Question

How to downgrade from S2 back to S1


I’ve been a Sonos owner for since 2015. I have 15 Sonos devices in my Sonos system consisting of  Play:1, Play:3, Connect, Sub, Playbar. The system worked beautifully. I always bragged about my awesome Sonos system. Then I "upgraded" to Sonos S2. What a mistake. My awesome Sonos system has been rendered almost unusable. I don’t really want to spend hours troubleshooting a system that worked perfectly before I upgraded. How can I downgrade back to Sonos S1 if I have upgraded all my devices? Thanks for the help.


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13 replies

I will do that.  Not sure about calling sonos though.  Sounds like it would take hours to get through.  Perhaps there is an email to send to them?  I did reboot the sonos speakers which is what I meant by rebooting. 

It may not be your router’s connection to the outside world, or your phone’s connection to the router. There’s also the speaker’s connection to the router you need to consider, as well as their ability to speak to each other.

As a guess, you might start with a simple refresh of the Sonos connection to your network, by unplugging the Sonos devices, then rebooting the router. Once the router comes back up, plug back in your Sonos devices.

But if you’re still experiencing issues after that, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, there are more options available beyond just the diagnostic analysis. 

I have a brand new Netgear Wifi6 router with zero issues on any of my othr smart devices which I have quite a few.  S1 software constantly has connection issues and often have to reboot the entire system.  Rebooting the software on phone does nothing.  It’s annoying and never ending.  I doubt very much upgrading it will lead to anything positive. 

This is my exact fear and why I have not and will not upgrade to S2 for a LONG time.  I already have enough glitches with a well developed S1 software I can’t imagine all the problems should I upgrade. 

Maybe try imagining none.  S2 is not buggy.  It isn’t even very different from S1.  The current S2 is a relatively small upgrade from S1, and is not a completely redesigned platform as some seem to imagine.  

I have split my system (right for me, not right for everyone) and am running the S1 and S2 apps without a hitch.

If you are having ‘glitches’ with S1 then you should address them.  They will be due to local factors (which does not necessarily mean anything actually wrong or faulty with your network).

This is my exact fear and why I have not and will not upgrade to S2 for a LONG time.  I already have enough glitches with a well developed S1 software I can’t imagine all the problems should I upgrade. 

When he was visiting, our son upgraded our system from s1 to s2 without checking the process first.
Now we are caught between S1 and S2 on different speakers without a clear way to upgrade or downgrade. System tools and remove products are greyed out. Have tried upgrading both s1 and s2 as each app says update required to do anything but then cannot complete the update!

very, very frustrating.
This is a very clunky process Sonos.  What are we supposed to do?

Same here. In S1 app System tools/remove products is greyed out. S2 does not find those products even though they are compatible. Stuck between the 2 now and system is rendered useless.

I don’t have a problem moving forward with S2 but am stuck in limbo. Did you get answer?

Cheers

Unplug all the devices that were upgraded in error to S2. Open the S1 controller, and connect to the remaining S1 devices. One by one,  factory reset the devices that were upgraded to S2 in error, and add them as ‘new’ devices to your S1 system. 

This will, to my understanding, only work if you still have S1 devices, if your son has updated everything to S2, you can’t downgrade, and just need to move forward with S2. Currently, the only effective difference between the two are that S2 contains the definitions for the three ‘new’ speakers that Sonos released, however I would expect them to diverge more as time goes on. 

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When he was visiting, our son upgraded our system from s1 to s2 without checking the process first.
Now we are caught between S1 and S2 on different speakers without a clear way to upgrade or downgrade. System tools and remove products are greyed out. Have tried upgrading both s1 and s2 as each app says update required to do anything but then cannot complete the update!

very, very frustrating.
This is a very clunky process Sonos.  What are we supposed to do?

Updates are optional. Turn off automatic system updates in the Sonos app and turn off automatic app updates in the relevant app store.

A system update is only mandatory when an app update has already taken place. 

To be honest, sonos used to be so good many years ago but now with so many updates, often when I go to play music I spend 10 mins updating or resetting just to start playing music, so get bored and stop…

How it makes you have to do software updates before being able to change room settings for something you have paid for is just scandalous. If it aint broke, dont fix it!

 

 

 

 

 

I really don't think there is anything generically wrong with S2. I and numerous friends and family are having no issues. There are millions of Sonos users worldwide and if S2 were buggy there would be thousands of posts about it on here not dozens.

That is not to say your problems aren't real, and very frustrating, of course.

Could you give us a bit more info about your network configuration?

I have tried  powering off my router and all devices to no avail. I do have two wired Sonos devices. Since the only interesting S2 feature to me was setting up room groups, the sensible thing would have been to  wait a year before upgrading. That ship has sailed. My problems started when I upgraded to S2. I’ve read on this forum numerous people having the same issues as I have, but have not read any answers. That is why I was hoping for the downgrade answer.

The message on the Sonos support site says it all: “We are receiving abnormally high contact volumes, please expect increased hold times and delays of up to one week on email responses.” I couldn’t even find the email link they used to have for support. Months ago, when the S2 news broke, I felt fortunate that all my devices supported S2….. not anymore. Hopefully there is a near term update that resolves the problems that obviously me and others are having.

Sorry, I’m just venting now.  I do appreciate you taking the time to answer my inquiry. Thanks!

 

If you no longer have a speaker that is still on S1 you csnnot downgrade.  But it would not be a sensible thing to do anyway. 

If you haven't done so already,  power off your router and all Sonos devices. Power the router  fully on, then any wired Sonos, then wireless Sonos. 

Do you have any Sonos devices wired?