Wishlist for Sonos Controller Improvements

God wrote:

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Then again its just silly that Sonos won't support AirPlay. It has the hardware, all it needs is to implement the software as an update. Its ridiculous that they charge so much for their speakers and the basic controller is hellish to say the best.

Sonos are you hearing me? Its a very simple update. I am highly considering selling my speakers and getting the HomePod if this isn't resolved by the time Apple launches it.

Personally I don't use Airplay but hope Sonos add it to give another option. Strategically makes sense given Homepod. But Sonos has shown they move incredibly slow adding new features so likely years off anyway.

I hope that with the HomePod, Sonos really steps up their game and gives the controller software some much needed attention, The fact that you can't search your playlist for duplicates or search at all is disappointing at best.

It would be pleasant if there was an "Update Music Library Now" feature in the Mac controller, in addition to the timed setting. I find that when I want to do this, I have to open up the iOS controller, where the feature does exist.

Airgetlam wrote:

It would be pleasant if there was an "Update Music Library Now" feature in the Mac controller, in addition to the timed setting. I find that when I want to do this, I have to open up the iOS controller, where the feature does exist.

Bruce, hope this helps:

Updating the music library index

Whenever you make changes to your music library, such as adding and removing tracks, creating new playlists, or adjusting album artwork, you will need to update the music index on Sonos before these changes will show up in the Sonos controller.


Sonos Desktop Controller App for Mac or PC:

From the “Manage” menu, click “Update Music Library Now”.
Click “Yes” to confirm.

That's what I get for not RTFM. Thank you, Smilja. Not in the same place as on iOS, but it's certainly there. Now I feel silly.

I would like a button to go back 10 or 15 seconds. It's really handy for listening to podcasts or audiobooks.

Add (or make possible to add) play controls to the zone page, often I like to stop/pause a player in another room than I listen in, and then I have to first select that zone, THEN stop the service, and THEN choose the previous zone again to commence control of that zone.
Also, permanent named groups of zones. I really would like that! 'Partymode' is too limited/general.

1) Alarm: snooze feature now!
2) Alarm: snooze feature now!
3) Alarm: snooze feature now!

Display album title alongside Artist in Queue and in song listing. Some of us have multiple recordings of songs by the same artist (ie concert recordings).

The Sonos Controller, especially for Mac, is a huge mess. It looks worse than WinAmp back 2007 and Sonos should be ashamed of what horribly outdated software they deliver with their premium products.
What bugs me the most is the search. Why is the search split up in Artist, Album, Song etc. When I type in the artist plus the song name or album title it won't show up. With Sonos in general it's just an unnecessary struggle to get to listen to the music you want to listen to. I hope Sonos will open up their system so it can be directly controlled through iTunes / Apple Music otherwise I might just have to say goodbye to the Sonos system. Which would be a shame as I love my Sonos boxes and the wonderful sound. But in 2017 thats just not enough anymore.

iChrila wrote:

The Sonos Controller, especially for Mac, is a huge mess. It looks worse than WinAmp back 2007 and Sonos should be ashamed of what horribly outdated software they deliver with their premium products.
What bugs me the most is the search. Why is the search split up in Artist, Album, Song etc. When I type in the artist plus the song name or album title it won't show up. With Sonos in general it's just an unnecessary struggle to get to listen to the music you want to listen to. I hope Sonos will open up their system so it can be directly controlled through iTunes / Apple Music otherwise I might just have to say goodbye to the Sonos system. Which would be a shame as I love my Sonos boxes and the wonderful sound. But in 2017 thats just not enough anymore.

Not that your post contains any useful information or even suggestions as to how to improve the Mac controller.
But for what it's worth I think the Mac controller is perfectly fine. Maybe the search could be improved but for one thing if the search returned results from all possible sources it would often be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. But I rarely have trouble finding what I want to listen to primarily because I in advance what I want and I know how to spell it.
Furthermore, I do not like iTunes and only suffer it because having an iPad and iPhone it's necessary. But it is not used for music cataloging or listening.

Stuart_W wrote:

Not that your post contains any useful information or even suggestions as to how to improve the Mac controller.

Just for you I will summarize my post: make it less ugly with an updated, more intuitive design. The search-bar is unnecessarily complicated, make it more useful.

But I rarely have trouble finding what I want to listen to primarily because I in advance what I want

So you know exactly that you want to listen to Ed Sheeran - Shape of you. You find it easier and more useful that you can only search for Ed Sheeran as an artist or for every song thats called shape of you. If you search for songs outside of the mainstream music it probably won't show up on top of that search list. Same with artists. You first have to pick the artist, chose the right album and then get to the song. However, it will not find the song if you simply type in Ed Sheeran shape of you. So that's how you sort the wheat from the chaff? By being less specific?

I know how to spell it.

Good for you Stuart, good for you 😉

Furthermore, I do not like iTunes and only suffer it because having an iPad and iPhone it's necessary. But it is not used for music cataloging or listening.

That's okay. I don't want to force you to use iTunes. But a lot of people use Apple Music and therefore also iTunes on the Mac. Wouldn't hurt you if other people could control their Sonos Boxes directly. The more options the better. And as this is a wishlist - these are my two wishes.

I use my Sonos controller from an iPad that sits on a powered desk cradle. I would love for Sonos to have a persistent mode (i.e. always visible, preventing the iPad from going into lock screen) while connected to a power source. The new Pandora iPad app does this already.

I use different streaming services and it would be convenient to always see what content is playing by just glancing over at the iPad, especially when its connected to a power source.

make the volume less notchy, so one can have more gradations when needing to play it quietly. It goes from barely canhear it to loud enough to wake someone in the next room in one notch...

camillo777 wrote:

More control over volume sleep and alarm fade in fade out, custom fade time and duration, more graceful fades with dynamic and smaller volume changes.

Lowest volume level (1 tap) on the controller is OK in the night to start sleeping , but there is no fade out, the music is cut abruptly.

Does it really matter? I'm *usually* asleep by the time my timer finishes...

My first wish would be that Sonos make a real satisfaction survey about what most customer like and dislike
Dropping such irrelevant pre-defined wish list where only one choice is allowed perfectly reflect how Sonos is considering customer experience and Empathy
Do you consider we are good ?
Yes : perfect Thank you
No : Yo should have missed something, please try again ...

I use Folder View a lot and would love to have the Alphabet Quick Find down the right hand side, the same is the Artists section, please...

Item that never made original list and has been requested many times - When stop song fade out a few seconds vs. abrupt stop. Same goes if change song make it a crossfade then.

Frozenfrank wrote:

camillo777 wrote:

More control over volume sleep and alarm fade in fade out, custom fade time and duration, more graceful fades with dynamic and smaller volume changes.

Lowest volume level (1 tap) on the controller is OK in the night to start sleeping , but there is no fade out, the music is cut abruptly.

Does it really matter? I'm *usually* asleep by the time my timer finishes...

Yes you are lucky

from Stuart_17

"I've been using Sonos for a few years now and in double figures for the devices I have. I am not sure how to 'feature request' on here but I for one would really like better playlist management in the controller software. Search for duplicates or be warned of them, Order alpabetically by artist or song or date added. "

Well, given the key UI changes over the last year, my priorities would still be having Sonos address:
1. Inconsistent UX due to differences between desktop and mobile controllers
2. Inconsistent UX due to individual play buttons deciding whether queue is ephemeral or persistent by default / not accounting for live/dead queue
3. Inconsistent (or just unfinished) "My Sonos" screen

All good. 1 and 3 don’t bother me but #2 is a major problem.

I have a question. If this is a thread with ongoing issues then why hasn't anyone from Sonos updated it in 2 years? Or commented?

Sonos does not comment on future plans (well rarely). Its actually surprising they publically stated the alexa, google, and airplay intergrations. Actually much more transparent on that then normal. They have been much more transparent on plans - they just aren't going to commit to firm release dates.

Hmm interesting. Sounds good. This is what I wanted to know. Thank you Chris.