@DaveR42. Just FYI, I had DM’ed @unahppyowner with the 3rd party app suggestion.
The bad news is that he is on an Android platform and therefore can’t use the suggested app, the good news is that he managed to downgrade the Sonos app back to 16.1.
Ross.
OK, thanks - glad we’re all on the same page about this - shame Sonos isn’t !
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.
Hi @rosswells127
May I ask what 3rd party app you installed?
Like you, I couldn’t believe how awful and how much of a retrograde step the new official app is.
Thanks in advance,
Chris
DM me as well the 3rd party App so I can get back part of my system. Thanks
I am an unlucky user – iPhone updated app and in one word OMG who ever let this update past RND and TESTING should be fired on the spot – nothing good about this app except NOT WORKING and taking out what was GOD ABOUT OLD APP. Been an avid fan for over 30 years but with this new app – Sonos should buy back all our gear at cost just for allowing this MONSTROSITY to be uploaded by any user of there product. SHAME ON SONOS
Not seeing any Good responses from Sonos. Several issues from several customers and Sonos is Silent. Very Bad release leads to less customers. My system is useless at the moment. Thanks again Sonos for your Great Customer Experience!!!
Not sure what’s more upsetting. The poor release itself or the seemingly arrogant response from Sonos. This is their Bud Lite moment.
If you performed a manual backup of your iPad / iPhone onto a computer then it is possible to restore the prior S2 (Gold) App.
The steps I used were:
- Make sure your backup was done before the new (v 80, black) Sonos app was installed on your device;
- Erase your iPad/iPhone and perform a restore from the backup on your PC;
- Once the device restarted for the first time you need to immediately disable auto updates and downloads for apps (Settings, App Store). This is an important step otherwise you’ll get the new app installed again..
- Unplug the iOS device from your PC and let your device complete the app installs.
The process took about an hour but I’m happy now that I got the prior S2 app reinstalled..
Good luck.
If you performed a manual backup of your iPad / iPhone onto a computer then it is possible to restore the prior S2 (Gold) App.
The steps I used were:
- Make sure your backup was done before the new (v 80, black) Sonos app was installed on your device;
- Erase your iPad/iPhone and perform a restore from the backup on your PC;
- Once the device restarted for the first time you need to immediately disable auto updates and downloads for apps (Settings, App Store). This is an important step otherwise you’ll get the new app installed again..
- Unplug the iOS device from your PC and let your device complete the app installs.
The process took about an hour but I’m happy now that I got the prior S2 app reinstalled..
Good luck.
Thanks for posting this. Do you have experience restoring from iCloud, think this process might work with it? Might give it a shot either way.
Thanks for posting this. Do you have experience restoring from iCloud, think this process might work with it? Might give it a shot either way.
Careful lads! iOS backups—be they direct to iCloud or using iTunes to a local machine—include only a pointer to each application and not the application itself. Restoring from any backup pulls the latest version of your apps from the App Store, regardless of which version was present at the time of backup.
Google it if you need confirmation.
If you performed a manual backup of your iPad / iPhone onto a computer then it is possible to restore the prior S2 (Gold) App.
The steps I used were:
- Make sure your backup was done before the new (v 80, black) Sonos app was installed on your device;
- Erase your iPad/iPhone and perform a restore from the backup on your PC;
- Once the device restarted for the first time you need to immediately disable auto updates and downloads for apps (Settings, App Store). This is an important step otherwise you’ll get the new app installed again..
- Unplug the iOS device from your PC and let your device complete the app installs.
The process took about an hour but I’m happy now that I got the prior S2 app reinstalled..
Good luck.
Careful lads! iOS backups—be they direct to iCloud or using iTunes to a local machine—include only a pointer to each application and not the application itself. Restoring from any backup pulls the latest version of your apps from the App Store, regardless of which version was present at the time of backup.
Google it if you need confirmation.
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.
Great list - but so bad is the update that I could easily add several more big issues to it too! Biggest sin of all (for me) being the inability to created/add to the queue of songs)!
Starting yesterday (Sunday evening), I can no longer even see my Music Library. Before then I could access my Music Library and play songs from there, although the navigation was horrible and I couldn’t see or access any of my Playlists. But now I can’t even see (and therefore cannot access) my Music Library. Has this happened to anyone else?
New APP is horrible 
. Every time I go to put music on, I have to restart my phone as it states my system is offline and not available. The only fix is to restart my phone. Seriously.. SONOS we all pay way to much for your products..before you "improve" something make sure it works! Don't launch and then fix. Ridiculous
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..
You can tell Sonos to set an alarm or sleep timer. I know this isn’t what you want, but it does work until he app is fixed.
What is this 3rd party app please? Thanks.
Update: I got disconnected at 30min. I found a way to roll back, uninstalled new app, re-installed the Sonos 16.1 (arm64 v8a) version. Connected and worked perfectly. YIKES! Not a good look Sonos
an you share the proceedures for rollback? DM me please
I don’t use a ton of these “fringe” features on the app, but it definitely has some bugs. But, I had a ton of issues getting my system set up again after my products were removed from the app. I’m not sure why or how that happened. I assumed it was just a necessary evil of moving from the old to new app. And I think tech services is flooded with calls - I got est. wait times of 70 and then 90 minutes yesterday. Thankfully I finally started to get my products to add. It had been finding my product (which I had to “Factory Reset” before it would show up), but then it said something like “Please have the product owner log in.” The login screen would pop up in an in-sonos browser, but either wouldn’t recognize my login info, or would load the page at all. And when it failed to get me logged in, it took me back and started over again, but I couldn’t get out of that screen. It was just a never-ending circle.
Also, I used to use Spotify and just select “Sonos System” on Spotify app, then manage my playlists, etc. there. At least with that I can also use the same stuff in my car, or anywhere outside the home really.
I was about to say to a friend go for Sonos, their system is good. No way I will recommend Sonos any more. I’m even considering reselling everything and switch to something else...
Same here. This is what I don’t think the geniuses as Sonos understand. Up until this week, I raved about Sonos to family and friends. Given the disaster of this upgrade of the Sonos app (and the lack of any emphathy for or sensitivity to its customer complaints), I will tell family and friends to avoid Sonos at all costs. Indeed, one of my brothers asked me just this week what I would recommend for a wireless speaker system. Last week, I would have said Sonos. This week I said, anything but Sonos.
Same here. This is what I don’t think the geniuses as Sonos understand. Up until this week, I raved about Sonos to family and friends. Given the disaster of this upgrade of the Sonos app (and the lack of any emphathy for or sensitivity to its customer complaints), I will tell family and friends to avoid Sonos at all costs. Indeed, one of my brothers asked me just this week what I would recommend for a wireless speaker system. Last week, I would have said Sonos. This week I said, anything but Sonos.
I agree. I was already thinking about what system I might switch to. I’ve also read something about certain products will not be supported for much longer, and while they may give you a discount towards new products, they were not even going to have been supported for 6 years when they fall off of the support plan.
Now that I FINALLY have my system set up in the new app, I’m finding that TruePlay Tuning isn’t working. It takes me through the setup steps but when I click with my phone upside down, nothing happens and I can’t exit the screen, so I have to close the app and come back. I hope they fire or at least reprimand some people on this project and whom were behind the decision to create a second app.
I concur with all comments from others. I wished I’d never “upgraded” to this new app. A big mistake on my part. And from what I’ve read, many, many other users feel the same way too. The previous version was absolutely fine; worked and did pretty much all I wanted it to do. If it isn’t broke, why fix it ? This version, May 7th 2024, has taken everything away from what was good about Sonos to make it absolutely awful. Items missing such as changing the network channel, say if there’s any interference (for example) from a microwave oven on the WiFi. Before I could change the WiFi network channel. Now I can’t. All my playlists from Spotify are now longer available. Well, they are, but only if I swop over to the Spotify app, and use that, which is an inconvenience and a pain to be honest, then having to switch back to Sonos to control the room output. I can’t add songs to a Q anymore or use the play next function as both are not there anymore. These were essential. So can’t build a playlist on the “fly” anymore. These are just some of the things I’ve noticed that were there but are no longer, due to this very poor “upgrade” which is now, as it turns out, a big “downgrade”. Thanks Sonos for nothing. I’m seriously now considering moving to Bose. Either that, or I delete the Sonos app, never to be used again, and just use the Spotify app instead. I have no idea what on earth Sonos are up to in launching such an awful “upgrade” which, in my view, hasn’t been thoroughly tested and merely, in my opinion, puts Sonos back ten years. Sonos was a pleasure to use, alas no more. This so called “upgrade” is an absolute downgrade of the largest proportions and makes Sonos almost unusable, in my opinion. Hopefully, Sonos will read and act upon all user comments and fix this app, reinstating all the lost functionality, as a matter of urgency, or at the very least, give us the option of reinstalling the old S2 Sonos app (especially on IoS) until, maybe, they fix things. It’s all very well having a nice new design of the front end of the app, but then giving users poor functionality in return, and also taking away functionality, what is that all about, Sonos ? At the moment my Sonos investment has been rendered pretty useless by this very, very, poor, to say the least, “upgrade”. I’m sure others feel the same way as I do. Extremely annoyed with Sonos for breaking what was a great system with a needless and poorly designed replacement for S2 app and then adding insult to injury of not (at least in IoS) being able to roll back to the old version which worked and was absolute fine. For me, this is a classic textbook example, by Sonos, of how to alienate a loyal customer base and ruin a flagship product all at the same time. Unbelievable !
Hey everyone! We have some exciting news to share with you all.
Today is when the new app update with the new design is released, and will be rolled out to all of you during the next few days. But some of you might have questions when you have had a week to get to know the new Sonos App interface. Because of that, we want to give you all a chance to ask some of the people who were integral in its creation and design, the questions that have come to mind while you have used the app.
We are therefore happy to announce our first live Community AMA!
Our panelists will be:
- Diane Roberts, Senior Director of Software Development
- Kate Wojogbe, Senior Director of User Experience
- Tucker Severson, Director of Product Management
It will be hosted on the 14th of May from 11:00 until 14:00 GMT -07.
If you look at the right side of this page, you can see the when the AMA happens, in your local time.
You can also use the “Add to Calendar” button, to ensure you get a reminder in your own calendar, before the event starts!
These people shouldn’t be holding a “community AMA” they should be spending thier time fixing the APP they broke….or better yet reprimanded or looking for new jobs!! They broke something that wasn’t broken and screwed up everyones perfectly fine systems.
They really want to hear from the folks who they forced to use a broken app? Now that does take courage… or stupidity.
