Can you tell us a bit more about your set up? Which devices, what does your network look like, that kind of thing.

Hi,

thanks for your reply… I have 9 speakers which include the following:

2x Sonos beam

4 x Sonos one

1 x Sonos Three

2 x Sonos 1

due to layout of the house, unfortunately all are on WiFi as I cannot hardwire them. Just on my standard BT router. I could go and change the channel of the router or create fixed IP addresses for them, but wondering whether a Sonos boost would help by taking all of the Sonos traffic, and if that is the reason my app keeps losing the system and won’t connect at all to it?

jjst don’t understand why when I open the app it doesn’t connect to the system and doesn’t even acknowledge there is a Sonos system at all.

I’ve also been experiencing this since the 12.2.3 iOS app update this week. My iOS app has become almost useless, however the desktop app sees all of my devices perfectly. It has to be the recent iOS app update as the desktop app sees the devices and I can also make SOAP calls to the devices ok and furthermore they ping and answer fine. Just the recent app upgrade is what seems to align with the functionality loss. 

Updates are blamed on here for everything, and it hardly ever is the update.  On the rare occasions there has been a bug, there are hundreds of posts in no time.  So, @dutchie027 , your problem is almost certainly something local.

To answer @andrew_wilson1981 , (and @dutchie027  if it applies to you), please would you move a speaker close enough to the router to be able to connect it temporarily by Ethernet?  Wait a few minutes for the system to reconfigure and see if it is any better.  My reason for suggesting this is that with some routers, it can cause a problem on Sonos if the controller device connects to the router’s 5GHz band.  With a wired device, this issue is bypassed.

Either way, the experiment will tell us something.

If the advise from John B does not resolve the issue, and if you are on iOS devices, try this:

Switch off wifi assist https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205296

Also, switching off private address may help https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211227

As @ClausN’s advice is very quick to implement, you may like to try that first.

I get that apps get blamed but if you look at the troubleshooting I’ve done that points solely to the app. The desktop controller works as does SOAP calls. I’m a computer engineer and I’m telling you it’s not network related. Also I can pinpoint it to exactly the time the app updated and it’s not replicable on the desktop nor an Android device. Only iOS (both iPad and iPhone) devices. Both running the latest versions. 

@ClausN can you elaborate more on the private networking address aspect? The idea behind private addressing is a different MAC per WiFi network. If you’re always using the Sonos system on the same WiFi, private networking won’t matter one bit, will it? 
 

For example with Private networking if you use your phone on 7 networks and constantly go to Google you’ll be seen as 7 different devices, but if you’re always using WiFi from the same SSID, private networking doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t randomize the MAC over time on the same network only on different networks. On the same network would really mess with DHCP leases. 

For reference here is Private Addressing. It states across different Wi-Fi networks, not on the same one. You don’t get a new MAC every time you leave and rejoin the same network. 
 

Further Wi-Fi assist dumps you off of Wi-Fi altogether which then renders the controller inaccessible as you are no longer on the same network so it’s not that either because my desktop controller can see all 9 devices fine where as my iOS apps only see two or three at any given time. 

Is your iOS device up to date?

Are there updates available for your router (log into your routers admin page).

Note: Just because you have Automatic Updates turned on doesn’t mean they have been installed.

Yup. iOS 14.3. Also, it’s not going to be the router. If the PC which is on the same /24 can see all devices then routing is fine. However to put your mind at rest, yes the firmware is up to date. 

Whatever the intention and behavior is for wifi assist and private network, the only way to know if switching off any of them helps is to try it. No guarantee to resolve the issue but I’ve seen other users doing so successfully.

Potentially there can be several causes for the app losing connection, one of them being wifi interference 

@dutchie027 

i suggest you submit a diagnostic and post the reference ID here. Sonos Tech Support can evaluate and get back to you.

Both devices on the same WiFi network. One controller has 7 devices, the other two. One just had an iOS update and that’s the exact date and time when it started showing less devices. I can systematically say that because I use it every day multiple times a day and as a network and systems engineer I know how to reverse engineer and troubleshoot problems. 

819012150 Is the diag ID. Also FWIW I’ve uninstalled the app and reinstalled it. Rebooted the phone. Rebooted Sonos devices and done all of the suggestions above, including checking the firmware on my UDM and APs and none of the above networking suggestions do anything. 

That includes having a Sonos device wired to your router?

Yep. And now one iOS app shows one thing and another shows something else. That to me lead me to think it’s the way SonosNET is communicating.

The query about whether wired was just as a bit of troubleshooting info. It is unlikely to have anything to do with how SonosNet is working. It is far more likely that this is a communication glitch between router and phone app.

What channels are the router and SonosNet using?

This is so clearly a local network issue not a generic bug. Where are the hundreds of other complaints?

Ah you referred to access points. Do tell us more.

The other complaints are on the Google Play store if you go look. Lots of them since the last app update….Those are fairly immediate whereas iOS reviews take 3-5 days to appear. 

OK you believe it's a bug. We'll just have to wait for Sonos to fix it.

I am lucky in that none of the iOS or Android controllers in our household is affected.

@dutchie027

FYI, @John B mentioned that you mentioned “access points”?  As you seem to be a stickler for the mention of documented complaints...problems with access points are highly documented in this forum and by Sonos official support documents. However, Let’s see what the diagnostic uncovers.

@AjTrek1 - here’s the thing. Per my image above where you see the iPad and the desktop controller side-by-side, if it was networking in my house - they would mimic each other other if it were access points or Wi-Fi. They’re on the same network hitting the same endpoints and being routed through the same router that serves the entire /24 at my house, yet they’re showing different results. The only network I don’t have sniffing capabilities in to/on is the one that Sonos creates with its devices.

Also, before it gets blamed further on the network, let me say I have direct business class fiber/fibre coming to my house which is symmetrical at 1GB, so it’s not networking either. Happy to give you a network trace in to all of the TCP packets flying around showing that it’s not the network.

Nobody is'blaming your network'.  I am merely saying that something is awry in the way your network and Sonos are interacting. I am quite prepared to concede you have the best, shiniest network in the whole world.  But IMO this is not a generic bug, because I have seen this sort of thing numerous times and it hasn't been a bug in an update yet.

I could of course be wrong. We shall have to agree to differ until the matter is resolved one way or another

@John B - I’m not saying my network is the shiniest, but I am going to ask why people want me to do certain steps - for example the Private Address - that has nothing to do with the app, nor will flipping that setting *ever* help. Secondly, the other suggestion provided, which turns of Wi-Fi Assist - that will simply flip the phone from a Wi-Fi network to a GSM network and if that was in fact the case, the app wouldn’t work at all because if it’s not on the same Wi-Fi network as the Sonos device(s).

I’m all for helping and suggesting things, but when something is clearly correlated to the same time that a new app release is dropped, questions have to be raised. Furthermore, as an app developer, people won’t always complain if they have a working solution (vis-a-vis the PC controller),and also, people will go elsewhere. They want to vent their frustrations publicly  via social media usually, not on a forum or where there is “general” help, that’s society.

Like I stated, I can control the device(s) via SOAP and via the PC Controller, but the iOS app(s) are spotty at best. If I sniff network packets, it’s clearly between the app and the SonosNET and the only thing that can talk “SonosNET” is the app(s) and the controller(s). The only thing that changed recently was the iOS app and not my PC controller, nor the SOAP calls.