Is there any way to put a password on your sonos system?

Unfortunately the silence from Sonos is deafening. Not even their technical people have replied to the idea.

The suggestion that I might want to invest in a seven or eight zone system is rapidly disappearing over the horizon. Some open-ness on Sonos's part would go a long way to allaying fears that it is simply another betamax!

I'm sorry but that's just a stupid comment, Sonos is the BIGGEST player in this market (by quite some margin as well), it occupies most of the top ten on Amazon's wireless speaker sales chart, to suggest it's "another Betamax" simply because it doesn't offer password protection is a ridiculous thing to say.

If you don't want Sonos, go and buy a 7 or 8 zone system from a competitor that DOES offer password protection. Good luck with that. The point of these systems is that they are as simple to setup and operate as possible, sticking passwords or PIN codes at every stage does not qualify on that front. I can already imagine the number of "Why does Sonos keep asking me for a password?" threads that would appear on here if they did implement something like this.

Yesterday I installed Sonos connect and connect amp in a business where the two zones accomodate both the CEO's office and a separate zone for the sales offices. My first inclination was to find a way to isolate the two from a permission standpoint so there would be no accidental streaming to one zone or the other. I couldn't find it so I started searching and came here for advice, I cannot believe there isn't a simple feature to password protect or even hide zones. This seems like a very basic and doable tool to implement.

Set the two zones up as separate households.

Hi ratty, can you please explain a little bit?
Thanks,
Kevin

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't you a professional Sonos installer?

Is there still no fix on this? I live in an apartment with two friends, I know of I put a sonos speaker in my room and forget to unplug it, I'm going to be constantly woken up.

Are their other systems out there where you are able to password protect or lock to specific device/s?

Is there still no fix on this? I live in an apartment with two friends, I know of I put a sonos speaker in my room and forget to unplug it, I'm going to be constantly woken up.
They're not exactly 'friends' then.

If you set your Sonos up as one system, and there's another Sonos system in the house, then your so-called friends would need to invade your room to register a controller app on their phones by pushing buttons on your speaker. If yours is the only Sonos in the house then you'd have to deliberately create a second Sonos system, otherwise a controller app would automatically find your Sonos unit. A second system can be as small as a BRIDGE, bought off eBay.

Are their other systems out there where you are able to password protect or lock to specific device/s?

This is a Sonos board.

The point of these systems is that they are as simple to setup and operate as possible, sticking passwords or PIN codes at every stage does not qualify on that front. I can already imagine the number of "Why does Sonos keep asking me for a password?" threads that would appear on here if they did implement something like this.

As with many modern devices, the passcode could be optional- just like securing a WiFi Router can be optional. SONOS can be left wide open with no passcode for those users who don't require one.

I'm really hoping that my google-fu is bad and that this is STILL not an open issue. A simple pin code for pairing devices to a sonos net... doesn't even need to be user accounts for Pete's sake. Maybe some zones get an additional pin code when first trying to control (like the bedroom, kid's room, etc.). It doesnt' have to be Fort Knox, just enough to deter mild abuse or accidental control.

With 6 zones I'm a bit invested in SONOS and love it, but it's not perfect, and not without its competition. I selfishly want to see SONOS trump the competition so that I don't end up with 6 BetaMax players :)

I wanted to amend this post with an anecdote of a recent experience. As an IT consultant, I'm in and out of a lot of different environments. Most recently, I was in the home of a CEO of one of my clients setting up a remote workstation. Seems they were having weird issues with their 8 zone SONOS system so I took a moment to look into it. Seems her teenage son and his friends were accessing the SONOS and changing settings, music queues, etc. When she expressed doubt that they could do this, I very effectively demonstrated this shortcoming by taking out my mobile phone, connecting to her SONOS, and piping Country music all over the house. Now, while I needed to be on her WiFi to do this, keep in mind that teenagers in the house are going to be on and know the wifi code, so it follows that their friends will be on the wifi as well. As a partial mitigation to this, I setup a guest wifi in the house with no access to the local subnet, but this still relies on the main wifi password not being used or discovered - a difficult task that anyone with kids can attest to.

So- the need still stands- an integral/optional method to connect to SONOS.

This thread is hilarious. Every concerned message requesting even the most basic form of password, PIN or any other protective feature is countered by answers such as "discipline your children", "get new friends", "hope your job wasn't affected", "get different roommates", "don't share your wifi" and so on.

Sonos is the leader in their field, but providing absolutely zero support for device control protection is just plain crazy. Submitting requests for any such protection is like throwing rocks into a deep pit... satisfying for a bit, but ultimately just a waste of time.

Perhaps someone at Sonos will do a quick web search for "how to add password protection to an application" and things will change. But seeing as this thread is several years old, I'm not going to bet any money on it.

Keep the requests coming, folks! I love reading the responses written in Sonos' defense. 🙂