New Sonos app removes key features - beware!

Hard to imagine the capability of the UX team in assembling a cup of coffee, let alone a multi billion dollar company flagship product. 

Removal of volume numbers is an intentional dumbing of an already dumb product. This will literally stop me buying Sonos in the future. 

I’ve just realised that I have an iPhone 12 Pro sat in a box which still carries the S2 Gold app. Currently charging it up to make use of that as a dedicated Sonos controller until something better happens to come over the air for the absolute shambles this latest iteration of their idea of a controller is! This kind of takes me back to when they previously removed functionality from using older iOs software that then bricked an original ipad which we had mounted in the kitchen as the primary controller for both of us to use. Life shouldn’t be so hard …..

Well Valleyman

It’s not getting any better, today as I quite often do, I turned up the volume on my system (management having gone out). It seemed a little lacklustre to say the least, so and only for the purpose of scientific research, I took it all the way to the max. What did I find? about 20% of the power it used to have before this catastrophic upgrade. I then tried to take it further using the speaker buttons, but alas no further gain. I switched it all back down, then off, rebooted the system with the old gold app but again no further progress was achieved. 
so does this mean they have frigged around with the firmware on the speakers or the port?

I am very tempted to box the entire system up and ship it all to Mr CEO at his home address, the only thing stopping me is I will have wasted even more money on this s£&t system.

Still no response to the email I sent him last week what an absolute shit show

cp85

They’ve doubled down and don’t intend any immediate relief, even though they could easily allow people to roll back, they won’t.  They need to sell headphones apparently.  Like I’d buy anything from Sonos ever again?  They can take those headphones and put them where the Sun doesn’t shine.

THANK YOU!!! This helped me fix the issue I was having with setting my TV Sound Bar as the source for the rest of the rooms!  “Swiping it up opens Your System”

The most recent Sonos upgrade is USER HOSTILE.  Basic functionality like ADD TO QUEUE, PLAY NEXT, Fastforward 30 seconds, and Rewind 15 are gone.    Will this be fixed?  

This update is total crap, can’t play music from my NAS anymore like I used to, I can only add one song at a time to the queue and we don’t even have the option to rollback to the previous version. I was thinking of buying extra speakers for some rooms in my house, but that’s on hold now, and if this doesn’t get fixed ASAP, I’m replacing this pretty expensive Sonos system with something that actually works…

Update: I luckily found instructions (on https://techissuestoday.com) on how to roll back to the previous version of the S2 app, disabled the auto update and for now it’s working again as it did before. I’m not updating on phones of desktop again before they get this fixed in a descent way...

You can roll back to the previous version but the crap one reinstalls apparently overnight even with updates turned off. Now have a port that won't work as the firmware update fails with error 1000. 

Bei mir ist das nicht der Fall. Die alte s2 Version läuft wieder ohne Probleme. 

If you go into Google Play Store, list the available updates and then click on the Sonos update that is available, you can disable the auto-update feature for the app there (top right corner). It should not be updated automatically by the Google Play Store anymore if you do that. Also make sure to disable the auto-update feature in the Sonos app too of course.

This update is terrible.  Do others have problems with speakers constantly dropping and not being able to connect or found?     The hassle isn’t worth it.   Glad I didn’t get any more components.   Look for sale on ebay.  What a bad company with terrible customer service.  

15 speaker system here. Long time sonos ambassador. When will we get an update on app corrections?

Just another voice to the chorus giving a hearty thumbs down to this new app.  S1 worked fine for me.  S2 was a step in the wrong direction and introduced the issue of playing songs from Apple Music which are owned/downloaded (most of which I burned directly from CDs eons ago).  The new app continues the S2 problems and takes them up a notch with the least intuitive UI that I’ve encountered in a long time.

Headphones or no headphones, why would you ever roll out a new app without significantly more feedback from Beta testing?!

Android S2 version 80.01.07 dated 17th May. Just as crappy as original release, many options still not available and connection either very slow or not at all.

I’ve not been able to use either of my One’s since the update.
Factory reset hasn’t helped, they simply won’t join - doesn’t matter how many times I reset and go through the process - which claims to be successful the devices never appear in the app.

Doesn’t matter if I use an iPad or an Android phone - probably a legal claim here that they’ve broken it.

I intended to not upgrade. Today I notice I am forced to upgrade, or not be able to use my speakers. Right now, the only thing that works is using my speakers with tv sound. I have no control over my system. I think after 15+ years with Sonos, I’ve had enough. This is absolute BS. I have invested so much in Sonos over the years. What a disappointment. 
 

I guess I never imagined that one day Sonos would flip a switch and force my system unusable.  I think the real courage will be me selling every piece of my Sonos equipment and accepting the loss. I mean…what is Sonos thinking? I’m just going to stop listening to my system while they work through their issues until July or so? Honestly, the more I think about it….the more it sounds like a class action lawsuit. This is ridiculous. 

Someone should be fired for greenlighting an “update” that has done nothing but alienate and/or infuriate your customers.  Hello???

One more of these adverse software events and there are going to be 3 more sonos units on ebay (for cheap) 

They’re actually paying someone to respond with that blather?  She would have saved valuable time just writing “F you all.”  Because that’s the essence of her answer.

PLEASE MAKE OLD VERSION AVAILABLE ON APP STORE!! The new one is a travesty.

The reply I received from Sonos after my email to Sonos CEO followed by my response. What I find particularly galling bordering on pathetic is that they claim there are improvements!
 

“First, we’d like to thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us and with our CEO, Patrick. We’ve received a great deal of feedback thus far, on both the improvements made as well as where we fell short. We expect that feedback will continue to roll in, so we’ll be working through it all in the coming weeks. 

We are incredibly proud of the work that was done to deliver the new Sonos App to the world, but we also recognize that there’s still plenty of work to be done, and want to provide you with an update. 

First, we heard loud and clear that removing Alarms from the Sonos App was disruptive for many users, so we prioritized and reintroduced Alarms to the App not long after launch. If you are missing this feature, ensure that your Sonos App and products are all up to date.

Next, an update about additional features coming soon:

• Additional improvements to screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
• Adding to queue and playing next: early June
• Sleep timer: mid-June
• Snooze alarms: mid-June
• Local music library search and playback: mid-June
• Update Wi-Fi settings: mid-June

Thank you again for sharing your feedback with us. We’re working hard to bring these features to the new Sonos App quickly while also resolving bugs and improving the overall experience. If you are experiencing an issue with your Sonos System, feel free to contact us. Alternatively, we’ve included some helpful resources below:”

My response: 

Unacceptable. Why release the app with these key features missing and then expect people to wait for future releases?

You are incredibly proud of a disastrous release which has removed basic features used by thousands of listeners, that says nothing for your corporate standards and hugely damages your reputation. 

You remain deaf to users requests to roll back to the gold S2 UI which gave use pretty much all we wanted. It is your corporate decision to tell us what we ‘want’ rather than listen to what we ask for which has alienated a huge proportion of your customer base. 

I can’t even find the settings to set 2 new Sonos Ports both into “Fixed Volume” as I am connecting them to a multi zone amp that is handling the volume via a control system. This seems like an absolute disaster of an app release….. Now I am having to leave an existing Port that was previously configured using old app on fixed volume, whilst leaving 2 new units with variable. This is insane. 

I am an infrequent user, just a “family installer” but it is so annoying - the feature set is atrocious…but I was amused by the responsiveness being so poor I often failed to drunkenly select the wrong song. I sat there several times waiting the multiple seconds for a reaction and laughed when I realised nothing was going to happen. Glad I don’t have it at home though

I would be far more agitated if the system I installed it on wasn’t pensioners (unlikely to notice by the time sonos fix their f up). It’s not good enough given what you’re paying for is largely the software and streaming integration.

When I saw there was an s2 update I was excited. I thought there would be some new features like being able to order things by track title/artist so that it would be easy to remove duplicates. Or a more useful search for classical music which is notoriously difficult to search when what you want to know is things like a combination of composer, key, movement, recording artist etc.

But instead, I actually lost all of my playlists and, as far as I can tell, the ability to create new ones. In fact most of the old functionality appears to have disappeared and the new functionality doesn’t seem to work. At the top of the Home Screen I just see a bunch of empty boxes where, I think, I should be seeing stuff like recently played or favourites. In addition, it appears to have terrible lag when trying to access any of my speakers. Every time I open the app it comes up with a system not found message and I have to wait for a while or restart it or both before the speakers appear. Event then the controls still take a while to kick in.

I would say that this looks like they have released a beta version, which is crazy. Sonos say they are going to fix it in the coming days/weeks. How long? We need an option to roll back to the previous - working - version until they have something that has been properly tested, including with some users and collected their feedback.

I have been using the app on my android (Samsung) phone and android tablet. Same issues on both. 

The recent Sonos System Upgrade is NOT, it’s a Downgrade!   I always enjoyed using the “Deep Cuts” and other secondary features to hear new music and find new artists. 

I wish I would have checked with the Sonos Community before I accepted the download.