Unfortunately, I chose to update Sonos to 15.4 last night.
I can no longer play any music ‘on this mobile device’ which is what I use almost daily.
Is this a ‘feature’ where Sonos will no longer allow play from Androids, or a bug???
Answered
Update to 15.4 lost play from 'on this mobile device'
Best answer by Airgetlam
I’m not a Sonos employee, I don’t have any insight as to where they consider making ‘official’ announcements.
I do recall seeing an article on Engadget about it, too. I’d think most of the major outlets carried it as well.
My guess is this change, much like when it happened to iOS users, is being forced on Sonos by the OS manufacturer. For Apple, it was a ‘security’ issue, Apple didn’t want outside devices to have the ability to reach in to their system. Which puts people like Sonos and others using this method of access in a bad position. Customers, not unlike you, seem to think Sonos wants to do this in order to make you angry. My expectation is they didn’t want to do this.
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So very poor of Sonos to not announce that before I updated to 15.4.
I guess it is time to drop Sonos for a real quality speaker system.
And I will share my experience and disappointment on all social media channels.
tln2 wrote:
So very poor of Sonos to not announce that before I updated to 15.4.
It was announced 20 days beforehand, not sure how much more time you needed. Also, if you read the announcement, this is primarily an Android OS change.
tln2 wrote:
And I will share my experience and disappointment on all social media channels.
That’ll make a big difference! I assume that you will also include criticism of Google for changing Android as well? 🙄
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
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I follow Sonos on Twitter and Instagram. I didn’t see it announced there. I also did not receive an email. So I’m pretty sure it wasn’t general knowledge. Where was it announced?
Well, certainly at the link I posted in this thread as the original response. I don’t use either Twitter or Instagram personally, nor would I consider them as ‘official’ lines of communication. Or at least, I’ve never seen anything from Sonos saying that they will announce everything there.
So do you think the average Sonos user reads the community news and announcements forum?
Probably not. Pretty sure that Sonos knows this as well. That’s why they announced it there.
I’m not a Sonos employee, I don’t have any insight as to where they consider making ‘official’ announcements.
I do recall seeing an article on Engadget about it, too. I’d think most of the major outlets carried it as well.
My guess is this change, much like when it happened to iOS users, is being forced on Sonos by the OS manufacturer. For Apple, it was a ‘security’ issue, Apple didn’t want outside devices to have the ability to reach in to their system. Which puts people like Sonos and others using this method of access in a bad position. Customers, not unlike you, seem to think Sonos wants to do this in order to make you angry. My expectation is they didn’t want to do this.
Yesterday, my Sonos could stream songs from my phone. Today, after the mandatory update, it refuses to do so. Nothing changed about Android on my phone between yesterday and today, that I am aware of. It seems to me, that Sonos simply tore up the covenant between manufacturer and consumer. If it was really the fault of the big, bad Google, then I would like to know the particulars so that I may target my wrath at the right culprits.
Click on the link in the first reply, then you can figure out why Sonos would want to randomly change this.
Bruce
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Airgetlam wrote:
Click on the link in the first reply, then you can figure out why Sonos would want to randomly change this.
No particulars were provided. Only speculation.
UKMedia wrote:
tln2 wrote:
So very poor of Sonos to not announce that before I updated to 15.4.
It was announced 20 days beforehand, not sure how much more time you needed. Also, if you read the announcement, this is primarily an Android OS change.
tln2 wrote:
And I will share my experience and disappointment on all social media channels.
That’ll make a big difference! I assume that you will also include criticism of Google for changing Android as well? 🙄
They ‘announced’ it 20 days before hand? Where? On an article buried in their support site - I’m sorry I don’t religiously visit Sonos for my news daily! You know what they didn’t do? ACTUALLY INFORM their users that major functionality was being removed. I just checked my email? You know what I got 20 days ago? Another f’ing spam email offering some measly % off spending more money with them.
Nothing letting me know CORE functionality of my system is being removed.
bobthefunny wrote:
They ‘announced’ it 20 days before hand? Where? On an article buried in their support site - I’m sorry I don’t religiously visit Sonos for my news daily! You know what they didn’t do? ACTUALLY INFORM their users that major functionality was being removed. I just checked my email? You know what I got 20 days ago? Another f’ing spam email offering some measly % off spending more money with them.
Nothing letting me know CORE functionality of my system is being removed.
Playing from a device is by no means a “CORE functionality”. Here’s proof:
- The vast majority of music played on Sonos is from online streaming sources. 92% in 2015, and it is certainly higher than that 8 years later.
- Before online streaming, Sonos streamed local music from a computer or NAS, not from a device.
- Even after the phone apps came in, it was a couple years before streaming from a iPhone made an appearance, and Android came even later than that.
- iOS device users, who make up 50% or so of Sonos owners, haven’t been able to stream from their devices for years.
So, greater than 90% don’t even stream local music, probably in the 3-4% range by now. Of the ones who do, the original use case of streaming from a computer or NAS is still there, and at least half of the users left didn’t use Android at all. Your case for losing a “CORE functionality” simply falls apart when confronted with reality.
jgatie wrote:
bobthefunny wrote:
They ‘announced’ it 20 days before hand? Where? On an article buried in their support site - I’m sorry I don’t religiously visit Sonos for my news daily! You know what they didn’t do? ACTUALLY INFORM their users that major functionality was being removed. I just checked my email? You know what I got 20 days ago? Another f’ing spam email offering some measly % off spending more money with them.
Nothing letting me know CORE functionality of my system is being removed.
Playing from a device is by no means a “CORE functionality”. Here’s proof:
- The vast majority of music played on Sonos is from online streaming sources. 92% in 2015, and it is certainly higher than that 8 years later.
- Before online streaming, Sonos streamed local music from a computer or NAS, not from a device.
- Even after the phone apps came in, it was a couple years before streaming from a iPhone made an appearance, and Android came even later than that.
- iOS device users, who make up 50% or so of Sonos owners, haven’t been able to stream from their devices for years.
So, greater than 90% don’t even stream local music, probably in the 3-4% range by now. Of the ones who do, the original use case of streaming from a computer or NAS is still there, and at least half of the users left didn’t use Android at all. Your case for losing a “CORE functionality” simply falls apart when confronted with reality.
It is a core functionality if it was advertised as part of the system when I bought it, and is the reason I bought it. It is a core functionality if it has been a major access point of their app for OVER FIVE YEARS.
I don’t give a s*** about their 90% bulls*** of other people. I care that the system advertised that I could play my own local music that I OWN. I bought the system so I could play the music that I OWN.
For four years I have played my music that I OWN. The literal purpose of speakers is to PLAY MUSIC THAT I OWN. I don’t need speakers that can only play shit from a streaming service. Why the f would I want speakers that come with a f’ing restriction on playing my OWN music.
Ridiculous.
Your white knighting falls apart when confronted with the fact that this is hardware that I have purchased that no longer fulfills its ADVERTISED and PROMISED role.
Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.
iggyf wrote:
Yesterday, my Sonos could stream songs from my phone. Today, after the mandatory update, it refuses to do so. Nothing changed about Android on my phone between yesterday and today, that I am aware of. It seems to me, that Sonos simply tore up the covenant between manufacturer and consumer. If it was really the fault of the big, bad Google, then I would like to know the particulars so that I may target my wrath at the right culprits.
Airgetlam wrote:
I’m not a Sonos employee, I don’t have any insight as to where they consider making ‘official’ announcements.
I do recall seeing an article on Engadget about it, too. I’d think most of the major outlets carried it as well.
My guess is this change, much like when it happened to iOS users, is being forced on Sonos by the OS manufacturer. For Apple, it was a ‘security’ issue, Apple didn’t want outside devices to have the ability to reach in to their system. Which puts people like Sonos and others using this method of access in a bad position. Customers, not unlike you, seem to think Sonos wants to do this in order to make you angry. My expectation is they didn’t want to do this.
My Sonos could also browse my device for music before the update, and now can’t - so yes, this is 100% an update on SONOS. Not Android.
And to top it off, the songs from my phone that are in my queue still play fine, so no, this is nothing with Android file access or anything of that nature. It is quite clear the songs are still there and can still be accessed. This is 100% limitation by Sonos. Whether they want to cut dev hours, dev support, or w/e other BS, it is their choice.
And I, and others who used this feature, have every right to be PISSED that a feature we used is being forcibly removed by a MANDATORY update. Especially one without any good faith attempt at notifying users. Like others, I have received no emails. There was no alert in my app. There were no patch notes. Hell, even finding this article and these threads took time to scroll past several google results that say that I SHOULD still have access. This is abhorrent, and handled like s*** on molasses.
This feature was one of the main reasons I invested in Sonos as my entertainment system rather than another set of bluetooth speakers/media center.
Give me back my version that works, and let me opt out of automatic updates. I don’t need your cloud network bs.
Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.
I bought a $700.00 Android HiFi music player and a $160.00 microSD card to play my music from my Android device on my Sonos speakers. This is a hard pill to swallow no matter whose fault it is. SMH 😔
It would be nice for a Sonos employee / representative to explain why they did it.
bobthefunny wrote:
It is a core functionality if it was advertised as part of the system when I bought it, and is the reason I bought it. It is a core functionality if it has been a major access point of their app for OVER FIVE YEARS.
I don’t give a shit about their 90% bullshit of other people. I care that the system advertised that I could play my own local music that I OWN. I bought the system so I could play the music that I OWN.
For four years I have played my music that I OWN. The literal purpose of speakers is to PLAY MUSIC THAT I OWN. I don’t need speakers that can only play shit from a streaming service. Why the f would I want speakers that come with a f’ing restriction on playing my OWN music.
Ridiculous.
You can still play music you own. Several ways. Some of them free of charge, some at very low cost (under $25) and all of them allow you to search. In addition, you can use them as alarms and include them in playlists, and they arent going to drain the battery on your phone. So would you like to hear how? Or are you simply here to rant?
Please explain how. I am here to learn. I use my Android phone some, but mainly my Android HiFi music player.
I have my complete music collection on my PC and my Android phone in FLAC and MP3 formats.
Up to now I have been playing them from my phone using “play from this device” over my Sonos speaker setup.
Could someone please tell me how I can play my music over the Sonos speakers.
For example will it work if I move my collection to a NAS or do I need media server software?
loughlin wrote:
I have my complete music collection on my PC and my Android phone in FLAC and MP3 formats.
Up to now I have been playing them from my phone using “play from this device” over my Sonos speaker setup.
Could someone please tell me how I can not play my music over the Sonos speakers.
For example will it work if I move my collection to a NAS or do I need media server software?
You can add your library from a PC or an NAS. No media software needed.
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TarHeel wrote:
Please explain how. I am here to learn. I use my Android phone some, but mainly my Android HiFi music player.
You can add your music library to Sonos, housing it on a PC or an NAS. You can add an NAS to your system for cheap by adding an inexpensive thumb drive to the USB port on most routers. Or you can upload 100,000 tracks of your music to a free YouTube Music account, then add that account to Sonos.
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If this is following the same change as to what happened with iOS, you can thank Google for it. Apple shut down that method of connection a while ago.
loughlin wrote:
Thank you jgatie
It looks like I need to buy a NAS.
Costly move to update the Sonos App.
Most routers will share a drive off a USB. Any drive. Use a cheap thumb drive, under $25 if you don't want the expense of a dedicated NAS.
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Airgetlam wrote:
If this is following the same change as to what happened with iOS, you can thank Google for it. Apple shut down that method of connection a while ago.
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