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Harry Slaughter
Contributor II
Jan 11, 2025 5:12 PM UTC

Is the Sonos app ever going to be fixed?

Sonos just keeps closing these threads regarding the broken app. So I’m opening a new one.

The question remains. Is Sonos ever going to fix it? 

Are they really going to a subscription model as suggested here: https://www.wired.com/story/sonos-redesigned-its-app-and-made-a-subscription-model-possible/

I really want to love this product again, but it’s virtually unusable without a working app.

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58 replies

buzz
Grand Maestro
Jan 21, 2025 2:12 AM UTC

SONOS requires a more robust local network than simple web browsing and email because the SONOS units are chatting with each other on the local network. Many users claim that their network is “perfect” because they can web browse. Unfortunately, the network may not be “perfect” for SONOS.

In one “broken” SONOS system I discovered that the phone’s WiFi had been turned off. The phone was using the cell network for Internet access, but the cell network was not available to SONOS.

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Trending Lyricist I
Jan 21, 2025 3:37 PM UTC

I had the same experience as Gindo, from out of the blue. Solid mesh network/router fed by fiber, no outside interference etc. 

My sense of the problem, preface by the fact that I lack the expertise to say anything about it for sure, is that 20 years ago, Sonos really needed to establish its own mesh network for many users. Now, home wireless networks are good enough that the Sonos mesh network is an unnecessary complication, and with awful software running the show, it just no longer works for some people. 
 

I have 2 WiiM units (so far) where I’d had a Connect and a pair of Play 5s. They are somehow able to synchronize with each other, while being independently hooked up to my network. For the amp that replaced two separate play 5s, it is also trying to decode a single stereo signal rather than to run two completely separate units as if they were part of a stereo pair. That seems like a much simpler solution all around.  Also sounds better!

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Trending Lyricist I
Jan 22, 2025 3:51 AM UTC

Sorry, one more rant.  I have gone from 9 Sonos units to a minimal system with a hardwired Connect, a playbar and a couple of play 1’s.  Listening to a Tidal playlist that works flawlessly on headphones through the Tidal app on my phone and on both WiiMs with only that hardwired Connect playing, I lost a part of every second or third song.  Yikes,  It’s not Tidal--this has been happening with every source since S2 came along.  It’s temporary, until more open-source stuff goes on sale for President’s Day and the rest of the Sonos stuff goes, but still irritating.

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Lyricist II
Jan 22, 2025 4:19 AM UTC

Every day now is a big f...king issue with Sonos app.  Earlier it wouldn’t let me change rooms.  Now when I try to select music I just get a continuous circle. Don’t try to tell me it’s my network. I have full bars on my iPhone. This is so pathetic. Why isn’t Sonos responding to our complaints?  Fix it damn it! 

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Airgetlam
Jan 22, 2025 6:08 AM UTC

What does full bars on your iPhone mean with regards to your network? I thought that was an indication of the signal you’re getting from the cell tower, and nothing to do with your local network?nor would signal strength have much to do with potential duplicate IP addresses, which is a network issue that has no outward ’icon’ to look at?

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Bruce
Contributor I
Jan 25, 2025 8:37 AM UTC

I’ve officially given up on Sonos.  The software problems made my Sonos system (9 pieces) unusable, with unexplained dropouts persisting after looong calls with Sonos and various wired/wireless permutations.  I’m done with closed ecosystems.  I’ll keep a Playbar in a guest bedroom, but am replacing the rest.

 

I now subscribe to Roon as my front end.  I replaced a Connect with a WiiM streamer, and two Play 5’s set up as L/R with a WiiM amp and small Martin-Logan speakers.  The WiiM is a far better streamer than the Connect, and, at pretty much the price of a single Play 5, the small system sounds far better than the pair of Play 5s.

I’m exactly in the same boat as you .

I've seven Sonos units in my house and are at the point of binning them all.

The app is consistently getting worse.

I can only connect to my speakers via third party apps !!

 

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106rallye
Jan 25, 2025 10:02 AM UTC

And what have you done yourself to make your system work better? Did you contact Sonos?

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Prodigy II
Jan 25, 2025 6:06 PM UTC

And what have you done yourself to make your system work better? Did you contact Sonos?

Perhaps he personally called Patrick Spence...whoops, no answer.

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Contributor I
Jan 26, 2025 6:41 AM UTC

I’ve spent close to 12 hrs online with Sonos Netherlands where they had full access to my home network .

The problem is not my network, it’s the app!

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106rallye
Jan 26, 2025 8:55 AM UTC

​@Toolio That is a lot of time invested. This does underline the serious problems some users still have. As a work around, would downgrading to S1 (at least temporarily) be a problem for you?

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