Since Monday my Sonos system no longer works

if it helps, here are the info for one of my ZP120 device.

If I connect one of my ZP120 directly to my Internet box with a cable and not to my router, the problem persists (connecting/disconnecting in a loop).

So the problem does not seem to be related to the router (or its configuration) at all.

I updated the iOS app to 80.01.10 and my devices still keep connecting and disconnecting.

Looks like there is no new controller firmware available.

Please let me know that you are aware of this issue and are working on a fix.

from your-feedback-on-the-new-sonos-app :

Threads that describe issues such as missing rooms and app crashes (those that are not just feedback, in other words) will be answered, as will threads not relating to the new app in anyway, but these will take a bit longer than normal.

2 weeks later, i still believe !

Updated to 80.02.04 and the associated firmware and the problem is the same.

hate that.

by the way, the firmware update process was as as bad as the new app is : I had to perform the updates so many times to finally get all my devices up to date.

I had a lot of presumably different network errors : 1005, 1000)

These are very old devices.  My system was a mix of old and new.  My old connect amps became more and more unreliable, and firmware updates were extremely problematic.  The system as a whole just got more and more stable as I swapped out of the the connect amps for newer amps.

not what you want to hear, I’m sure but these are software driven devices, and I’m sure nobody would be using computers or smart phones of a similar age to the connect amps.  Subs it is time to consider an upgrade. 

They can stop improving and maintaining them as much as they want.

but I don’t agree that they should make them stop working at all with no possibility to roll back to a previous working firmware.

i would understand that, for instance Spotify would stop supporting old Sonos protocols.

but there are no reason for local features to not work anymore (like asking a device to play an audio file located in my house)

It’s up to you.   I can’t remember the number of times that I kept downloading more and more firmware upgrades to old IPhones and iPads that made them more and more unresponsive, slower and harder to use.  Apple kept pushing firmware that the old hardware wasn’t really capable of running.  Sonos have done their best to keep these 10yr+ plus devices working.   They have very limited memory and in some cases this is failing.  If you keep downloading the firmware updates at some point it is going to stop working reliably.  I’m not telling you to upgrade, I’m just suggesting you be realistic about what you can expect such old hardware to do.  I would take a guess that the phone you are using to control it is no more than 2-3 old.  That should tell you what you need to know about the old Connect:Amps. 

I’m a software developer and I work on iOS apps since Apple launched the App Store.

I still have an old iPhone 4s that powers on and runs correctly.

(of course I currently have a iPhone 12 Pro since I personally wanted to have a newer model, because of all the improvements)

The apps I made and sold at that time still works without any issues on this more than 12 years old device.

The most recent versions of my apps, that supports newer devices and add more features, cannot be installed on these older devices.

BUT, the older app versions, (and associated features, that the users bought the app for) are still working correctly.

If Sonos break things on purpose this is called planned obsolescence which is bad in every points (for the user)

If you are happy changing a device for a new one when you don’t need new features/design then good for you.

Indeed I an not happy with that and I hope this problem is just one of the many bugs of their new app version (and that it is not planned obsolescence).

A difficulty at the moment is identifying what is an actual fault that was always going to happen vs an issue with the poor handling of the new app/firmware rollout.

Your symptoms remind of when my first ZP90 and one of my ZP100s failed. Both succumbed to bad flash chips a couple of years out of warranty. Both appeared to work fine, no error lights, but over time they would intermittently fail firmware updates, take a long time to boot, randomly stop responding until rebooted.

Once keeping an eye on it, the errors became every alternate firmware update. As I understood it, at the time Sonos had 2 firmware locations and the update would write to the one not booted and then boot into it following a restart. This was reinforced as in the ZP90 it was possible to get access to the running system and errors would occur reading files when poking around the file system. That area of the flash chip had started failing and over time eventually reached the point it couldn’t boot from it and firmware updates didn’t complete. The behaviour leading up to it initially appeared as random issues until it was bad enough to cause failure.

Unfortunately as devices get older individual components degrade and fail, which can manifest in odd failures. PSU components, solder joints, logic chips.

I think it is less likely that the firmware or app has caused the issue and it is more likely an underlying hardware fault that is the cause. The demands on the device from software is unlikely to have changed significantly and as an appliance, there shouldn’t be a build up of user data that phones and similar devices have to handle.

Sonos have been through an end of life situation with hardware, in the very badly managed S1/S2 split. If they wanted to end of life hardware then they would hopefully do a similar S2/S3 split.

For criticism I would aim at Sonos, I wouldn’t list hardware obsolescence via software bringing devices to it’s knees as one of them.