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.
This update will be rolled out for iOS and Android separately.
iOS - (Available starting today) Version 80.09.05
Improvements to setup flow
Improved performance when browsing content in Home and in Browse
Improved queue management including ability to delete, reorder and scroll
Added ability to set appearance between light mode/dark mode/system default
Continued improvements to the user interface
Added Trueplay support for iOS 18
Note: This iOS update will be deployed in phases over the coming days. Please allow until Tuesday to receive via automatic updates. If you add a player to your system, you’ll be prompted to update during setup. If you’d like to get the update sooner, go to the App Store, locate the Sonos app, and tap the Update button.
Android - (Scheduled for September 24)
Improvements to setup flow
Added ability to set appearance between light mode/dark mode/system default
Added setting to change the Alexa wake word language
You can also follow along with updates in this article:
Page 78 / 86
Hi @Ian_S and @sigh, at the beginning of the Sonos Q3 earnings call CEO Patrick Spence acknowledged customer problems with the new app and accompanying device firmware. One of the issues he specifically called out was “speakers disappearing from customers’ systems.”
I believe this is the first time the company has acknowledged the problem. It is genuinely good to know that it is on their radar … even better that it was disclosed with such a high profile. Fingers crossed this vexing problem will be resolved in the not too distant future!
I admire your optimism. Sonos broke their own system and we are all so grateful that they acknowledge it. It would be good if all previous functionality was returned. My worry is how long that is taking, why is it being drip fed and why the heck did this debacle happen in the first place!
Even though it’s been some time since the release of the “new app” the best decision Sonos could make is put the version 16 app back up and split off development onto a new app and start a beta program for users ready to be testers.
This would make the great majority of the user base happy and take the heat off the software developers so they could move into an acceptable development cycle and get out of the downward spiral of patch and release.
If headphones are dependent on the new release I guess those users automatically enter the beta program.
Since Sonos seems to be ready to face facts they might as well make the best decision for themselves and their customers.
Then put procedures in place that will prevent something like this from ever happening again.
Ultimately, the new version could takeover and Sonos could sunset the 16 version.
Just sayin’
Seems blindingly obvious to me. I miss the pleasure of tweaking and adding to my playlists. Especially when enjoying music with others. It's such a major loss of functionality and clearly a hard one to solve, given the time line for play list and queue editing to return.
Hi @Ian_S and @sigh, at the beginning of the Sonos Q3 earnings call CEO Patrick Spence acknowledged customer problems with the new app and accompanying device firmware. One of the issues he specifically called out was “speakers disappearing from customers’ systems.”
I believe this is the first time the company has acknowledged the problem. It is genuinely good to know that it is on their radar … even better that it was disclosed with such a high profile. Fingers crossed this vexing problem will be resolved in the not too distant future!
Of all the places he would need to give more acknowledgement with some clear actions, than just the canned statements we’ve received so far it, would be in that meeting. Having read the the transcript I think it keeps the investors happy, so he won’t be collecting a golden parachute any time soon.
At least there is now confirmation that it has been part of a full Sonos platform rewrite, not just a shiny new app, and unexpected behaviours when rolled out at scale. Some of the early behaviour, such as transferring ownership to yourself resolving issues only made sense to me if the cloud side had changed and data wasn’t fully populated.
How long it will take to fix, that will unfortunately be a waiting game.
It’s almost like the dev team are re-discovering what used to be there before and slowly coming to the same conclusions that were made years ago…
Some 24 years ago Joel Spolsky wrote a seminal blog piece:
I agree with the sentiment of the article, one of his closing statements is the most important part
It’s important to remember that when you start from scratch there is absolutely no reason to believe that you are going to do a better job than you did the first time.
I have been involved in multiple projects when code was rewritten from scratch. IF there are good clear reasons to do it and it is managed well none of your clients notice. If it is badly managed, done ‘just because’ or for the types of reasons listed in the article then you deserve all the calling out and client loss that follows.
Successful projects we did it on had a number of reasons two that stand out.
break up monolithic code. We were moving the platform to on-demand scaling and self healing services, but some of our services could only scale vertically, which hadn’t been a problem when small but as we grew became a painful platform bottleneck.
move from Windows based server hosting to Linux and container based. that was a mix of .net modification to .net core and clean rewrite depending on the existing code.
The worst project I worked on was already 18 months late when myself and others joined it. They had been through two lead devs who both decided a ground up rewrite was necessary. Both lead devs had changed the programming language and nobody in the teams had really understood the original code or any idea how to configure the server platform. Their idea of devops was developers didn’t need operations teams. Their driver for the rewrite was hubris and lack of knowledge. Unfortunately the management team didn’t have anyone with technical knowledge so couldn’t realistically challenge the garbage they were being fed about why the rewrite was needed or why it was taking so long.
I’ve also dealt with a rewrite to break up a monolith, that from an operations perspective was pointless. The hard inter-dependencies between individual services meant it became a monolith with lots of individual parts, but still had to have all parts deployed together and (re)started in a certain order.
Hi @Ian_S and @sigh, at the beginning of the Sonos Q3 earnings call CEO Patrick Spence acknowledged customer problems with the new app and accompanying device firmware. One of the issues he specifically called out was “speakers disappearing from customers’ systems.”
I believe this is the first time the company has acknowledged the problem. It is genuinely good to know that it is on their radar … even better that it was disclosed with such a high profile. Fingers crossed this vexing problem will be resolved in the not too distant future!
I admire your optimism. Sonos broke their own system and we are all so grateful that they acknowledge it. It would be good if all previous functionality was returned. My worry is how long that is taking, why is it being drip fed and why the heck did this debacle happen in the first place!
Even though it’s been some time since the release of the “new app” the best decision Sonos could make is put the version 16 app back up and split off development onto a new app and start a beta program for users ready to be testers.
This would make the great majority of the user base happy and take the heat off the software developers so they could move into an acceptable development cycle and get out of the downward spiral of patch and release.
If headphones are dependent on the new release I guess those users automatically enter the beta program.
Since Sonos seems to be ready to face facts they might as well make the best decision for themselves and their customers.
Then put procedures in place that will prevent something like this from ever happening again.
Ultimately, the new version could takeover and Sonos could sunset the 16 version.
Just sayin’
Seems blindingly obvious to me. I miss the pleasure of tweaking and adding to my playlists. Especially when enjoying music with others. It's such a major loss of functionality and clearly a hard one to solve, given the time line for play list and queue editing to return.
And now the sound quality has turned horrible. Muddy bass no reaction from the EQ, truly awful sound. Anyone else experiencing this? Streaming from Napster, will try other platforms.
Hi @Ian_S and @sigh, at the beginning of the Sonos Q3 earnings call CEO Patrick Spence acknowledged customer problems with the new app and accompanying device firmware. One of the issues he specifically called out was “speakers disappearing from customers’ systems.”
I believe this is the first time the company has acknowledged the problem. It is genuinely good to know that it is on their radar … even better that it was disclosed with such a high profile. Fingers crossed this vexing problem will be resolved in the not too distant future!
I admire your optimism. Sonos broke their own system and we are all so grateful that they acknowledge it. It would be good if all previous functionality was returned. My worry is how long that is taking, why is it being drip fed and why the heck did this debacle happen in the first place!
Even though it’s been some time since the release of the “new app” the best decision Sonos could make is put the version 16 app back up and split off development onto a new app and start a beta program for users ready to be testers.
This would make the great majority of the user base happy and take the heat off the software developers so they could move into an acceptable development cycle and get out of the downward spiral of patch and release.
If headphones are dependent on the new release I guess those users automatically enter the beta program.
Since Sonos seems to be ready to face facts they might as well make the best decision for themselves and their customers.
Then put procedures in place that will prevent something like this from ever happening again.
Ultimately, the new version could takeover and Sonos could sunset the 16 version.
Just sayin’
Seems blindingly obvious to me. I miss the pleasure of tweaking and adding to my playlists. Especially when enjoying music with others. It's such a major loss of functionality and clearly a hard one to solve, given the time line for play list and queue editing to return.
And now the sound quality has turned horrible. Muddy bass no reaction from the EQ, truly awful sound. Anyone else experiencing this? Streaming from Napster, will try other platforms.
Nope same problem with Amazon music. Vocals are buried in a horrible gloopy bass. Sounds like speakers are playing in a locked box. Truly terrible.
Hi @Ian_S and @sigh, at the beginning of the Sonos Q3 earnings call CEO Patrick Spence acknowledged customer problems with the new app and accompanying device firmware. One of the issues he specifically called out was “speakers disappearing from customers’ systems.”
I believe this is the first time the company has acknowledged the problem. It is genuinely good to know that it is on their radar … even better that it was disclosed with such a high profile. Fingers crossed this vexing problem will be resolved in the not too distant future!
I admire your optimism. Sonos broke their own system and we are all so grateful that they acknowledge it. It would be good if all previous functionality was returned. My worry is how long that is taking, why is it being drip fed and why the heck did this debacle happen in the first place!
Even though it’s been some time since the release of the “new app” the best decision Sonos could make is put the version 16 app back up and split off development onto a new app and start a beta program for users ready to be testers.
This would make the great majority of the user base happy and take the heat off the software developers so they could move into an acceptable development cycle and get out of the downward spiral of patch and release.
If headphones are dependent on the new release I guess those users automatically enter the beta program.
Since Sonos seems to be ready to face facts they might as well make the best decision for themselves and their customers.
Then put procedures in place that will prevent something like this from ever happening again.
Ultimately, the new version could takeover and Sonos could sunset the 16 version.
Just sayin’
Seems blindingly obvious to me. I miss the pleasure of tweaking and adding to my playlists. Especially when enjoying music with others. It's such a major loss of functionality and clearly a hard one to solve, given the time line for play list and queue editing to return.
And now the sound quality has turned horrible. Muddy bass no reaction from the EQ, truly awful sound. Anyone else experiencing this? Streaming from Napster, will try other platforms.
Nope same problem with Amazon music. Vocals are buried in a horrible gloopy bass. Sounds like speakers are playing in a locked box. Truly terrible.
Update. I killed the queue and reloaded the playlist and sound quality restored. Very odd and the first time I've experienced a drop in quality of sound coming from the speakers. To quote David Bowie 'This chaos is killing me!'
One quick further thing @sigh. I understand that Apple developers created their own customised version of mDNS that they call ‘Bonjour’, is there any reason why Sonos may not have done something similar and customised mDNS to suit their own needs and requirements, which users cannot ascertain due to encryption (as noted by Andy Pennell)?
Bonjour is Apple’s branding for what is often known as ZeroConf. It is a collection of technologies, including mDNS and DNS Service Discovery, for automatic service discovery over IP. When they originally published it as an open standard, parts of it were adopted into the global standards used within the zeroconf technologies.
On Linux/Unix Ahavi the package which provides mDNS/DNS-SD and probably the most widely used on those systems.
I and colleagues I work with are guilty of using bonjour interchangeably with specific parts, eg mDNS, depending on the context of what we’re dealing with because in the Apple world it’s all parts of bonjour and the context of conversations means it’s rarely ambiguous what we’re discussing.
To customise bonjour, such as adding Bluetooth LE discovery to the Apple TV in Airplay, they don’t need to customise the mDNS service, they can add a new supporting services within the bonjour branding or use IP over bluetooth. It is in Apple’s interest to keep their mDNS in line with standards as it is a part of Homekit and the emerging Matter/Thread standards.
For device & service discovery, Sonos could do whatever they wanted. Sonos is a closed system with APIs for integration. As long as the controller app and devices used the same discovery method it doesn’t matter if it is standards based or their own custom protocol.
While the control API currently on devices is used by 3rd parties and has similar endpoints to the cloud api, there is no guarantee it will stay that way. Sonos state that in their current developer docs in their architcture overview.
The Control API on the LAN is not available for wide release. We'll add a blog post when it is available.
Why would Sonos adopt mDNS? I can think of a few reasons. It’s a published standard with specification, programming languages have libraries available and/or operating systems have packages to provide it. Longer term, future products and integration within the home. Sonos are a participant of the CSA (Connected Standards Alliance) who oversee the Matter standards amongst other IoT standards. While upnp/DLNA was focused on on the media side of upnp, CSA and Matter are aiming far bigger.
In the latest Q3 financial report, there is an overview of product portfolio and on that Audi is listed under the Automotive category.
Amazon have released a Fire TV which implements the Matter Video casting protocols and this year I believe work has started on creating an Audio casting protocol.
How successful the CSA and its members will be has yet to be seen, but the companies involved include everyone from chip designers and manufacturers through to end user consumer product companies.
...
Thanks @sigh I bow to your expertise of these things, but is there anything you see here that might cause a users speakers/products to either ‘ungroup’ or interrupt the ‘audio playback’ as was being suggested earlier?
...
I would personally have started my own troubleshooting with looking at local wireless interference and device SNR levels etc. It seems the case however that criticism is (sometimes) thrown my way whenever I try to suggest these things as possible solutions for a users audio payback interruptions. I’d have made the same suggestions if it was prior to May aswell and the user was using the S2 Sonos App and earlier firmware.
I’ll try and keep this one short, my own troubleshooting process would probably be better as a post in it’s own right. If I included my current network diagram and wifi signal strengths I suspect you’d end up having a few nightmares
My understanding, like everyones (i think), is that in a normal world, volume is controller to individual speaker. In a group the controller calculates relative volumes or each device based on the group volume and sends it to each device. Playback is group leader is responsible to retrieve the stream and send it to other group members.
My troubleshooting method is based around taking steps to validate & confirm and try to avoid disappearing down rabbit holes. I also want to try and understand why it’s not working, so when I break it again in future I know the symptom and how to fix. I’m sure other people will disagree or find holes, but over the years it has worked when I’ve messed my network up.
When I’ve previously had odd group/playback/discovery behaviour, usually self caused, at a high level it goes along the lines of:
1 - If I remember (which is rarely) check I haven’t plugged ethernet into a speaker that is meant to be wireless
2 - Use either an internet radio station or an mp3 album from my local library. For no other reason than they’re the usually the lowest bandwidth, easy to decode media. There’s no reason my flac library or hires streams should cause an issue, but I just make it as easy as possible.
2 - Open the controller app on two different devices. Tablet + phone or two tablets/phones doesn’t matter, as long as it’s two. Use one device to do things and make sure the second device reflects the changes immediately. Repeat the opposite way around.
Most of the time I find the controller apps on different devices connect to different speakers so the controller apps aren’t in sync. The idea is to confirm the speakers the two different controllers connect to have the same view of the Sonos world. Not fool-proof but for me has often given a quick shortcut to my network is wonky and I have a rogue speaker or two.
3 - Controversial and pre-May unnecessary step. At the current time I have niggling doubts about the controller app and firmware behaviour. Too much keeps changing, regressing and people see odd behaviours between releases. I don’t like doubts when trying to confirm and validate things, so would download a 3rd party controller. Fully close the Sonos apps and see if the 3rd party app behaves the same.
The purpose is to use something external to current Sonos releases with the intention it will confirm behaviour of the Sonos App. which is grouped playback goes wonky because that should be player and not controller related, but at the moment who knows.
At this point one of two things happens. The 3rd party app confirms wonky group behaviour or the 3rd party app works without any issues. If it works without issues, try the Sonos app again and see if it works.
Assuming group playback is wonky regardless of the controller app
4 - Another controversial step, which could become difficult in the future, but my aim is to confirm it is my network causing an issue. Move my entire Sonos system (previously ~12 devices) to SonosNet. At this point I do usually check ethernet cables in all devices and may then realise what an idiot I’ve been. I also use either a device already in ethernet cable distance or the easiest to move to plug a cable into.
The aim is to remove the Sonos device network from my network. At this point low bandwidth media for testing can help as it reduces bandwidth requirements across the SonosNet network.
Usually it is this point where my playback issues go away and it confirms something in my LAN network setup is causing an issue. If it is still wonky on SonosNet, then the time consuming bits start. Does the order I add speakers into a group affect the wonky playback? While a pain due to socket locations and affecting other users in the house, does a power off/on clear it up? Maybe one speaker has got into a bad state and needs a reboot.
At this point self troubleshooting becomes a methodical time consuming process of working through one thing at a time. What have I added to my network between it working and not working? Do I remember what settings I changed somewhere? Is it just Sonos I see odd behaviour on or is it other devices as well? Has a neighbour started blasting out a wifi signal that interferes. More commonly for my setup, has that blasted weather radar scan my Wifi AP logs kicked me off my 5Ghz channel again? Some end devices don’t cleanly recover wifi channel changes and one day I’ll find a clean channel without it.
The above usually 3, but currently 4 steps, I can do very quickly as a sanity check before disappearing into the rabbit holes of other possibilities. As I know my typical network behaviour there are other things I can notice while doing the above, eg changes in switch/router led patterns, but this post has already ended up longer than expected.
Sonos Amp
After last update the sub settings on Amp is gone again.
When adjusting any of the EQ settings nothing actually changes in sound.
Surround settings is not possible (no slider only info about reset)
On Era100 with Sub Mini no problem
Try all or some of the following:
- Go to Settings - Manage - System Updates - Check for Updates. Run any updates it shows.
-Log out of the app, then log back in again
-Delete the app and reinstall the app.
@vilden66,
Is it a Sonos Sub or a 3rd-party active Sub that has gone AWOL? Have you tried signing out/in on the Sonos App, just to see if that makes any difference to that Sonos room? Also maybe try ‘fully’ closing/re-opening the App too.
@vilden66,
Is it a Sonos Sub or a 3rd-party active Sub that has gone AWOL? Have you tried signing out/in on the Sonos App, just to see if that makes any difference to that Sonos room? Also maybe try ‘fully’ closing/re-opening the App too.
3rd-party active sub and adjusting both EQ and Sub level on Amp worked before last update.
Try all or some of the following:
- Go to Settings - Manage - System Updates - Check for Updates. Run any updates it shows.
-Log out of the app, then log back in again
-Delete the app and reinstall the app.
All except the last - it feels like my Sonos system has became lika an old Windows computer constantly updating fixes, patches and restarts, instead of the Mac feeling it used to be.
@vilden66,
Is it a Sonos Sub or a 3rd-party active Sub that has gone AWOL? Have you tried signing out/in on the Sonos App, just to see if that makes any difference to that Sonos room? Also maybe try ‘fully’ closing/re-opening the App too.
3rd-party active sub and adjusting both EQ and Sub level on Amp worked before last update.
Maybe try power-cycling the devices (if not tried already) I don’t have the products to help test things here, but I’ve not (yet) seen anyone else mention this so far. Maybe someone with an Amp/3rd-party Sub will chime in here to say if they see a problem too.
Try all or some of the following:
- Go to Settings - Manage - System Updates - Check for Updates. Run any updates it shows.
-Log out of the app, then log back in again
-Delete the app and reinstall the app.
All except the last - it feels like my Sonos system has became lika an old Windows computer constantly updating fixes, patches and restarts, instead of the Mac feeling it used to be.
Thanks, now it works after deleting the app and reinstalling it again
How can I stop sonos updates COMPLETY on the entire ecosystem?
I dont want innovation. In dont want t bugs. I just want satbility.
Been trying for 10+ years now
How can I stop sonos updates COMPLETY on the entire ecosystem?
I dont want innovation. In dont want t bugs. I just want satbility.
Been trying for 10+ years now
Turn off auto update for the Sonos app in the App Store/Google Play, and don’t update the system in the app if prompted. It might force you to update though at some point to be able to use it at all…
Not sure I would have waited 10 years to ask that question…! ;)
Some albums that failed to play (only with that vague "something went wrong" message) are now permanently unplayable. Even after resetting/reinstalling the app. This new app is seriously extremely frustrating. It ruined the Sonos experience and brand. It all now feels like a cheap knockoff of what it once was.
Some albums that failed to play (only with that vague "something went wrong" message) are now permanently unplayable. Even after resetting/reinstalling the app. This new app is seriously extremely frustrating. It ruined the Sonos experience and brand. It all now feels like a cheap knockoff of what it once was.
Can you give examples of the tracks and the services you’re using when you see the message?
Some albums that failed to play (only with that vague "something went wrong" message) are now permanently unplayable. Even after resetting/reinstalling the app. This new app is seriously extremely frustrating. It ruined the Sonos experience and brand. It all now feels like a cheap knockoff of what it once was.
Can you give examples of the tracks and the services you’re using when you see the message?
One example is an album called "Introducing Joss Stone". I have YouTube Music. On a random morning, when I selected a song from the album to play, it failed. So I frustratingly moved on to play something else. Few days later when I attempted to play that album again, it failed again. I've tried countless times (tried signing in and out, reinstalling the app, etc). Now all of the songs from that album turned out to be forever unplayable, no matter what room in my entire system. This happened to more than one album now.
Playing these albums on my other devices (not on Sonos speakers) or via Bluetooth is working fine. So the problem is obviously not with YouTube Music.
Some albums that failed to play (only with that vague "something went wrong" message) are now permanently unplayable. Even after resetting/reinstalling the app. This new app is seriously extremely frustrating. It ruined the Sonos experience and brand. It all now feels like a cheap knockoff of what it once was.
Can you give examples of the tracks and the services you’re using when you see the message?
One example is an album called "Introducing Joss Stone". I have YouTube Music. On a random morning, when I selected a song from the album to play, it failed. So I frustratingly moved on to play something else. Few days later when I attempted to play that album again, it failed again. I've tried countless times (tried signing in and out, reinstalling the app, etc). Now all of the songs from that album turned out to be forever unplayable, no matter what room in my entire system. This happened to more than one album now.
Playing these albums on my other devices (not on Sonos speakers) or via Bluetooth is working fine. So the problem is obviously not with YouTube Music.
Sadly, I don’t use YTM to help test it, but maybe others here, that do use that service, will chime in - it sounds like a service issue with the link into Sonos with that particular Album, but let’s see what any others here may report and perhaps the Staff here will pick up on your report. If not, it might be worth reporting the matter to Sonos Support via this link…
How can I stop sonos updates COMPLETY on the entire ecosystem?
I dont want innovation. In dont want t bugs. I just want satbility.
Been trying for 10+ years now
Turn off auto update for the Sonos app in the App Store/Google Play, and don’t update the system in the app if prompted. It might force you to update though at some point to be able to use it at all…
Not sure I would have waited 10 years to ask that question…! ;)
I'm doing exsctly that. It doesnt work.
The issue is that the auto updates always come back, unwelcome.
Is this clear now?
How can I stop sonos updates COMPLETY on the entire ecosystem?
I dont want innovation. In dont want t bugs. I just want satbility.
Been trying for 10+ years now
Turn off auto update for the Sonos app in the App Store/Google Play, and don’t update the system in the app if prompted. It might force you to update though at some point to be able to use it at all…
Not sure I would have waited 10 years to ask that question…! ;)
I'm doing exsctly that. It doesnt work.
The issue is that the auto updates always come back, unwelcome.
Is this clear now?
The app auto updating against your wishes is not a Sonos thing, it’s an App Store/Google Play/phone thing. Sonos cannot auto update its app.
The firmware is a different matter. Maybe others can answer on that as I’ve never tried to avoid updating my speakers. (And yes, that’s really clear now…)
What a joke. For over two months, my system has not worked at all. Cannot add music libraries (was supposed to be fixed in June, then July). The instructions for adding libraries as NAS do not work on my Mac at all. The “Level 2 support” appointments are two weeks out and there is only one spot available. I can only get streaming services; that is NOT why I bought this system.
No real fixed, no support. SONOS - buy back my equipment since you took away my ability to use it. I don’t just want to listen to SONO Radio.
Wow - I’m using navidrome/bonob to talk to my sonos system.
bonob local advertisement stopped working with the v79 update. So it disabled a large part of my system. Reports from the bonob tech support say that if you can downgrade to S1, all the functionality is restored.
I’m trying to do this now - and the documentation for the process is totally wrong. I thought I had downgraded my Play:1 to S1 - while it reports a S1 version number, it still reports that the OS is S2, and will not allow me to adopt the speaker into the S1 app.
I’m so bloody frustrated with all of this, that I’m really considering selling all this off for scrap...
