Answered

My list of issues with new Sonos App on IOS

rosswells127
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

​​​​​​I have updated the Sonos IOS app on just ONE of my IOS devices (thankfully).
My overall impression of the new Sonos IOS app is that it is missing quite a bit of functionality that was available in the old app. I therefore suspect there will be quite a backlash from existing users until Sonos address some of these issues.

For what it is worth, here is my initial list of issues/questions…

1 - There are issues with the Rova service on the new app. When you click on Rova via the “Your Services” rail nothing shows.
My other IOS devices that are still using the old Sonos app correctly show the list of Rova Station selections as expected.

2 - Related to the above point, when searching for a radio station. e.g. “The Sound” the Rova stations do not show in the results and the Rova service icon in the search rail shows with a “!” icon next to the service name. Doing the same search using the old app correctly returns the Rova stations in the search results.

3 - The “Sonos Favorites” rail list only shows 18 items and nothing happens when you click the “>” icon at the top right of the “Sonos Faborites” rail. This should expand the list to show all of my favorites. The old app and the new Web app BOTH allow you to see all of your favorites (I have 30 favorites in my list).

4 - The Music Library no longer allows you to position into your list of Artists or Albums by selecting a letter to position into. This is a pain if you have a large list of albums.
e.g. To play Album “Zombie” by Fela Kuti you have to scroll through your entire list of albums in alphabetical order to be able to select it.
What makes this worse is the fact you can no longer search your Music Library being that the “Classic”  search option which supported Music Libraries is no longer supported.
Again what makes this worse is that the Album list within the Music library previously displayed in grid form, now it displays in list form with 1 album per row so it takes forever to scroll through the list.

5 - When you play an album from your Music Library the tracks on the album are not added/visible in the queue. You there cannot edit the queue to reorder tracks etc. You also don’t seem to have the ability to be able to add songs to the end of the queue or select to play next etc.

6 - The “Manage” list within “System Settings” on the old app doesn’t include the ability to setup/maintain your Music Library settings. So currently the only way to maintain these settings is by using the old Desktop Controller, which I understand is soon to be retired.
So my question here is, moving forward how are we going to do tasks like adding a new Shared Music Folder?

Ross.

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Best answer by rosswells127 8 May 2024, 00:36

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139 replies

V
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

As I’m apparently in the minority who likes streaming their own music files, I’m going to hold off updating as long as it is possible.

Zombie must always be available on demand. Fela waits for no app 

rosswells127
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

I really like my Sonos gear, but the new app not so much! 
Here is what I have decided to do until Sonos add the missing features and fix their bugs with the new app.

I have installed a 3rd party Sonos controller on my iPad - which I had updated to the new Sonos app.
The 3rd party app has excellent Music Library support and also allows me to listen to my radio stations via Rova. It also allows me to see all of my Favorites.
I have turned off updates on my iPhone to keep the old S2 app in place.

It would be good if Sonos could add the old S2 app to the Apple Store so users could revert back to that version while they work on their new app to bring it up to standard. I do hope that Sonos listen to their user base and get the new app up to speed ASAP.

Ross.

U
Userlevel 3

The bad outweighs the good when features are removed. Where’s the queue? Where’s the option to go to the album from the currently playing song? Where’s the option to add a song to playlists other than the pointless Sonos playlist of 10 songs (I know I’m exaggerating but cmon, the limit is ridiculously low). 

U
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Hey Rosswells127 which 3rd party app?

 

 

thanks

rosswells127
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

@ unahppyowner. I have DM’ed you so that I don’t break any rules. 😉

U
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

thank you

A
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Apparently Spotify now has a limit of the amount of playlists it will display in the new app. I probably have 50-75 Spotify playlists and the new app won’t display them all. The old app did though. Ridiculous. I knew I shouldn’t have updated.

Also I find controlling the volume for multiple speakers and switching between speakers very weird. It does not seem intuitive. Maybe just a learning curve there but so far I don’t like it. 

cd6445
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Regretting updating to the new version. 😔 I started notifying others and friends to hold off for now.

J
Userlevel 5
Badge +1

The new app is shockingly terrible. I am so sorry I upgraded.  I am a very long time Sonos fan.  
 

i can’t add to queue, scrolling my library is weird, album art not showing up, can’t update index. 

Klav_001
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

I just updated myself — feeling like I downloaded a virus this app sucks so bad. 
 

Looks like SonosNet channel selections are completely gone? What does that mean? Literally earlier today I had to switch from channel 11 to 6 because my vinyl wasn’t broadcasting well to my One speakers, and that fixed it. What am I going to do now if it’s not working again, just throw out this entire system I spent thousands of dollars on?

 

 

S
Userlevel 4

I wish I read these comments before updating the app… 

No Alarm feature or Sleep Timer.. I use both features daily and now we have to wait until the Geeks at Sonos decide to roll out an update..

Some folks should be fired for this release..

 

T
Userlevel 3

This new app is absolutely awful. Quite aside from effectively bricking my entire system last night (that I could only restore at length from the Gold S2 app on my iPad) it simply does not work. 
 

On my iPhone 14 Pro Max it refuses to connect to my system, constantly requesting Local Network Access even though it is enabled. I’ve re-installed the app countless times, force reset the phone, re-applied the latest iOS, deleted my VPN and ad-blocker and none of it makes a difference. Of course, on my wife’s iPhone 15 pro max (with identical settings) it works so it’s highly likely it is neither a phone or network issue. 
 

Next, having got the system back online, I used my wife’s phone to tru-tone the Play:1 in my daughter’s playroom. All good. I then tried to do the same with the Arc/Sub/Play:1 surrounds in our living room. I get as far as sitting in front of the TV to ‘play some test tones’, hit ‘continue’ and nothing happens. Force close the app, repeat, still nothing over and again. 
 

Why can’t Sonos get this app right? It’s always been useless, and this new version is no exception. It’s ridiculous that 3rd party external apps are able to control their system more competently than their own software. Whoever is responsible for it either needs to step up fast or get another job. This is an expensive system, it really ought to be bulletproof by now. I wish I could revert to the old app, instead I’m now going to have to spend more time this morning on to support to see if they can figure out why this piece of crap won’t connect to my system  

 

As an aside, I obviously haven’t really had chance to even explore the app, but from what I’ve seen who thought it a good idea to have the player perma-on at the bottom of the screen, even when not in use? Just a terrible idea. Also, who thought making the icon virtually identical to the S1 app was a good idea too? It’s almost like we’re being trolled. 

B
Userlevel 2

The new app also doesn’t allow you to save or edit existing playlists or to clear queues. I spoke with someone from customer support who read from a handout to me and it’s unclear whether that’s something they plan to fix or if it was intentional

Q
Userlevel 3

I agree that this new app is a giant step backwards!

Please allow IOS users to go back to the old app as suggested so that you can fix the tons of issues in this lousy new app!

Sonos your much better than this! Shame on you!

T
Userlevel 2

I also got the problem with the new app. i can not start a new trueplay calibration it freezes them it should start it 🥲

L
Userlevel 2

i’m hoping Sonos sees these comments. the numbers of complaints are only going up as i’m guessing, this is a system wide bug...i so wish i hadn’t downloaded the most recent.😤

G
Userlevel 2

The loss of the ability to index my music library in the new app is a potential dealbreaker for me. Fortuantely I have not upgraded the app on all devices. I hope this is a bug\error\oversight and not a new policy but fear the latter.

V
Userlevel 4
Badge

The loss of my music library is disheartening, please let us get the old app back until the new one is complete!

S
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

I really like my Sonos gear, but the new app not so much! 
Here is what I have decided to do until Sonos add the missing features and fix their bugs with the new app.

I have installed a 3rd party Sonos controller on my iPad - which I had updated to the new Sonos app.
The 3rd party app has excellent Music Library support and also allows me to listen to my radio stations via Rova. It also allows me to see all of my Favorites.
I have turned off updates on my iPhone to keep the old S2 app in place.

It would be good if Sonos could add the old S2 app to the Apple Store so users could revert back to that version while they work on their new app to bring it up to standard. I do hope that Sonos listen to their user base and get the new app up to speed ASAP.

Ross.

What was the 3rd party app that you installed?

J
Userlevel 2

This new app is absolutely awful. Quite aside from effectively bricking my entire system last night (that I could only restore at length from the Gold S2 app on my iPad) it simply does not work. 
 

On my iPhone 14 Pro Max it refuses to connect to my system, constantly requesting Local Network Access even though it is enabled. I’ve re-installed the app countless times, force reset the phone, re-applied the latest iOS, deleted my VPN and ad-blocker and none of it makes a difference. Of course, on my wife’s iPhone 15 pro max (with identical settings) it works so it’s highly likely it is neither a phone or network issue. 
 

Next, having got the system back online, I used my wife’s phone to tru-tone the Play:1 in my daughter’s playroom. All good. I then tried to do the same with the Arc/Sub/Play:1 surrounds in our living room. I get as far as sitting in front of the TV to ‘play some test tones’, hit ‘continue’ and nothing happens. Force close the app, repeat, still nothing over and again. 
 

Why can’t Sonos get this app right? It’s always been useless, and this new version is no exception. It’s ridiculous that 3rd party external apps are able to control their system more competently than their own software. Whoever is responsible for it either needs to step up fast or get another job. This is an expensive system, it really ought to be bulletproof by now. I wish I could revert to the old app, instead I’m now going to have to spend more time this morning on to support to see if they can figure out why this piece of crap won’t connect to my system  

 

As an aside, I obviously haven’t really had chance to even explore the app, but from what I’ve seen who thought it a good idea to have the player perma-on at the bottom of the screen, even when not in use? Just a terrible idea. Also, who thought making the icon virtually identical to the S1 app was a good idea too? It’s almost like we’re being trolled. 

Hi, did you get the app to work on your iPhone 14 Pro? I have exactly the same issue. If so, could you let me know, thanks.

D
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Dont do it.  iOS Alarms removed FFS

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/set-an-alarm-on-sonos

R
Userlevel 3

My advice...do not update the new app.

Total disaster. Essentially inoperative.

I’m on hold presently to figure how to dump the new one and revert to old one.

 

 

P
Userlevel 2

I downloaded the upgrade last night to my iPhone, and was dismayed to find out that:

  • There no longer appears to be sorting of playlists and stations, making it much more cumbersome to find what you want. Why why would any upgrade remove even the most basic alphabetical sorting of long lists?
  • There still is not a way to customize the order of those lists (previously, I preceded my favorite stations with a numeral to float them to the top, and assumed that eventually, I’d be provided the ability to do this for real).
  • Lists are now displayed as tiles with large album icons, taking up substantial screen real estate and requiring much more scrolling through the (again, very unsorted) list. Painful. Please provide a list view with much smaller icons as before.
  • There is no longer a sleep timer. The help documentation says that it has been removed and will be “added back in at a later update”. Again, I fail to see the benefits of this “upgrade”.

I would love to revert back to the older version of the app, as it was far easier to find saved playlists, stations, etc. And I could easily use the sleep timer each evening.

P

This new app is absolutely awful. Quite aside from effectively bricking my entire system last night (that I could only restore at length from the Gold S2 app on my iPad) it simply does not work. 
 

On my iPhone 14 Pro Max it refuses to connect to my system, constantly requesting Local Network Access even though it is enabled. I’ve re-installed the app countless times, force reset the phone, re-applied the latest iOS, deleted my VPN and ad-blocker and none of it makes a difference. Of course, on my wife’s iPhone 15 pro max (with identical settings) it works so it’s highly likely it is neither a phone or network issue. 
 

Next, having got the system back online, I used my wife’s phone to tru-tone the Play:1 in my daughter’s playroom. All good. I then tried to do the same with the Arc/Sub/Play:1 surrounds in our living room. I get as far as sitting in front of the TV to ‘play some test tones’, hit ‘continue’ and nothing happens. Force close the app, repeat, still nothing over and again. 
 

Why can’t Sonos get this app right? It’s always been useless, and this new version is no exception. It’s ridiculous that 3rd party external apps are able to control their system more competently than their own software. Whoever is responsible for it either needs to step up fast or get another job. This is an expensive system, it really ought to be bulletproof by now. I wish I could revert to the old app, instead I’m now going to have to spend more time this morning on to support to see if they can figure out why this piece of crap won’t connect to my system  

 

As an aside, I obviously haven’t really had chance to even explore the app, but from what I’ve seen who thought it a good idea to have the player perma-on at the bottom of the screen, even when not in use? Just a terrible idea. Also, who thought making the icon virtually identical to the S1 app was a good idea too? It’s almost like we’re being trolled. 

Hi, did you get the app to work on your iPhone 14 Pro? I have exactly the same issue. If so, could you let me know, thanks.

…I’m having the same question. How did you manage to get to work on your iPhone 14? Works on my iPad and iPhone 15 but doesn’t work on 14, even after countless reinstalls
 

rosswells127
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

@stein067. I have DM-ed you with the details.
Ross.

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