Skip to main content
rosswells127
Prodigy I
May 7, 2024
Answered

My list of issues with new Sonos App on IOS

  • May 7, 2024
  • 183 replies
  • 12888 views

​​​​​​I have updated the Sonos IOS app on just ONE of my IOS devices (thankfully).
My overall impression of the new Sonos IOS app is that it is missing quite a bit of functionality that was available in the old app. I therefore suspect there will be quite a backlash from existing users until Sonos address some of these issues.

For what it is worth, here is my initial list of issues/questions…

1 - There are issues with the Rova service on the new app. When you click on Rova via the “Your Services” rail nothing shows.
My other IOS devices that are still using the old Sonos app correctly show the list of Rova Station selections as expected.

2 - Related to the above point, when searching for a radio station. e.g. “The Sound” the Rova stations do not show in the results and the Rova service icon in the search rail shows with a “!” icon next to the service name. Doing the same search using the old app correctly returns the Rova stations in the search results.

3 - The “Sonos Favorites” rail list only shows 18 items and nothing happens when you click the “>” icon at the top right of the “Sonos Faborites” rail. This should expand the list to show all of my favorites. The old app and the new Web app BOTH allow you to see all of your favorites (I have 30 favorites in my list).

4 - The Music Library no longer allows you to position into your list of Artists or Albums by selecting a letter to position into. This is a pain if you have a large list of albums.
e.g. To play Album “Zombie” by Fela Kuti you have to scroll through your entire list of albums in alphabetical order to be able to select it.
What makes this worse is the fact you can no longer search your Music Library being that the “Classic”  search option which supported Music Libraries is no longer supported.
Again what makes this worse is that the Album list within the Music library previously displayed in grid form, now it displays in list form with 1 album per row so it takes forever to scroll through the list.

5 - When you play an album from your Music Library the tracks on the album are not added/visible in the queue. You there cannot edit the queue to reorder tracks etc. You also don’t seem to have the ability to be able to add songs to the end of the queue or select to play next etc.

6 - The “Manage” list within “System Settings” on the old app doesn’t include the ability to setup/maintain your Music Library settings. So currently the only way to maintain these settings is by using the old Desktop Controller, which I understand is soon to be retired.
So my question here is, moving forward how are we going to do tasks like adding a new Shared Music Folder?

Ross.

​​​​​​​

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.
Best answer by rosswells127

I really like my Sonos gear, but the new app not so much! 
Here is what I have decided to do until Sonos add the missing features and fix their bugs with the new app.

I have installed a 3rd party Sonos controller on my iPad - which I had updated to the new Sonos app.
The 3rd party app has excellent Music Library support and also allows me to listen to my radio stations via Rova. It also allows me to see all of my Favorites.
I have turned off updates on my iPhone to keep the old S2 app in place.

It would be good if Sonos could add the old S2 app to the Apple Store so users could revert back to that version while they work on their new app to bring it up to standard. I do hope that Sonos listen to their user base and get the new app up to speed ASAP.

Ross.

183 replies

Lyricist III
May 27, 2024

Unlike some of you I had a seamless transition from S1 to S2 so this debacle really took me by surprise. I can only guess that they rushed this app out for support of their new headphones? I got a blue tooth transmitter to make headphones work with Sonos years ago.

Trending Lyricist I
May 27, 2024

Have to admit, I’ve been avoiding the new app, but was listening to a record today and went to the EQ section and noticed that “Balance” is no longer available. Sure seems like a pretty basic function to have that has now been removed - you’ve got to be kidding me. 

Ken_Griffiths
May 27, 2024

Have to admit, I’ve been avoiding the new app, but was listening to a record today and went to the EQ section and noticed that “Balance” is no longer available. Sure seems like a pretty basic function to have that has now been removed - you’ve got to be kidding me. 

I see a balance on my iPad controller App🤔?

Contributor I
May 29, 2024

along with 99.9% of other users, i agree this is one of the worst updates of a product in a long time. has sonos ever heard of user testing? of usability? of problems in REMOVING features?

 

in short, the new app is crap 

Lyricist I
May 29, 2024

Ken,

Balance in EQ comers up on my iPhone version….but I still can’t add to or remove songs from my playlists which annoys me greatly. Sometimes the app can’t “load Content” which means I can’t even see my playlists which are now bundled in with “Favourites”.

I have learned a way of tricking the app into displaying the Favourites and that is to save a song (any song) to favourites, than go back to the Favourites bar and there they all are! It’s like saving something to fav’s draws them out.

Still shit that I can only save songs to fav’s but not playlists….

Enthusiast II
May 30, 2024

Android vers. no change. 

Lyricist I
June 3, 2024

I just had a call with the german support (after nearly 1 hour of waiting cue…) and they said that engineers are currently working on the known TruePlay bugs. This week an update is expected but he does not know if this will fix the issue. I also have problems connecting Apple Music (and every other streaming service). It shows me that the service couldn‘t be added (without any error codes). They couldn‘t help me with that either (he started to guide me adding Apple Music through my Mac but then it turned out they disabled this for Desktop usage. So I have bought a 2.000€+ system that doesn‘t support one of the USPs. What a shame for this brand. I am so frustrated…

Lyricist III
June 3, 2024

I think the bigger question is if Sonos will continue as a company.  6 or 12 months from now we will have an answer- but while we all wait to see if the app ever gets fixed and this mess becomes a distant memory, there will be little new purchases so I expect a massive sales decline that may endanger the company.

Lyricist III
June 3, 2024

Over the past week or so, the two Sonos soundbars that are connected to two different TVs have been acting up. Specifically, when watching either of the TVs, the sound cuts in and out. It started infrequently, and now happens every 10-15 seconds or so. What is weird is that when I play music through those Sonos soundbars, they work fine. It's only when I watch TV and send the sound through the Sonos soundbars. It can't be the TV, the cable service (when watching cable TV) or the streaming service (like Prime or Netflix) because when I switch to the TV speakers, the sound is fine.

Any thoughts on what is going on, and more importantly, how to fix this?

Trending Lyricist II
June 4, 2024

Over the past week or so, the two Sonos soundbars that are connected to two different TVs have been acting up. Specifically, when watching either of the TVs, the sound cuts in and out. It started infrequently, and now happens every 10-15 seconds or so. What is weird is that when I play music through those Sonos soundbars, they work fine. It's only when I watch TV and send the sound through the Sonos soundbars. It can't be the TV, the cable service (when watching cable TV) or the streaming service (like Prime or Netflix) because when I switch to the TV speakers, the sound is fine.

Any thoughts on what is going on, and more importantly, how to fix this?

Try a different HDMI cable. Try swapping the soundbars.