The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

Replaced my Asus router with a UniFi. No change in Sonos behaviour. My system was, for all intents and purposes, non-functioning. Couldn’t find the speakers, couldn’t load Deezer, couldn’t play songs, couldn’t change volume, etc.

I then decided to start factory resetting the speakers, one by one.

I ensured no speaker was hardwired (I switched to that setup before the UniFi change out). 

I uninstalled the Android app, reinstalled it and then started adding back the speakers. It was a PITA. The first time it added back the speakers but to 4 different Sonos “systems”. I was wondering why it didn’t, for example, show the “Gym” that I had just added. So, factory reset and try again. Some continued to fail outright, or fail after it was detected and then didn’t show in a room, but you couldn’t add it. So, factory reset and try again.

However, I’ve now got two sets of speakers that are working. I’m too tired to do the rest, but I’m at least optimistic there’s a solution. 

That’s not to say the App (my Android and my wife’s Apple) isn’t still less intuitive and slow (for example, the volume seems to get queued up / delayed, etc.), but I can group speakers and play music!

I’m sure others have tried a factory reset and app reinstall to no avail, but I don’t know why Sonos wouldn’t have told me to do that when I reached out to tech support two weeks ago!!

The proof will be in the pudding as I add more speakers back, but I’m at least encouraged enough to want to try.

Just FYI.

I guess I left it too long to edit my post, but I thought I’d report back to say I added a few more speakers and, et. voila, I appear to have a functioning system again. 

The simple fix for me was a factory reset of the speakers, coupled with an uninstall/install of the app and a “transfer system” to my same email. Oh, and running the gauntlet of multiple failed attempts to add the speakers. But…I seem to have music again!. 

The odd thing (at least from the perspective of some dude) is that I’ve never seen my Network Matrix this clean before. All I did (after trying various things with the new UniFi to try and get Sonos to work, including moving into the Ubiquiti infrastructure in the first place!) was factory reset the speakers. No clue how that would completely clean up my network issues, as I was seeing yellow and orange before, but something clearly changed. Not sure why the white boxes and undefined, but I don’t really care because it’s working!!

Hasta la vista baby -- unless I wake up disappointed in the morning, in which case, I’ll be back. 

PS (and in case Sonos are monitoring): No clue why Sonos wouldn’t put a bright orange banner across the site saying to “start fresh” if you’re encountering an unworkable system. It could have saved me weeks of grief. Sure, I see I've lost my favourites (and maybe a few other things I’ll discover), but compared to ZERO music and futile daily/nightly efforts at trying to crack the code, a complete no-brainer. 

Have you worked with support and submitted speaker logs.  Support has been extremely helpful for me when I’ve had connectivity issues the in past.  It was yeas ago so I don’t remember any of the details.  I have ASUS routers and a boost.  I have not had any connectivity issues with the new app.  But grouping and volume control is flaky.

Define “old”.

Come on SONOS you cocked up before when introducing the new control system that did not allow series 1 equipment to be used , you had to back down on that one so we, the paying customers, could continue to use our old kit, time to do the right thing again? Just hope the same people responsible for the last cock up are not still being employed to roll out this one?

Can I join others in recommending SonoPhone as an alternative way to control your system.

The list of defects and missing features in the official app is quite frankly incredible and will take months to be added. And then more months to remove the defaults and bugs that will be gifted alongside

But...I am also so, so utterly bored with how bad the new interface is. The interminable waits, oh god the interminable waits. The counter-intuitive button placement (looking at you Back button). The number of times that you get zeroed back to the main page for no good reason. The difference between click and swipe up on the Now Playing block at the bottom of the screen. Please, please just don’t make me have to interact with this ugliness. And it won’t be changed, it is the new design masterplan

So just pay £2.99 and download SonoPhone. Not perfect but given it seems to have been knocked up by someone in their garage, the fact it outclasses the official app should be a serious embarrassment to Sonos. And with it, save yourself the ulcer, stroke and heart attack combo and just relax and listen

When I compared the two Apps mentioned, launching the same track, on the same speaker, on the same network, there was not that much of a speed difference… Here is a comparison with two videos side-by-side playing the exact same playlist from Amazon music…

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0S57WIoaizbyD

Perhaps the Sonos App just feels like it’s slower to some users🤔?

That’s a very generous response to being gaslit tbh. 

Not worth it, @Ken_Griffiths.  Don’t get sucked in.  

Thanks, but it just strikes me that some say things about the new Sonos App that are perhaps not entirely constructive or encompassing all the facts...  it pays to sometimes take a closer look at the evidence. That’s why I chose to run the comparison and compare the two Apps simply launching the same playlist. I will even concede the Sonos App and its animations may make ‘some things’ feel slower, but it’s not always the case when things are compared side-by-side.

I’m not a gas-lighter, I’m just telling/showing things as they appear to me and my own Sonos setup.

i’ll just add that I ran the comparison from our holiday home too, where the internet connection is far slower than our Home network, but the test conditions/environment were the same here for both Apps. Both Apps behave more quickly on our main Home network.

I didn’t mean the comparison, that was certainly helpful.  I was talking about our little sock buddy, always trying to light the fuse with some snide comment. 

Wood from the trees . . . socks from the legit posters . . . tomayto, tomahto. 

Ken

I have politely replied to you before. I will do so again. I am not a fan of you describing me as being not entirely constructive, not encompassing all the facts and of not looking at the evidence closely enough. I feel, and this bit is only my opinion, that that is a pretty unfair characterisation

In my original point I described some key areas where I felt the new app was being let down and recommended a 3rd party solution that solved many of the specific pain points that I had and which might be useful to others.

Credit to your reply - you picked up on one of those points and demonstrated a single instance where the two apps worked similarly. Some might say that a single instance on a single system does not encompass all the facts. All of us can all only talk about our own personal experiences with our own personal systems. The way your system works is no more or less valid than the way that mine does. In a way, that was one of my points from an older post which you semi-replied to: there are so many different configurations of people’s systems/ services/ set-ups that when apps are rushed out and not properly tested there will be very little consistency between people’s experiences and multiple edge cases where things break down. That is why rushing out a poorly-tested app was a very bad idea

Regardless - there are 3rd party apps out there that work better for some people and I for one recommend them