Why have you changed the Sonos App? The new design set up is so ridiculous. It is not user friendly, simple or manageable. It needs to be changed and made user friendly not tech friendly!!! What were you thinking!!!!!:
Page 1 / 2
I completely agree. I so dislike the new Sonos app, I hardly ever play Sonos anymore. It is TERRIBLE. And it cuts out all the time. Every 20-30 minutes, the music is only playing on my phone and has to be re-linked back to Sonos. This is the worst upgrade ever . . . PLEASE GO BACK TO THE OLD APP.
If you are seeing cut-outs, can't play errors, skipping, trouble grouping etc then you have network that need addressing. Post a thread in the relevant forum and you likely will get advice
I have to agree. The room assignment change is not intuitive and cumbersome. Perhaps this is personal preference but it does not reflect smart UX design.
Also, I experience the music drop out problem where the music stops after extended play. The app reflects this as if someone pressed pause. Pressing the play icon resumes the music. Also, some songs end in the middle and advance to the next one in the Que without any user input.
I have had the system for years and a member of the beta community. I have never had this music drop-off before but did experience it during the beta trial which I believe I reported. My network has not changed and is very robust. The drop-off definitely appears to be related to the new release.
Also, I experience the music drop out problem where the music stops after extended play. The app reflects this as if someone pressed pause. Pressing the play icon resumes the music. Also, some songs end in the middle and advance to the next one in the Que without any user input.
I have had the system for years and a member of the beta community. I have never had this music drop-off before but did experience it during the beta trial which I believe I reported. My network has not changed and is very robust. The drop-off definitely appears to be related to the new release.
Thanks for the feedback about the new app, we're working on making some changes based on feedback which you'll see in future versions.
Regarding performance issues, audio stopping shouldn't have anything to do with the app itself and is most likely related to a change or issue on your network or local environment. The support team is great at sorting those things out. So if you're still having trouble after trying the basics, I'd suggest that you give us a call on our support line and speak to a technician.
Regarding performance issues, audio stopping shouldn't have anything to do with the app itself and is most likely related to a change or issue on your network or local environment. The support team is great at sorting those things out. So if you're still having trouble after trying the basics, I'd suggest that you give us a call on our support line and speak to a technician.
With all due respect, the music dropping does not have anything to do with our network. I, too, have had Sonos for years and have played it consistently with no drop offs or network issues. ONLY since the new app has been designed has this become a problem. AND the music continues to play through Pandora on my phone, it's just the icon for the Sonos has left Pandora and doesn't play through the Sonos speaker . . . yet it plays on my phone. I do not like having to open the Sonos app and get that going, then go back to my apps and open Pandora to choose the station. Then the music plays on my phone for about 10 seconds before the Sonos icon appears and then I touch that to play through the Sonos speaker. Every 20-30 minutes, the Sonos speaker stops the music, yet it continues to play through the phone. And I have to go back into Sonos and start over. NEVER had this issue before until the new app . . . and I have the same network and that isn't causing problems with any other device. I liked it MUCH better when I opened the Sonos app and could choose my music right from there without having to go to Pandora and connect the two. Looking forward to a revision.
Ditto all of the above. Nothing has changed in my setup except the app. Network is top-of-the-line in a 600 square-foot apartment with much of our system hardwired with ethernet. App constantly gets confused about what rooms I've checked, and music stops randomly pretty frequently (especially true with Pandora).
MNSue - The good news is that you DON’T have to go through the Pandora app to play Pandora. You can still go through the Sonos app and choose your music source (Pandora). However, you are right about the music drop out not being network related.
Sonos really starting to drop the ball on software quality.. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come as I've just spent nearly $2k on Sonos gear.
New app is terrible (in terms of bugs and in terms of UX). SonosOne/Alexa integration is half-baked (no Audible support, confusing commands, "beta" things for a $200+ product, other things I won't detail here - returned the thing the same day I bought it). Please stop integrating with new things and instead only release things that are fully-baked. Stop relying on users to tell you about problems.
New app is terrible (in terms of bugs and in terms of UX). SonosOne/Alexa integration is half-baked (no Audible support, confusing commands, "beta" things for a $200+ product, other things I won't detail here - returned the thing the same day I bought it). Please stop integrating with new things and instead only release things that are fully-baked. Stop relying on users to tell you about problems.
I have been helping out on this and earlier forums for close to 10 years. Only once have I ever seen an update actually to blame for dropouts and bad connections. That was specifically related to the Playbar problems a few months back, and there were THOUSANDS of posts about it, not the dozen or so you see for this release (people suffering from the Spotify problems aside). Instead, in 99.999% of the cases where "the Sonos update broke my system", there are three things at work:
IP conflicts - By far the most common
Shifting router channels - Rare, but not unheard of
Subnet splits - only applies to multiple router locations and very rare
These are all network problems and there is nothing Sonos can do to prevent them. They can also be triggered and/or exposed by a reboot of a device, and a Sonos update reboots all Sonos devices, thus it seems the update is to blame when it is really a networking problem. Also, your network may appear perfectly normal otherwise, but Sonos' multi-room, real-time streaming architecture will expose the network problems because it relies on a correctly configured network much more than any single device.
So, if you wish to fix your system instead of blaming an update that works for millions, do the following:
To cure IP conflicts, reboot/power cycle your devices in the following order:
Modem
Router
Switches or hubs
Wired Sonos units
Wireless Sonos units
Computers/printers
Wireless devices - phones/tablets etc.
Allow each device to come back up before proceeding to the next. Note that you can permanently prevent duplicate IP addresses by assigning an IP to each device's MAC address in the router setup. See your router manual for details.
To cure shifting router channels, fix your router to a single channel, either 1, 6, or 11. Avoid any "Auto" settings and if running in Boost setup, make sure it is different from your Sonos channel settings.
To cure split subnets, make sure you are not running two routers, and any access point is not running a DHCP server.
IP conflicts - By far the most common
Shifting router channels - Rare, but not unheard of
Subnet splits - only applies to multiple router locations and very rare
These are all network problems and there is nothing Sonos can do to prevent them. They can also be triggered and/or exposed by a reboot of a device, and a Sonos update reboots all Sonos devices, thus it seems the update is to blame when it is really a networking problem. Also, your network may appear perfectly normal otherwise, but Sonos' multi-room, real-time streaming architecture will expose the network problems because it relies on a correctly configured network much more than any single device.
So, if you wish to fix your system instead of blaming an update that works for millions, do the following:
To cure IP conflicts, reboot/power cycle your devices in the following order:
Modem
Router
Switches or hubs
Wired Sonos units
Wireless Sonos units
Computers/printers
Wireless devices - phones/tablets etc.
Allow each device to come back up before proceeding to the next. Note that you can permanently prevent duplicate IP addresses by assigning an IP to each device's MAC address in the router setup. See your router manual for details.
To cure shifting router channels, fix your router to a single channel, either 1, 6, or 11. Avoid any "Auto" settings and if running in Boost setup, make sure it is different from your Sonos channel settings.
To cure split subnets, make sure you are not running two routers, and any access point is not running a DHCP server.
dapruzzese1 - you are right about being able to set up Pandora through SONOS now . . . . there wasn't that option when the app first upgraded. There was a message in the Sonos app that music services must be connected directly from that services' app. This is an improvement already . . . thank you for mentioning that as I just tried it and it works to connect Pandora directly into Sonos as we could before.
Thanks jgatie, that is a helpful reminder.
To be clear, the issue (at least for me) is not so much a "drop out" as it is the music just stopping playing.
For pandora, it manifests as the music playing fine for a while, then at some point the station advancing to the next song, playing about 10 seconds of it, and then stopping on all speakers. The iOS apps will either show the music as paused or they will show "No Music".
I have seen true drop-outs (where one speaker drops audio for a small amount of time and then resumes play) for things streaming from my playbar and Play:5 but only when I had an older router.
It's my understanding that Pandora and the likes don't stream in the same way as audio from a connected device: rather each speaker has its own connection to Pandora.
(This is why you can hear a pause when adding a new speaker to a group already playing - the speaker needs to connect/download the audio. Connecting to a device-connected group (e.g. to a playbar) is nearly instantaneous.)
If this were related to network, I wouldn't expect it to be isolated to Pandora. Other music services seem to work for longer. I recently had a TuneIn station playing on my system for 72+ hours while I was gone and I came back to it playing just fine. Pandora won't even run during an 8-hour workday anymore. I'm one of those cool kids who plays music for his dogs - don't judge :)
It really seems like the Pandora "application" on the speakers is crashing. It could be the iOS app playing a part, but it's not clear.
In any event, I expect more from Sonos. Only recently has this become a problem, and it really does feel like a big step backward in the mark of quality of the product's software.
This is all aside from the fact that I genuinely think the new application's UI is bad. Everybody hates a new UI at first, but after several weeks of learning how to use it, I have to really think about how to use it almost every time. It's no longer fun or easy.
To be clear, the issue (at least for me) is not so much a "drop out" as it is the music just stopping playing.
For pandora, it manifests as the music playing fine for a while, then at some point the station advancing to the next song, playing about 10 seconds of it, and then stopping on all speakers. The iOS apps will either show the music as paused or they will show "No Music".
I have seen true drop-outs (where one speaker drops audio for a small amount of time and then resumes play) for things streaming from my playbar and Play:5 but only when I had an older router.
It's my understanding that Pandora and the likes don't stream in the same way as audio from a connected device: rather each speaker has its own connection to Pandora.
(This is why you can hear a pause when adding a new speaker to a group already playing - the speaker needs to connect/download the audio. Connecting to a device-connected group (e.g. to a playbar) is nearly instantaneous.)
If this were related to network, I wouldn't expect it to be isolated to Pandora. Other music services seem to work for longer. I recently had a TuneIn station playing on my system for 72+ hours while I was gone and I came back to it playing just fine. Pandora won't even run during an 8-hour workday anymore. I'm one of those cool kids who plays music for his dogs - don't judge :)
It really seems like the Pandora "application" on the speakers is crashing. It could be the iOS app playing a part, but it's not clear.
In any event, I expect more from Sonos. Only recently has this become a problem, and it really does feel like a big step backward in the mark of quality of the product's software.
This is all aside from the fact that I genuinely think the new application's UI is bad. Everybody hates a new UI at first, but after several weeks of learning how to use it, I have to really think about how to use it almost every time. It's no longer fun or easy.
I agree wholeheartedly with the negative comments on the new UI. I spent more than 15 years in software product management and marketing and that UI wouldn't have passed muster coming out of any of my groups!
Ditto comments on the drop outs. Haven't touched my network in at least 9 months. The dropouts only started after 8.2.2. Attempting to eliminate them, I switched over from Wi-Fi-only to having one of my speakers hardwired and it hasn't made any difference. And yes, I went through the whole reboot power-cycle rigmarole. (none of my 10 speakers is more than 15' from another...) (You guys also need to update your docs as instructions for a Wi-Fi reset are now useless with the new UI.)
Ditto comments on the drop outs. Haven't touched my network in at least 9 months. The dropouts only started after 8.2.2. Attempting to eliminate them, I switched over from Wi-Fi-only to having one of my speakers hardwired and it hasn't made any difference. And yes, I went through the whole reboot power-cycle rigmarole. (none of my 10 speakers is more than 15' from another...) (You guys also need to update your docs as instructions for a Wi-Fi reset are now useless with the new UI.)
Please PLEASE change the app back to what it used to be with the black background.. This new app layout is terrible, i wanna swear how bad this software is ??. To Anybody readying this dont bother buying a Sonos piece of kit until this is changed as its shockingly bad !! Who in there right mind chose this crap ?? At least give me the option to change it back to 1 that was better to use and that actually worked ?? I havent paid over £1200 for this terrible way of selecting music ?? I use spotify and since the sonos update it terrible to try to select a track..
Yet another update a few days ago, and sadly it looks like Sonos team are being deaf (!) to customers' requests and comments: Still no dark background option, still way too numerous taps required to get the music one wants in the room(s) he wants.
For the sake of trying to be supposedly trendy and mimic, blindly, Apple Music look and feel, Sonos forget both their Android users base and more importantly those who actually use the controller app in Sonos' natural habitat, a house with comfy atmosphere and often dimmed lighting.
Sonos, keep the all flashy, shiny, over-bright display for tradeshows and stores if you feel the need to, but please consider what your loyal users are asking for...
And if you could also think about reducing the eye-tearing 100% contrast as experienced in the room selection pane for example (as well as this website), that would be the icing-on-the-cake...
For the sake of trying to be supposedly trendy and mimic, blindly, Apple Music look and feel, Sonos forget both their Android users base and more importantly those who actually use the controller app in Sonos' natural habitat, a house with comfy atmosphere and often dimmed lighting.
Sonos, keep the all flashy, shiny, over-bright display for tradeshows and stores if you feel the need to, but please consider what your loyal users are asking for...
And if you could also think about reducing the eye-tearing 100% contrast as experienced in the room selection pane for example (as well as this website), that would be the icing-on-the-cake...
I posted as much elsewhere, but Sonos have now pushed out 5 updates since version 8.0 was dumped on us. They seem to have a very clear idea where they are going with the app, and this coupled with a 'we know best' attitude seems to imply that save for a few tweaks here or there, what we have is what we are going to be stuck with for the future.
I get it that some are indifferent to the new app and some may like it. That is good thing. But for the rest of us who on a daily basis pick up the app and despair about the wonderful system we bought into and what it has been allowed to become, all we get is a 'we will pass your feedback on to the team'. To Ryan and the nameless guys in 'the team', listen -- we love you guys, but this is now not enough. Have you read the posts from homeowners who are putting off purchases; from the installers fending off complaints from their users, from the retailers no longer recommending your kit ??
Sonos, you can choose to make no meaningful comment if you want to. At the end of the day, we can choose to spend our money elsewhere.
Andrew
I get it that some are indifferent to the new app and some may like it. That is good thing. But for the rest of us who on a daily basis pick up the app and despair about the wonderful system we bought into and what it has been allowed to become, all we get is a 'we will pass your feedback on to the team'. To Ryan and the nameless guys in 'the team', listen -- we love you guys, but this is now not enough. Have you read the posts from homeowners who are putting off purchases; from the installers fending off complaints from their users, from the retailers no longer recommending your kit ??
Sonos, you can choose to make no meaningful comment if you want to. At the end of the day, we can choose to spend our money elsewhere.
Andrew
Andrew i couldnt have put it better myself.. To think that i purchased the soundbar over any other brand, to think that i was sold over the quality of the base speaker .. Then before i was to purchase any other speakers for the otger rooms Sono's have changed the app from something brilliant and user friendly to this frustratingly annoying unuser friendly app doesnt make sense ? Sono's has a group of customers who once loved the simplicity of the way music was played on there system which is now terrible in many ways.. We dont like the white background or the change in layout ? What makes matters worse is you have to update to this annoying crap app which doesnt give me the option to change back, my wife even suggested we sell the soundbar and base unit because of the hassel and trouble caused when trying to play music like before.. Please change it back before we take our business elsewhere ?
Hello andrewmk and others,
I totally agree with your comments. It is absolutely incredible the lack of response, but better said, lack of action from Sonos in regards to the terrible app and our feedback to it.
It was so good and now, nobody at home want to play music at home due to the frustrating experience of using this terrible app. They have to stop using us as guinea pigs. My 6 year old used to know how to find her favorite tracks at night... sleeping sounds of nature, soothing ocean waves, etc. Now, the glaring interface and unintuitive operation of it this app makes her (and us) not using it.
NAIM has probably now the most intuitive interface. They DO hear their customers who spend big bucks on their products. We, as many others, have spent thousands of dollars in their devices, 7 areas, multiple amps, players, etc. One would think they would hear us. I hope Sonos goes back to basics and give us a simple app to use.
I totally agree with your comments. It is absolutely incredible the lack of response, but better said, lack of action from Sonos in regards to the terrible app and our feedback to it.
It was so good and now, nobody at home want to play music at home due to the frustrating experience of using this terrible app. They have to stop using us as guinea pigs. My 6 year old used to know how to find her favorite tracks at night... sleeping sounds of nature, soothing ocean waves, etc. Now, the glaring interface and unintuitive operation of it this app makes her (and us) not using it.
NAIM has probably now the most intuitive interface. They DO hear their customers who spend big bucks on their products. We, as many others, have spent thousands of dollars in their devices, 7 areas, multiple amps, players, etc. One would think they would hear us. I hope Sonos goes back to basics and give us a simple app to use.
I’m going to repeat my normal post
Just posting that you hate the new app will do no good. If you want change post what you would like changed so that feedback can go to developers working on future updates.
Just posting that you hate the new app will do no good. If you want change post what you would like changed so that feedback can go to developers working on future updates.
Chris,
First of all, I did not use the word "hate", you did.
I thought you could read in my post my complaints that not just me, but many people are expressing.
1) Glaring interface = White background, blinding for use at night. There was no need to change it.
2) Unintuitive = Going up and down, swiping up and down for selecting zone, search music, up and down.
Now, adding to these two, make text bigger and the three dots for going into the menu to add to playlist, queue, etc. more evident. Give us the ability to increase the contrast and text size so it is more legible.
That's it Chris.
Thanks.
First of all, I did not use the word "hate", you did.
I thought you could read in my post my complaints that not just me, but many people are expressing.
1) Glaring interface = White background, blinding for use at night. There was no need to change it.
2) Unintuitive = Going up and down, swiping up and down for selecting zone, search music, up and down.
Now, adding to these two, make text bigger and the three dots for going into the menu to add to playlist, queue, etc. more evident. Give us the ability to increase the contrast and text size so it is more legible.
That's it Chris.
Thanks.
I've been a Sonos user for 10 years, and I have filled the rooms of my house with them. What I have always loved about Sonos was how easy and intuitive it is to use. But they have entirely destroyed the interface with this latest update.
IT IS ENTIRELY UNINTUITIVE.
I will literally sell all of my Sonos gear and purchase from another manufacturer if this is not resolved soon. I can't stand interfacing with Sonos anymore as it literally drives my blood pressure up. Now, when someone in my family wants to use Sonos they come to me because they can't figure it out!!!
And no, I'm not giving specific feedback because the app needs to be ENTIRELY SCRAPPED. Go back to the old interface and start there.
There must be a mole inside Sonos that was planted there to destroy this company, because I cannot believe this could happen by mistake.
IT IS ENTIRELY UNINTUITIVE.
I will literally sell all of my Sonos gear and purchase from another manufacturer if this is not resolved soon. I can't stand interfacing with Sonos anymore as it literally drives my blood pressure up. Now, when someone in my family wants to use Sonos they come to me because they can't figure it out!!!
And no, I'm not giving specific feedback because the app needs to be ENTIRELY SCRAPPED. Go back to the old interface and start there.
There must be a mole inside Sonos that was planted there to destroy this company, because I cannot believe this could happen by mistake.
It was entirely unintuitive a few years ago when they reformatted it as I iassumw you remember.
All I have been saying is the me to I don’t like the controller posts are of no value. Post what you would like to see in the new controller if you ever want it to be closer to what you want. The old controller is gone. Put it to rest. Look to what you want in future Controller if you ever want Sonos to listen.
All I have been saying is the me to I don’t like the controller posts are of no value. Post what you would like to see in the new controller if you ever want it to be closer to what you want. The old controller is gone. Put it to rest. Look to what you want in future Controller if you ever want Sonos to listen.
The new app doesn’t need to be entirely scrapped. If anything the last version needed to be scrapped. THe new version needs enhanced and tweaked to do better with multiroom.
And know I don’t think it should be cAtered to what I like. But the fact is that is only way forward. THE only way forward is Updates to the new version. Face the facts and be Constructive toward a better controller.
And know I don’t think it should be cAtered to what I like. But the fact is that is only way forward. THE only way forward is Updates to the new version. Face the facts and be Constructive toward a better controller.
I've waited a while before adding my voice to the complaints just in case things got sorted - but they haven't.. I have been a Sonos user for a number of years now and always admired the fact that their App was good and intuitive to use. So why change it, one wonders? The new version is clumsy and unclear, its room control features are awkward and indirect, and its general command flow is a mess. I'm accustomed to other companies screwing around with software front ends for no good reason (you know who you are Apple and Microsoft) but Sonos has always been above such foolishness. Please return the front end to its old format which was vastly superior.
I agree - the Update is terrible. Navigation is cumbersome and shockingly poor. It’s hard to believe any qualified UX resources were used to develop this mess. I have stopped using Sonos because it’s so frustrating. Come to your senses and revert to an operable UI
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.