Why I hate the new App

The new App has introduced a changed method of connecting to Sonos devices, this has caused issues in some unsupported networks that previously worked.  Can you please explain your home networks?

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/sonos-system-requirements

​@Gaham I don’t know what tools you are using to check your home network, or if it can detect duplicate IP addresses but are you using reserved IP addresses for your Sonos devices, as per my article:

Sonos staff aren’t engaged within the forum on weekends, so if you want any help before Monday then you need to work with other users.  ​@John B is very experienced at helping other users, so please don’t dismiss his advice because it seems unlikely.  A fair few IT professionals, myself included, help on the forum and we see a lot of the same issues being reported where the App is blamed but home network issues are the root cause.

​@UKMedia Since May 7th I have read more Articles, FAQs, Hints, Tips, Advice, Best Practices and Guidelines on Sonos use than I did in the 10 years or more that I owned the products before that. As far as I can tell I have read everything.

And that is my point, once upon a time my system just worked 100% of the time now it does not.

Sonos play in the consumer/domestic network space. Nothing about my network is unusual, I have a collection of devices that are widely used and am with an ISP that has a large part of the UK market. No fancy router or esoteric gadgets. I do this because, for me, IT is work and not something that I do for fun.

I listen to music for pleasure, Sonos used to facilitate that, now it does not. I did not wake up this morning and think it’s raining so I think I’ll troubleshoot my network again in case this time that’s the reason my  Sonos system is having issues.

If the new Sonos ecosystem is no longer “fit for purpose” for use on a home/consumer network then they need to be very specific about this and provide simple tools that anyone can use to validate the suitability of their home network (preferably before making a purchase). Obviously they will not do this as that really would kill their product sales.

I fully expect that the next update, of the App that is not the problem, will either make things a bit better or a bit worse for me. As I said November’s update made things worse for me. That is the reality that some users have had to live with since 7th May.

I'll suggest you set up some network monitoring tools to watch what Sonos is doing on your LAN, you may be able to identify issues with communication between the app, hardware and the Internet. It is pretty obvious the current configuration is having issues but how bad they are varies a lot between different networks. Once identified you will be in a much better spot to work with support to get a solution. 

I won't hold out great hope for how that goes based on my attempts at the same thing in the past. I sunk many hours into the Sonos IP addressing problem. All I proved was that Sonos and my router's DHCP server were operating flawlessly, not one single error in the firewall logs or detectable with my packet monitor. Still something was going wrong with Sonos fetching and assigning an IPto the speakers. I was stuck at that point as the reason wasn't visible from outside the. Sonos devices. I suspect a Linux glitch is at fault but with no access there is no way to go further. 

Maybe the current, new issues are more tractable to non Sonos analysis.