The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

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B
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Do you not see the playlists now when expanding the category ‘Sonos Favorites” on the main page?

Exactly my problem since Sonos released this shameful new app.

Ah okay, I don’t have that many Sonos generated playlists myself, as I create/store them either in the music service, or use .m3u playlists on my NAS and so have just a few only that cross the boundaries of those services. I found those in my Sonos favourites ‘pinned category’. I guess youve tried changing the controllers ‘associated product’? If so and still no joy, then maybe ensure it’s reported to Sonos Support, as the playlists should (hopefully) be safe and still stored on your products. 

Yes, my >80 playlists are safe, for in the Windows Desktop Controller (the only piece of Sonos software that's working at the moment, me thinks) they still show up and can be used.

R
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

Do you not see the playlists now when expanding the category ‘Sonos Favorites” on the main page?

Exactly my problem since Sonos released this shameful new app.

No I do not. Luckily I have the old version on my iPad and I can access them there. What has happened to them with the update??   

B
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

No I do not. Luckily I have the old version on my iPad and I can access them there. What has happened to them with the update??   

It's a disfunctional update, that's what it is. It's a disgrace Sonos published this beheaded piece of software.

W
Userlevel 2

“We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience ..”

 

that is an absolute JOKE when you see how many of us have wasted time to figure out that it was not possible anymore to play local music until a fix is made in a month time !! what  SHAME. What is this manner to release buggy app hoping customers will debug it for you ??? I can even not image the concept … who’s the sick brain behind this brilliant idea ?

K
Userlevel 2

This is professional malpractice. Essential, existing functionality not there and “coming soon” as in “sometime in the next 7 weeks”? After 40+ years using products with embedded firmware, this is the worst case of destruction of reputation and user trust I’ve ever seen. After 40+ years developing and managing the development of embedded firmware, this is...well, professional malpractice.

After looking at the Play Store and web page blurbs for the new app, the root cause of this problem is pretty obvious: The Sonos App product owners are suffering from main character syndrome--believing the app is the star of the show.

No. Just no. The app allows the customer to queue music to play on the rather pricey speakers the customer purchased. That’s it. Sonos will make zero sales based on the sexiness of the app. They will, however, lose sales and forfeit hard earned customer goodwill by recklessly throwing out an existing interface used by hundreds of thousands of customers, replacing it with a disorganized hodgepodge of don’t-care functionality, releasing before basic, existing, essential functionality is present and, the worst, pushing this as a regular maintenance update.

I’ve been fighting another issue with my Sonos system in my RV for about a year that I finally resolved. After I resolved the problem the RV system and the home system worked flawlessly. In my euphoria I replaced my entire home G1 system with G2 and added a Beam and mini sub to the Moves I already had in the RV. A couple of months passed. My wife’s birthday occurred. At her party I go to play music and, gee, here’s a new app that will not even allow me to select tracks from my local file server. Music I’ve been able to play from my local file server, reliably, seamlessly, since my first Sonos purchase in 2009.

Here’s one half of the solution to this problem, now and in the future. Any release must reliably, cleanly, and clearly support the following functionality:

  1. Select the speakers to play
  2. Find music to play, locally or online
  3. Create a queue or add music to queue
  4. Support searching, adding, deleting and reordering of items in the queue as the music plays

That’s it. That’s what the bulk of Sonos customers use most of the time. If the app can also search one billion streaming sources while controlling my toaster, great. But it’s gotta get my music to the speakers.

The second half of the solution is to fully comprehend the place of the app in the lives of Sonos users: it’s a tool to select music to be played. I didn’t buy the system for the app. I didn’t even buy the system for the speakers. I bought the ability to add music to other activities in my life. I paid extra for sound quality, gorgeous industrial design, and a reliable, seamless experience. I had that. Now I don’t. 

Actually I do. I sideloaded the old app. Which works, but now nags me incessantly to upgrade to the exciting new app. Guys, roll it back. Reflect on core values of your business and how customers actually use this product family. Add a standing quarterly goal for all managers to “maintain and enhance customer trust and confidence in Sonos products”.

Sonos’ IP moat is the quality, performance, and reliability of the system along with the decade and a half of user trust it has earned.

M
Userlevel 3
Badge

@Keith and the Sonos Team: [...] 

 

People at Sonos: things go wrong, that's ok. Now is the time to show your ability to deal with a crisis. Currently this insistence on "a few weeks" is just a joke. I invested many hundreds of Euros in your devices, and you make them unusable for me, then tell me to wait a couple of weeks. Imagine I do this to your car....not fun, right? Please, act, make the old app available for those who want it until the new app is truly release ready. 

 

Synonym - you nailed it! 🔨

phillydog
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

This is professional malpractice. Essential, existing functionality not there and “coming soon” as in “sometime in the next 7 weeks”? After 40+ years using products with embedded firmware, this is the worst case of destruction of reputation and user trust I’ve ever seen. After 40+ years developing and managing the development of embedded firmware, this is...well, professional malpractice.

After looking at the Play Store and web page blurbs for the new app, the root cause of this problem is pretty obvious: The Sonos App product owners are suffering from main character syndrome--believing the app is the star of the show.

No. Just no. The app allows the customer to queue music to play on the rather pricey speakers the customer purchased. That’s it. Sonos will make zero sales based on the sexiness of the app. They will, however, lose sales and forfeit hard earned customer goodwill by recklessly throwing out an existing interface used by hundreds of thousands of customers, replacing it with a disorganized hodgepodge of don’t-care functionality, releasing before basic, existing, essential functionality is present and, the worst, pushing this as a regular maintenance update.

I’ve been fighting another issue with my Sonos system in my RV for about a year that I finally resolved. After I resolved the problem the RV system and the home system worked flawlessly. In my euphoria I replaced my entire home G1 system with G2 and added a Beam and mini sub to the Moves I already had in the RV. A couple of months passed. My wife’s birthday occurred. At her party I go to play music and, gee, here’s a new app that will not even allow me to select tracks from my local file server. Music I’ve been able to play from my local file server, reliably, seamlessly, since my first Sonos purchase in 2009.

Here’s one half of the solution to this problem, now and in the future. Any release must reliably, cleanly, and clearly support the following functionality:

  1. Select the speakers to play
  2. Find music to play, locally or online
  3. Create a queue or add music to queue
  4. Support searching, adding, deleting and reordering of items in the queue as the music plays

That’s it. That’s what the bulk of Sonos customers use most of the time. If the app can also search one billion streaming sources while controlling my toaster, great. But it’s gotta get my music to the speakers.

The second half of the solution is to fully comprehend the place of the app in the lives of Sonos users: it’s a tool to select music to be played. I didn’t buy the system for the app. I didn’t even buy the system for the speakers. I bought the ability to add music to other activities in my life. I paid extra for sound quality, gorgeous industrial design, and a reliable, seamless experience. I had that. Now I don’t. 

Actually I do. I sideloaded the old app. Which works, but now nags me incessantly to upgrade to the exciting new app. Guys, roll it back. Reflect on core values of your business and how customers actually use this product family. Add a standing quarterly goal for all managers to “maintain and enhance customer trust and confidence in Sonos products”.

Sonos’ IP moat is the quality, performance, and reliability of the system along with the decade and a half of user trust it has earned.

KS yep you’ve said it all there!! It is malpractice of the greatest magnitude!! 😣

M
Userlevel 3
Badge

 

Here’s one half of the solution to this problem, now and in the future. Any release must reliably, cleanly, and clearly support the following functionality:

  1. Select the speakers to play
  2. Find music to play, locally or online
  3. Create a queue or add music to queue
  4. Support searching, adding, deleting and reordering of items in the queue as the music plays

That’s it. That’s what the bulk of Sonos customers use most of the time. If the app can also search one billion streaming sources while controlling my toaster, great. But it’s gotta get my music to the speakers.

 

 

KineticSync  - you nailed it! 🔨

 

H
Badge

We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos app… BLA BLA BLA BS BS BS 🤬🤬🤬

 

The new $ono$ App is crap! The whole system is longer usable. Can’t connect to some, can’t group, can’t even troubleshoot . F U Sonos! We hate you now! Will be selling the speakers on Kijiji, pass the headache to someone else.

 

M
Userlevel 3
Badge

Loudspeakers (even “wireless”/ multiroom) should provide us joy by playing music. Not causing customers headaches and costing lifetime.

 

As experienced Program Manager & Software Engineer myself, I’ve seen a lot of truly horrifying software releases during the last decades. I mean really, really bad implementations like Windows Vista, Volkswagen Golf 8 Infotainment, introduction of 1&1 5G Mobile network in Germany etc., to name just a few …

 

But what you did, Sonos, is unequaled indeed. Making otherwise neat hardware - in our case assets under management in value of thousands and thousands of EUR - worthless with a single release of your not even proof of concept and far away from pre-alpha state pile of crap app, respectively forcing us to deal with it.

What I have to reproach myself for is having recommended you to family & friends back in the days we trusted you.

You leave us no other choice but to dump - I have to repeat - otherwise neat hardware in value of thousands and thousands of EUR in front of our HiFi dealer and ask for disposal.

Will replace with sth like BluOS/ Bluesound, Heos/ Denon, B&W ...

A
Badge

Here's the corrected text in English:

I am very angry because Sonos has updated their app and nothing works as it did before, especially a function I used every day and for which I bought one of their products!

Can you add another function I use every day that was lost in the last update to your pipeline for next week: auto-play on selected speakers when line-in audio is detected. Before, I just needed to put a record on my turntable, and the line-in source was automatically selected on the speaker I chose in the Sonos port option. 

I bought the Sonos port (500€!) just for this reason, so please, reactivate the product's functions like before or refund all your clients!

I await a response from you. If not, you will receive a letter from my lawyer.

A
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos app. It was rebuilt from the ground up to ensure it could support future innovation in the years to come. For its initial rollout, we focused on how we could answer some of the most common requests from our customers, including increased reliability, performance, and faster access to music.


Many of you have shared valuable feedback on both the improvements that have made your experience better, as well as the areas where we fell short. We are listening to all of your comments and working to address them as quickly as possible. Over the coming weeks, we will reintroduce the below features, while fixing bugs and performance issues. Thank you for your engagement and we look forward to building upon this first step to create a listening experience that meets everyone’s needs.
 

 

Available now

To access these changes, check for updates in the iOS / Android app store to download the latest version of the Sonos app. Make sure your Sonos products are also up to date.

  • Adding and editing alarms
  • VoiceOver on iOS now properly interacts with individual elements of the Sonos app's home screen.


 

Coming soon

  • Additional improvements to screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
  • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
  • Sleep timer: mid-June
  • Snooze alarms: mid-June
  • Local music library search and playback: mid-June
  • Update WiFi settings: mid-June

 

Known issues and workarounds

 

“Fix It” option does not successfully complete new product setup

  • Workarounds:
    • Sign out of the Sonos app, sign back in, and try again.
    • Force quit the Sonos app and try again.

 

“Sonos needs local network access for setup” looping on the Sonos app for iOS

  • Workaround: Use another mobile device to set up Sonos products.

 

“No products found” error on systems with a Sonos Boost wired to the router

 

Unable to play local library content from Folders view

 

"Sign in as the System Owner" error while updating products during setup

  • Workaround: No workaround currently available.

Oh the arrogance of Sonos, the stubbornness of Sonos is jaw dropping. Your customers are literally begging you rollback this new horrible app until it's fixed,  but you gave us the middle finger 🖕. We are begging you to allow us to use the device we bought with our own money, i have 5 different Sonos speakers in my house.  But guess what; Sonos is not the only smart wireless speaker in the market. I am getting myself a Bang & Olufsen, I'm fed up 😡

 

C
Userlevel 2
Badge

I guess we the users can take heart that this disaster made The Washington Post. The article was not kind. Perhaps that will speed “improvements” in the app. You know Microsoft did the same thing with the release of Windows 2000. Complete disaster. The company caught complete hell from its customers who were bamzooled into buying the product. But they controlled, and still control the majority of the market. Does SONOS have that luxury? How did this go so wrong? Going for speed, forgetting quality? Deadlines over devices? Forgetting the people who use the product now for a new and improved future...what?

After wasting more hours of time trying to fix the mess Sonos made with this malware and reading a number of tech and national publications on this debacle, I’ve come to this conclusion -
 
Follow the money. Sonos prematurely pushed out a terrible rewrite of the app that controls all of their whole-home wireless audio systems. Why? Because Spence promised new gear that needed new software to support promises made for quarterly earnings.
 
So Sonos rolls out a half-baked, awful app, but guess what? Now it's web-based so Sonos can milk another user data revenue stream (their own radio streaming service was not well received) This new approach opens up tons of user data security issues but gives Sonos tons of user data it can sell off - helping out its mostly hardware-driven revenue model.
 
Damn the loyal customers who used to be the best sales force Sonos could ever wish for! Damn the horrible inconveniences and time wasted loyal users have to endure. Damn the user security consequences. And damn the damage to the Brand!
As long as the C-suite makes its quarterly bonuses, that's all that matters.
 
It's supposed to be a wireless home audio system with speakers and amps. Now it's data mining and garbage software company run by the former executive of Blackberry (oh and we know where that ended up).
 
That’s why there’s no apology from the executives - this was all planned some time ago and they have their mega millions to sit on while we struggle to play audio in our homes and business as promised over and over again by this now terrible company!  

 

Well said. And it’s so true on top of that.

I’m scouting for alternatives now. Good thing I “only” wasted few hundreds on the streamer. Not the speakers and stuff.

G
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

We set out to create a more personalized and effortless listening experience with the updated Sonos...

Available now

 

Coming soon

 

considering that Sonos will never make the pre-80 S2 accessible again (without specifying a credible reason),and considering the long time for reintruducing many function, ant that other will never restored, the only function I need to be able to reuse (like when I purchased them) all the components of my system is the possibility of returning them all to the old S1 app. In the post there is no indication of the restoration of this function (as reported in the help pages). Will it ever be restored? and when? I apologize if the question is too difficult.

 

from help page:      Downgrade a Sonos product to S1

Some Sonos products must be downgraded to S1 before they can be added to an S1 system. The Sonos S1 Controller app will let you know if the product you're setting up needs to be downgraded before it can be added to your S1 system. This article will guide you through the software downgrade process.

If you aren't sure if your Sonos product can be downgraded to S1, check our compatibility article to see if it's listed under “Works with all Sonos apps.”

Sonos app version 80.0
The ability to downgrade a Sonos product to S1 is temporarily unavailable, but will return in a future update.

 

A
Userlevel 1

What about the speaker distance function???!!!!! If that feature is not returned, I will have to ditch Sonos and get another system. We change distance depending on where we are sitting and without being able to do that, the sound in areas of the room are not true surround sound.

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Well, I guess this is confirmation that the Sonos strategy is to forge ahead and hope this all blows over.  Headphones being released in less than 2 days time.

Not that I could really see the CEO coming out with a mea culpa for the second time in 4 years, tbh.  He probably wants to keep his job.  I used to be a blackberry user btw - I think I'll now be saying the same thing about Sonos.

As an aside, can someone explain the compelling case for Sonos headphones?  I get that it's a big market, but it's super competitive, and (particularly with local library functionality missing or lacking), why would I buy Sonos headphones that are tied to an app, to listen to streaming services, when I can continue to use my excellent headphones from the already full functional streaming service apps?
 

 

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

considering that Sonos will never make the pre-80 S2 accessible again (without specifying a credible reason),and considering the long time for reintruducing many function, ant that other will never restored, the only function I need to be able to reuse (like when I purchased them) all the components of my system is the possibility of returning them all to the old S1 app. In the post there is no indication of the restoration of this function (as reported in the help pages). Will it ever be restored? and when? I apologize if the question is too difficult.

Sonos app version 80.0
The ability to downgrade a Sonos product to S1 is temporarily unavailable, but will return in a future update.

 

As of the current software, it is still possible to sideload the S2 app on android, and use that to downgrade devices from S2 to S1.

Bumper


 

 

 

“Our most requested product’”

 

Its definitely not headphones as title now belongs to a WORKING APP 🤣🤣🤣

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +2


“Our most requested product’”

 

Its definitely not headphones as title now belongs to a WORKING APP 🤣🤣🤣

 

Heh, so true.

P

WTH is this “initial rollout” BS? Take some damn responsibility for your business decisions. You released a product that was not feature ready. Maybe because you had to release SOMETHING the day of the Q2 fiscal report?

Its this basic lack of responsibility that makes your formerly loyal user base not trust you anymore. If it will take you until mid-June to release the app with all of the features that weren’t ready in May then MAYBE you shouldn’t have released in May. You SHOULD have waited until the app was ready in mid-June. None of the users would have cared if they had to wait 2 or 3 more months to get you’re new app. But you can’t take responsibility and you have to tell us how great your “not read for prime time” app is. What a total load of BS.

P

I have lost all access to my library.

I have tried all the suggestions on the website and through general work arounds people have suggested. My music is unreachable. Is it true this will be the case until June.

W
Userlevel 2

The good thing about all this incredible mess is that I was wondering if I would go for Apple speakers (being an Apple 🍎 big fan) or if I would stick to the brilliant SONOS system for my new home 🏡…

Thanks guys you’ve solved for sure the dilemma I had !! You can congratulate yourself.

G
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

considering that Sonos will never make the pre-80 S2 accessible again (without specifying a credible reason),and considering the long time for reintruducing many function, ant that other will never restored, the only function I need to be able to reuse (like when I purchased them) all the components of my system is the possibility of returning them all to the old S1 app. In the post there is no indication of the restoration of this function (as reported in the help pages). Will it ever be restored? and when? I apologize if the question is too difficult.

Sonos app version 80.0
The ability to downgrade a Sonos product to S1 is temporarily unavailable, but will return in a future update.

 

As of the current software, it is still possible to sideload the S2 app on android, and use that to downgrade devices from S2 to S1.

Thanks but No more, on 16.1 many function are now disabled and request an app update for downgrade I had to reset speaker, and after reset i can not proceed because I can not add it to the old and new System, even with the new app

every day worse, I ask for when and if will be possible to downgrade to S1, why at Sonos nobody knows how to manage theyr system, whether it's because of solar storms? ceo where are you?

A
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

As I’ve said previously in other threads, I’ve disabled automatic Sonos device firmware updates to stop them blocking me from using the 16.x app on a spare Android phone that I use as a DAP while travelling. 
I’m aware that many Sonos users don’t see the value in taking on a Roon subscription but I’ve had one for years and it’s a great platform even taking into account the cost. Roon can stream natively direct to most Sonos devices as well as via Airplay. This means that I can still use my fully indexed Roon library and stream to my Sonos devices from the Roon client. I’m quite happy to freeze my Sonos devices on their current firmware and use this for now. My iOS devices are, unfortunately on version 80 and are of limited use controlling the Sonos kit that I own. Thanks Sonos, you are indeed a bunch of despicable ****wits. 
 

 

M
Badge

First of all I want to say thank you to all of you writing comments in the community. 

Around one week ago I was tempted updating the sonos app to the latest version… Luckily I first checked in the community for any already available feedback and… wow… I have been impressed by the amount of bad comments. 

For other reasons and as a long time sonos customer (first devices bought almost 10 years ago) I disabled automatic app updates on my iOS devices: second luck!

Of course I will keep using the v16.1 app as long as possible. Maybe developers forgot that on iOS there is no way to roll back to any app that is not available anymore in the app store (no idea if there are any hacks like on Android). Now I am living in fear every time I am manually updating all but the sonos app.

I can hardly believe that after the “bricking devices” issue and the consequent mess that resulted in S1 and S2 apps 4 years ago something similar could happen again…

Please solve this ASAP. Thank you

(2x Play:1, 2x One, One SL, Port, Roam, Era 300)

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