The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

Show first post

1583 replies

amblue02
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I find it very interesting that there appear to be some specific groups of issues with this app update. 

  • Those (like me) who have been lucky and experienced no issues at all with the app (other than temporarily finding it hard to connect one of my Symfonisk lamp surrounds)
  • Those whose wifi networks cannot find any speakers.
  • Those who have lost access to only certain speakers. 
  • Those who have lost access to all or some music services.
  • Those who cannot access their music library while others can

There are more groups than this of course. The point is that the issues caused by the roll-out are vastly inconsistent, but that it’s likely the issues each specific ‘group’ is facing will be down to them having the same type of network set-up, or device, or speaker combination as others in that group. As a result, it feels to me that there might not be as many issues with the app (user interface aside) as we’re anticipating. Fix one specific thing, and that ‘group’ will be fixed. Fix another, and that’s another group who can use their system again. 

The problem is, because people are posting only about general issues or complaints, they are not posting any details of their set-up/device/speakers, so other forum users are unable to see any patterns that might match their own problems. 

It’s unlikely to happen, but I wonder whether including details of wifi, device and speakers might reveal patterns? 

I’ll start:

  • Issues:  NO ISSUES (besides existing app omissions like queue management, etc)
  • Main device:  iOS, fully updated, with updated Sonos app.
  • Speakers:  7 x One SLs, Home theatre (Arc, 2 x Symfonisk lamp speaker surrounds, Sub gen2). All firmware updated.
  • Network:  Gigabit wifi, with three TP-Link Deco wifi mesh disks. No speakers connected by Ethernet.
  • Services:  Apple Music, Spotify, BBC Sounds.
  • Remote music Library:  None.
  • Location:  UK

So I wonder whether others without issues have anything similar to this? i.e. is there a pattern to who has issues and who doesn’t..?

One of the main issue is the lack of ability to access Music Library’s

 

jgatie

One of the main issue is the lack of ability to access Music Library’s

 

 

The fixes for local libraries on a PC/Mac/NAS are compiled here:

 

After that, only the PC/Mac app can be used to add the share, and it also has full queue usage. 

D
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Not easy anymore to switch from 1 speaker to another, ande certainly not if you switch from phone to IPad or other Smartphone. It is horrible!

It is getting worse by the day. Grouping, switching and volume has gone crazy and the new norm is Expecting the speakers to randomly turn off. Sometimes no access to radio, sometimes no voice capability for the roam or the Sonos ONE, the most expected daily occurrence is not trusting that the system will work… using the UE boom when all else SONOS fails. I tried rolling back and updating. It’s all been a disaster. This forum is intended too help but WHY is it the customers job to fix what they did not break? 

 

This is what I don’t understand with a lot of posts on here. The bolded parts above surely are not app related. Yet many posters in this and other threads report similar issues and are convinced all was fine before the app upgrade. It’s puzzling.

FWIW, as someone earlier up asked for feedback, my setup works fine (unforgivably missing features such as queue management not withstanding) - local library via Synology using SMB3, Alexa voice control, room selection, volume control etc. Line in to amp, TV sound to Beam and sub, One’s in stereo pair, Move etc. all humming away.

Y
Userlevel 3

I’ve found a new problem. I have an odd audio problem on my playbar since I upgraded the firmware last night. I’m using the SP/DIF input, and I can play audio from my TV but not my turntable. This is disastrous for me, as that’s most of my music. I suspect a codec may be missing. Reported to Support and need to follow up on Monday. I did 2 diag reports and he says there’s no signal seen when playing on the turntable, yet the red light is on on the fibre and nothing physically changed since playing ok last night.

This basically junks my ~50 year record collection unless it’s either fixed or I buy a whole new system 😕

Y
Userlevel 3

Not easy anymore to switch from 1 speaker to another, ande certainly not if you switch from phone to IPad or other Smartphone. It is horrible!

It is getting worse by the day. Grouping, switching and volume has gone crazy and the new norm is Expecting the speakers to randomly turn off. Sometimes no access to radio, sometimes no voice capability for the roam or the Sonos ONE, the most expected daily occurrence is not trusting that the system will work… using the UE boom when all else SONOS fails. I tried rolling back and updating. It’s all been a disaster. This forum is intended too help but WHY is it the customers job to fix what they did not break? 

 

This is what I don’t understand with a lot of posts on here. The bolded parts above surely are not app related. Yet many posters in this and other threads report similar issues and are convinced all was fine before the app upgrade. It’s puzzling.

 

With the app update came speaker firmware updates. People are focused on the app, but the entire ecosystem has been thrown away and rewritten from scratch. I think they’ve also stripped some codecs from the playbar 😕

Also, remember the app is the controller; that’s where I suspect the intelligence is (or not)

D
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Not easy anymore to switch from 1 speaker to another, ande certainly not if you switch from phone to IPad or other Smartphone. It is horrible!

It is getting worse by the day. Grouping, switching and volume has gone crazy and the new norm is Expecting the speakers to randomly turn off. Sometimes no access to radio, sometimes no voice capability for the roam or the Sonos ONE, the most expected daily occurrence is not trusting that the system will work… using the UE boom when all else SONOS fails. I tried rolling back and updating. It’s all been a disaster. This forum is intended too help but WHY is it the customers job to fix what they did not break? 

 

This is what I don’t understand with a lot of posts on here. The bolded parts above surely are not app related. Yet many posters in this and other threads report similar issues and are convinced all was fine before the app upgrade. It’s puzzling.

 

With the app update came speaker firmware updates. People are focused on the app, but the entire ecosystem has been thrown away and rewritten from scratch. I think they’ve also stripped some codecs from the playbar 😕

Also, remember the app is the controller; that’s where I suspect the intelligence is (or not)

 

Ye, that was my thoughts too. So, it may be likely we’ll see a number of firmware fixes required too over the coming months, as well as app fixes / restoration of missing functionality. I think it might be a bumpy few months for Sonos support.

J
Userlevel 3

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.

 

A
Userlevel 2
Badge
  • 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

This list remains so funny and embarrassing. Just basic functions, pretty much the things I used most in the old app. When are we getting any sort of acknowledgment of how bad this app rollout has been from the CEO or an official statement? How is this how this company works? It’s so embarrassing and pathetic.

rdjfields

I was on the phone for the past 1:40 m with your techs trying to add my music library to the new app and we received (913) error codes from both Music folder and selecting a folder on the computer.  The 3rd option NAS was similar equally unsuccessful.  What is both me and the tech missing?  It says in the message above, it states available now: 

  • Improved Local Music Library playback of folder

Very disappointed.

C
Badge

Not easy anymore to switch from 1 speaker to another, ande certainly not if you switch from phone to IPad or other Smartphone. It is horrible!

It is getting worse by the day. Grouping, switching and volume has gone crazy and the new norm is Expecting the speakers to randomly turn off. Sometimes no access to radio, sometimes no voice capability for the roam or the Sonos ONE, the most expected daily occurrence is not trusting that the system will work… using the UE boom when all else SONOS fails. I tried rolling back and updating. It’s all been a disaster. This forum is intended too help but WHY is it the customers job to fix what they did not break? 

 

This is what I don’t understand with a lot of posts on here. The bolded parts above surely are not app related. Yet many posters in this and other threads report similar issues and are convinced all was fine before the app upgrade. It’s puzzling.

 

With the app update came speaker firmware updates. People are focused on the app, but the entire ecosystem has been thrown away and rewritten from scratch. I think they’ve also stripped some codecs from the playbar 😕

Also, remember the app is the controller; that’s where I suspect the intelligence is (or not)

 

Ye, that was my thoughts too. So, it may be likely we’ll see a number of firmware fixes required too over the coming months, as well as app fixes / restoration of missing functionality. I think it might be a bumpy few months for Sonos support.

The erratic app and system behavior IS new since the updates, on my system anyway. I only came to this forum to see what other users were experiencing. And I am not a software or hardware developer but the hardware was fine until the software controller was updated, and now, the entire system is no longer reliable. And my understanding from reading this forum, is that this was done so that they could attach a new set of headphones hardware to the system that we had all been sold and hope to sell more hardware to us, the customers. The firmware updates are still software and I did not update my iPad control app for a week, using the S1 and it stopped functioning altogether three days ago. I came back here to see if any new information was going to be helpful, but not expecting this forum was going to help fix the problems because the problems was created by the SONOS company and needs to be fixed by the company. 

C

I can’t get the Alexa set up to complete and I’m using an iPhone / iPad / Mac…. Interested to see on here that people are having success using an iPhone but it just won’t work for me at all. I now have 2 Sonos One speakers and a Beam Gen 2 with no Alexa on them. Do I scrap these and go back to using Echo devices?

I had similar issues 3 months ago and got around this by copying the URL into Firefox and completing the set up there, but this now longer works. Its appalling that Sonos has been aware of this problem for so long and not only have they not fixed it, they have made it WORSE!  I have worked in IT for more than 30 years with a large Global company you will know if I named it, and if our code deployments were this buggy and useless, we’d be paying out in penalties and losing customers all over the place. Sonos need to prioritise the basics and stop mucking about with the pretty app interface. It’s no good if it looks nice but there’s nothing worth a damn under the surface and you’re pissing off all your customers because they can’t get the full benefit of the products they have paid hard earned money for. I’m really regretting moving to Sonos from Bose, and rather than my speakers being the source of pride and indication of sophistication and discerning taste they should be, they are a constant embarrassment that I would never in good conscience recommend to a friend.

C

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/05/17/sonos-new-app-update-problems/

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

So, there was an update to the app on May 21.  There were 10 items called out in the release notes, including “support for the all new Sonos Roam 2” (great for Sonos I guess, but useless to existing customers experiencing fatal system issues), and also “Added the ability to Search for content to use with an Alarm” (something so basic that it’s clear a true beta of the software was never performed).

The next update was 8 days later on May 29.  That included only two items that Sonos noted in the release notes: “Fixed issues encountered when adding a product that is running older software” and “Fixed an issue where VoiceOver on iOS could not toggle switches in settings.”.  Those two items remain the only apparent fixes released in the last 10 days.

Given the scale of issues reported here on this forum and elsewhere, and the reports of extremely long queues to get in touch with technical support, it seems to me that the pace of fixes/patches is extremely slow.  In a situation like this, I would expect to see either very frequent updates to the app, or in the event Sonos prefers to have releases a week or so apart (as has happened so far) then I would expect those to be chock full of fixes.  Failing that, at a minimum I would like to see a list of acknowledged problems, and a ranking or priority to each.  There are many issues that have not even been acknowledged, meaning that users are left to find forums like this on which to compare notes and complain/commiserate.

On May 22, CEO Patrick Spence said “What I wish we would’ve done is probably communicate the roadmap a little more clearly.”

Now is as good a time as any to start.

T
Userlevel 4
Badge
  • 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

This list remains so funny and embarrassing. Just basic functions, pretty much the things I used most in the old app. When are we getting any sort of acknowledgment of how bad this app rollout has been from the CEO or an official statement? How is this how this company works? It’s so embarrassing and pathetic.

I like to say, ‘CORE FEATURES’. 

I work in IT development for a large online retailer, and to have a new UX feature set released without consultation, is unheard of. 

If there aren’t sore backsides courtesy of the CEO’s boot, there should be.

M

How about making the search function work. I can’t find any music at all. The app is totally useless !!!!

Y
Userlevel 3
  • 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

This list remains so funny and embarrassing. Just basic functions, pretty much the things I used most in the old app. When are we getting any sort of acknowledgment of how bad this app rollout has been from the CEO or an official statement? How is this how this company works? It’s so embarrassing and pathetic.

I like to say, ‘CORE FEATURES’. 

I work in IT development for a large online retailer, and to have a new UX feature set released without consultation, is unheard of. 

If there aren’t sore backsides courtesy of the CEO’s boot, there should be.

Far from me to suggest Sonos’ policies, but whoever signed that code off has pretty much destroyed the company’s reputation - possibly irrevocably.

I repeat what I said earlier. If as a network engineer / consultant I’d applied a router update remotely which crashed every customer’s network and disabled core functionality, I’d have been straight out the door and been unemployable.

I’m not asking for that; I just want the update reverted and the working app back without delay. Continuing to fire fight, apply random patches, hacks and untested features will simply exacerbate the problems they’re facing. They’ve already said the new code is totally different to the old, so they can’t just import features they forgot about.

B
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

 

So I wonder whether others without issues have anything similar to this? i.e. is there a pattern to who has issues and who doesn’t..?

 

The pattern is simply how users use their system.  If they are trying to use any of the numerous missing or broken features, which are well known and acknowledged by SONOS in this very topic, then they will have problems.

You say you have no problems, yet you have no queue management.  If you cared about that feature, then you’d have a problem.  If you don’t have any music that you play on a NAS, then you don’t have that problem either.  You may be the poster-child for Sonos’s new direction and those of us who built a system based on those missing features deemed secondary may be getting “notice” that our party is over.

For some issues there are workarounds and for some, apparently no workaround (based on what SONOS has posted).  

There is also a SONOS post about issues caused by partially updated systems where the speaker firmware is not up to date across all devices, or the controller (app) is not up to date.  Some people are probably having issues due to this.  However, updating the controller app as suggested will break many features, but it’s also necessary for other features.  A conundrum.

Additionally, some have unnecessarily mangled their systems thinking they needed to do a reset when they saw all the brokenness of the new app when all they really needed to do was remain calm and find a working version of the app (desktop, rollback, or 3rd party). I could see how a reset could be a disaster as so many features for setting things up are not working yet either.

There are your patterns.

 

I acknowledged “no issues (OTHER THAN the queue management, etc)”. Throughout my post I was clearly referring to the functionality of people’s systems overall, not software options. My stating I wasn’t having issues was in relation to showing my set-up in case others said “I’m set up that way, but I have issues” OR “That’s like me, and I too have minimal issues” to present a pattern. It’s just as useful to developers to know where issues are not occurring as where they are. 

Your reply is quite terse in response to a post intended to try to help find a route for people to work together to determine what might be at the root of collective issues. Apologies if my method of listening to music via streaming makes me fall into being ‘a poster child’ for Sonos’ new direction. But unfortunately, like it or not, hard drive storage of music is not the future.

I also experienced problematic issues. 

Y
Userlevel 3

 

On May 22, CEO Patrick Spence said “What I wish we would’ve done is probably communicate the roadmap a little more clearly.”

 

I’ve just read that interview. The CEO is clearly tone deaf to customer complaints, and that report is an absolute insult! 😡

W
Userlevel 1

The new app is extremely disappointing. 

All that Sonos stood for; excellent integration of music services/library, intelligent playlist editing and many other features are simply gone. As well as multiple bugs and problems.

Please re-issue the old app. Fixing the new app will not work. 

In the meanwhile, I shall start returning my products to retailer, under the 5 year product guarantee. 

Best regards, Thomas (Sonos user since 2008 / 16 zones / 2 houses)

Rhonny
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

In the meanwhile, I shall start returning my products to retailer, under the 5 year product guarantee. 


On what basis? I think you’ll struggle to convince any retailer to take your products back. I don’t doubt you’ll try, but I don’t hold out much hope for your chances if it’s based solely on an app temporarily not functioning as it should.

R

And what about creating your own playlists in the Sonos app? Adding a number that you’re playing to an existing playlist etc. The ability to create and add songs to a playlist in the app is completely gone 

Rhonny
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Yes, but that will be back in the next week or so.

I
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

We don't know exactly what functionality will be back. In the old app, you could also add songs to your Deezer playlist for example (and I assume you could do the same for Spotify and other services). Unclear if that's on the roadmap.

Not holding my breath for that one.

 

S

Besides the ones on the release planning mentiond above as well missing features:

- Volume control in numbers (1-100). (Android/Windows/WebApp. IOS unknown.) > essential feature for regular use

- Loudness setting for speakers > quick & nice setting for quiet areas

thx

 

I
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

We don't know exactly what functionality will be back. In the old app, you could also add songs to your Deezer playlist for example (and I assume you could do the same for Spotify and other services). Unclear if that's on the roadmap.

Not holding my breath for that one.

 

Now that I look at the roadmap again, I realise that it doesn't actually say anything about playlists. It only mentions the queue for early June... 

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings