Question

Backup

  • 7 January 2017
  • 9 replies
  • 1591 views

Userlevel 2
Badge +5
Hi,

How can I make a backup of the settings in my controller? Can I do it automatically til iCloud? I'd like to do a back up of my playlists and all of my favorites and also of all of my many radio stations I have bookmarked. I have a lot of streams inserted as radiostations - I'd like to backup this too.

how come are the menu in "my radio stations" so messy? I'd like to be able to make folders just like when bookmarking in my browsers.

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9 replies

Hi. There is nothing on the controller to back up. Virtually everything is stored on the Sonos components. The app really is just a controller. There is currently no way that I'm aware of to back up playlists etc (although I can't rule out some form of hack existing). But unless you factory reset all your Sonos components, which should never be necessary, there is no reason to think you will ever lose this information.
Userlevel 2
Badge +5
I was afraid of that - but I really can't see why it shouldn't be possible to do a backup via the controller to a cloud-service.
The information will be lost only of the play unit does not work - in which case, of what use a cloud based back up?
And if you have more than one unit - other than Bridge/Boost - you have more back ups depending on how many units you have.
I don't know how difficult or otherwise it would be. It has been requested before and it's a perfectly reasonable question to ask. I can't comment for Sonos, but can only speculate that they feel it is not of sufficient value in practice to bring it to the priority development list.
I have discovered a valid reason based on the latest player update. Following updating my system of seven speakers I could no longer connect to anything. I proceeded to initiate the usual routine of rebooting router etc that I have followed over the years when Sonos decides to balk at connecting, but to no avail. After much longer than I would have desired, I ended up having to individually reset each speaker....guess what happened next to six+ years worth of settings and playlists!?! My saving grace was one of my speakers was disconnected temporarily and I hadn't yet tackled that one. But it meant a rigmarole that could have been avoided if there were some external mechanism to back up said settings and playlists.
I'm sorry that you felt the need to take this course of action. Any problem after an upgrade is almost certainly caused by a home router losing track of its IP address lease information, typically because it's been rebooted recently. As a result Sonos units can be assigned duplicated IPs when they restart after the update. Reserve fixed IP addresses in the router for Sonos players and controlling devices, and hopefully you shouldn't see a repeat of such difficulties.

To anyone stumbling upon this thread: Do NOT factory reset your Sonos units if they suddenly start suffering from connectivity problems. It is NOT the answer, and can often lead to more issues.
Userlevel 7
Badge +23
"Backup is the easy bit: the hard part is Restore."

How can I make a backup of the settings in my controller? Can I do it automatically til iCloud? I'd like to do a back up of my playlists

There is little in the controller that justifies the need for back up capability. In normal use, ditto for playlists, if one is careful to not factory reset ALL units simultaneously.

The problem is if one wants to move, needing a change that involves joining a new system, that can only be done after factory resets. All playlists will then be lost.

I suppose for those clever enough to do this, there must be a hack that allows this backup to be done.
Userlevel 2
Badge +5
Backing up to iCloud or dropbox would still be gønice to have.