Feature Request - Sonos System Backup Function

Expensive. It means standing up a server and storing a bunch of data. How many systems are out there? Neat idea, but likely extremely costly. Would be interesting to intelligently argue the economics of that, with real data. 

I think that depends upon who hosts the cloud storage.  I agree that a Sonos central cloud storage location would be the best approach, and with current data storage costs not a huge cost, or If this could be generated as a standalone file then the user could store the file within their own cloud storage space.

Depends, I would think, on two things. How much data is stored in your ‘backup’ (just the speakers? Or are we including all the playlists data?) and how many customer’s data are being saved.

I used to be responsible for backups of game player data, it was a lot of data, surprisingly so, and not cheap, at the time, but certainly part of the expectation given our monthly subscription model…something Sonos doesn’t have (across the board, that is, they do have Sonos Radio HD).

But I don’t have real numbers for either variable. I like the idea, I’m just not sure of the added cost. Not to mention the code changes necessary to support exporting data in order for it to be stored. 

+1 Iike this idea. Doesn’t need to be cloud stored. Prompt users when doing a reset. Backup playlists, favourites etc to local storage. 

Hi All

Regarding storage, I don’t think it would be much - it’s just a list of URLs, after all, and as such, highly compressible. Local storage could be an option, but I think it would require far more coding (at least on the speaker/app side of things) and would likely be a manual process, whereas a cloud backup could be automatic and transparent.

It would not be possible to prompt before a reset, however, as a reset does not involve the app. If it were added as a feature, it could certainly be mentioned in the factory reset instruction page, however.

Regarding ​@Airgetlam cost and data storage concern. I can think of two possible solutions to defray some of the cost and offset data storage problem. The ideas are not original and have been used by Apple for years on….

Paid Cloud Storage

• Apple charges $0.99 plus tax_USD for 50GB of cloud storage for iOS devices and scales the cost upward for larger desired capacities.

Granted Apple has other revenue streams to support the administration of such; but maybe Sonos can figure how to cost effectively support such a platform. Sonos might consider buying or partnering with a cloud storage company.

Cloud storage could also be useful for “what-if” Sonos development scenarios for during testing. Although, I suspect Sonos already has something similar in place (I would hope 🤔).

Computer Storage

• Those who don’t want to pay Apple have the option to backup their iOS data to their PC via iTunes directly to the HD/SSD or removable storage.

Both storage avenues allow for a complete restoration of the iOS device. Sonos would have to solve the issue of how to incorporate the backup scheme into its OS. The other concerns mentioned above not withstanding.

Additionally, to mitigate what to back-up issues (i.e playlist, speakers etc) I think the back-up should be all or none.* Fragmenting the back-up calls for more “buckets” of administration and quite frankly would probably be too difficult for the EU to manage. If the EU changes and/or erases something just restore the previous system and then have them consult the Community or call Sonos Tech Support to sort it out.

 * Even Apple with its abundant resources (financial and human) doesn’t allow “piece-mill” iOS back-ups for restoration purposes.

Agreed.  I was envisaging the backup containing, Music Services, Voice Assistants, Playlists, Favourites, and Settings.  I suspect that Devices could possibly be an issue (If subsequently removed), or not even necessary.  

I would suspect that Music Services and Voice Assistants would have to be re-initated as they are not curated/owned by Sonos; as well as requiring a Sonos account owner sign-in to “activate all Sonos features.

Hi ​@UKMedia 

I’m with ​@AjTrek1 on this one - music and voice services would likely need to be added manually, if for no other reason than to prevent us from storing copies of the credentials. I don’t think it would be necessary to store devices (beyond registration) as a reset device will either be added or sold anyway.

Playlists, favourites, settings (I’m thinking EQ, mostly) and the Music Library path (but not the database) could easily be stored, and if compressed, I doubt it would take more than a few megabytes per system - I would not be surprised if all settings for all users could be stored on single, but large, drive (Apple, mentioned above, store photos and videos, which requires multiple orders of magnitude more space to store). And that’s only for people who use playlists and favourites a lot - if everyone were like me, it would be about 2 kilobytes each! 😂