Considering leaving Sonos entirely?!

F
  • Ftk
  • Contributor I
  • 2 replies

After two and a half years of owning the five I’m considering leaving Sonos entirely. I’ve found the app and the five speaker both to be problematic. The five speaker regularly disconnects, every 3-5 weeks it will disconnect (no internet change, no physical change in the environment where the speaker is) and it will not work for about a week and then it will suddenly work again. Resetting, factory reset, sometimes not always, works. Then go to the app - which is the first step in diagnosing why the speaker isn’t working. The app itself I have a tonne of qualms with. Every time I open it a new section is greyed out or simply unusable. Every time I have this issue I have to look online and I see numerous other people having issues with Sonos functionality as well but its all over the place - archived answers from years ago etc. We’re looking to outfit our house with a complete audio solution in 2 years, I bought the five to “test drive” sonos as a company and tbh I have been defending sonos to my partner on this topic but this week has been the final straw. Please anyone, can you answer why I should stay with this company? 
 

p.s. the in app trouble shooting for this is awful. All it does it ask if your devices are online / on the same network - then the support ends. I respect this is like 90% of tech issues to begin with. But after I answer yes to all those the support can’t simply end at “more information” which leads to 1. Repeat question already answered in trouble shooting steps prior, and 2. Are you logged in? Which I’d love to know but since the app shows me as greyed out with no support on that topic well, who’s to say if its reading me as logged in or not - says I am but the grey must imply something. Finally, the support ends at the more info screen - so if those 3 questions didn’t lead you to a resolve the user is just SOL. 

 

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108 replies

ratty

Describe your network in detail for us, with makes/models. Presumably the speaker is on the WiFi? What model/OS is the phone? Does it have any kind of VPN installed?

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Hi

Sorry to hear that you are having issues with your Sonos. I know you’ve heard this before but...Looking at your graphic there is something going on with your network.

Unlike most devices that connect to your network Sonos is a very “chatty” system that relies heavily on your networks back and forth communication.

  • Internally, If there are access points, POE’s and/or improperly configured Mesh networks; or your Sonos and your network are on the same channel there can be issues. Learn how to check and/or change the Sonos channel by clicking  here.
  • Externally, other networks and/or power lines in the area can cause interference to name a few.

Here are two more options

  • Tell us more about your network OR
  • Run a diagnostic (click here), post the reference ID in this thread and call Sonos Tech Support

Let us know….we’re here to help!

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
ratty

This appears to be a basic player discovery issue. I’d rather not get into wild speculation until we have more details, but it could be that the speaker (or phone) is periodically flipping between two WiFis, on either side of a router. Or perhaps there are simply two WiFi bands which don’t intercommunicate.

melvimbe

You didn’t mention a call to tech support, so I would assume you have not done that.  It your system and you can do what you want with it, but odds are that there is something that can be fixed on your network to stop these recurring issues. 

Danny
F

My question is not to fix connectivity. My question is why to stay with a company with this UI / UX . The fact that the trouble shooting leads to a dead end is a primary qualm. 

E

ratty mentioned a VPN. If you have one, shut it off when you use Sonos. Hopefully, it’s a fixable problem.

 

F

ratty mentioned a VPN. If you have one, shut it off when you use Sonos. Hopefully, it’s a fixable problem.

 

no VPN, 

ratty

My question is not to fix connectivity. My question is why to stay with a company with this UI / UX . The fact that the trouble shooting leads to a dead end is a primary qualm. 

The Sonos app’s troubleshooting maybe leaves something to be desired. Basically it’s lost until it can contact the players.

All the screenshots in your OP suggest a connectivity issue, albeit an intermittent one apparently. The network configuration is therefore a crucial detail if we’re to assist. One can envisage a number of scenarios which could give rise to the problems you’ve experienced. Most can be readily resolved. 

Ken_Griffiths

My question is not to fix connectivity. My question is why to stay with a company with this UI / UX . The fact that the trouble shooting leads to a dead end is a primary qualm. 

If you’re not looking to ask how to fix, what initially appears to be a basic network SSDP multicast discovery issue, that’s ‘possibly’ causing the connectivity issue between your iDevice controller App and speaker, then the answer is you’re probably best to just step away from a company that makes computerised wireless network speakers that use that discovery protocol and maybe look for something that you may know how to troubleshoot yourself.

Personally, I would have first asked for the help being offered here by @ratty and others, to troubleshoot your issue, but clearly that’s not what you seem to be looking for. However, if you do change your mind, you really need to detail your network, with makes, models, wireless AP details, channels & switches in use etc.

melvimbe

My question is not to fix connectivity. My question is why to stay with a company with this UI / UX . The fact that the trouble shooting leads to a dead end is a primary qualm. 

 

Because once you resolve the connectivity issue, the apps troubleshooting feature will be unused and irrelevant.  If you’re unwilling to take steps, outside of the app troubleshooting steps, by creating a diagnostic, calling tech support, or getting advice from these forums, then no, you probably should not stick with Sonos.

To be clear, I’m not saying every Sonos customer needs to be willing to do take these steps, as the vast majority of users will not have connectivity issues and/or be able to resolve issues through the troubleshooting, as you pointed out already. 

Danny
AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

My question is not to fix connectivity. My question is why to stay with a company with this UI / UX . The fact that the trouble shooting leads to a dead end is a primary qualm. 

Addressing your last comment first….you have not taken a deep dive into the aspects of trouble shooting just by following the app. Rudimentary shooting steps are available in any app and the vast majority will state that if the issues are not resolved to consult the appropriate Tech Support by chat and/or phone.  

You’ve done the “chat” portion (in a sense) by stating your frustration in this community. Community members (including myself) have asked for more information regarding your network. I’ve even suggested you contact Tech Support; if working with community members is not your desire or you’re unwilling to provide information about your network.

This community exists to help you and beyond that there’s Sonos Tech Support. The community is not here to advice you as to why you should or shouldn’t stick with Sonos (however, there are exceptions).

That said if you are unwilling to take the advice given thus far; then maybe you are the “exception” and should probably move on from Sonos. 

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
S
Userlevel 2
Badge +4

For every device on your network find out the internal IP address

It should be the same except for the last digits

 

For instance

 

192.168.21

192.168.1.36

 

Or whatever

I recently fixed a Sonos problem with similar issues and what had happened was that the owner had bought a new mesh network but he did not turn of DHCP which meant that two devices were issuing IP addresses, DHCP is lazy. It finds the nearest and eaiest one. Once I turned off DHCP on his mesh system all worked. Good luck

T
Userlevel 1
Badge +5

Each years, every updates make things worst. Everythings almost unusable on every streaming platform sadly. Only thing have to say is good luck too.

E
Userlevel 1
Badge +3

For what it’s worth I have solved longstanding and unexplained network issues with some Sonos devices by wiring them to the ethernet. For me this was a straightforward 100% fix. I am lucky that most of the devices in question could be plugged in easily and one was connected using a Powerline set up purchased expressly for the purpose.

The universal advice was there is something wrong with my wireless network… and perhaps there is, but everything else is rock solid and over the years the whole wireless network has been changed/upgraded more than once and the Sonos problem persisted. 

I have seen advice on here that you shouldn’t hardwire everything in your Sonos setup - not sure why that might be - but in my experience, for Sonos, or anything else, wired is superior. I try to keep my wireless for mobile devices and if possible wire anything that is static in location.

T
Userlevel 1
Badge +5

70% of my devices need to be wired to solve problems. Sadly. After 2 years of wait still hope for a fix solution but nothing yet.

Airgetlam

Wiring will resolve most cases of wifi interference , it will never address other network issues, such as duplicate IP addresses.

Networks can be complex, despite all of the efforts by various manufacturers to make them as simple as possible. 

Bruce
ratty

Networks can be complex, despite all of the efforts by various manufacturers to make them as simple as possible. 

And regrettably some users will sit around for years with faulty networks, blaming Sonos for not fixing issues that are outside their purview. 

K

And regrettably some users will sit around for years with faulty networks, blaming Sonos for not fixing issues that are outside their purview. 

I think that only trolls claim to have done that; no one in their right mind is going to let something like this come in the way of listening to music, and would either have fixed the problem or thrown out Sonos weeks into the journey. Or maybe in months, but years?!

On this posted earlier by someone on this thread: I have seen advice on here that you shouldn’t hardwire everything in your Sonos setup - not sure why that might be - I am not sure this is the case. Maximum uptime is when every unit is wired to the core network as far as I can tell, and if the DHCP/IP address reservation thing is correctly addressed, a one time setting effort. My wireless Sonos had up times higher than 99%, but even that was not good enough for me, and now, with all wired, I am at 100%.

I will say this though. My five different Echo devices are now front ends to Sonos for music play, including grouped music play via permanent Echo groups, where all Echos are in line of sight of the 5GHz WiFi source in a large central open space in my apartment. As they were added, each was set up for wireless play - they don’t do any other - and from day 1 they have delivered 99% plus uptime with no tinkering needed, and credit to Amazon for that. But when I must have the full 100%, as for the rare special occasions where I don’t want to chance having to fiddle with the music kit, I revert back to wired Sonos+local NAS, because that also takes out any broadband feed hiccups from the picture.

ratty

99%? 100%? I know that on the rare occasion that my Sonos misbehaves it usually just requires a reboot. They’re computers. I’ve yet to meet a computer that didn’t need the occasional reboot. 

K

That must be getting automatically taken care of in my case, because my units are only powered on when needed, as I did for my legacy kit back in the day. I rarely listen to all zones together, and most of the time just one of the five zones is in use. No hardware faults since 2011, so the power cycling has not done any damage that I have had to deal with.

PS: also, I am on S1, so no frequent updates either.

ratty

Except for the rare bug, updates don’t cause problems per se. They merely expose shortcomings in the host network. 

K

Right, they should not. As they don’t with my Echo units that are always on where they include displays.

T
Userlevel 1
Badge +5

@ratty @Airgetlam   Obviously, everyone has network problems. 😏

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ratty

@Thewizard2000 I’m not sure what you expect us to make of your random selection, and I don’t recognise the source. (The app stores currently show pretty adequate scores of 3.9 and 4.4 stars.) It could well be the type of platform which tends to attract detractors; the vast majority of happy customers are not inclined to go online and crow about the product.

I only skimmed the posts, but there appear to be a mix of: failures to understand that what the product features actually are, possible issues outside Sonos’ control such as Spotify, and, yes, network or possibly mobile malfunctions.

T
Userlevel 1
Badge +5

@ratty You are partly right, but you should stop discrediting sonos users by systematically claiming network problems. The situation of Sonos is far from rosy with having had several phone interviews as well as several exchanges by e-mail I had confirmation from the level 2 technician that there are many stability problems and the engineers are working hard to fix it. However, as I mentioned, the situation has persisted for several years without me noticing any improvement in this regard. As a worker in the computer field and several in-depth analyzes of my networks in collaboration with sonos level 2 technical support, I can assure you that my network is working properly.

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