The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

Andrew is entitled to express his view and, as I discovered, his core point is correct - Sonos has not removed local library access.  They have, however, made it unnecessarily difficult, and communicated poorly. Anyone (like me) not familiar with the history of the issue is likely to interpret Keith N's message (ability to create a library is 'coming soon') as removal, in light of the difficulties with the app. 

For the benefit of anyone experiencing similar difficulties, here is a description of what I encountered, and how I stumbled to the solution. 

1. Turned on my Sonos pair yesterday for the first time in a few months (out if the country) - updates required.

2. After updating, the app would not recognise either speaker. There was no sign of my library, but some entries in 'recently played.' A few seconds of a track would play, before the app crashed. The app would not permit removal of the stereo pair (as it couldn't see them).

3. Following the Sonos help page advice, I performed a factory reset of both speakers - still no success in connecting. 

4. I reinstalled the app and removed and replaced the existing room set up. This allowed the app to finally discover and configure the speakers, but... 

5. The app had no means of accessing my local library. 

6. From information gleaned from the forum, I sought access from the Windows app. The Windows app has the functionality to configure a local library, and could see mine (an ancient NAS). However, multiple attempts to connect failed, as did attempts to use the music folder on the PC itself. A firmware update of the NAS made no difference. 

7. After a cup of tea, and a wait of  few hours, I tried again on the windows app (no other changes made) and, bizarrely, the library was in place and fully indexed - I conclude that the earlier 'failure' messages were false negatives.

8. Having re-established the library on the Windows app, it does indeed appear in the mobile (Android) app. 

So, at the risk of irritating Andrew further, I think my criticism of Sonos was inaccurate, but justified. An app update that then requires a factory reset, firmware update of storage, and reconfiguration via a PC is hardly an exemplar of excellence. 

If Sonos is aware of these difficulties, then a simple 'if this happens, take these steps' communication would be helpful. If that exists, I couldn't find it. 

To reiterate, tomorrow’s app update addresses music libraries, amongst other things:

“Sonos is reintroducing some basic features to its new app next week, including the ability to configure local music libraries. These functions were already in Sonos' old app, but were missing in the new mobile application that the audio manufacturer released in May.

Sonos will release the update for its new app on July 22. The biggest changes are in support for local music libraries. For example, the 'settings and configuration' of such libraries are now available via the mobile app. It .will] also possible to search local music libraries in the app.

The July 22 update also includes improvements to line-in autoplay, compression settings, settings accessibility, firmware update notifications and volume settings. In addition, the Sonos Amp and Port can now be configured in mono and stereo and the 'Forgot System' option has been added to the Android app.

Some other functions that are currently missing from the new Sonos app will follow in August. For example, in early August, users will be able to downgrade their devices from S2 to S1 again and keep offline devices. At the end of August it will be possible to adjust playlists in the Sonos app and there will be an editing function for queues.”

You would need to provide more detail about the type of share that you’re using to maybe get some suggestions, if that’s what you’re looking for - Is it a NAS, or a Windows/MAC share …and are you currently using the HTTP/SMBv1 protocols? Have you tried an SMBv2 (or higher) share for your local library?

I need to be able to clear the god da** queue, why is that so much to ask for?!?!

When trying to play a radio station or an AI generator playlist, it just continually plays the same list of songs. Because this new update literally does not allow even the app itself to clear the queue, let alone we should be able to clear it manually like users previously could. 

The app is not garbage. 

I've turned dozens of family and friends onto Sonos over the years and have 20 plus products in my house, but I couldn't in good conscious, continue to recommend the product with faulty updates like this

If using an iOS controller there is a 3rd-party (iOS shortcuts plugins) App called Soro that can clear room queues, or you can use the Windows, or MAC, desktop controller Apps. HTH

Queue management is coming end August.

In the meantime, you’ll need to clear the queue using the desktop app for Windows or Mac, downloadable from the Sonos website.

Its funny, the new update we can search local libraries, but you have to wait another month before you can manage a queue to play the music the way you want out of those libraries.

Thank goodness my wife's iPad still has the old version app… it still works like a dream and does everything I want.

Hi @Nflonly, you really want to avoid a system update as the v16.3 firmware released last week blocks the v16.1 apps (everything is grayed out).

Thnx. It’s at 16.2 right now, so will avoid firmware update

I’ve heard of “not supporting older releases”, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a company actually proactively blocking use of “dated” software. 

NEW VERSION OF THE APP NOW AVAILABLE TO INSTALL.
 

New app features are welcome, but I’m not seeing much discussion around some of the other gaps:

• I have no thumbnails on my local music on Android (I saw mention on iOS but...)
• Widgets?
• Creating a Sonos Playlist

The new Android version here is 80.05.06-release+20240717.cbccdb2 but it is a little different. Except that some of my TuneIn stations in favourites have become greyed out. Or indeed very dark greyed out, so it’s hard to see what they are.

Re-added using the Tune-In app and recreating the favourite and then again in Sonos.

This remained working in the Windows app.

Not sure what they’re up to but I suppose there is progress with the local libraries.

Playlist management (and queue management) is coming late August.

I know, I mean the ability to create a playlist….do you interpret editing as creating? I do not, and as of right now I’m not sure I wouldn’t take too much for granted with the feature releases...

I would think any remedial Playlist activity will be activated at the same time. 

Am I right in thinking that album art from the local library is still not showing in the latest Android version? Or has that been fixed?

Goodness @YorkSteve, you want a functioning local library with album art?!?! Kidding, kidding, the Android app still doesn’t display any artwork for me.

As mentioned by a previous poster, indexing of compilations within (at least mine as well) the Music Library has collapsed: empty and repeated empty albums. The Android update hasn’t corrected this..let alone album art!

So local library search is back (hurrah!). Still no A-Z list though, which combined with the firmware bug introduced last week is extremely annoying, especially if like me, you have over 100 compilation albums.

Sonos testing appears to have no focus whatsoever on local music streaming. I get that it’s relatively niche, but it’s my main use case. As such, I won’t be buying any Sonos kit ever again. When my speakers eventually need replacing, it will likely be with simple Airplay speakers

I only see "no album art displayed in ios, there's also none album art in music librarie on Android (music on NAS). So it's accessable but nu album art on v80 still remaining on v16.1.

I use sonos for playing old cds from music library.

It now seems that it has duplicated albums and juggled the order of tracks around.

Very frustrating as playing cds was the main reason to buy sonos.

I can't face dealing with support again as it wastes loads of time.

Any ideas how to rectify the duplicate album issue? ( they're OK on the laptop , so it's not the source material)

And this is after you updated the app to the latest version yesterday? 

Yes both the app on the phone (samsung A54) and the laptop. I had to update the phone app as the app crashed and said update when developer has fixed bug

I've subsequently tried updating the music library but that hasn't resolved it either

This might be part of what you’ve said just now (apologies, I’m not sure), but did your speaker firmware update last week? If not, go to Settings - Manage - System Updates - Check for Updates.