Constant Updates REALLY ANNOYING

This thread is still going? And now it's somehow about vaccination? Exceptional.
😉 Venom would say: "Outstanding. Now, let's bite all their heads off, and pile them up in the corner."

@spydrwebb, it's buried a few pages back, but Jeff had a few comments on this topic 4 days ago. As you suggested though, let's all try to remember to stay friendly and on topic. If this thread continues to head into the territory of excessive and inappropriate analogies, I'm going to close it down for further conversation.

While I understand the sentiment and frustration about not wanting anything to get between you and your music, we also know how important it is to bring fixes and features to people. We'll make sure to pass along your feedback about the frequency to the software team for you.

While we have more regular updates now than before, it gives us more opportunities to release fixes for issues that might have come up. If you're familiar with the community, you've probably seen threads where there's a known bug or issue that we're working to resolve and an update would be needed for it. That update couldn't possibly come fast enough for the people affected. Our team works hard balancing bringing new features and fixes with the frequency of release and many other factors.

As a general rule, we recommend keeping systems updated to maintain security and system functionality. For example, getting new music service protocols and patching other things that come up. Some releases have more in them than others, but there's always something.

There are ways to stop getting updates, but we strongly suggest against doing it, since that also means you don't get any of the mentioned fixes or any new features until you do so. If a controller is running a different version from any of your players, you will get prompted to update, this is designed so your system is on the same build, and therefore compatibility is assured. So if you think you've turned off updates on everything, I'd start with making sure all of your controllers and players show the same version number.

Our recommendation is to turn on automatic updates, you'll be able to keep your system up to date and not have to worry about clicking any update buttons on anything aside from some of our older controllers. The desktop controllers don't automatically update, and neither do the old Sonos CR200s. You have to use a mobile controller to enable automatic updates.

As Jeff suggested above, if you're running into issues every time you update, it's most likely network related and our support team can help. You can contact our phone team for some live assistance in improving your system's stability.

Eh, I'm not really claiming Sonos does have good process discipline as am that there isn't enough information to claim one way or the other really. It's hard to gauge the consequences of waiting to put in a new feature, security patch, bug fix, etc.

And FYI, if I could speculate on another reason why updates are coming more frequently, Sonos used to be a much more closed system. With involved in android and iOS systems, and voice control, they are forced to react to changes made to those systems as well as their own. Again, not necessarily a concern of every customer, but something that factors into to the update decisions.
Completely agree with this. Sure, you could bundle non-essential updates. But if there are security issues - which are becoming an increasing concern as IoT devices become more of a target, or changes on the side of streaming services/voice assistants that potentially break functionality, I would like to see immediate action from Sonos. I think the stream of complaints we would see if Spotify, Apple Music, TuneIn, or Alexa stopped working would dwarf the complaints about updates. What would be the response if Sonos then said: "just wait until the update in Q3"?

If you're not using any of the functions involved in an update, it might not matter to you, but wait until it does. When your Sonos does not even "just play music" anymore, you would rather have that update sooner than later.

Edit: Didn't see Ryan's post until after I posted. Sonos' thoughts on this seem to be similar:

While we have more regular updates now than before, it gives us more opportunities to release fixes for issues that might have come up. If you're familiar with the community, you've probably seen threads where there's a known bug or issue that we're working to resolve and an update would be needed for it. That update couldn't possibly come fast enough for the people affected.

This thread is still going? And now it's somehow about vaccination? Exceptional.

I like to drive off road once in a while. You never know where the path will take you. One thing that's worth mentioning at this point in the thread, is that Sonos updates come out too frequently.

Ok, feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

@Ryan S - thank you.

While we have more regular updates now than before, it gives us more opportunities to release fixes for issues that might have come up.

Not to be stirring up dust here, but shouldn't those fixes be resolved before releasing the software on consumers? I understand that some bugs are unavoidable, but if the reason for more frequent updates is to patch holes in the software that cause major system breaks, I think it calls to mind the question of whether the software should be held on to a little longer so more bugs and corner cases can be worked out.

Code that's worked on by multiple engineers who drive their own ship can get ugly, very fast. I'm not saying that's what's happening here, but it does make me wonder if the software is inherently buggy and that's why there are so many "fixes" being released so frequently.

I get where you're coming from, @pacificdiver, and rest assured, software is in testing for a good while before it goes out into the wild. I have a lot of faith in our software teams as I've seen some of their world and it's quite impressive.

A fix that might be included in a release doesn't necessarily mean that it was originally broken in the previous release, it could be something unrelated to Sonos software that changed, and we had to adapt to it, or perhaps there is something new that needs to be worked out. Also, the fix could be for an issue that developed years ago, update 10.1 could have had a fix for something from 3.4 that didn't cause an issue until recently. I'm speaking pretty generally here, but the point is that just because an update is coming out, it doesn't mean there was a problem with the previous version. However, with regular releases, we have the opportunity to include fixes if they're needed.

rest assured, software is in testing for a good while before it goes out into the wild.
It seems now to be back in the day that I remember that each update spent a significant time in public beta, and prior to that in private beta testing. I am not sure that this release protocol is compatible with the frequency of releases we now see.

I wonder how many of the continuing 'complainers' here in this thread have still chosen not to...

(a) Add their Sonos IP addresses to their routers DHCP Reservation Table?
(b) Switched over to SonosNet and set their channel at least 5 channels away from their routers 2.4ghz Channel and removed their WiFi credentials in the Sonos App Advanced Settings?
(c) Accept the case that wifi network hubs, extenders, repeaters and adapters, whilst sometimes problematic, will need to be set to the same Wifi channel as the router controlling their Sonos subnet.

Just these few 'relatively simple' steps solves a good many issues and yet 'the few' continue to complain, without even trying these things for themselves, or otherwise getting a friend, (with some basic network knowledge) to do these (rather easy) steps for them.

It’s almost like saying “My Table Lamp does not work!” without first checking the bulb, the fuse in the plug, or that the plug is connected to an actual suitable power supply.

All I can add, is that I (and a huge majority of other Sonos users), have continually updated our Sonos speakers/devices for a good many years without a problem. I have 15 speakers in my home and never had a 'dropout' or 'loss' issue arising from any Sonos update process... so that to me, shows this is extremely 'highly likely' going to be a local networking-configuration issue, where the user has still not listened to, or chosen to ignore, the much publicised 'community' suggestions and advice.

I wonder how many of the continuing 'complainers' here in this thread have still chosen not to...

(a) Add their Sonos IP addresses to their routers DHCP Reservation Table?
(b) Switched over to SonosNet and set their channel at least 5 channels away from their routers 2.4ghz Channel and removed their WiFi credentials in the Sonos App Advanced Settings?
(c) Accept the case that wifi network hubs, extenders, repeaters and adapters, whilst sometimes problematic, will need to be set to the same Wifi channel as the router controlling their Sonos subnet.

Just these few 'relatively simple' steps solves a good many issues and yet 'the few' continue to complain, without even trying these things for themselves, or otherwise getting a friend, (with some basic network knowledge) to do these (rather easy) steps for them.

It’s almost like saying “My Table Lamp does not worki” without first checking the bulb, the fuse in the plug, or that the plug is connected to an actual suitable power supply.

All I can add, is that I (and a huge majority of other Sonos users), have continually updated our Sonos speakers/devices for a good many years without a problem. I have 15 speakers in my home and never had a 'dropout' or 'loss' issue arising from any Sonos update process... so that to me, shows this is extremely 'highly likely' going to be a local networking-configuration issue, where the user has still not listened to, or chosen to ignore, the much publicised 'community' suggestions and advice.

Networking issues have nothing to do with the concept that the update frequency is far higher than it needs to be. As for the lamp analogy, you seem to be forgetting that the vast majority of Sonos users are not network engineers.

Lamp Owner #1: "My lamp shuts off at random times when it's updated and it's pretty frustrating."

Lamp Owner #2: "That lamp is a complex piece of equipment and most users don't have problems so stop complaining."

Lamp Owner#1: All it's supposed to do is turn on and off. Does it really need to be updated every 3 weeks?

Lamp Owner #2: "I don't know why people whine so much when this happens . All you have to do is open the lamp case, rewire the internal farfegnugen mechanism and then reroute the ASP overrun through the internal (NOT EXTERNAL) routing port that connects to the Allen port and then you'll have no issues whatsoever. You may also need to disconnect and reconnect the lamp's internal LPA regulator so that it can't cause interference with LPB mechanism, or you could potentially cause the formation of a worm hole that might transport you into another dimension. Other than that, it's quite safe."

Sonos is intended for consumers, not engineers. One shouldn't have to be a mainframe installer to be able to get their Sonos to work, no matter how infrequent the problem may be.