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How is it possible that sonos is so bad?

  • 30 September 2023
  • 8 replies
  • 155 views

It's actually unbelievable.

I've never not had issues with it. 

From the app failing to open properly or update or connect to the Internet, to not being able to find items. 

Now I'm trying to add a sub and it tells me it can't verify the app that I updated within the last week. 

There is literally always something going wrong. Do you even have a UX team? Sack them all if so

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Best answer by jgatie 30 September 2023, 02:53

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8 replies

15 years, never had a problem.  As reliable as a concrete doorstop.

 

What did Sonos Support say when you called them?

Hard to tell from a single data point, but if I were to guess, there’s some reason why Sonos can’t reach out across the internet to get data. That could easily be a firewall, or VPN, or a company setup on the iOS device which doesn’t tell you, but includes a VPN. Or port blocking software, or any of perhaps a dozen other potential issues that we have zero information on. From the screen share you posted, I’m guessing some sort of iOS device, which iOS version on what device? Which version of the Sonos software are you running? What speaker are you attempting to connect to?  Did your system ever work?

If you want assistance from the community, which this is, you’re going to need to provide a lot more information, since we don’t have access to Sonos diagnostics that you submit and call in about. 

It’s an android device and it was the VPN stopping it from working.

But even that is painful, why can’t it work through a VPN like every other thing in the world?

And why doesn’t Sonos suggest VPN could be the issue instead of just giving you the error code as though it’s Windows 3.1. VPN isn’t even mentioned in the “more information” section.

A regular user of a modern product shouldn’t have to consult the community nearly every time they seek to make a change

Sonos uses UPnP, which needs all devices on the same subnet.  By definition, a VPN puts your controller device on another subnet.

Userlevel 2
Badge +2

Depending on the VPN you can usually allow programs /apps to bypass the VPN so everything will work even though the VPN is on. 

Userlevel 1
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It’s an android device and it was the VPN stopping it from working.

But even that is painful, why can’t it work through a VPN like every other thing in the world?

And why doesn’t Sonos suggest VPN could be the issue instead of just giving you the error code as though it’s Windows 3.1. VPN isn’t even mentioned in the “more information” section.

A regular user of a modern product shouldn’t have to consult the community nearly every time they seek to make a change

 

To be fair it's in the requirements, that the app needs to be in the same subnet as the speakers. 

https://support.sonos.com/en-au/article/sonos-system-requirements

 

BUT as Sonos moves to a more cloud-based approach (with search engine), I think this could change in your favor in the (near?) future. Other Smart Home Apps already show it. If you could control the Sonos app via the cloud like Alexa or Spotify, this would open the door for different setups like vpn or remote use. 

Userlevel 7
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And would probably make it impossible to have a system without internet access, that especially long term Sonos owners could have.