I have a Sonos system which generally works well. Recent bad weather has resulted in several drops of mains power , sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for a few hours. The result is always the same.
I have some radio sources permanently attached to each speaker - so for example the Sonos ONE in the ‘Dining Room’ has my favourite radio station permanently connected; the speaker is simply turned on and off via the top button on the speaker.
That’s not what’s actually happening here. You can’t permanently attach a source to a speaker. What happens is that the play button plays whatever was paused/stopped last. So if you use the Sonos app to start playing a station, and never switch to something else, it will remain on that station. This isn’t a setup or configuration, it’s just normal operations.
I have several speakers in different rooms similarly setup in the same way.
After a power outage the knowledge of which radio station connects to which speaker is lost and has to be setup again.
While this is ok for me, being relatively familiar with the Sonos app I have to say that my wife - aged 80 - and with little technical skill in the system would, if left alone , be frankly unable to sort it out, rendering the system useless.
Surely this product cannot be aimed purely at tech savvy youngsters.
While I wouldn’t limit Sonos to youngsters, it is aimed at people who have some rather basic skills in operating smart phone apps. While I appreciate that your wife may not fit this category, if using the app doesn’t work for her, perhaps a different solution or system is the way to go. Have you considered voice control?
I completely get your point though. Although my mother would be able to use the Sonos app, I have not pushed her towards Sonos, as she is pretty much set with Amazon echo sound quality and voice control.
Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to create a SAVE and RESTORE feature . Surely when the product is running normally one could SAVE the configuration but after a power outage a simple RESTORE from the app would be adequate to bring it back to that status.
I would word it differently maybe. Perhaps allow to setup a default source after a lose in power, or a set period of time, or when the hard button is pressed and nothing currently paused or in the queue. Although I can use the app fine, I would fine that feature useful too, The one issue I see with this is the what you want to set may get complicated if we are talking a radio station, a playlist, or something else, and how that is called for different streaming services.
I realise I am probably over simplifying a more difficult problem but when I depart this Earth my wife will be left with several thousands pounds (or dollars) worth of useless junk and that cannot be an acceptable position.
Roy
To be fair, Sonos has never market itself as being useful for anyone who doesn’t feel up to using the smartphone app. Saying that’s it’s not acceptable for Sonos to be what it has always been doesn’t really make sense.
Thank you Melvimbe, I appreciate your time and the completeness of your response.
just to be fair to my wife, she is pretty good with her Mac, IPad and IPhone plus Watch but she uses what she needs and as far as the Sonos goes she simply expects that when she presses the button on the top it continues to play her favourite radio station.
nonetheless there are clearly more complications than I had imagined , but I kind of guessed that.
You are of course correct in pointing out that I was unfair on Sonos if my wife were unable to operate the it product but we both come from an age when we simply turned the device - E.g. radio, on and it played -even after a power outage and the non Sonos radios around the house still do that.
I guess I was hoping for more resilience in the design to events such as power failures . The likelihood of me replacing it with an alternative product is remote but I do appreciate your guidance and suggestions.
Thank you
Roy
It might make things easier on her if you added the ones she wants to use to My Sonos so she could select a Room, switch to My Sonos and then simply select the source from the list there. That is what I have done for my 96 year old mother.
Sonos used to market to folks that liked the CR-100 and Desktop controller programs - long before the Apps became popular.
Thank you Stanley-4. I quickly realised that I am also out of my depth on this stuff but I am using the S2 app on my IPad Pro and cannot find reference to “My Sonos” . How do I use it?
No clue on Apple but on Android it is the Star icon on the far left of the icons across the bottom of the screen.
You use it by adding things to My Sonos by selecting them (press and hold) from the Music or Search menus.
Once on My Sonos you just pick the Room from the Rooms menu then the item you want to play from My Sonos.
Thank you Stanley-4. It is the same on IOS. I had ignored the star icon but when you tap it the screen shows ‘My Sonos’.
I look forward to the next Power outage to test it!
Roy
You might also find it useful to know that you can re-order the sections in My Sonos by tapping “Edit” at top right of screen
Another idea, although I haven’t tested it, would be to set an alarm on each speaker for which you want to have a default, to play for 5 minutes of the desired station at zero volume at 4am every morning (say). I am not sure if this would leave you at zero volume every morning.
Not a perfect solution, but maybe a useful backstop?
Edit: I am ALMOST sure that alarms survive power outages!
Thanks John - I have set it up and we will see what happens.
John - re your edit _ I think you are correct .
