Changing the order in which My Sonos items display

  • 14 October 2017
  • 17 replies
  • 4853 views

Apologies in advance if everyone thinks this is obvious, but it may prove useful to some people. I have realised that the 'rename' facility gives me total control over the order in which my favourite playlists, radio stations etc display. So, for example, I have about 50 Sonos Playlists. I have selected 15 that I play most and added them to the 'My Sonos' Playlists category. Then the eight 'favourite favourite' playlists I have renamed with an asterisk in front of the name, so that these are the ones that appear without my having to tap "See All".

I have also put this list at the top of the "My Sonos" screen, as I use Playlists more than radio stations etc

I can see other possibilities here for categorising items, but I'm still playing around with this.

For the avoidance of doubt, the name change only affects the item in My Sonos, not the original source.

I hope that is of some use.

All we need now is icons a sensible size.....

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17 replies

Thanks for pointing this out, but I cannot believe that the only way to control display order is by monkeying with the names as if this were a Windows OS. That's just...baffling. Creating a user-defined sort order is not complicated. Many of the decisions in this new UI are very strange. I do hope they are taking these concerns seriously.

BTW, you could achieve the same result by prefixing them with a number (01, 02, 03, etc) if you prefer not to use special characters. It's good to know it's only the name in My Sonos that is changed.

One more note, locating the rename option is strangely buried several steps deep. From My Sonos click See All, then the menu in the upper right, which only has one option, to edit stations, then this is the odd part...clicking on each stations' menu does not give a rename option. You have to long press on the station to get the option to delete (redundant with the red X icon) and rename. Who designed this UI?? This is all on Android, btw.
But in 7.4, as far as I recall, there was no way at all of rearranging the order. And I don't know if this is the intended purpose of the rename function.

There have been many requests for more customisability. What many users do not realise is that there are severe memory constraints because Sonos has placed a high priority on keeping some very old kit compatible and working, which I think is admirable. It is very easy to claim something is easy to do when you have in truth, little understanding of the issues involved. (I am not claiming to do so myself, but I think if it was trivial it would have been done)

I hope that is of some use.

I haven't bothered to try the edit function, I just go to "see all" and get on with life. And half the time I use the friendly familiar desktop controller, to which a prayer for a long unchanged life!
But thanks, these are useful tips.
It is very easy to claim something is easy to do when you have in truth, little understanding of the issues involved. (I am not claiming to do so myself, but I think if it was trivial it would have been done)

You are quite correct, I did speak out of turn as I am not at all familiar with the structure of the application. However, if the user is able to give each entry a custom name, why couldn't they also have a sort order identifier?
It is very easy to claim something is easy to do when you have in truth, little understanding of the issues involved. (I am not claiming to do so myself, but I think if it was trivial it would have been done)

You are quite correct, I did speak out of turn as I am not at all familiar with the structure of the application. However, if the user is able to give each entry a custom name, why couldn't they also have a sort order identifier?
i am not qualified to say, but with what I am suggesting it is still doing fundamentally the same thing, which is sort alphabetically. But my key point is that however reasonable your statement sounds, neither of us is in possession of even 1% of the information needed to judge.
That applies to the countless other 'simple software changes' I have seen proposed on this forum!
Then the eight 'favourite favourite' playlists I have renamed with an asterisk in front of the name, so that these are the ones that appear without my having to tap "See All".

On such renaming, a question that may become relevant shortly in the future: How will this affect selection of these for play via voice control? Suppose I have a playlist named *Jazz, will it play without saying the word asterisk, by just saying Play playlist Jazz on Sonos?

Come to think of it, I see many such issues with voice control that arise from the inherent coarseness of voice control in specifying the action to be taken, compared to choosing one via finger taps on listed items.
Don't know, but as I said the name of the playlist itself is not changed. In your example the playlist is still called Jazz in Sonos Playlists.
Then I misunderstood - where have you added the asterisk?
In Playlists within My Sonos. Not in Sonos Playlists within My Sonos. (I would prefer it if Sonos Playlists were under Browse, but that is another matter.)
Ahh got it. But if I want the Sonos Playlists in My Sonos to display the first eight of my choice as well, I find I have to add the asterisk before the name there and that then changes the name across all controllers.
But there is no need to change them there. You could always have done that.
Erm...how?
Honestly, forget it. I would be the first to admit this is a very minor feature
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All we need now is icons a sensible size.....
I think I found the "inspiration" for such huge icons in the Sonos app, and possibly part of the 8.0 app redesign in general.

Look at the Bose Soundtouch app screenshots. And I'll leave it at that.
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Thanks for pointing this out, but I cannot believe that the only way to control display order is by monkeying with the names as if this were a Windows OS. That's just...baffling. Creating a user-defined sort order is not complicated. Many of the decisions in this new UI are very strange. I do hope they are taking these concerns seriously.

BTW, you could achieve the same result by prefixing them with a number (01, 02, 03, etc) if you prefer not to use special characters. It's good to know it's only the name in My Sonos that is changed.

One more note, locating the rename option is strangely buried several steps deep. From My Sonos click See All, then the menu in the upper right, which only has one option, to edit stations, then this is the odd part...clicking on each stations' menu does not give a rename option. You have to long press on the station to get the option to delete (redundant with the red X icon) and rename. Who designed this UI?? This is all on Android, btw.
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I totally agree LeeAnnW1!
It should obviously by default order your most used (ie favourites ) first, then a tap simple slide into your preferred order
No brainier in terms of user friendliness I’d have thought.
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Totally everything that should be a max of 1 or 2 clicks depending on the complexity of your system seems to take over complicated levels - I’m not sure the word ’designed’ properly applies to the new controller feels like it was a stitch together job