Answered

Sonos has become so terrible

G
Userlevel 2

I’m close to just binning my Sonos speakers. What is going on at this company, that everything has become so terrible?

So recently all my music services became inaccessible on the app, except Bandcamp and Soundcloud. Apple Music, Amazon music, Sirius XM, Pandora, would all fail to load. This has been going on for a while, and reauthorizing did nothing. So I decided to reset my speaker, uninstall and reinstall the app, and try start over. Except after entering my email in the app, I get ‘Something went wrong. Make sure your mobile device is connected to the internet and try again’. It is connected to the internet (and I tried from both ipad and iphone). So now my speaker is just a useless block.

 

Some years back I used to eulogize Sonos and Synology as the two companies that make tech that made my life both better and simpler; Sonos has really fallen from grace since then.

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Best answer by AjTrek1 30 May 2023, 21:37

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26 replies

DGR1
Userlevel 3
Badge +3

You’re not running MS Defender on your iPhone and iPad are you? It’s causing issues at present. 

G
Userlevel 2

Yes, I figured that out in the end. You would think if VPNs are such a problem instead of ‘try again later’ Sonos might actually surface an actionable error message. User experience 101.

After that hurdle I spent another hour of resets and configuring but it would simply just spin endlessly every time when trying to attach to my wifi. In the end I had to connect my phone to my 2.4GHz guest network and attach it to that (my main network is 802.11a/g/n 2 + 5; this is a Sonos One gen 2 with S2 software and should handle that). I set everything up including Alexa, and this morning when I say things like ‘Alexa, play KNKX’, it responds with ‘Playing KNKX on Graham’s TuneIn’ and then crickets. Same with everything else. I can do it from my phone but have to toggle the VPN off/on for the app to work. Great.

What a waste of time this has become.

 

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

OK. So something that’s on your phone makes the Sonos app not connect to music services. How would Sonos know what’s causing this?

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

OK. So something that’s on your phone makes the Sonos app not connect to music services. How would Sonos know what’s causing this?

You are so right….

It's amazing how many people don’t understand that while a VPN on a personal device “spoofs” the IP address to protect them while on-line that same tech can cause problems for streaming servers. Those servers are often matching the “original” IP address as another means of account verification. If a person signs up for service in the US and the VPN spoofs the address as if its in China...well therein lies the problem.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
G
Userlevel 2

I guess you’re ignoring all the other problems I had, such as having to rediscover my Sonos multiple times per day, never being able to connect to my non-guest 5GHz network, having music streams abort constantly (which has nothing to do with my phone VPN), etc. In the end I solved all the issues by buying a $25 Vonet ethernet to wireless adapter off Amazon and connecting the Sonos through that instead of relying on its wireless stack, as Sonos clearly aren’t capable of doing wireless networking properly. The cheap Chinese adapter on the other hand has been rock solid. And now I can re-enable my phone VPN.

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

You did not mention “all the other problems“ in your first post. That makes it hard for anyone helping you to comment on them.

Not all Sonos devices do 5GHz, as explained here: https://support.sonos.com/en/article/supported-wifi-modes-and-security-standards-for-sonos-products

G
Userlevel 2

Seen that; Sonos One Gen 2 is supposed to be able to. I actually sent the Ethernet adapter back and got an Echo Studio, which is working great; I am done with Sonos.

A

Same!

J

Every song and artist I search does not play. It plays a random song or artist. Very annoying and unreliable! When is this going to be fixed? I have 2 speakers with the same issues! I’m about to sell them to get rid of these problems!! 
 

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Did you contact Sonos?

R

Man, these connectivity issues are the WORST! It should be a simple process to reconnect your speakers to your wi-fi system. This is the WORST process I’ve ever been through and I’m always having to reconnect them and begin the process all over again by resetting this POC! All of my other devices keep their connections! Ugh! I DEFINITELY won’t be buying any other SoNOs products.

Airgetlam

At some point, you’re going to need to either fix your network issues locally, or stay away from devices that have a constant chatter between all devices on the network. 

Sonos isn’t a saint, they make occasional errors in software just like any other company, but they certainly aren’t as bad as you’re trying to paint them. There are quite a few users, some of who post here on a regular basis, who have no significant issues with either their network, or with Sonos that resides on their network. 

Bruce
S

Ignore all the smartarse replies exonerating Sonos. EVERYDAY my Sonos plays up. It says I'm not connected to the internet, it says I'm not on the same network, it disconnects during songs, it is so slow, it cannot find artists or music, it completely freezes, it just works like crap! I've tried everything to cure these problems but to no avail. I don't use the VPN as this completely makes the app unresponsive. I'm guessing (maybe, just maybe) Sonos is making life crap for people with 'older' products? Such a shame and I'm thinking of moving on. What a stress just to listen to some music.

jgatie

Ignore all the smartarse replies exonerating Sonos. EVERYDAY my Sonos plays up. It says I'm not connected to the internet, it says I'm not on the same network, it disconnects during songs, it is so slow, it cannot find artists or music, it completely freezes, it just works like crap! I've tried everything to cure these problems but to no avail. I don't use the VPN as this completely makes the app unresponsive. I'm guessing (maybe, just maybe) Sonos is making life crap for people with 'older' products? Such a shame and I'm thinking of moving on. What a stress just to listen to some music.

 

There’s no conspiracy at work; plenty of people run ‘older’ products with no problems, so let’s toss that idea and get some info.  Are these issues more prominent after an update?  How about after a power failure or something which makes the router reboot?  Are you running a mesh based router or have any access points other than the main router?

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hmm. “I don't use the VPN as this completely makes the app unresponsive.” This does shed some light on how some people look at things…….

S

Gosh106rallye, that was pretty cryptic. I really don't understand what you are saying. If you are trying to help, well you didn't, which is a shame. I've never been able to use my VPN whilst using the Sonos, what's wrong with saying that?

 

In response to jgatie. I do have internet extensions and the Sonos is on one of them. Should this be a problem? I could easily set the Sonos to the main router, would this cure the problem? In relation to the conspiracy you felt I was alluding to, I did say "maybe, just maybe" so don't stereotype me thankyou. Also it has nothing to do with power cuts or things rebooting. I've rebooted, the Sonos unit multiple times, reinstalled the app multiple times, reset everything multiple times, and still the app grinds to a halt. For instance, I'm listening to music on the Sonos and pick another track, yet the app comes back with 'unable to connect' messages, even though I'm listening to music on it! Then, because I've chosen different music to listen to, the whole app just freezes and I have to go through a palava of trying to reset the whole app again. It really is a drain on the music listening experience.

I'm not the only one currently having poor experiences with their Sonos but heyho.

jgatie

If you can get Sonos to connect to the main router, either by changing the SSID or wiring a non-portable, non-Era speaker to the main router via Ethernet, that should fix the problem.   Often a WiFi extender uses a different subnet, and Sonos needs to all be on the same subnet. 

S

Thanks for that. I'll try your suggestion tomorrow and get back with any feedback 👍

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Kinda buried but Sonos is picky about hardware.

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/sonos-system-requirements

Unsupported network setups and devices
Wireless internet connections such as satellite, mobile hotspots, or LTE routers
Guest networks or networks that use a portal login page
Networks using wireless range extenders *2
Ethernet over Power (EOP) devices
WPA/WPA2 Enterprise

 

*2 If you need to extend your home WiFi to use Sonos in a wireless setup, we recommend using a WiFi mesh router to do so.

S

Thanks jgatie and Stanley_4, I reconnected the Sonos to the main router and things have become much more responsive and stable. I'll also have to investigate these mesh wifi extenders 👍

J

I am finally tapping out on Sonos.  I come from software/hardware world and the user experience from this platform is as bad as it gets.  Of course there are specific local system setup/configurations that can be a challenge, and not every scenario can be anticipated and test cases created… however, this platform has had historical issues from day 1.  I stopped using my play 3’s 2 years ago because of the unstable nature… works fine one day… doesn’t work the next… every system update creates multiple new hurdles that require customer/technical support to resolve…

i just tried to resurrect the system… had one of two speakers working(actually on the system, and playing music through S2app), and cannot, no matter how many times I factory reset the other speaker, have it discovered.  I created an etireely new account, a new system, and the speaker that was connected, no longer will connect either.  I can see them through the network… no special configurations and VPN off… it’s been the same from the beginning… very poor user experience, poor documentation, who in the heck is in charge of testing and quality(should be fired).  After spending two hours this morning with same results (nothing playing, no connections, etc.), I am out.  Won’t even sell them, they go in the trash… wouldn’t feel right passing this platform to anyone else. The point is, It shouldn’t be this hard to play music over a network… this isn’t rocket science!

N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

I am finally tapping out on Sonos.  I come from software/hardware world and the user experience from this platform is as bad as it gets.  Of course there are specific local system setup/configurations that can be a challenge, and not every scenario can be anticipated and test cases created… however, this platform has had historical issues from day 1.  I stopped using my play 3’s 2 years ago because of the unstable nature… works fine one day… doesn’t work the next… every system update creates multiple new hurdles that require customer/technical support to resolve…

i just tried to resurrect the system… had one of two speakers working(actually on the system, and playing music through S2app), and cannot, no matter how many times I factory reset the other speaker, have it discovered.  I created an etireely new account, a new system, and the speaker that was connected, no longer will connect either.  I can see them through the network… no special configurations and VPN off… it’s been the same from the beginning… very poor user experience, poor documentation, who in the heck is in charge of testing and quality(should be fired).  After spending two hours this morning with same results (nothing playing, no connections, etc.), I am out.  Won’t even sell them, they go in the trash… wouldn’t feel right passing this platform to anyone else. The point is, It shouldn’t be this hard to play music over a network… this isn’t rocket science!

And yet so many of us have resolved their network issues and as a result we have stable, reliable systems. 
 

Still, you seem to be resolute. Bye-bye. 

J

And yet so many still have the same issues.  Truly wish it wasn’t this way…. I make my post to hopefully make an impact with the Sonos product and engineering teams.

jgatie

And yet so many still have the same issues.  Truly wish it wasn’t this way…. I make my post to hopefully make an impact with the Sonos product and engineering teams.

 

Or you could just fix your network.

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

@Just want to hearmymusic 

I don’t come from a professional software/hardware world which I assume you were trying to convey for credibility.

I have a nine (9) rooms of Sonos comprising a total of thirty-two (32) units. I have an Asus Ai Mesh network consisting of three (3) Asus ZenWiFi Pro ET12’s with Ethernet Backhaul.

I can play all nine rooms simultaneously for 30 minutes with no drops. Please don’t misunderstand me thinking that after 30 minutes the system fails. I only ran that as a test to see if my network would handle the stress of Sonos along with other WiFi dependent devices. Let’s be honest who needs nine rooms playing at the same time.

Sonos cannot be treated the same as a cell phone that will connect to a main node or satellite without missing a beat. It’s one device that doesn’t need to sync with other devices on a network as does Sonos. 

Did you ever think to run a diagnostic and contact Sonos tech support for advice? If not I strongly recommend you do so.

All said and done…good luck to find a comparable system to Sonos that offers the same versatility. Yes, there are a few wireless systems with similar capabilities to Sonos but again they don’t offer the versatility and integration as Sonos. If you find and test such a system please let the community know. Heck… your research may cause some Sonos users to jump ship. Although I seriously doubt it.

Bottomline IMO it’s your network, faulty Sonos unit or maybe both. My money is on your network as the culprit.

Happy New Year!

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
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