The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

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I
Userlevel 1

No products found is the message everytime starting the app. I have to reopen it to work correctly. No changes I made to my router or network system. Every other thing that is connected to my network is working perfectly fine except your 'best ever upgrade' app. Please fix this very annoying issue

T
Userlevel 3
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One assumes this App had to be pushed out due to the release of ‘the most requested product ever’.

 

Although, oddly, I thought we all wanted a WiFi or Sonosnet pair of headphones that integrated with the existing architecture. 
 

Seems I was wrong there too.

The App is a disaster and the way it’s being championed and pushed is an embarrassment. It is going from bad to worse, competitors must shaking in their boots.

marook
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

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

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.

 

You have just released a version THAT FORCES A FIRMWAREUPDATE ON OUR UNITS!!!!!!!!!

What the H*** are you thinking?!?!?!?!?!?

Now we can’t even use the bloody App without forcing an update on the system units…

You have lost ALL respect, ALL! 

 

/Jakob P.
marook
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

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

  • Adding and editing alarms with the ability to Search for content

After FORCEupdating our firmware, Alarms can now be found TREE STEPS DOWN in System Administration?!?!?!?!?!

This is such a joke… are you smoking funny-tobacco or on fentanyl all day at work?!?

/Jakob P.
M
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

Here is the deal. The most important fix is the inability to see the system all together and/or losing the system for hours or days at a time. This makes the system completely useless....thousands of dollars just sitting there. We need a date of exactly when this will be fixed and we shouldt be talking in weeks, but days and hours. This is beyond nuts. 

A
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

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

  • Adding and editing alarms with the ability to Search for content

After FORCEupdating our firmware, Alarms can now be found TREE STEPS DOWN in System Administration?!?!?!?!?!

This is such a joke… are you smoking funny-tobacco or on fentanyl all day at work?!?


 

Some people on these forums are having real issues connecting to their systems and it’s hard not to have complete sympathy for them.

But posts like this make me question whether the ire felt is genuine.  Is your post the joke here — is it you on fentanyl?  Seriously your major beef, such that you have to use BLOCKCAPS and five exclamation marks, is that you have to tap 3-times (all of 2 seconds out of your life) to get to alarms?  If your time is so desperately precious to you, you could have banked the time it took to write your post and set & unset a hundred alarms in the years of your life going forward.  
 

Is it just me, or are other people losing patience with nonsense posts like this ? 

I
Userlevel 1
Badge

Any updates on what they are doing to fix the issues with hardware not connecting? Is the Boost (Sononet) no longer going to be supported?

I have two Boosts on my system. I put them on because the speakers were interfering with my Orbi mesh wifi system. Wondering the same thing now that I’m having intermittent connectivity issues since the app update. Are the Boosts and Sononet still a thing? Should I remove the Boosts? Is that the problem?

My Boost is still showing as working (by looking on my actual Router web page), so I think they still do work even though they don’t show in the app. Very confusing though I agree. I would like Sonos to confirm this.

Well my connectivity issues continue in the office with my paired Ones and mini-sub intermittently going silent as they lose connection to the new app. Some times it’s just momentary, and some times I have to reboot the speakers to get the new app to see them. I also tried removing the second Boost from the system (It’s in my office) and that made zero difference. 

 

BUT, I did find a novel solution. I’m just Airplaying my Apple music app on my computer to the Sonos speaker config in my office. I used to have some intermittent drop out doing that, too. But nothing compared to the problems I have now with the Sonos app. And now I don’t have to wait 75 minutes on hold to beg for help from a Sonos customer support person who no doubt will not be able to offer any. Get it together, Sonos!!

D
Userlevel 1

A number of years ago, after retiring from the music production business, I took the several thousand CDs I had in my collection and ripped them to a NAS (was a Seagate, now a WD) and looked for a simple to use system thru which I could play the FLAC files on my drive on speakers throughout my house, Someone recommended Sonos and, after doing the research and trying out the app, I saw that they gave me a next-to-perfect solution for my needs. I bought some speakers and a Port (which I used to connect a large traditional audio system and was very happy being able to listen to my music via the Sonos app on my Windows notebook and the two Amazon Fire tablets I assigned to the task.

All was going well until last week, when the newest version of the App was downloaded and installed on my Fire tablets. While I saw the changes in the basic UI, one thing that sent a shiver down my spine was NOT seeing my network music library. Several days later, it showed up, but all of the basic search features were missing. I could see all of my folders, presented alphabetically, but there was no was to get to a specific folder without manually scrolling down the list of 1000+ folders - fine if I’m listening to ABBA, but horrible if I’m looking for Tom Petty or Uriah Heep.

All I can say is “What the Hell?” - who releases an update without including some of the basic features that made people select Sonos in the first place? Reading what I find on the Sonos Community site, it looks as though they’re going to address this deficiency sometime next month, but I’m not the only one wondering who OK’d the release of this updated app. I could see if this was sent out to a Beta development or testing team, but to send it to regular users without basic capabilities included seems like it would only lead to what it has led to - pissing off loyal customers, while only hinting that this will be fixed at some point (no specifics). If I’d have ever produced a web site or application and then force fed it to users before it was fully-functional, I’d have been fired and I’d have no leg to stand on.

In the meantime, they’re trying to get us all excited about a new product ($450 headphones) that, while providing a nice solution for something we’ve been asking for for years, pales in comparison to simply giving us who’ve already invested thousands in a Sonos system the basic functionality we’ve enjoyed up until this point.

Are they going to force us to pay for a subscription or a specialized app to regain what we already had? If that’s the case, what a shitty way to force our hands.

Priorities being what they are, I guess we’ll see what happens, but I’m putting the purchase of a soundbar (and possibly a sub-woofer) on the backburners until this crap gets straightened out.

Best of luck to us all.

Mike G

V
Userlevel 1

Proper user-centered design would have involved testing the new apps with multiple users and understanding current practice. The new app shows that SONOS has ignored the needs and demands of current customers. Instead, they delivered poor-quality BANANA software (=software that potentially ripes in customers’ homes). This is very disappointing for a existing products. Thus, in line with other comments I pretty much would appreciate if the update is rolled back (and introduced as new BETA app) and customers can freely decide whether and when to switch to the latest version.

B
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

A number of years ago, after retiring from the music production business, I took the several thousand CDs I had in my collection and ripped them to a NAS (was a Seagate, now a WD) and looked for a simple to use system thru which I could play the FLAC files on my drive on speakers throughout my house, Someone recommended Sonos and, after doing the research and trying out the app, I saw that they gave me a next-to-perfect solution for my needs. I bought some speakers and a Port (which I used to connect a large traditional audio system and was very happy being able to listen to my music via the Sonos app on my Windows notebook and the two Amazon Fire tablets I assigned to the task.

All was going well until last week, when the newest version of the App was downloaded and installed on my Fire tablets. While I saw the changes in the basic UI, one thing that sent a shiver down my spine was NOT seeing my network music library. Several days later, it showed up, but all of the basic search features were missing. I could see all of my folders, presented alphabetically, but there was no was to get to a specific folder without manually scrolling down the list of 1000+ folders - fine if I’m listening to ABBA, but horrible if I’m looking for Tom Petty or Uriah Heep.

All I can say is “What the Hell?” - who releases an update without including some of the basic features that made people select Sonos in the first place? Reading what I find on the Sonos Community site, it looks as though they’re going to address this deficiency sometime next month, but I’m not the only one wondering who OK’d the release of this updated app. I could see if this was sent out to a Beta development or testing team, but to send it to regular users without basic capabilities included seems like it would only lead to what it has led to - pissing off loyal customers, while only hinting that this will be fixed at some point (no specifics). If I’d have ever produced a web site or application and then force fed it to users before it was fully-functional, I’d have been fired and I’d have no leg to stand on.

In the meantime, they’re trying to get us all excited about a new product ($450 headphones) that, while providing a nice solution for something we’ve been asking for for years, pales in comparison to simply giving us who’ve already invested thousands in a Sonos system the basic functionality we’ve enjoyed up until this point.

Are they going to force us to pay for a subscription or a specialized app to regain what we already had? If that’s the case, what a shitty way to force our hands.

Priorities being what they are, I guess we’ll see what happens, but I’m putting the purchase of a soundbar (and possibly a sub-woofer) on the backburners until this crap gets straightened out.

Best of luck to us all.

Mike G

I’ve got almost 40,000 songs in my local library so I know how you feel. I’m trying to wait patiently for them to recover from this self induced catastrophe as they have promised they would.  Two things helping are an old phone with the version 16 app and third party app called SonoPhone I loaded on my primary iPhone. SonoPhone is not as good as the old app, but it’s usable and much better than the new app.  You still have to scroll, but it scrolls better.
 

press250
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

All was going well until last week, when the newest version of the App was downloaded and installed on my Fire tablets. While I saw the changes in the basic UI, one thing that sent a shiver down my spine was NOT seeing my network music library. Several days later, it showed up, but all of the basic search features were missing. I could see all of my folders, presented alphabetically, but there was no was to get to a specific folder without manually scrolling down the list of 1000+ folders - fine if I’m listening to ABBA, but horrible if I’m looking for Tom Petty or Uriah Heep.

Great post, Mike, as a fellow primarily-local-library user I share your pain.

Re-installing the ‘old’ v16.1 on your Kindle Fire tablet(s) is straightforward. There are posts on these forums that outline the steps … let me know if you need help.

Question for you: do you see album art for your local library music in the new app on your Kindle Fire tablet? Reason I ask …

 

N
Userlevel 3
Badge

Some comments from the CEO. I’m still trying to understand how the app got released in the state its in, and these comments dont make me any wiser.

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence addresses the company’s divisive app redesign - The Verge

“I’ve been using it since Christmas. Everybody at Sonos has been testing it for months. It has delivered — we know from data and from feedback — that it is easier to navigate. But it’s a change for customers.”

“Things like the alarm issue was a bug, right? So we could more quickly than we have in the past address it. And we’re going to find other bugs as we go through this.”

“And “here’s when they’re coming.” Because we already had a plan for how to go through that.“

“more responsive, and just a better overall experience, and that is the thing for the 99 percent of customers that you’re never going to hear from as you go through it.”

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

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

  • Adding and editing alarms with the ability to Search for content

After FORCEupdating our firmware, Alarms can now be found TREE STEPS DOWN in System Administration?!?!?!?!?!

This is such a joke… are you smoking funny-tobacco or on fentanyl all day at work?!?


 

Some people on these forums are having real issues connecting to their systems and it’s hard not to have complete sympathy for them.

But posts like this make me question whether the ire felt is genuine.  Is your post the joke here — is it you on fentanyl?  Seriously your major beef, such that you have to use BLOCKCAPS and five exclamation marks, is that you have to tap 3-times (all of 2 seconds out of your life) to get to alarms?  If your time is so desperately precious to you, you could have banked the time it took to write your post and set & unset a hundred alarms in the years of your life going forward.  
 

Is it just me, or are other people losing patience with nonsense posts like this ? 

No Andrew, we’re losing patience with the fanboys and ultra-defenders of Sonos’ craven actions (not even the 1st time the totally biffed an update but this is so far the worst), who continue to diminish the anguish music/audio lovers by thousands have had endure by the once-again short sighted management team’s decisions at Sonos. 

Music is a very personal experience and there is NO, NO excuse for what Sonos did to loyal users who only seek to use their expensive whole-home audio systems as promised. 

Sonos LIED in their build-up to this crap-app and the app is just plain terrible period!   Fixing it may take a month or more + hours of wait time for off-shore support who says they can’t do anything about this debacle. 

These are real people/families/business/households who are angry and justifiably so!  So - Please Sonos Fanboys, stop defending the indefensible.  

Sonos Board, FIRE those who made this terrible decision ASAP. 

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Some comments from the CEO. I’m still trying to understand how the app got released in the state its in, and these comments dont make me any wiser.

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence addresses the company’s divisive app redesign - The Verge

“I’ve been using it since Christmas. Everybody at Sonos has been testing it for months. It has delivered — we know from data and from feedback — that it is easier to navigate. But it’s a change for customers.”

“Things like the alarm issue was a bug, right? So we could more quickly than we have in the past address it. And we’re going to find other bugs as we go through this.”

“And “here’s when they’re coming.” Because we already had a plan for how to go through that.“

“more responsive, and just a better overall experience, and that is the thing for the 99 percent of customers that you’re never going to hear from as you go through it.”

 

Not surprised.  He's not going to give a mea culpa for the second time in 4 years.  It's self preservation.

I wonder where this feedback that “it has delivered” is?

G
Userlevel 1

This update absolutely sucks. I can’t get any of my 5 Sonos products to play, despite having turned everything off, including the router, and restarting. The commenter above had it just right. The appliance company promises to fix your product remotely and when you come home nothing works. It’s absurd that people who have many $100s are forced to upgrade to an app that is disfunctional. 

L
Userlevel 3
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.

Last updated: May 21, 2024. See release notes.

  • VoiceOver on iOS now properly interacts with individual elements of the Sonos app's home screen - and now adds improved VoiceOver support for allowing for navigating and controlling the Now Playing Screen, System View, Output Selector, Queue, Volume Sliders, and Add Product
  • Improved TalkBack support for the Now Playing Screen, System View, and Add Product
  • Improved Local Music Library playback of folders
  • Adding and editing alarms with the ability to Search for content


 

Coming soon

  • Continued improvements to navigation for visually-impaired customers: mid-June
  • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
  • Sleep timer: mid-June
  • Local music library search and playback: mid-June
  • Update WiFi settings: mid-June
  • Snooze alarms: TBD



 

Known issues and workarounds


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

  • Workaround: No workaround currently available.

 

Our latest update resolves some of the most critical known issues, but know we have more to do. We hear your feedback and are working hard to deliver the experience you expect and deserve.

Why isn’t the issue regarding Alexa not working anymore, due to the date and time not being in the new app, not in the list?? This is a major issue that needs to be fixed and noted. Loads of people are spending hours trying to fix it themselves because we haven’t been told it’s an issue. But support knew it was ? Please add and provide a release date. 

P

Any updates on what they are doing to fix the issues with hardware not connecting? Is the Boost (Sononet) no longer going to be supported?

I have two Boosts on my system. I put them on because the speakers were interfering with my Orbi mesh wifi system. Wondering the same thing now that I’m having intermittent connectivity issues since the app update. Are the Boosts and Sononet still a thing? Should I remove the Boosts? Is that the problem?

My Boost is still showing as working (by looking on my actual Router web page), so I think they still do work even though they don’t show in the app. Very confusing though I agree. I would like Sonos to confirm this.

Well my connectivity issues continue in the office with my paired Ones and mini-sub intermittently going silent as they lose connection to the new app. Some times it’s just momentary, and some times I have to reboot the speakers to get the new app to see them. I also tried removing the second Boost from the system (It’s in my office) and that made zero difference. 

 

BUT, I did find a novel solution. I’m just Airplaying my Apple music app on my computer to the Sonos speaker config in my office. I used to have some intermittent drop out doing that, too. But nothing compared to the problems I have now with the Sonos app. And now I don’t have to wait 75 minutes on hold to beg for help from a Sonos customer support person who no doubt will not be able to offer any. Get it together, Sonos!!

So I have also tried this workaround. I can play my music on my iphone and one sonos speaker is picked up. On the sonos app I can then select the other two speakers to play music. Cluncky  and didn’t work first time but at least I can play music.

 

 

B
Userlevel 3
Badge

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.

 

This is my experience: “Access to the shared folder "|/Brians-iMac/Music" is denied - check the username and or password.”

I didn’t spend thousands of dollars on SONOS hardware to have them turned into bricks. There has been no meaningful help coming from SONOS on this, and it’s impossible to get through to tech support. Let us revert to a version that works, or buy back our equipment. 

L
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Why isn’t the issue regarding Alexa not working anymore, due to the date and time not being in the new app, not in the list?? This is a major issue that needs to be fixed and noted. Loads of people are spending hours trying to fix it themselves because we haven’t been told it’s an issue. But support knew it was and why ? Please add and provide a release date. 

M
Userlevel 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.

 

This is my experience: “Access to the shared folder "|/Brians-iMac/Music" is denied - check the username and or password.”

I didn’t spend thousands of dollars on SONOS hardware to have them turned into bricks. There has been no meaningful help coming from SONOS on this, and it’s impossible to get through to tech support. Let us revert to a version that works, or buy back our equipment. 

Who removes the feature to add to a playlist or edit a playlist?

 

I too have thousands of pounds worth of kit that I can’t now enjoy because of some BS upgrade. They need to fix this or buy back my kit. !!!!

M
Userlevel 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.

Last updated: May 21, 2024. See release notes.

  • VoiceOver on iOS now properly interacts with individual elements of the Sonos app's home screen - and now adds improved VoiceOver support for allowing for navigating and controlling the Now Playing Screen, System View, Output Selector, Queue, Volume Sliders, and Add Product
  • Improved TalkBack support for the Now Playing Screen, System View, and Add Product
  • Improved Local Music Library playback of folders
  • Adding and editing alarms with the ability to Search for content


 

Coming soon

  • Continued improvements to navigation for visually-impaired customers: mid-June
  • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
  • Sleep timer: mid-June
  • Local music library search and playback: mid-June
  • Update WiFi settings: mid-June
  • Snooze alarms: TBD



 

Known issues and workarounds


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

  • Workaround: No workaround currently available.

 

Our latest update resolves some of the most critical known issues, but know we have more to do. We hear your feedback and are working hard to deliver the experience you expect and deserve.

You created a load of garbage!

WHY did you think it was good to remove all the features of the old app???

If you’re making a new app, you MUST ensure you include all the features of the old one as an absolute minimum!!

Thousands of pounds worth of hardware that I can’t enjoy as I want. 

In short, your redesign is rubbish and needs to be fixed ASAP!!!!!

D
Userlevel 4
Badge

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

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.

 

You have just released a version THAT FORCES A FIRMWAREUPDATE ON OUR UNITS!!!!!!!!!

What the H*** are you thinking?!?!?!?!?!?

Now we can’t even use the bloody App without forcing an update on the system units…

You have lost ALL respect, ALL! 

 

 

Yup - I fully agree. SONOS is moving fully into share holder value and is simply riding the existing customer base. Some fall out is to be expected. Who ever is left will have to pay extra to make up for the churn of lost customers in this transition to a pay-per-use / pay-by-personal-data / pay-per-advertisement cloud service to continue to use your own SONOS boxes.

Just take a look at who is driving SONOS. Ex-SONY and ex-Broadcom employees. SONOS seems to be working on “expanding portfolio of software enabled hardware and services” - fully in line with making our audio boxes totally dependent on their cloud services. Technically, that requires many changes to the firmware and the app to make every thing got through their central servers.

Looking at what Broadcom did with the VMWare licensing, I have a good feeling what is ahead of us. e.g. recurring fees for using my already purchased speakers.

Well, I cut my boxes from the internet. I will not install any firmware updates. The consequence is, I can not use this new crappy app anymore and use my SONOS boxes only via Airplay. But at least I can still do that and SONOS can not take that away from me.

E
Userlevel 2

"Local music library search and playback: mid-June" is coming soon?! I’ve literally just pished my pants reading that. Your entire business was built on playing music from a hard drive and that's how I've been using Sonos speakers for the past 13 years. Now I have a house full of Sonos speakers collecting dust until midJune. Nice move.

Is the new Sonos vision to alienate the customer base and encourage them to find another audiophile ecosystem? If it is, you’re nailing it.

garfieldairlines

I am once again begging for assistance from Sonos devs regarding Subsonic API implementation :

Please fix what you have broken.

https://garfieldairlines.net
P
Userlevel 2

Another update yesterday and another facility removed. Where's My Music on the LAN? Now I can only stream music. That is not why I bought into the Sonos system. A nightmare 😫 

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