The Latest Sonos App Update

Sonos? Hello?

This is a user’s forum.  You know this is a user’s forum.  You’ve been told several times this is a user’s forum.  Why do you keep insisting that Sonos representatives should be answering individual posts in this user’s forum?

Could not agree more. I could not connect to my iTunes library Win 11 for all of Nov and Dec last year. After talking to 7 tech support reps and getting nowhere I was elevated to level 2. At last someone without a script in front of them who could actually think!  He went in the last direction I expected...he said I was lucky to have a Sony TV as he had a fix! I still have no idea why tweaking 3 settings in the guts of the tv would allow me to connect with my iTunes library but it did contribute to the solution and all was well till the last Sonos update...sonos lists the correct playlists but will not access any of them.

Really, modifying code should not be this difficult. I fear that the development group went down the subnet route years ago and have a rats nest of code they are incapable of dealing with...time for heads to roll and real talent to be hired. IMHO (after 30 years of software development).

Hi Everyone

Well, I’ve been using the 22 July 2024 update for a week now (date written 30 July 2024) and I can confirm, for me, it is a bit more stable: less app crashes. This release now regularly, first thing in the morning, reports it can’t find my system. If I stop the app and restart it then it finds the system and works all day. This happens most mornings but not all. So a moderate improvement to stability but no restoration of lost functionality. 

I (we) got, at long last, an apology from a Mr Spence the CEO of sonos. In the email Mr Spence  invited direct response to his email: ceo@sonos.com. I responded with a few questions on 26 July with: 

Hi Mr Spence

Your company has performed abysmally. I believe you have utterly trashed your brand, a brand I believed in and invested considerable amounts of money in by buying your admirable speakers.

To start to regain customer's faith and belief you need to explain how this came about, and how you will avoid these problems in the future: 

• How such a buggy app passed internal, pre-release testing?
• Do you have an adequate pre-release testing regime? Obviously not, so what have you done, as CEO, to overhaul your IT team?
• Why don't you have a pre-release beta testing group who would have spared the majority of your customers all this extended grief?
• Why did you think it acceptable to release the new app when you knew major features were missing?
• Why didn't the update come with a warning about the missing features so we, your benighted customers, could choose rather than it being automatically updated causing utter havoc? This behaviour suggests vast arrogance by you and your organisation, why is this not true?
• Given the bug-filled and feature-poor nature of the new app, why didn't you immediately allow reversion to the previous version of the app to allow time for you to sort out the new one without inflicting it on customers.
• Why has it taken you so long to apologise about the situation?
• It will be 6 months of customer pain before this is fixed, how in any universe is this acceptable behaviour by a previously highly respected company?

Bearing in mind it is always far more difficult/costly to secure new business than it is to obtain repeat business from existing customers, I now have doubts about the future of your company.

I consider it a test of you, as CEO as well as Sonos, whether or not I get a detailed response to this email. That will determine my continuing to be a Sonos customer.

I suppose it goes without saying that at the time of writing , 30 July, no response, only an automated acknowledgement with a load of boiler plate urging me to contact the support team. Not very encouraging although par for the course with this company. The questions I pose are not technical but those only answerable by the sonos CEO, or more likely his office, As they can’t even respond with either answers, or at least a proper acknowledgement and a date for supplying answers then that tells us all we need to know about the way this company is run.

I was an early v1 Sonos customer but dumped them when they issued a software upgrade years ago that slowly but effectively killed my installed system. I was about to add considerably to my system, but once it started to fail, I waited to see what their support was like for legacy gear. Basically they expected users to update to S2 ? and buy new hardware with a small discount !!! Lucky us ! Dumped !!  I feel for you guys .. They are arrogant and seem punish long time users. so sad, was once a great product/company.  I still have a partially working system, limping along with reduced functionality. Great hardware! Terrible software team and management in my opinion. 

 

I’m such a sucker. I haven’t been able to play my local music library for a few months. I use iTunes bluetooth. Speakers have been connecting well and I can use services.

I see 10-15 update. I just couldn’t help myself. I was able to connect to music library without custom playlists. Then program froze. I couldn’t delete queue. I couldn’t force quit, so I restarted.

Went back to what I was doing. Now speakers disconnecting right and left.

FYI I have called SONOS and Apple several times already. I’ve followed instructions. So this is more of a warning that THE APP IS NOT FIXED. So download at your own risk.

(I don’t know what I was thinking).