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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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147 replies

M

@CKALOTS  could you dm me how to rollback iOS app please 🙏 thank you so so much

P

Hi!

Just arrived in Sonos ecosystem with a pair of ERA300, how disappointed with the use of new Sonos App. I was asking myself why this hype on Sonos products with a so terrible App and quality of service.

Then I went here and start to understood. Bad luck for me, it was not the right moment to come in Sonos world!

@CKALOTS , can you please share with me the way to rollback to the previous version on iOS please ? Thank you very much 😁

B
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

 

@CKALOTS, can you please share with me the way to rollback to the previous version on iOS please ? Thank you very much 😁

There's no way to roll back on iOS.

P

 

@CKALOTS, can you please share with me the way to rollback to the previous version on iOS please ? Thank you very much 😁

There's no way to roll back on iOS.

Ohhh 😓 I don’t understand how a company like Sonos can deliver to it’s customers a product like this.

Then I will try to find a 3rd party App, waiting for a fix in the official one. Do some 3rd party App has Dolby Atmos functionality ? I choose ERA300 instead of Sonos 5 mainly to have this feature.

 

S

Hello Rosswells127, which 3rd party app? Can you DM me? Thanks in advance!

J
Userlevel 2

Rosswells127 - me too please.

 

J
Userlevel 2

I have just spent ¼ hr talking to a lady on +31852087337 (SONOS Netherlands I guess).  I put it to her that this piece of software should never have been released and the SONOS should put the old app back on the Store(es) so that the disgruntled amongst us can at least choose which of the bunch we prefer.

R
Userlevel 1

Sonos executives knew the new application was a POS!!

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanreichental/2024/05/09/4-lessons-from-sonos-app-upgrade-fiasco/?sh=14e88b0c56ad

R
Userlevel 2

Awful new controller interface in so many ways. Complaints have already been stated.  Luckily I have a backup. Hopefully another more complete and usable interface is on the way. No offense, this release really sucks!

D
Userlevel 2

The upgraded Sonos app is awful.  The biggest issues are with the Music Library function.  Nothing seems to work, or work as well, if you want to access songs in your Music Library.  In addition to having to scroll through every song, artist, or album to get to the one song, artist or album you want, you can no longer access any of your pre-existing playlists, modify or add to your pre-existing playlists, or create a new playlist.

I thought I had myself covered as I only upgraded one of our iPhones (foolishly, as it turns out).  We did not upgrade the Sonos app on our other iPhone or on an iPad we have.  We also turned off the “automatic upgrade” feature on both our other iPhone and our iPad. Despite this, Sonos automatically upgraded our iPad to the nearly useless upgraded Sonos app.  How could they do this without my permission?

Here’s my worse nightmare.  Sonos has added its own music streaming service with the new app.  That means Sonos gets paid everytime I use their new music streaming service.  But since I own the music in my Music Library, they don’t get paid a dime when I access songs on my Music Library.  So, the greedy bastards at Sonos have purposely made the Music Library dysfunctional so that everyone will switch to using their new music streaming service.  Just because you paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

Question:  Is there an alternative app that I can download that will allow me to access my Music Library, previously created Playlists, and with the ability to add to and modify my playlists?  I have nearly 40K songs in my Music Library and this is really, really frustrating!

B
Userlevel 1
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Flawed. Have both Apple devices with updates switched off. Android version was hilarious, lost count of how many functions weren't there... biggest blows are no Sonos Playlists and No album art from Music Library. Re-installed 16.1 on android.

Why roll out.... clearly not ready. 

D
Userlevel 2

You can load an earlier versiono of the Sonos app on an android?  They won’t allow that on Apple devices.

rosswells127
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

@Dr Wade. I have DM’ed you with the name of the 3rd party app I am using for Music Library playback on my iPad. It works well for my needs.
Ross.

R
Userlevel 1

CEO is not gonna revert to old release!

 

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152675/sonos-new-app-bad-reviews-response-statement

D
Userlevel 2

Boy what a surprise I got today … 

Fired up the App … do you want to update … sure … Updated and wow….

The Good News my 700+ Song Playlist still played on shuffle all afternoon and the data still feed my Tidbyt Display… the bad news, well basically everything else. 

The biggest bummer … that 700+ Song Playlist couldn’t be altered. I couldn’t delete songs from it, I couldn’t add songs to it … it took me a bit but I did find the queue and couldn’t do anything but look at it. What’s the point? 

Might as well just switch everything over to Spotify and Airplay the audio to the the Sonos Speakers cause this app is pretty useless in its current form. 

Oh but wait we’ll fix it .. when? Queue/Playlist Management is slated for July? You think I’m waiting till July … That’s a Big N-O! A new action becomes a habit after 30 days .. by July I’ll just be used to doing it the Spotify way, I’d suggest that if you’d like to keep people using your app either FIX IT FASTER or give us access to version 16 and when you finally have your app designed by someone other than a 3rd grader you launch it again. 

 

 

 

D
Userlevel 2

Bought a Sonos SL One today. Just wanted a system to listen to some quiet tunes at the office. Cannot connect it. Same problem with the app others are having - an “infinite loop” of prompts to logout and log back in as the owner. But I am the owner. A problem that cannot be resolved. So I have bought a paperweight designed to resemble a speaker - and feel like one of the last passengers to board the Titanic. Wishing I had a DeLorean and some plutonium to go back to the store earlier today and choose the Bose instead. Will see how this disaster unfolds in the next couple of weeks but a return of this product looks likely. A gentle suggestion for Sonos management: less baseless optimism for a future that may not exist for Sonos, and more information on how and when this will be fixed, please.

B
Userlevel 1
Badge

Assuming you've tried factory reset to address ownership issue?

App issue trickier - apple devices (apparently) can't roll back. Android devices can (via downloads of 16.1 found on third party site) As you're in an office can you use laptop/desktop app? I've reverted to that as a back to the future nod... 

 

 

 

D
Userlevel 2

Many thanks. Yep, tried the reboot. No joy. When next back in the office will give the laptop app a try as you suggest. Otherwise it’s likely back to the store with receipt in hand.

B
Userlevel 1
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Sounds good. Bluetooth is honestly better for portable/small room set up. Had Sonos since it started, but also have an old Cambridge speaker which does the job. 

S

Absolutely Agree with Ross.  Updated Sonos on my IPad then promptly lost ability to control TV volume.  The help desk was no help, other to apologize for the problem.  We were told the engineers are working on it but there was no ability to give us a tentative date for the fix.  We also lost ability to stream music on Pandora.  Why can’t Sonos give us back the prior version until all the issues are corrected?  

 

S
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

When Sonos launched the S2 app, they left S1 available so users of older hardware could still control it.  Why on earth can’t they do the same for S2 now? 

Actualy, I do know the answer, but it’s not printable, or repeatable in polite society.

B
Userlevel 1
Badge +1

As others have said —- the missing ability to go the album from the individual song is a huge oversight.  I use this all the time — I like the song I am hearing and so I bounce to more about the artist or play the album.  And now they have taken away this very useful feature? WTF, Sonos?  As far as I can tell so far the new app brings zero useful additional functionality. 

D
Userlevel 2

Hey Rosswells127 which 3rd party app?

 

 

thanks

Try SonoPhone - it’s 2 bucks but they must be making a fortune replacing the disgusting UI and loss of features from the “updated“ S2 IOS app.

rosswells127
Userlevel 6
Badge +6

@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.

P
Badge +2

Do Not Download this last update...it’s absolutely disgraceful!

I can’t add new songs to my current Sonos playlists from my iPhone 13:  I can save songs to Songs favourites but not directly to Sonos playlist….I can’t delete unwanted songs from my Sonos Playlists on same phone! 

My Sonos playlists ( I only have 4-5) are now now bundled in with Favourites instead of having a stand alone section which is probably why I can’t now save songs directly to those playlists!!

Now the app is unable to load content to Favourites so I can’t even see my playlists to access the music. This often happened with the old app version but Playlists would eventually reappear with time. 

The Sonos speaker system is pretty good but there are other speaker systems available that are also pretty good which have far far better software to access music.

Really the Sonos app has always been rubbish but I persevere because I’ve invested in the system.

The app is required to use the speaker system but the app is the very weak link in the set up! Sonos have had years and years to get this right and have only gotten worse effectively rendering my Sonos speaker system inoperable….. Why do I want to retain a sound system that can’t be played??

I’m truly going to consider replacing my entire Sonos system with another brand..I’m that sick and tired of it!

 

Beware the “sunk cost fallacy,” which these closed ecosystems absolutely thrive on, and escape before more money is wasted (I too have wasted mine).

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