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rosswells127
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.

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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.

    183 replies

    Show previous replies
    Jeremy B
    Lyricist III
    May 10, 2024

    Rosswells127 - me too please.

     

    Jeremy B
    Lyricist III
    May 10, 2024

    I have just spent ¼ hr talking to a lady on +31852087337 (SONOS Netherlands I guess).  I put it to her that this piece of software should never have been released and the SONOS should put the old app back on the Store(es) so that the disgruntled amongst us can at least choose which of the bunch we prefer.

      rtarabour
      Contributor I
      May 10, 2024

      Sonos executives knew the new application was a POS!!

       

      https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanreichental/2024/05/09/4-lessons-from-sonos-app-upgrade-fiasco/?sh=14e88b0c56ad

        Rgthomas
        Lyricist II
        May 10, 2024

        Awful new controller interface in so many ways. Complaints have already been stated.  Luckily I have a backup. Hopefully another more complete and usable interface is on the way. No offense, this release really sucks!

          Dr. Wade
          Lyricist III
          May 10, 2024

          The upgraded Sonos app is awful.  The biggest issues are with the Music Library function.  Nothing seems to work, or work as well, if you want to access songs in your Music Library.  In addition to having to scroll through every song, artist, or album to get to the one song, artist or album you want, you can no longer access any of your pre-existing playlists, modify or add to your pre-existing playlists, or create a new playlist.

          I thought I had myself covered as I only upgraded one of our iPhones (foolishly, as it turns out).  We did not upgrade the Sonos app on our other iPhone or on an iPad we have.  We also turned off the “automatic upgrade” feature on both our other iPhone and our iPad. Despite this, Sonos automatically upgraded our iPad to the nearly useless upgraded Sonos app.  How could they do this without my permission?

          Here’s my worse nightmare.  Sonos has added its own music streaming service with the new app.  That means Sonos gets paid everytime I use their new music streaming service.  But since I own the music in my Music Library, they don’t get paid a dime when I access songs on my Music Library.  So, the greedy bastards at Sonos have purposely made the Music Library dysfunctional so that everyone will switch to using their new music streaming service.  Just because you paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

          Question:  Is there an alternative app that I can download that will allow me to access my Music Library, previously created Playlists, and with the ability to add to and modify my playlists?  I have nearly 40K songs in my Music Library and this is really, really frustrating!

            B33Jay
            Enthusiast II
            May 10, 2024

            Flawed. Have both Apple devices with updates switched off. Android version was hilarious, lost count of how many functions weren't there... biggest blows are no Sonos Playlists and No album art from Music Library. Re-installed 16.1 on android.

            Why roll out.... clearly not ready. 

              Dr. Wade
              Lyricist III
              May 10, 2024

              You can load an earlier versiono of the Sonos app on an android?  They won’t allow that on Apple devices.

              rosswells127
              rosswells127Author
              Prodigy I
              May 10, 2024

              @Dr Wade. I have DM’ed you with the name of the 3rd party app I am using for Music Library playback on my iPad. It works well for my needs.
              Ross.

                rtarabour
                Contributor I
                May 10, 2024

                CEO is not gonna revert to old release!

                 

                https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152675/sonos-new-app-bad-reviews-response-statement

                  Drenn
                  Lyricist II
                  May 11, 2024

                  Boy what a surprise I got today … 

                  Fired up the App … do you want to update … sure … Updated and wow….

                  The Good News my 700+ Song Playlist still played on shuffle all afternoon and the data still feed my Tidbyt Display… the bad news, well basically everything else. 

                  The biggest bummer … that 700+ Song Playlist couldn’t be altered. I couldn’t delete songs from it, I couldn’t add songs to it … it took me a bit but I did find the queue and couldn’t do anything but look at it. What’s the point? 

                  Might as well just switch everything over to Spotify and Airplay the audio to the the Sonos Speakers cause this app is pretty useless in its current form. 

                  Oh but wait we’ll fix it .. when? Queue/Playlist Management is slated for July? You think I’m waiting till July … That’s a Big N-O! A new action becomes a habit after 30 days .. by July I’ll just be used to doing it the Spotify way, I’d suggest that if you’d like to keep people using your app either FIX IT FASTER or give us access to version 16 and when you finally have your app designed by someone other than a 3rd grader you launch it again. 

                   

                   

                   

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