Sonos app update disaster recovery game plan

Useless, totally useless 

Thanks JohnKeating for the Roon suggestion. I will have a look and give it a try. In the meantime, I note that Sonos has released two updates to its badly flawed major app overhaul rollout, neither of which has done anything to resolve the three main flaws I outlined in my previous post. Neither update has changed or improved anything at all, as far as I can see. Long past time to activate Plan B: exit the Sonos environment and leave no forwarding address.

You need a reasonable spec. PC to run the Roon server (windows or Linux).  A preconfigured server (Roon's Nucleus One costs $450) - it's a 1ft square box! 

Is it just me or have the three most recent updates to the seriously flawed Sonos app retooling changed nothing of consequence. These three critical errors remain unresolved:

•it cannot find any of the playlists I trusted it to store for me over the past five years;

•it offers no way to create new playlists;

•it offers no way to save queues to make new playlists, although at this point the thought of investing time to create a new playlist that likely will be lost is too frustrating to contemplate.

Is anyone at Sonos listening? Is anyone home? Does anyone care?

Just tried app again after few days away . Omg this time started ok then volume control did its own thing and then couldn’t switch off sound at all without unplugging . No point in getting angry with you girls and guys at Sonus you already know you have failed big time BUT will you stop sending me marketing bumf for your cans and speakers it really rubs salt into the wounds 

Again, Sonos and its IT team have combined to deliver an update that renders the Sonos app functionally useless.

•It cannot find playlists that once-faithful users have spent years creating;

•It offers no way to create new playlists;

*It offers no way to save song queues as new playlists; and

*While it allows users to save songs to Sonos Favorites, the collection of favourites can only be played one song at a time.

So, what is the point of trying to use the app? To be fair, it does excel at two things: frustrating users and wasting their time.

Meanwhile, there is no indication from the Sonos braintrust that any of the app’s shortcomings will be fixed anytime soon.

The last time I spent 90 minutes waiting to chat with a Sonos tech person, I was told an update would address the problems I outlined. But no details on when; no details on which would be addressed first; no explanation as to how a much-ballyhooed major app update could swing and miss so badly.

This is like dealing with a tone-deaf  government bureaucracy when things go wrong: mistakes were made but no one is to blame.

And the taxpayer is stuck with the bill and handed a broom and dustpan to clean up the mess.

Totally agree, what a joke with this new app!! 

I note that the Sonos robot keeps advising anyone who has not replaced their app with the new monumentally flawed Sonos update to do so now or risk losing some of their operational features.

Were there any truth in advertising, the update prompt would require notifications along these lines:

Sonos advises its customer base to update now to the new super great Sonos app.

With it, subscribers and Sonos customers will:

•lose connection with all their playlists compiled over months and years of use;

•lose the ability to create new playlists;

*lose the ability to save imported queues as new playlists;

*lose the ability do anything of value aside from add songs to Sonos Favorites, which it turns out can be played only one song at a time; and

*lose any reliable connection to whatever Sonos features that have been left standing.

In short, you will have a new, updated and virtually useless Sonos app with next to no redeeming qualities, thereby devaluing all your investments in Sonos hardware.

So, what are you waiting for?

Act now, and replace your working Sonos app with one that has none of the features that make your current Sonos app a useful and versatile music collection, co-ordination and collaboration technology.

Cheers and hugs from

Your inaccessible, unavailable and unaccountable Sonos management and IT Team.

¾ of the time, the new app won’t even let us play the music we want - it defaults to algorithmic lists that we actively do not want to hear. The play & pause buttons, and playing and paused states, are inconsistent. It’s slow as hell. I’ve contacted sonos support multiple times and received no assistance whatsoever.

I’m going to be unplugging all my sonos speakers this week and boxing them up until Sonos rolls back the app update and gives us something usable again. I’ll be switching to something else, probably Denon.

Hi @somanyrobots, I feel your frustration! I looked into Denon HEOS last year and my research left me with a strong sense of déjà vu: fabulous hardware that depends on a vendor-specific app. I also discovered that Denon is owned by private equity, and they’re not exactly known for long term customer-centric thinking. Just sharing my two bits so you don’t end up jumping from this frying pan into, well, a different frying pan.

For your consideration: look at something like the WiiM devices for wireless functionality paired with high-quality non-wireless speakers.