It’s time to stop adding minutiae to the Sonos app issues

As the phrase goes, Your Mileage May Vary... 

I used the new app for the first time today on my ipad.  The experience was excellent (fast, graphics look good, what's there works first time).  The android experience is in contrast sub-par - slow, graphics look clunky, etc.).

There are still vital and critical components missing - especially queue & playlist management.  This needs urgent attention. 

I mostly agree, but the new UI is known to be buggy and with new version coming out at a rapid pace, it’s hard to conclude that an issue is network or an app bug with 100% certainty.  I generally think the right approach is to first assume it’s a network issue and follow the usually step to remedy that situation.  Besides the fact that network is likely the issue, it’s also something you can actual fix, whereas you can’t fix app bugs yourself.  No doubt, if you talked with Sonos support, they would walk you through network troubleshooting steps before declaring it’s a software bug.

Serious question: You write that . . .

1.     If the app is loading slow IT’S YOUR NETWORK AND/OR YOUR DEVICE.

The app is excruciatingly slow, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do if the problem is my network and/or device. My devices are an iPhone 11 and a fifth-gen iPad Air. The network is a two-year-old Asus mesh network. So the hardware isn’t particularly old. I’ve restarted everything multiple times. What should be my next steps?

I realize you’re trying to be the voice of reason here, however …
If the day before the app update, people were having no problems with missing speakers, unrecognized Sonos systems, or streaming difficulties, and then as soon as the new app dropped they began to experience these problems and others, is it reasonable to assume it’s the thing that hasn’t changed (network/devices) or the thing that has changed (the app)? Occam’s Razor would seem to apply here, no?

I have no independent basis to doubt what you’re saying. I also have no independent basis to doubt what Andy Pennell is saying. He has an extensive discussion on Device Discovery, which ends:

Device discovery remains the most critical fix for Sonos to make because it is a huge barrier for new users: if you can't get your brand new Sonos speaker working, it goes back in the box and is returned.

Who’s right?

Hi @slworona, CEO Patrick Spence specifically called out “existing speakers missing from customers’ Sonos systems” in the earnings call earlier this month. So I think that answers your who’s right question.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@AjTrek1 While you hold what appears to be a polarised “it works or it’s your problem” view of peoples issues, software is never that simple. In reality there are 4 basic categories for existing users and they happen with most major software and platform releases:

1 - Some people have no issues and the update does what it is coded to

2 - Some people who previously had no issues, see issues following the update

3 - Some people had pre-existiing issues they either learnt to live with or never noticed now see issues again or that the new release didn’t change their existing issue

4 - Completely unrelated events which are co-incidence/bad choice of timing. eg MyTuner geo-restricting uk access, Sonos switching off smbv1 with limited communication or warning, somebody reaches their device limit in a streaming provider.

When Sonos as a company and their staff acknowledge issues and that further updates will likely improve things you can’t keep ignoring that not everything is the users fault.

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers%2Dand%2Dmusic%2Dservices%2D229131/feature%2Drequest%2Doption%2Dto%2Ddisable%2Dlossless%2Don%2Dstreaming%2Dservices%2D6894425?postid=16782193#post16782193

If, however, it is the app that appears unstable (missing speakers, can’t connect, or anything that works in the Desktop app but doesn’t in the main app) then you are probably right - things will improve with further updates.

Cooler heads need to come from all parties, including those adamant things are always the users fault

So basically you’re saying if people with Sonos systems that worked as they’re supposed to before the May update, and now they don’t, it’s not the fault of the new Sonos code, it’s the fault of the owners who did nothing but install the updates. 

I think EMF had a song about that… 

@press250 (Shhhh…don’t tell anyone…I knew that. 🙂)

Hold your horses, folks. This piling on is a bit unfair - @Simon_96 decided to jump onto a post from two months ago before all the facts were necessarily known and so whilst, at the time, @AjTrek1 was posting what appeared to be evident to him then, this may no longer be his view. How many other old threads can we also pick apart with the benefit of hindsight?

That said, much of what he says remains true in that if people have issues they do automatically blame the app where it could be a local issue. (There were myriad issues before the app update - this forum didn’t magically appear on 7th May.)