It’s odd, I’ve been using Sonos since the late 2000s, and don’t have any issues across 20 plus devices. Is there a possibility that there is something wrong in your system? Perhaps a network issue, an older BRIDGE, or even some sort of hardware failure in your devices?

Have you tried to call Sonos Support directly to discuss it, or is your only attempt to resolve the issues you are experiencing this post?

Hey everyone!

I totally feel the frustration expressed here. As a fellow software user, reliability and ease of use are crucial factors for me too. It's disappointing when a once-reliable software starts breaking all the time.

I agree that investing in software development is essential for any company, especially when it's a core aspect of their business like Sonos. Software development should be a continuous process, aiming to improve and address issues that arise.

Sonos, you've set the bar high with your products, and your customers expect nothing less than software that "just works." It's essential to prioritize the stability and reliability of your software because it directly impacts user experience and satisfaction.

As a CEO, it's crucial to recognize the value of investing in software development capabilities. By doing so, you not only ensure your product's success but also show your commitment to meeting customer expectations. I believe in your potential, Sonos, and I know you can deliver the seamless and dependable experience we all desire. 

As explained before even if the software is fine, things can still go wrong because of external influences. It's very easy to complain about the software, but in my experience other things are usually more to blame (like wifi interference).

There is some truth in your words. 

I’ve had Sonos for years. I’ve spent hours on the phone with tech support. The issues are never resolved. Most of the time when I want to play my own music from the computer that the controller is on it says that it can’t find the folder. I’ve never had a music app that couldn’t find the music on the same computer that the app is on. I constantly get errors when I try to add music to the que. The Android app is very slow to load, and it often doesn’t load correctly so it doesn’t show me my play lists. Even when it does load it’s impossible to get it to play one of those playlists because of errors. If by some miracle I get my music to play, one of the speakers will keep dropping in and out. I have to press pause and play a few times on that speaker to get it to play continuously. Many times I’ve had it start playing one song, and then skip to the next one before that song finishes. These are not network issues. They are software issues. I’ve been doing quality assurance testing for the last 13 years in new product design and development. I would be ashamed to let any of our products go out the door with even one issue that is this severe. The Android play store review section is full of users having the same issues, so I know it’s not just me. I do not recommend Sonos to anyone. In fact, when the topic comes up I actively recommend that they buy something else. The speakers are great, but the constant unresolved issues make them almost unusable. I would expect better from a cheap system. With the price of Sonos speakers this is completely unacceptable.

What changes are happening in the software, to make your system work one day and not the next? My suspicion: nothing. You download the latest version of app, and update the speakers. Then (unless Sonos is pushing updates to selected users) nothing changes in the software or firmware.

If your system then behaves differently from day to day, the cause must surely be outside of the software? That suggests it’s a user environment issue - and the usual suspects I’ve seen on these threads are wifi interference, duplicate ip addresses, wifi channel hopping etc  But that’s not anything to do with software.

When in troubleshooting mode, once you’ve decided that the issue must be e … ] or cannot be … ], you are likely to be blindsided. Play the percentages. Don’t chase the 0.5% possibilities before checking the 99% probability.

SONOS requires more robust network support than many home devices. We’ve helped hundreds of people with “perfect” networks resolve issues by suggesting some network reconfigurations. Note that there are a few routers and access points will not support a SONOS system. 

Isn’t it a definition of stupidity: repeatedly doing the same thing, hoping for a different/better result? 

A fly bashing into a window comes to mind…..

It’s not changing from one day to the next. It’s consistently bad. Also, intermittent bugs can happen because of timing issues and things like that in the software. Just because an issue doesn’t happen 100% of the time, doesn’t mean it’s not a bug. Like I said, I do this for a living. I’ve seen my share of intermittent issues that were 100% a software issue. Also, if you read the issues I listed, most of them have absolutely nothing to do with my network. The controller not being able to find my music on the same computer that the controller is on doesn’t involve my network at all, and I’ve seen it happen now on two different computers. The app not loading correctly has nothing to do with my network. Getting errors when I try to add things to the que has nothing to do with my network. As for my network, I have the most basic network you could possibly ask for. It consists of a modem and an off the shelf router. The only changes I’ve made to the router settings are the ones that Sonos tech support told me to make. I would also like to reiterate that I’ve spent a lot of time talking to Sonos tech support and have followed every instruction they’ve given me to try to resolve these issues. Nothing has worked, and the problems persisted even after I bought a new router. No other devices on my network are having problems. Constantly denying that the problems exist does not solve them. As an end user, I have done everything in my power to fix this. Sonos needs to step up and make software that works reliably.

With SONOS everything involves the network. The controllers don’t  play anything. You can think of the controllers as complex remote controls. All commands and music play are done through the players. SONOS Playlists, the music library index, music service registrations, and the Queue are maintained in the players. A copy of this data is stored in each player, a controller does not store anything critical. The controllers must access this data over the network. A controller will “Associate” with a player and fetch its data through this player. The Associated player is not necessarily playing any music. Once music play is started, you could uninstall the controllers and the music will continue. In the case of music stored on a computer, a controller will initiate play through a player and the player will fetch data directly from the computer. Obviously, in this case the computer must stay awake while SONOS needs the music data, but the controller could be shut down.

If you pair players, the left player will become the pair’s “Coordinator”. All traffic for the pair is initiated by the Coordinator. If Rooms are Grouped, the first player in the Group is the Group’s Coordinator. All Group traffic passes through the Group Coordinator.

As you can see a simple request to play a track in a Group of Rooms generates a blizzard of local network traffic. This is very different from displaying a web page or fetching and sending email. 

If the software were fundamentally flawed then everyone would be having problems. So how come I have been using my Sonos system for 12 years without pronlems?

IT'S YOUR NETWORK 

As long as you remain in denial about this you will not resolve your problems.

Ok. Then why has Sonos tech support repeatedly failed to fix it? And why does streaming work pretty reliably, but playing music from my computer does not?

There once was an actual problem with the software of a single Sonos unit, the Playbar.  The main thread on that problem hit 100 pages, which is over 2500 posts, and there were dozens of other smaller threads on the very same problem.  This thread hasn't even reached a whole page. 

In other words, IT'S YOUR NETWORK. Specifically, it sounds like duplicate IP addresses.  These often show up after an update or power outage because a reboot requires the device to request a new IP, and the router, having lost track of current IP assignments, issues a new IP that is in use by another device.  To cure this, do the following:

Reboot/power cycle your devices in the following order:

Modem
Router
Switches or hubs
Wired Sonos units
Wireless Sonos units
Computers/printers
Wireless devices - phones/tablets etc.

Allow each device to come back up before proceeding to the next.  Note you can prevent this from happening again by reserving IP addresses for your Sonos devices in your router setup.  See your router manual for instructions.

Also - power them all down first; then restart in the order @jgatie suggests. Make sure wifi is fully running before restarting any Sonos devices. 

And anyone that expects a Customer Service department paid at likely minimum wage, or close to it, to be experts in tech is deluding themselves. They’ll all be trained based on scripts / scenarios, some will understand better than others, but it can’t be consistent. Nor can any tech company afford to man their CS department with engineers. 

@Airgetlam is absolutely correct. The most successful tech company on the planet (at least by revenue) has Support Advisors literally plucked off the street. OK...not literally, but the qualifications only require a high school diploma.

Ironically, the people who call in for assistance think they’re talking to a tech guru when in actuality the person on the other end is following a script/scenario based upon “if this...then that”. Some are more adept than others.

IMO the people who participate in this community (on a regular basis) have more expert knowledge than the majority of so-called “tech support” personnel. The only compensation given is a “Like” or “Best Answer” accolade.

So count your Apples and be thankful for the free assistance given in this community. 

When SONOS was very young, there essentially was no customer service department and the engineers would be taking calls. As product deployment expanded, an official support group was established and the job offers listed impressive requirements. Evidently, first line support was mostly offshored.

I know of another company that started requiring the design engineers to serve a stint on the support desk and repair departments immediately after a new product was released. Documentation and product serviceability suddenly improved dramatically.

How is your computer connected to your network?

In what format are your local music files?

What is your network setup?  Any extenders / access points?  Any wired Sonos device(s)?

S1 or S2?

By the way, thank you for providing evidence that the Sonos software is robust.  99.9% of what it does is identical whether streaming from the internet or from a local drive, and you say it is solid for the former.  The difference lies in how the music data gets from the source to the router.  Streaming from the Internet does not use your network for that. Playing from a local drive does. Go figure.

I always figured the software was an afterthought. I mean you’ve already bought the hardware. When it works it violates the whole “don’t make me think” principle. But it is very unstable. The support on the web site is very obvious stuff… yes I’ve checked the wifi signal. I did submit diagnostic info but, as somebody mentioned above, it’s just read by a call center person following a script. At least, nothing about the interaction ran contrary to my impression.

This sounds pedantic, but when you make software there’s something called “dogfooding”. Basically do you use the thing you’re actually making. Every time a tech savvy teenager in my house asks for my phone to put music on and just gets a spinner, it’s clear that nobody at Sonos tries this.

It’s too bad because once you have a few of these things you’re more or less locked in. But making software useable is hard, and this is clearly orchestrated by somebody who is only looking at what bullet points it can claim on a box.

I don’t think of software as an afterthought, but Sonos sells hardware, software is pretty much a necessary evil.  Sort of like how no company makes any money by having a good accounting department, but you still need it.  Sonos can’t spend a ton of money and effort chasing down the relative few odd cases where the system isn’t working correctly and rather specific home environment.  They have to focus on the system working for the vast majority of cases.  Especially since those rather specific cases tend to take the most amount of effort to resolve, if they can be resolved.

You’re thinking the Sonos system isn’t working well and easy to use for the employees?  What gave you that impression?  I would bet all, but a few exceptions, have good home networks where the system works well.  The ones that do not do to network interference from neighbors or what have you, have hard wired the system or something else.

From personal experience I know this to be nonsense.

I suggest you focus on fixing your network issues. Sonos Support have tools which can assist with this. 

Absolutely. I’m not trying to be an internet troll. But if anyone actually used this at home and had a non-engineer try to… say change the volume… they’d just put it on the lock screen. Yes, I’ve read their site and airplay mumble mumble mumble. It could work like every music or podcast or metronome or other app and just put the info where you can easily see it. But just find the app… no the Sonos app… yeah… then watch the spinner… wait for it… Change the volume… no on the screen not the volume buttons... yup it takes a few seconds… no don’t turn it off…

Again, “app volume control” is a bullet point they can claim. But try having a non techie use it and it’s clear they’ve not really put much thought into this.

As you’ve already been suggested, it seems like a lot of the issues you bring up are a result of network problems.

And it’s clear that the definition differences between a ‘remote control’ app and a ‘audio’ app are not as clear to you as they might be. Which is a challenge, as that is what Apple is focusing on to force this change. I suppose it’s possible for Sonos to throw away all the work (and speakers) they’ve created since 2005, and shift over to bog standard speakers that play in the same fashion as any other company’s, using a player on the controller device, rather than the speaker. After all, they could leverage their already existing sound design knowledge, and probably sell less expensive speakers, since they’d be able to remove the computer parts (RAM/CPU/Networking electronics) from every device. 

But that would be a major shift in their product line, and we would all lose access to all of the speakers we currently use, which might cause a bit of furor. I just don’t see such a change occurring, but who knows, maybe this relatively minor thing is the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back…

Sorry, but you’re assumption that the system works poorly for employees and their households is just silly.  Your assumption that everyone, or nearly everyone, or even close to a majority, experiences the sort of issues you see and yet Sonos continues to sell speakers to new and repeat customers...doesn’t make a sense. 

I’ve heard of people having issues with airplay and seen it myself a bit. completely unrelated to Sonos, but yet millions still use it, so logically, it has to be more reliable than what my personal experience is.