How can I get the app to switch to the currently played music?
Hi,
One of the main things I use the app for is to manage the grouping of speakers after I start playing music from Spotify, Plex or another source.
The original app always switched to the music currently being played, and I could just add any additional speakers I want to it.
It seems the new app does not recognize that music already is being played, and instead shows some irrelevant title when started.
When I click the icon in the bottom/middle in the new app,I see all speakers and the correct music playing per speaker, but when I click to add speakers, instead of adding them to the music being played, the app starts playing the irrelevant music displayed when it starts.
This is highly annoying and breaks possibly the most useful usecase for the app. It is mostly useless without the ability to manage speakers.
Any ideas how to achieve the original behavior in terms of being able to add speakers to already running music?
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I am not sure I completely follow what behaviour you are troubled by, but I thought I would mention that I find it easiest to use SVC.
"Hey Sonos, group Dining Room and Living Room to Kitchen "
Hope that helps.
Here is a screenshot to illustrate. In this case I am playing ”Mary Queen of Scots” currently and want to add more speakers to it. This is not possible, since clicking to add more speakers will instead start to play ”Mikayl Blu” (whatever that is) and stop the current music.
Sorry but I think what Sonos does is appropriate. You choose the room from which to group. What if different music is already playing in two rooms? What if my wife is playing music in the Study but I want to listen to something different in the Living Room and Dining Room?
It only takes a couple of taps to select the room from which to start the grouping. It gives you control and flexibility.
I still find SVC even quicker in many instances.
I agree with the OP. Ok, there must be some customers with vast mansions, where someone in the Servants Quarters might not want to interfere with what’s playing in the East Wing - but most people will be interested in controlling what is already playing, most of the time.
With the pre-May release, if you start up a Sonos app from scratch, the first thing it will do is to look to see if a source is already playing and, if so, it automatically switches to it. Noson, the independently developed open source player does exactly the same thing, even though its use interface is completely different than the Sonos app.
The behaviour that the OP describes does not IMO make sense for a “typical” user.
I agree with the OP. Ok, there must be some customers with vast mansions, where someone in the Servants Quarters might not want to interfere with what’s playing in the East Wing
Don't be ridiculous. We would never allow our servants to have Sonos.
Jgf3,
For me the issue is that the Home Screen will not always land on the Room that I’m thinking of. My preference is that the controller will always open using the previously playing Room, before the controller went to sleep.
In any case, swipe up the Room list, select the Room that you want to build the Group from, then build the Group.
Thank you for your answers everyone
@John B please note that in this case, there is only one track playing (the one I started from Spotify) and there is no danger of me overriding anyone. Moreover, I am afraid that as @Antifon suggested our home is not large enough for the use case you describe to apply. Also, due to security and privacy considerations I am not in favour of someone listening in to what I say to my wife in private :)
@Antifon, thank you for your comment. Unfortunately Noson seems to be a desktop app, and I mainly use Sonos from my mobile device. When sitting at the computer I usually use headphones.
@buzz thank you for the suggestion, but I am not clear what you mean with it. I assume that the screenshot I posted above shows the “room list”, right? If I select another room in that list, the only music I can play is the one displayed at the top of the screenshot (”Mikayl Blu” in this case). This I can of course do, but this does not allow me to add speakers to the music that I want, which is the one already playing. Please explain if I misunderstood.
How do you guys add speakers to an already playing music in the new app?
I think this is what @buzz had in mind. It is definitely qhat I had in mind when I said it was easy to pick the room from which you want to group. Just tap the "group speakers" icon for the required room.
In the screenshot I posted, music is playing in Bedroom. If I tap the “group rooms” icon for Bedroom I get this, to which I can add any rooms I want. (There are lots more rooms I can scroll to, for example the Library, Banqueting Hall, and East Wing bedrooms 1 to 7.)
@John B please note that in this case, there is only one track playing (the one I started from Spotify) and there is no danger of me overriding anyone.
,
That isn’t the point. Whatever process and conventions Sonos adopts have to work across systems of different size, with different numbers of controllers, and widely varying user preferences, practices and priorities.
I contacted Sonos support and a very helpful lady explained how I can change the controlling speaker for a playing stream in the new app.
Apparently you need to click on the pull-down menu next to the “Your System” title (the little downwards triangle”. That opens up a list of rooms, including one in darker colour that represents the specific room currently being managed by the app. In order to add/remove rooms for the currently played music, you need to select the room first that is the “controlling speaker” for that music.
If you follow this process everything works fine, still I have to ask why is it necessary to hide this very fundamental feature behind so many menus? The app should make this accessible in an easier way, and also it should default to the only playing stream, in the case there is only a single one.
To @Antifon ‘s point, this would be good for us that do not have mansions with multiple wings, that require multiple multi-room arrangements.
FWIW my wife and I actually live in a two-bedroomed apartment.
The suggestion that this functionality is hidden behind a load of menus bears no resemblance to reality. The “Your System” screen is more or less permanently displayed in minimised form, with just the currently controlled room or group showing. All it takes to see the whole thing is a flick up. From the “Now Playing” screen it needs a flick down and a flick back up.
But I wish you all happy listening!
For playback functions you may find the web controller more convenient. Go to play.Sonos.com.
