Sonos Speakers Sound Great, Sonos Ecosystem is the Worst Music Ecosystem in the History of Humankind

I appreciate the response but have just come to accept and live with it (one reason I have moved a bit from a full SONOS system).  I have an IT background so have done the full change wifi channel, dedicated ip, change router, ensure a good signal, just wifi, just ethernet, change router, different streaming services, group/ungroup, etc.  It is infrequent, just annoying.  The only constant is that it only seems to happen when I least want it to (ie have company, getting into the music, heading out, etc) and is least convenient to gather diagnostic data.

The diagnostic takes a few clicks and scrolls but only a few seconds once requested.

Generating the report on my seven Room system takes about 20 seconds.

A screenshot of the diagnostic number a couple more seconds.

All under a minute to complete and once done you can call support any time it is convienent.

The support folks can see the information that is hidden from users that is so necessary to debug  any issues.

Stanley, these events aren’t isolated or happening in a vacuum. A brief skim of the forums makes it painfully obvious that the software is inherently unstable and, unpredictable and the Sonos techs are playing whack-a-mole. Starting new threads is not going to change that and it just gives Sonos the cover they need to pretend the issues are fixable. They are not.

Lol “oh it’s so quick”. Yes but a new problem happens almost every day. I have had three separate issues this week. I am a network engineer and the last time I talked to Sonos tech support, I could tell they were in over their heads. The tried to tell me that the syslogs were saying something that they clearly were not. You think I’m gonna come here for each problem and start a thread and do diagnostics each time? Have you been on the phone with tech support lately? It’s an hour out of your day each time. 
 

“Restart your router” “Power cycle the unit” “Reset the unit” - great there’s half an hour and it still doesn’t fix my “content could not be played, try again later”. But it only takes “30 seconds”. 

Yet there are so many users out there with perfectly functioning systems.

Mine sucked, fought it for months, a couple suggestions from here helped. A call to support found the re,aining issues (100% my fault) and now the system has been rock solid for a long time. 

With the limited access we users have to essential logs and data there is no way for us to do this ourselves.

Don’t recall where I read this but someone in this community was talking about how his Sonos system would misbehave when he was having a party and was trying to use the system for party music.  A reply stated when there are several people in your WiFi environment it can cause interference with the WiFi signal.  Is that BS?

That’s not BS, IMHO, it’s physics, the nature of the frequencies of WiFi (2.4 and 5Ghz), and the nature of human bodies (mostly absorbing water). Has nothing in particular to do with Sonos. 

Not BS at all.  Water is an poor conductor of high frequency EMF, like WiFi, and people are basically bags of water.  Put enough people in between the WiFi transmitter and receivers, and interference is going to occur. 

I am not going to say all, but many of the complaints about Sonos not working properly seem to be posted by users who cannot or choose not to hardwire a main speaker. Others copy this type of setup but also have tabletop routers or mesh systems. On one system I have 5 out of 9 speakers hardwired.
Again not all users will have issues with the app or speakers with this type of setup.

I am not trying to understate the plight of users with issues, but I have to believe the number of users who do not have issues far exceeds those that do.

Sonos would be a distant memory by now if the numbers were reversed.

I am a Sonos fanboy and still recommend it to family and friends, because it simply works. I also joined communities to try and help those who are having issues, to be able to enjoy their systems as much as I do.

I may not be the best at networking, but I did make sure my networks are up to par for the stress that Sonos, URC, Control4 and others can throw at it. 
Everything else is sure to benefit from the settings made for network audio

Lastly, I use the app almost exclusively with Bluetooth and AirPlay a distant second and third.

Most humans are resistant to change. Pile releasing an app that was NOT complete on top of that and you will have users who will move away from it or be very critical of it.

I only had minor issues that didn’t warrant a complaint. So I decided to explore the app and have learned to love it. It does everything I need it to do.

I know I am repeating much of what has already been said, but I feel users need to read it again.

Wiring speakers can be useful but for older ones it raises the Sonosnet issue and choices between disabling Sonosnet and connecting surrounds and Subs.

For the Era line wiring requires the adapter, that is not cheap, for each speaker. Others have no wired option.

Today, for a vast majority of users a Wi-Fi setup is preferred, and suggested by Sonos.

When I finally took their advice and pulled my Ethernet connections things got a lot better and I'm not fighting Sonosnet issues.