Having just upgraded to the new app, I’m utterly amazed at how poor it is from a user perspective.
How did this get through any UAT? These are basic features every Sonos user has enjoyed for years.
Absolutely ridiculous, please add this functionality back ASAP.
What a terrible upgrade. I have never seen anything this bad.
What I miss myself is all what the others wrote, plus one I didn’t see mention yet: you can no longer quickly mute a speaker inside a group. You can only slide to zero, and once the volume of the others goes up that speaker also starts playing again.
This is all…
I am at a los for words.
Whose idea was this? Someone though this was a good idea? Removing crucial functionality that people actually NEED to make the app useful? An app that has already suffered from ‘updates’ that removed functionality in the past? An app that doesn’t pick up my speakers quickly since early this year, while Spotify for instance finds it without a problem, while Sonos simply ‘cannot find the system’?
What the heck is going on?
No more alarms, volume sliders with numbers, quickly muting, not having to click click click to get somewhere, my gosh this is all so bad.
Idk if someone already reported this, but all "collections" and artist radios (from Tidal, my preferred music service) are impossible to play, as the "play" button just isn't there anymore. I can see a list of songs, but can't play it.
The PLAY button!! Who can design a music app and remove the play button! Please Sonos, fire (or transfer to a basement, where they should spend the first weeks reading all this thread and be ashamed of themselves) whoever made this decision. They should never be in charge of this task again. You can do any mistake but not remove the play controls from a music app. It's like taking away the time from a clock app. Genius! I can see why they think it too "courage" to design this disaster of an app. They need courage to face this sh*storm now.
Artist radio was my daily routine, my favourite feature and now I can't play them anymore. Basically, the system is useless for me because that's what I like to listen to (not albums or single songs) and now I can't. My workaround is to use the speaker in Bluetooth mode, stream music directly from Tidal, which is incredibly annoying because it drains the battery of the device I'm streaming from, plus if I switch to another app, that will stop the music as the other app will take over the audio channel.
Congratulations Sonos! What a joke.
Why would they change all these functions, that’s what made Sonos better than getting a regular speaker
bring it back
It will all get sorted out in due course - the previews for the new app showed lots of individual track options (like Add to Queue), so I’m confident those missing options will be rolled out at some point soon, along with any number of other aspects which have caused such ire on this forum over the last 24 hours.
I would not be so confident. For instance “new search” came out over a year ago and it still cannot search into local libraries. Do you think that missing to implement “old search” in the new app was an oversight ?
It appreciate it must be an absolute pain to have lost this functionality. I can’t guess as to whether local library search is to come, but I also wonder what proportion of Sonos users access music via their own storage? If Sonos feels a section of its user-base is expendable in pursuit of the streaming mass-market majority, then it will unfortunately reduce focus on those users.
The proportion of local storage users on this forum is very high (and rightly noisy at the moment because of the app omissions) as forums for any tech tends to attract the more advanced users - but what is the proportion of Sonos forum users vs the total Sonos user base?
I don’t know, just surmising… Has Sonos made a sweeping decision?? (But local storage search and functionality might all show up next week!)
As accessing and using an existing library and music catalogue was my primary reason for buying Sonos products, and I did so waaaaayyy before streaming services were generally available - if this functionality is deprecated, I’m out of the ecosystem. I will re-rip all my disks to FLAC and look at alternatives - funded by selling 2 x Play 3 / 2 x amp / 2 x port / 2 x Roam / Move / Beam / Playbar.
I will join the AMA discussion mentioned - we have the heads of development, UX and Product Management at Sonos on that event. Sounds like a fun 3 hours for them ;-)
Where's the AMA?
AMA -
New release is not showing album covers from my MP3s. WTF? Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite running Android 14.
I’ve had the feeling for some time that Sonos is gradually deprecating their support for a local music library. The thin edge of the wedge was when they introduced Alexa support and the Alexa skill was lacking the ability to choose tracks from the user’s library. I thought (hoped) that the skill’s repertoire would be expanded eventually to include that. Years later, that hasn’t happened. Then my hope flickered again with the introduction of Sonos’ own voice control system. Nope. And this new app does nothing to dispel the feeling. I’d be willing to bet that by directing/forcing their users to adopt streaming services Sonos gets a cut of the action. It’s all about the money. Very disappointing.
I share everyone’s frustration with the way this transition to the new app has been ‘managed’- and that is being generous - but I have in addition to the functional deterioration an immediate problem in playlists where the tune being played no longer syncs to the playlist title. It is now typically two or three tunes ahead of the related title. My desktop app has not been updated ie still gold S2- where the playlists remain correctly aligned to the music being played. Has anyone else discovered how to resolve this anomaly?
Our Sonos experience this morning takes the cake. We were simply attempting to play music from Spotify in 2 rooms. It took a few minutes to play music in one room, which was a continuation of what we were listening to previously, not what was selecte. Upon trying again, the new music started to play at the same time as the previous music out of the one speaker. I don't even know how that's possible. The prior music stopped after a while so we could enjoy the new selection, but only in one room. 3-5 minutes later, the other room joined the party.
Am at a point now where I don't even care about the multitude of features that are missing or broken - I just want the basic ability play the music I select to a single speaker within say 60 seconds. Talk about lowering expectations. I think I'll just get a CD player.
Why would Sonos do this, can’t even set up a playlist - seriously!!!!
Just got the following response after emailing the CEO:
My name is Teodora and I'm a senior member of the Customer Experience team here at Sonos. Our CEO, Patrick Spence, brought your feedback to my attention, and I wanted to reach out and see if there's anything I can do to help address this.
I understand you’re experiencing troubles with the new Sonos App and I’ll be more than happy to provide you with an explanation.
This feature is not currently available in the Sonos app, but will return in a future update. You will not be able to view, enable, disable, or change any settings related to their Sonos alarms on either iOS or Android apps. For what concerns searching the music library, this is not possible as the new App uses only universal search. To find the music library you can go to the Home screen and scroll down to Your resources. There you can browse the music library.
This revitalization of the Sonos app is our most ambitious software update yet, and aims to address what our customers have been asking us for. It’s a huge undertaking, and we are taking the time and effort to ensure all features work seamlessly and meet both our standards and the standards of our listeners. With this commitment in mind ,some features will not be available at launch, but will be added to the app on a rolling basis over the coming months.
Thank you for your collaboration and patience!
Best regards,
Teodora R.
Clearly they expect us to wait for them to fix this shambles rather than allowing us to roll back the app.
So why TF didn't they get it right before roll out.... There is simply NO excuse for this.... All upper management at SONOS should be xxxx at dawn 🤬🤬
This is absolutely disgusting treatment of customers.... I will be telling EVERYONE!..... to quote Gary Oldman (Leon) 
I share everyone’s frustration with the way this transition to the new app has been ‘managed’- and that is being generous - but I have in addition to the functional deterioration an immediate problem in playlists where the tune being played no longer syncs to the playlist title. It is now typically two or three tunes ahead of the related title. My desktop app has not been updated ie still gold S2- where the playlists remain correctly aligned to the music being played. Has anyone else discovered how to resolve this anomaly?
Hi Pedrodramatic
I am also fortunate that I hadn’t updated my iPad to this new so called improved App, and can report all functionality seems to be working fine including play lists timings sinking and all those lovely extras Sonos seem to think we don’t need.
Surely the most simple way forward is to roll the app back, then make changes an allow extensive beta testing before going anywhere near live data systems.
We can but hope but unfortunately they walk among us, all those people who think the know what’s best for us all without consultation.
Regards
Cp85
Like others, I’m really disappointed in the release of the new version. Not what I’ve come to expect from Sonos as I always viewed them as a customer centric organization, much like Amazon. I use timers and alarms every day. It was interesting to learn that the first line phone support didn’t know there’s were not available. I was on hold for several minutes while my question was escalated. The answer confirmed what was already known, features to be included in an update for which no timeframe was given. Never should have been released without the functionality used for years
Just got the following response after emailing the CEO:
My name is Teodora and I'm a senior member of the Customer Experience team here at Sonos. Our CEO, Patrick Spence, brought your feedback to my attention, and I wanted to reach out and see if there's anything I can do to help address this.
I understand you’re experiencing troubles with the new Sonos App and I’ll be more than happy to provide you with an explanation.
This feature is not currently available in the Sonos app, but will return in a future update. You will not be able to view, enable, disable, or change any settings related to their Sonos alarms on either iOS or Android apps. For what concerns searching the music library, this is not possible as the new App uses only universal search. To find the music library you can go to the Home screen and scroll down to Your resources. There you can browse the music library.
Just got the following response after emailing the CEO:
My name is Teodora and I'm a senior member of the Customer Experience team here at Sonos. Our CEO, Patrick Spence, brought your feedback to my attention, and I wanted to reach out and see if there's anything I can do to help address this.
I understand you’re experiencing troubles with the new Sonos App and I’ll be more than happy to provide you with an explanation.
This feature is not currently available in the Sonos app, but will return in a future update. You will not be able to view, enable, disable, or change any settings related to their Sonos alarms on either iOS or Android apps. For what concerns searching the music library, this is not possible as the new App uses only universal search. To find the music library you can go to the Home screen and scroll down to Your resources. There you can browse the music library.
This revitalization of the Sonos app is our most ambitious software update yet, and aims to address what our customers have been asking us for. It’s a huge undertaking, and we are taking the time and effort to ensure all features work seamlessly and meet both our standards and the standards of our listeners. With this commitment in mind ,some features will not be available at launch, but will be added to the app on a rolling basis over the coming months.
Thank you for your collaboration and patience!
Best regards,
Teodora R.
Clearly they expect us to wait for them to fix this shambles rather than allowing us to roll back the app.
So why TF didn't they get it right before roll out.... There is simply NO excuse for this.... All upper management at SONOS should be xxxx at dawn 🤬🤬
Ok so we the people who keep their company and jobs going simply don’t matter except for being an inconvenience. Well this inconvenience will be doing two things:
1 switching over to a competitor
2 sourcing the device used by the inquisitor in the film Bill (produced by the horrible history crew)
If you’ve seen it you’ll understand if not check it out
This revitalization of the Sonos app is our most ambitious software update yet, and aims to address what our customers have been asking us for. It’s a huge undertaking, and we are taking the time and effort to ensure all features work seamlessly and meet both our standards and the standards of our listeners. With this commitment in mind ,some features will not be available at launch, but will be added to the app on a rolling basis over the coming months.
Thank you for your collaboration and patience!
Best regards,
Teodora R.
Clearly they expect us to wait for them to fix this shambles rather than allowing us to roll back the app.
So why TF didn't they get it right before roll out.... There is simply NO excuse for this.... All upper management at SONOS should be xxxx at dawn 🤬🤬
Just got the following response after emailing the CEO:
My name is Teodora and I'm a senior member of the Customer Experience team here at Sonos. Our CEO, Patrick Spence, brought your feedback to my attention, and I wanted to reach out and see if there's anything I can do to help address this.
I understand you’re experiencing troubles with the new Sonos App and I’ll be more than happy to provide you with an explanation.
This feature is not currently available in the Sonos app, but will return in a future update. You will not be able to view, enable, disable, or change any settings related to their Sonos alarms on either iOS or Android apps. For what concerns searching the music library, this is not possible as the new App uses only universal search. To find the music library you can go to the Home screen and scroll down to Your resources. There you can browse the music library.
Just got the following response after emailing the CEO:
My name is Teodora and I'm a senior member of the Customer Experience team here at Sonos. Our CEO, Patrick Spence, brought your feedback to my attention, and I wanted to reach out and see if there's anything I can do to help address this.
I understand you’re experiencing troubles with the new Sonos App and I’ll be more than happy to provide you with an explanation.
This feature is not currently available in the Sonos app, but will return in a future update. You will not be able to view, enable, disable, or change any settings related to their Sonos alarms on either iOS or Android apps. For what concerns searching the music library, this is not possible as the new App uses only universal search. To find the music library you can go to the Home screen and scroll down to Your resources. There you can browse the music library.
This revitalization of the Sonos app is our most ambitious software update yet, and aims to address what our customers have been asking us for. It’s a huge undertaking, and we are taking the time and effort to ensure all features work seamlessly and meet both our standards and the standards of our listeners. With this commitment in mind ,some features will not be available at launch, but will be added to the app on a rolling basis over the coming months.
Thank you for your collaboration and patience!
Best regards,
Teodora R.
Clearly they expect us to wait for them to fix this shambles rather than allowing us to roll back the app.
So why TF didn't they get it right before roll out.... There is simply NO excuse for this.... All upper management at SONOS should be xxxx at dawn 🤬🤬
Ok so we the people who keep their company and jobs going simply don’t matter except for being an inconvenience. Well this inconvenience will be doing two things:
1 switching over to a competitor
2 sourcing the device used by the inquisitor in the film Bill (produced by the horrible history crew)
If you’ve seen it you’ll understand if not check it out
This revitalization of the Sonos app is our most ambitious software update yet, and aims to address what our customers have been asking us for. It’s a huge undertaking, and we are taking the time and effort to ensure all features work seamlessly and meet both our standards and the standards of our listeners. With this commitment in mind ,some features will not be available at launch, but will be added to the app on a rolling basis over the coming months.
Thank you for your collaboration and patience!
Best regards,
Teodora R.
Clearly they expect us to wait for them to fix this shambles rather than allowing us to roll back the app.
So why TF didn't they get it right before roll out.... There is simply NO excuse for this.... All upper management at SONOS should be xxxx at dawn 🤬🤬
That’s the trouble with this new fangled technology that nobody understands
Having just upgraded to the new app, I’m utterly amazed at how poor it is from a user perspective.
How did this get through any UAT? These are basic features every Sonos user has enjoyed for years.
Absolutely ridiculous, please add this functionality back ASAP.
One of the worst app launch, even if the other app wasn’t great, it was working and provided the basic features which are now gone. Showing images in a demo isn’t worth anything if you are not delivering on it.
Had I known, I would have never upgraded, don’t know if I could have kept old app.
I can’t even select an artist and play top tracks, system stops after each song, never mind the shuffle feature.
These missing basic features are forcing me to use my Music Service connected to Bluetooth to my Sonos Roam to get a decent and basic music listening experience from my different playlists.
Für die Android Nutzer gibt es eine Lösung zur alten App zurückzukehren. Neue App deinstallieren, bei apk mirror die alte App herunterladen und installieren. Und dann das automatische Update für die App deaktivieren. Schon läuft die alte App. Ich habe es zumindest so gemacht und derzeit keine Probleme. Muss jeder selbst entscheiden, aber ich warte erstmal ab, bis ich wieder ein Update durchführe.
I agree with everything Tom_69 wrote. The Sonos App must be upgraded ASAP, or we should be allowed to revert to the previous App.
What is Sonos problem, when they upgraded from 1silver app to 2 gold, they left thousands of pieces of equipment obsolete. But did at least leave the silver app available. This time they leaves everything connectable but without all the structures we have come to enjoy and rely on. But this time we haven’t been given the opportunity to continue with the app we would all choose to use
Cp85
The two main things I do regularly are set alarms (from my library, not streaming), and add tracks to the end of queue (from my library, not streaming)… I cannot do either of these things now. Luckily, the desktop app is still fully functional, but really shaking my head at these changes.
I agree with the disappointed people. My children and I are very disappointed that the function of adding titles to the end of the playlist has been removed. Please fix it and add it back!
just taken ages to find the music libary button. This is all i use it for.
Now found i can not select more than one song at a time, where i used to be able to select a whole folder.
Come on SONOS get your act togther and fix what you have brocken
I’m SO, SO glad I let only one of my iOS devices be upgraded.
Using an iPad is way, way better than a laptop or desktop beside the bed.
After having played around with play.sonos.com
I am left with the impression that going forward;
We as users are being separated from our Sonos devices
Going forward, we will access to our devices via a SONOS API,
The alarm, sleep, playlist, etc. functions still exist on the actual SONOS devices - all easily accessible through the old apps.
I think this is the larger story - we get better cross platform support (win, macOS, linux, android, iOs, etc), with a unified UI/UX
However, we lose direct local access to our devices (which we bought), with a firmware update to the devices, we may well lose direct LAN access to the device
- effectively meaning we may well end up subscribing to the play.sonos.com service.
I can very well see a possible future, when we have;
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