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As we all know, the current Sonos app on iOS is a big pile of stinking sh*te. I have absolutely no idea how Sonos allowed such an app to be built, let alone released. It does not work. Every time I open it in order to do something, it’s an endless loop of waiting for things to load, having devices not found, devices not responding, laggy controls. Perhaps after a minute of waiting, stabbing randomly at grey boxes, then I can get something to play. Want to change a song? That will then take another minute, if any of the devices respond at all. It really is the pits.

So, without throwing my Sonos hardware away, I go to my Mac and use the Mac app to control Sonos, and that works beautifully, as it always had in the past.

So my question: how do we get the Sonos S2 app back on our iPhones and iPads? The old apps still work, as evidenced by being able to use the old Mac app. I would happily downgrade my entire system back to S1 but I was stupid enough to buy some Era devices which don’t support S1.

Sonos, do the right thing and make the old app available to your users again. The current situation is untenable and shameful.

Use an iPhone 6S - it cannot run the v80 mobile app (as its iOS is too old), so it won’t nag you to upgrade to update and will run the still-functional prior version.

Use an iPhone 6S - it cannot run the v80 mobile app (as its iOS is too old), so it won’t nag you to upgrade to update and will run the still-functional prior version.

I have the orange app on iPhone 7.  Not sure it can be found in the App Store anymore.

No advice here.  But, using an old device is a idea I’ll try.  
The new user interface is awful.  If the earlier app had been this bad, I would never have spent 1000’s of $$ on these speakers over the years. 

Note: I don’t think, if you’ve updated the firmware on your speakers, that the older version of the app will run properly. It just doesn’t have all the data in the newer version of the firmware.

FWIW, I’m running the most recent version of S2 without any (significant) issues. It’s still missing some minor features, but other than that, is fully functional, without delays.

Most often, delays are  caused by network issues, between your controller and the speakers. I’d certainly check the wifi interference FAQ, as well as performing a Sonos network refresh, by unplugging your Sonos devices from power (or powering them off, if battery connected), and rebooting your router. Once the router has recovered, power back on your Sonos devices. This will give them both a fresh IP address, as well as a refresh of the Sonos OS. Finally, check your system for updates, in case there are any that need to be applied. 

 

 Orange app works well for me.  Newer devices all firmware up to date.

Interesting. I’d assume it still doesn’t recognize the newer speakers, such as the Arc Ultra, or the Ace headphones? 

Interesting. I’d assume it still doesn’t recognize the newer speakers, such as the Arc Ultra, or the Ace headphones? 

It has no problem with other speakers. Outside of Setup, Sonos apps don’t care about specific devices, they care about features, which are generically determinable so “new” devices are not a problem. My apps have never had a problem working with devices they have never seen before. Which is good, because I don’t own every type of Sonos device.

(Ace is not a speaker, so this does not apply to that one device).

Interesting. I’d assume it still doesn’t recognize the newer speakers, such as the Arc Ultra, or the Ace headphones? 

 Don’t have the Ultra.  Will not purchase one until the surround issue with the 300s is resolved.  An Ace is coming which was a gift when we purchased a new car.

Thanks for the ideas. An iPhone 6S is workable, but shouldn’t be required. I really can’t mark any as “Best answer” as it is only Sonos who can answer this question by re-releasing its S2 app.

I fiddled a bit with my setup to see how different changes affect the responsiveness of the app. In the previous generation of software, one Sonos speaker had to be wired to the router, and the rest could be wireless. Sonos don’t recommend this approach anymore as they have switched to using Wifi instead of SonosNet. Regardless, I wired one speaker to my router and turned off Wifi on just that speaker in Sonos settings.

It’s made the app much faster for me. Not as good as the old app, but at least usable. Before Sonos whinge “see it’s your network, nothing to do with us”, I’d remind them that whilst their new app is busy being dysfunctional, their exiisting Mac & Windows S2 apps have no trouble controlling a fully wireless Sonos system, with no dropouts and no lag.

So if you have a fully wireless Sonos system -- as Sonos recommend these days -- try wiring one of your speakers with an ethernet cable, turn its Wifi off, and see how you get on. It’s not a solution, but might offer some respite to others suffering the same problems.

Thanks for the ideas. An iPhone 6S is workable, but shouldn’t be required. I really can’t mark any as “Best answer” as it is only Sonos who can answer this question by re-releasing its S2 app.

I fiddled a bit with my setup to see how different changes affect the responsiveness of the app. In the previous generation of software, one Sonos speaker had to be wired to the router, and the rest could be wireless. Sonos don’t recommend this approach anymore as they have switched to using Wifi instead of SonosNet. Regardless, I wired one speaker to my router and turned off Wifi on just that speaker in Sonos settings.

It’s made the app much faster for me. Not as good as the old app, but at least usable. Before Sonos whinge “see it’s your network, nothing to do with us”, I’d remind them that whilst their new app is busy being dysfunctional, their exiisting Mac & Windows S2 apps have no trouble controlling a fully wireless Sonos system, with no dropouts and no lag.

So if you have a fully wireless Sonos system -- as Sonos recommend these days -- try wiring one of your speakers with an ethernet cable, turn its Wifi off, and see how you get on. It’s not a solution, but might offer some respite to others suffering the same problems.

Reasonable advice but please don’t disable WiFi, there’s almost no need to (switching to Ethernet is automatic) and causes problems with surrounds and subs later on.

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