Prodigy I

Answered

My list of issues with new Sonos App on IOS

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 7, 2024
183 replies
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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.

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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.

Show previous replies

D

DiggerDog

Trending Lyricist I

Dont do it. iOS Alarms removed FFS

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/set-an-alarm-on-sonos

R

Rick8310

Contributor II

My advice...do not update the new app.

Total disaster. Essentially inoperative.

I’m on hold presently to figure how to dump the new one and revert to old one.

P

pedrog

Lyricist I

I downloaded the upgrade last night to my iPhone, and was dismayed to find out that:

There no longer appears to be sorting of playlists and stations, making it much more cumbersome to find what you want. Why why would any upgrade remove even the most basic alphabetical sorting of long lists?
There still is not a way to customize the order of those lists (previously, I preceded my favorite stations with a numeral to float them to the top, and assumed that eventually, I’d be provided the ability to do this for real).
Lists are now displayed as tiles with large album icons, taking up substantial screen real estate and requiring much more scrolling through the (again, very unsorted) list. Painful. Please provide a list view with much smaller icons as before.
There is no longer a sleep timer. The help documentation says that it has been removed and will be “added back in at a later update”. Again, I fail to see the benefits of this “upgrade”.

I would love to revert back to the older version of the app, as it was far easier to find saved playlists, stations, etc. And I could easily use the sleep timer each evening.

P

Peter21

Lyricist I

This new app is absolutely awful. Quite aside from effectively bricking my entire system last night (that I could only restore at length from the Gold S2 app on my iPad) it simply does not work.

On my iPhone 14 Pro Max it refuses to connect to my system, constantly requesting Local Network Access even though it is enabled. I’ve re-installed the app countless times, force reset the phone, re-applied the latest iOS, deleted my VPN and ad-blocker and none of it makes a difference. Of course, on my wife’s iPhone 15 pro max (with identical settings) it works so it’s highly likely it is neither a phone or network issue.

Next, having got the system back online, I used my wife’s phone to tru-tone the Play:1 in my daughter’s playroom. All good. I then tried to do the same with the Arc/Sub/Play:1 surrounds in our living room. I get as far as sitting in front of the TV to ‘play some test tones’, hit ‘continue’ and nothing happens. Force close the app, repeat, still nothing over and again.

Why can’t Sonos get this app right? It’s always been useless, and this new version is no exception. It’s ridiculous that 3rd party external apps are able to control their system more competently than their own software. Whoever is responsible for it either needs to step up fast or get another job. This is an expensive system, it really ought to be bulletproof by now. I wish I could revert to the old app, instead I’m now going to have to spend more time this morning on to support to see if they can figure out why this piece of crap won’t connect to my system

As an aside, I obviously haven’t really had chance to even explore the app, but from what I’ve seen who thought it a good idea to have the player perma-on at the bottom of the screen, even when not in use? Just a terrible idea. Also, who thought making the icon virtually identical to the S1 app was a good idea too? It’s almost like we’re being trolled.

Hi, did you get the app to work on your iPhone 14 Pro? I have exactly the same issue. If so, could you let me know, thanks.

…I’m having the same question. How did you manage to get to work on your iPhone 14? Works on my iPad and iPhone 15 but doesn’t work on 14, even after countless reinstalls

rosswells127Author

Prodigy I

@stein067. I have DM-ed you with the details.
Ross.

WordPlay

Contributor II

Sonos makes neat audio stuff. But please, Sonos, stay away from building apps for your gear. Go third party. Take it out of house--and if you are already subbing out this coding, fire them. I’m sure you can find a few retired Apple wiz kids that would be delighted to build you a cadillac app.

S

shed53

Avid Contributor III

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.

Hi @rosswells127

May I ask what 3rd party app you installed?

Like you, I couldn’t believe how awful and how much of a retrograde step the new official app is.

Thanks in advance,

Chris