Safe to Update Yet (Reprise) ? - A reversilble process?

FWIW...I have the latest iOS and Android versions. My system runs without issue. That said the model of your device being able to update to the latest OS that it can accept can be another issue for Sonos. The latest Sonos controller may not be backwards compatible to it. You can always check the Sonos compatibility page for device model/OS’s that it will work with. That said I’m a bit confused as to what are Sonos S1’s, a S3, and S5?

Sorry, should be Sonos Play: S1, Sonos Play: S3, Sonos Play: 5, etc.   Thanks, cs

​@csteury 

The links below reference my comment about compatibility:

• Sonos app requirements | Sonos
• Using Sonos with unsupported operating systems | Sonos

There’s no going back. For a brief period last year you could dig around and install an older controller version that would work, but this may no longer be possible, depending on what has been updated.

Look around at the latest complaints about “missing” controller features. Many people don’t think that anything is missing. A feature that you may miss is the fast scrolling in the NAS library. In your version you can scroll by first letters. In the current version this feature is not supported on the iPad/iPhone/Android controllers. This is likely the feature that you will miss the most. This feature will likely return, but we don’t know when.

Also, you may need to adjust your network configuration. The networking has been revised and some networks need to have their defaults adjusted.

I expect that you’ll need to delete your music library index and re-enter it. Occasionally a PC’s defaults must be adjusted. This sounds scarier than it is. No files will be deleted. The index will be rebuilt. You’ll still have access to your SONOS Playlists.

Currently, you are using the S1 controller. The look and feel of the S2 controller is very different and you may suffer culture shock. Another possible shock is that the S2 system no longer supports the SMBv1 protocol for NAS files. Moving to SMBv2 could be a simple option on the NAS or you may need to replace it.

Continued.

While I don’t use alarms, I’m seeing quite a few grumps about alarm function.

With respect to NAS access, I know that there have been legions of complaints, but I've had continuous access to my NAS library via the Windows Desktop Controller. I typically use the PC controller and would probably not have noticed the issues if I had not been reading the community sagas.

Anyway, this is why I’m suggesting that you read through the posts looking for a breakdown of your “must have” features. The situation is continuously improving, but they may not have fixed your feature yet.

Have you considered setting the Roam up as a second system and not disturbing your existing one?

All you'd miss is grouping it with the original system.

There’s no ‘S’ in the speaker names.

If you are happy with your system as it is and you are not worried about not receiving security updates, I’d wait. Your older speakers could still be affected by the update and you might still miss function using your music library.

Right!  Just further confusing the issue, since S1 & S2 were used to refer to an earlier major change in controller, hardware, etc.

To clarify, I rolled back to 16.1 of the S2 controller using an Android apk mirror and then turned off all Sonos updates. (both firmware and software).

I’ve been pretty happy in this bubble; it was only the purchase of a new Roam 2 that made me consider upgrading (since adding it to the system appears to require that)

I do miss my Roam One, since I used it where I didn’t have Sonos speakers (front porch, basement workshop, etc).  Since I did purchase a battery for my bricked Roam I and I intended to try and fix it using some You-Tube  DYI’s, I’m leaning towards returning the new Roam 2 and muster my courage to attempt a repair of the bricked Roam One!  Sonos: consider this as a feature request!  (ie battery replacement)  It does seem like the app/controller has been improving/stabilizing but I have no compelling reason to update (except that I can’t integrate the new Roam 2 without updating.)

At any rate, thanks for your suggestions, perspectives everyone!

As a heavy NAS user I would stay where you are and don’t upgrade.

the features are slowly being restored but it’s a painfully slow process. 

A particular bugbear of mine is the change in the handling of compilation albums and albums with featured artists which all get fragmented now unless you spend time identifying all the affected albums and then adding “various artists” to the album artist tag.  If you do that then all the artists on the compilation albums disappear from the artist list view and the pc version of the app won’t be able to search on the missing artist.   
this was a huge design mistake to overcome a simple issue of albums with the same name (unplugged is the example they use). Why they didn’t just tell affected users to update the album artist tag on those few cases I will never understand rather than making 100% of nas users update their entire library. This is an example of multiple new problems being created after trying to resolve one relatively limited use case.
 

the new apps are slow (doubtless due to their need to contact the cloud all the time)

the new apps won’t work if your internet connection is down.

There is no alphabet scrolling on album, song or artist views so getting to your music is painful unless it starts with an a,b,c etc. 

You cannot save a playlist from the queue. (Which is the default way I’ve created all my playlists in the past).

I have had some very odd results editing playlists in the newly restored playlist editing feature where Tracks seem to disappear randomly. I am working on trying to recreate this reliably so I can document this for Sonos.
 

album artwork in the queue view will appear and then disappear after app / system updates seems random as to whether each version will show it or not.
 

selecting the room / device you want to control should be a one click affair , after all it’s the first thing most people want to do, but it’s not it’s a select system, select device,  swipe to clear and return to the Home Screen if you do it from the Home Screen or if you make the mistake of selecting it from the queue view then it’s a swipe, scroll, deselect the one highlighted and select the device/room you want and then swipe to get back to the Home Screen. 

the new apps suffer from annoying random sonos adverts even if you select the notifications settings to off. 

Subscribing to this thread as I’m in the same position of reverting back to the old version of the software last year and have turned all updates off.

I listen to internet radio stations and my FLAC files on my NAS drive so I suspect I would also be advised to keep the old version for now?

I do find it a worry that it seems I won’t be able to listen to my local music via Sonos if the internet connection was down. Had it always been like this I would never have purchased any Sonos products.