I've rolled back to version 16.1

HEOS (by Denon & Marantz). The app is rock solid. Many freestanding products like speakers, etc.

You sir have performed a major service to the community!!

Thank you. App rolled back easily and sanity restored. 

It comes to something when having spent thousands on a company's products you then need protecting from them! 

Long term though I can see where this is going. I think it's time to bail.....

Just came across a response from Sonos on another forum...

I downloaded v16.1 and it works perfectly for me but despite turning off auto update on both the Google Play Store and on the Sonos app itself it keeps updating to the lates app somehow. Last night it was v16.1 on my phone and this morning its back to the latest app again!

Further to my previous post, just worked out that on my Honor phone the Sonos app was auto updating from App Gallery so I've now turned that off too. Hoping that solves the problem. 

Did you turn off “Update Automatically” in the “System Updates” tab in the app?

Yes

Thanks to @ChrisJC for this information. I’ve rolled back to 16.1 on my Android phone and disabled auto updates on the phone app as well as on Google Play store. I was later offered an update but was able to decline which I will continue to do.

Can I please confirm that, so long as I don’t update the app or firmware from now on, my system will continue to work as I expect and that there is no way that Sonos can force a move away from current versions of the app/firmware?

I want everything to stay as it is at this moment while I decide whether to replace my Sonos system with something else. It’s going to be tough as I have 4 play 1’s, a sub, a five, a roam and a beam.

What Sonos have done to existing users with this ‘update’ is nothing short of an absolute disgrace and the recent AMA shows us that they simply don’t care. I’ve been a Product Manager in the IT industry for close to 35 years and I would expect to be fired if I did anything close to this...

I have a question along the lines of @Anton. I have moved back to 16.1 on my phone and turned off Play Store automatic updates and am happy to be back to normal. On my Android tablet, I have left the new app in order to (in theory) monitor if and when fixes and updates roll out to make it approach usability. To that end, I see that there is an update that claims to bring back alarms.

On this tablet, I have updated the new app via the Play Store, but afterwards, am not seeing the alarm functionality. I see that in the app, if I go into the settings and check for an update, it says there is an update. So I am wondering if this update is not an app update, but a firmware update that will change all my speakers. I did note that the post regarding the alarm functionality said it required a firmware update. 

If this is the case, I am wondering if doing this update will modify the speakers’ firmware in ways that will break backwards compatibility with the 16.1 app workaround. And thus, besides disabling Play Store updates, we all must be sure to turn off automatic updates within the settings of our apps (both 16.1 and the new one, if anyone else is doing what I’m doing).

Finally, I wonder how long this can go on. I also use the Windows app, and in the past, there have been times when I’ve started it up and it insists on doing an update and you can’t even use it until it does. Based on the slipshod quality of this new app, I have real doubts that Sonos takes much care at ensuring firmware updates are backwards compatible with older app versions; their approach is probably to just require app updates. If that’s right, one false move to allow a firmware update will torpedo the 16.1 workaround. I have been a customer since the 90s and have 10 speakers in my house that have cost me thousands of dollars. I do hope Sonos is reading all these posts as they claim, because what they’ve done to their installed base with this app and its rollout has been egregious. 

With the new app I couldn't work out how to update my music library and I thought I read somewhere that Sonos had taken this facility away because they didn't think having your own music library was the way to go any more.