New Sonos app removes key features - beware!

You aren’t going to get an apology, corporate lawyers would never OK one, especially given the ease and frequency that people threaten them with a class action lawsuit on this forum and elsewhere.

Issues addressed (or scheduled to be addressed):

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates

Available now

To access these changes, check for updates in the iOS / Android app store to download the latest version of the Sonos app. Make sure your Sonos products are also up to date.

Last updated: Jun 4, 2024. See release notes.

• Improved playback settings including “Play next,” “add to end of queue,” and on iOS, the mute button
• Improved product setup, Bluetooth discovery and WiFi settings
• Added sleep timer settings
• Improved Trueplay setup on iOS
• Introduced distance settings for home theater surrounds
• Improved navigation for users who are blind or visually-impaired
• Added VoiceOver support for toast messages on iOS

Coming soon

• Continued improvements to navigation for visually-impaired customers: mid-June
• Playback controls including mute and volume numbers: June
• Local music library search and playback: mid-June
• Improved playback settings including Play Now: July
• Create and edit local music library: July
• Improved Autoplay settings: July
• Improved Sub audio settings with Amp: July
• Snooze alarms: TBD

Thanks for the last entry which lists the features “available now”. However, even with have my system up to date and using the latest software, none of those “available now” items are available. Am I the only one?

There are other reports of this, but I’m not sure of the reason.  I do know the app updates roll out at different times to different locations, but that usually only take hours, not days. 

The reason people threaten lawsuits is that Sonos will not apologize, or recognize that there is a problem.

If there were an apology, people would be slightly less upset.

If Sonos easily offered old app until new app is better, people would be less upset.

Hospitals learned that apologies reduce lawsuits. One hopes that they apologize because they are sorry, not just for financial benefit, but apologies are good for the business, as well as good practice.

Meh, an apology is of no value to me.  I have no urge to see people grovel and I have no need for useless platitudes.  I’d rather they spend that time actually fixing things.

And if you think an apology is going to quell the lawsuit threats, you haven’t been here long.  People throw those out at the drop of a hat.  I’ve seen less junk email in the last month than I’ve seen the words “class action” at this site. 

As to recognizing the problem, right at the top of their support page is this link:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates

I don’t expect an individual apology, of course not. The new app and future updates link is from two weeks ago and that did nothing to address any of the issues it claimed to resolve and in my case made things worse particularly in relation to group features with speakers dropping in and out at random and tracks abruptly stopping part way through and moving to another track. 

Releasing an incomplete update which doesn’t work as well as the one it replaced with many core features removed is unacceptable. This isn’t an issue of the shock of the new, this is about poor product development and incomplete testing. 

With a massive fail like this, I would expect:

• An apology
• Making old app available as development continues on new app

That would have calmed things down, if it had happened a month ago. Both steps were necessary.

Now, it is difficult to recover any trust.

I changed the permissions on my Music library as others suggested and Sonos worked for a few days...then started getting error ‘Unable to play <song name>...access to Music denied.’ 

Then a new update came out for Windows so on 6/7/2024 I applied that (Build 79153290).  Again, it worked for a couple days...then back to access to Music Denied.  Removed music library and re-added.  No good.  It will now play one song on the play list and then gives me the error.

What I am doing right now is getting on every major vendor’s website that sells Sonos speakers and write a review expressing my feelings towards Sonos.

No, it’s become a club. My suspicion is that the CEO’s 18 year old offspring got a BS in programming and his dad handed the Head Of Software Design over to it (the offspring, that is).

Hope he made his dad proud.

I’ve only had this company’s products in my house for a short time (couple months) after buying them from a friend. Maybe three or four months. During that time these pieces of S have forced me to update the firmware and mobile phone app like ten times, after considerable arse pain setting them up in the first place. I just want them to do their job. They are speakers. They should play sound and leave me the f alone.