOS wants us to move to newer devices that support future processing the current Tablets don’t have the horsepower to do this. 


Hi - thank you for your observation.  My issue was - eventually diagnosed by Sonos - is that somehow two of my four homes had infected each other so both was seeing not only its own speakers but those in the other home too and clearly they were many miles away on a different network.   Everything was left unresolved when searching.,,,

Had factory reset everything to solve.

 

S1/S2 Agnostic since issue affected both equally 

 

 

 


That’s a bizarre assumption that the CS rep made. I don’t even know how the Sonos controller could “see” across different networks. That particular case has been an issue for lots of people who run different networks in their own home. To be able to see across distances where the networks aren’t even in the same place seems….well, ludicrous. 

But I’m glad that a factory reset solved the issue….but I really have to think it was something other than what they told you. Just doesn’t add up, to me. 


Whilst it may seem incredulous rather than ludicrous, it is factually correct!  When I submitted diagnostics for both errant homes, he was reeling off speakers by name which were part of the other and vice versa.  I have moved speakers around my various locations and possibly added one without a factory reset - that may mean it brought with it the baggage of other speakers from the other location.  I don’t know how but I do know what the Sonos guy saw because he was able to read out the speakers by name, not all of which were in that location.  If safe sex is always practised, there’s no risk of STI transmission.  If i took a risk (not intentionally) of not taking protection by factory resetting, then I see it as perfectly possible for the cross contamination to have happened.  But I don’t know what happened for sure, I’m only speculating why.  But the effect of whatever happened was very real and correctly diagnosed by the Sonos guy.  


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