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greg_67
Contributor I
May 9, 2024
Question

Personal music library features removed in the new May 7 2024 app version

  • May 9, 2024
  • 108 replies
  • 10714 views

The new “improved” app version seemed to wreck all of the features that made a personal music library on Sonos usable. Two major problems:

  1. There is no way to search your own personal music library anymore
  2. Browsing your personal music library is extremely painful if you have thousands of albums. We used to be able to zoom in by first letter. Now if you want something beginning with a “T”, you have to scroll through hundreds of screens worth from “A”.

Has anyone found a workaround for these?

I know Sonos has been optimizing for streaming services these days. But completely abandoning support for your own hosted music library was not what I expected.

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    108 replies

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    User966103
    Avid Contributor I
    May 22, 2024

    I’m thinking of ditching my four Sonos Play:1 speakers.  What is the best replacement for them, one which would allow me to listen to my Music Library (on my PC) as well as allow me to stream from music services and radio stations?

     

    Sancezzio
    Enthusiast II
    May 22, 2024

    Sonos say they are going to release a fix, but why on earth would they not have tested or prototyped the  app prior to its release?  Because they knew darned well that this would happen!  My thought is that they’re testing the waters to see how much push back they get from customers not being able to access their local iTunes library. Streaming is lucrative and can mean big $$$ for them! Sadly, this is disgustingly typical from large corporations. If there’s no fix to this I’m out!  I have spent literally thousands on Sonos products going back to the early 2000’s — now I’m hugely disillusioned!

     

    Besides their own Sonos Radio subscriptions, Sonos makes no money off other streaming services.  See below for Sonos’ schedule for fixes (bold applies to local libraries):

    Coming soon

    • Continued improvements to navigation for visually-impaired customers: mid-June
    • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
    • Sleep timer: mid-June
    • Local music library search and playback: mid-June
    • Update WiFi settings: mid-June
    • Snooze alarms: TBD

    Wait, you can't change WiFi settings on the new app? Bwhahaha

    Edit: oh wait, I can't update them in the old app now either.....my word.

    jgatie
    jgatie
    May 22, 2024

    Wait, you can't change WiFi settings on the new app? Bwhahaha

    Edit: oh wait, I can't update them in the old app now either.....my word.

     

    I’m glad you got so much amusement from my post.  Hopefully I helped the person I was actually replying to.

    Sancezzio
    Enthusiast II
    May 22, 2024

    Wait, you can't change WiFi settings on the new app? Bwhahaha

    Edit: oh wait, I can't update them in the old app now either.....my word.

     

    I’m glad you got so much amusement from my post.  Hopefully I helped the person I was actually replying to.

    Oh no, don't get me wrong, it was a useful post. I just didn't realise something as fundamental as updating WiFi settings was a missing feature, that's all. No offence meant. 

    Stardog
    Enthusiast II
    May 22, 2024

    Sonos say they are going to release a fix, but why on earth would they not have tested or prototyped the  app prior to its release?  Because they knew darned well that this would happen!  My thought is that they’re testing the waters to see how much push back they get from customers not being able to access their local iTunes library. Streaming is lucrative and can mean big $$$ for them! Sadly, this is disgustingly typical from large corporations. If there’s no fix to this I’m out!  I have spent literally thousands on Sonos products going back to the early 2000’s — now I’m hugely disillusioned!

     

    Besides their own Sonos Radio subscriptions, Sonos makes no money off other streaming services.  See below for Sonos’ schedule for fixes (bold applies to local libraries):

    Coming soon

    • Continued improvements to navigation for visually-impaired customers: mid-June
    • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
    • Sleep timer: mid-June
    • Local music library search and playback: mid-June
    • Update WiFi settings: mid-June
    • Snooze alarms: TBD

    If you really believe that Sonos Executives aren't benefiting financially from forcing Sonos customers to for pay music streaming sites you might just be gullible.

     

    It's hard to take those people at their word after this debacle. This was an intentional downgraded upgrade design from the beginning to force customers away from their own owned music libraries and two subscription service options.

     

    But believe whatever you want. I'm sure this app is really 100% perfect to you. Whatevs. 

      RichieTheC
      Lyricist II
      May 23, 2024

      I had an excellent experience with Sonos tech support today, which I was not expecting based on all the chatter.  I use Sonos Controller for PC to access my music library, and the Sonos App for Android on my mobile device. Recently my music library vanished from Controller. The technician was able help make some changes in my network settings to get Controller to see and use the music library.  These changes will come in a future upgrade, but if you cannot wait then you can ask them to assist.  Regarding the Android App, I was able to downgrade using APKMirror (as explained somewhere else here in the community)  and I turned off auto updates on my device so it does not keep upgrading.  All better.

        User966103
        Avid Contributor I
        May 23, 2024

        >>  I had an excellent experience with Sonos tech support today, which I was not expecting based on all the chatter.  I use Sonos Controller for PC to access my music library, and the Sonos App for Android on my mobile device. Recently my music library vanished from Controller. The technician was able help make some changes in my network settings to get Controller to see and use the music library.  These changes will come in a future upgrade, but if you cannot wait then you can ask them to assist.

         

        Do you recall which ones?  Was it easy?  It’s not easy calling in.  The last time I tried I could not screen share with the tech perso, for some reason.

        RichieTheC
        Lyricist II
        May 23, 2024

        So sorry, I don’t.  I would hate to give you bad guesses and mess you up.

        User966103
        Avid Contributor I
        May 23, 2024

        Why does or will it take Sonus one whole month (at least) to fix what one wasn’t broken  (adding the Music Library to one’s Sonos system)?  Can’t they just ditch the new Sonus “improvements” as a whole lot and go back to what they had before?  It might be simpler than trying to “fix” what is, decidedly, broken and works so badly.

          NickD88
          Avid Contributor III
          May 23, 2024

          New version of the app removed library functioning completely. So I sideloaded the old version. Now I can't index my music library because the app tells me it has to update to do that. But the update doesn't allow that functionality.

          Sonos help page says use the Windows app as a workaround. Bit presumptuous that I have a windows system, Sonos.

          Unacceptable. 

          Question on this - the Windows desktop controller now doesn’t allow music library functions (indexing etc); so when you mention Windows app, is there a Windows Store app they’re referring to?

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