Question

why soooo many regular updates to this already lets be honest BAD software

  • 24 October 2017
  • 8 replies
  • 842 views

Userlevel 1
yea, no joke. why on earth sooo many software sonos updates, i mean not even IOS requires that many.

to be honest i would fire the lot and start from scratch.

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8 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +20
There have been more iOS updates than Sonos updates in the last few weeks. No joke.
I'm also very annoyed with the updates. I've lived in my current house for no more than 3 months, and I've had to do no less than 4 updates. When people compliment my system, I tell them I love the sound, but I would opt for something else. Solely because of the forced updates.

I would choose to ignore the updates, BUT I have the surround system for my tv which includes play 1s, playbar and bass. I also have some play 3s around the house. When I listen to music I like to crank the bass, when I use the system for tv, I like the bass mid level.

Whenever there's a pending update, the app won't let you adjust the room sound settings. They force you to do the update by limiting what you can do with your system. This is extremely aggravating.. Sonos could be a little more like the big apple and allow you to update when you have the time or desire to do so. It seems petty, but when I'm home for 15 minutes on a break and want to listen to jams, but need to use 3 minutes of my time updating, it's really annoying. OR after a long day, when I just want to decompress and watch a quick show before bed, but can't until I sit quietly for 3 minutes to complete the update, because the bass was cranked, and the kids are now sleeping. I have $2500+ into a sound system that inhibits my enjoyment of its use. Ridiculousness...
As much as I would prefer a layout on my IPad that's similar to the PC (showing search, queue, and rooms all at once), I realize that the world is moving away from tablets and toward phones. So ... I get that I may not be able to see all of that on one screen anymore. That being said navigation has got to improve.

When I first started using the version 8 UX, I had a hard time navigating it. I better understand the logic now, but there are some glaring errors/design faults.

1. The bar showing favorites/rooms/search ... has to be made sticky. Having to find and press a little arrow at the top for such commonly used functions is unacceptable.

2. In the "rooms" environment, having a "SETUP" button right above "Group" in each room would be very helpful. To take us directly to ROOM SETUP without having to use multiple button clicks. As someone who regularly moves components around (pairing/unparing, changing room for sub ...) I find these functions way too deeply buried in the UX.

3. Speaking of ROOM SETUP, please integrate sub level into the main menu. As it is now, I have to use three clicks to get to ROOM SETUP, then have to go to advanced settings, SUB setup (which is the only option under advanced), then adjust sub level. That's six clicks, when it could be done in three and be much more intuitive.

4. SEARCH function. I would like to see a sticky button for SEARCH (see point #1), but also to have a NEW SEARCH and CONTINUE SEARCH option. Sometimes, I want to continue selecting songs and albums from the most recent artist search. Other times, I want to look up something new without having to back out of the current search (3-4 clicks) to get to the magnifying glass where I can type in something new. This could also be accomplished by having the search box always visible in the search screen, or by having the search box always available on every screen.

There's lots of opportunity for improvement, but these four changes would make my user experience much more enjoyable. C'mon, SONOS, this is totally doable. Dare to be great. Dare to listen to your customers. I love my SONOS hardware - please make it easy and simple to play my music.
I agree 100%. I do not need these updates and each update is a hazzle along with forced per speaker factory resets to be able to get the software installed... Bad experience...
Userlevel 6
Badge +16
There have been more iOS updates than Sonos updates in the last few weeks. No joke.

Agreed, I've never seen so many updates to iOS before - SONOS updates are for new features like the New Sonos One hardware or Alexa - seriously haven't you got anything better to gripe about.

@Bosa, look at your setup because a software update shouldn't be forcing you the reset you speakers - god I have 9 sonos devices and have never done factory reset due to a software update.
Userlevel 6
Badge +1

In the "rooms" environment, having a "SETUP" button right above "Group" in each room would be very helpful. To take us directly to ROOM SETUP without having to use multiple button clicks. As someone who regularly moves components around (pairing/unparing, changing room for sub ...) I find these functions way too deeply buried in the UX.


I just don't get why those are 2 different things now. It was one and the same in the old app and it worked perfectly fine.

But like you say, now you need a bunch of clicks to switch to a different room.
Absolutely, emphatically agreed. Have owned Sonos system / components for several years at multiple homes, with current system incl over 15 components incl playbar, subs,surrounds, Alexa/Ones, connections into in home entertainment & AV systems, across many rooms / floors - so, no novice, and w/ 20 years+ SW Dev, kinda "get" updates, thank you v much..

When it works, Sonos is great; but, the fact is, updates have ALWAYS been a problem for Sonos, and it is beyond the pale, beyond ridiculous now. The running joke in family is "better wait and make sure Sonos doesn't need to update" every time we spin up a movie, play music through the house, head out to pool and grab speaker. The process is laborious, does not allow for opt out (I'd like to just listen to my d*mn system right now), requires me to repeat across multiple iPad and workstation controllers, loses system sometimes, forces me to run upstairs, downstairs, between rooms to add components, is completely confused if speakers are replaced, moved and you want to use in another room,and frequently gaks...

For Example - trying spin up NFL games' audio through house and music in garage on PLAY5 there, and as I write RIGHT FN NOW I am being forced to update on iPad Pro, iPad 3, and all three are FAILING with "Update Problem"... An hour, so far, of my morning gone rebooting routers, Sonos, trying to get any one of the controllers to simply let me listen to my systems. It forces me into a loop of failed iupdate, restart system, demanding I perform update, failed updated, ... &c. From behavior, update appears to serially go thru speaker by speaker and then fails the entire update if issue with any speaker - in the process twice "losing" my system - hardly robust. So, I am f'd - no music, no system, just a broken a$$ update... Well done.

And, BTW, if my iOS and Android updates failed like this and required that they were been performed before I use the device - yeah, I'd be pretty p*ssed and likely ranting online about that too. But they don't. Nor do any one of the dozens of software packages I use... And, ostensibly, this is a product (HW & SW) for consumers. The experience, for updates and installs at least, kinda blows.

UPDATE: All in - 90 minutes to get system working with one controller (on workstation - leaving the iPads alone for fear of having to repeat this) restart of router, restart of Sonos, reset of controller, and finally disconnect of "moved" & renamed Play1s in exercise room and one of the guest rooms, and finally Sonos allowed me the privilege of updating and listening to music. Not at all uncommon. Tech Support has been fine - last time they had some patch they needed to push for signal breaking on playbar /sub/surround set up - but, still, wow... fun times.