The app in unfixable - start over of Sonos fails

Oh dear🤪

The app is perfectly usable here and I’ve never had any technical programme management experience and never specialised in data science. I would imagine if I had that level of experience and was having difficulties that I’d be able to get into my router/network and sort it out. If you can show Sonos how to do it, why can’t you show your home network how to do it?

Yup, the same mis-direction from Sonos and it’s diminishing club of super loyal fans who NEVER seem to have any problems even back over a year ago when this pile was foisted on customers to make some greedy CEO richer!  IT’S YOUR NETWORK, ROUTER, INTERFERENCE, ON and ON and ON!  

Hey people, Sonos is broke bad and not anywhere close to better after over a year!  

Just check the most recent Apple or Android reviews!  How about the now many negative reviews on the products on Amazon and other sites (“ love the speakers, hate the app!”)?? 

Two Sonos households to this day:

1st - running Sonos app (Orange) pre May 2024 - great, all good, no issues. 

2nd - running latest app (Black) still having multiple issues, drops, disconnects, lost speakers, and the only apps they can muster by with is SonoPad and SonoPhone. 

Tech support?? LMAO, they laid-off most of the good support engineers and farmed out the rest to off-shore 3rd party contracted service companies who don’t have a clue.

Over a year now Sonos so called management team, and it is still garbage - or the reviews, thousands of complaints, and continued flow of trouble posts here and on multiple social media sites would be as glowing as the last of the last super-defenders of the App/firmware changes who never seem to have issues and try to convince the rest of us it’s our network!  BS.

An Tom? Where is Tom? Radio silence since he took over the “helm”.  

Comments to this recent article help others understand, it’s not just them having issued still:

https://www.theverge.com/news/630883/sonos-update-new-features-future-updates#comments

Yes, the new software seems more vulnerable to disturbances. But part of this could be solved by taking a good hard look at your network. I do not see you mention having done this.

Tom Conrad has appeared on YouTube and an interview is published here: https://www.theverge.com/speakers/664329/sonos-ceo-tom-conrad-interview-app-speakers-subscriptions

But it is, I’m afraid…

I have a normal network with a normal router with normal mesh nodes and normal devices running the normal app. I’ve done nothing special. it loads in 2 seconds and plays what I want, when I want, where I want. I’d be gutted too to read of others not having any problems if I was in your shoes.

But IT DOES WORK. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t. It just doesn’t work for you and a proportion of others. But the number of people having issues reported on here is minuscule compared to 6-12 months ago, so that tells its own story. That said, it seems all the complainants are now camped out on Reddit, moaning into the echo chamber…

Don’t forget, no-one comes here (or Reddit, or Amazon, or anywhere else) to say they have a working Sonos system. I bet your car works fine, or your TV, or your electric razor, so you’ve not had reason to go onto the manufacturer’s website to tell them. The same applies with Sonos - you see complaints and so you feel it’s a global issue that Sonos has done nothing to remedy. All you see are those (like you) for whom it doesn’t work. So to you, it remains a major issue and one that causes your sweeping assumptions.

Not what you want to hear, I’m sure, and it will no doubt trigger a diatribe involving “super fans”, “shills”, “paid by Sonos”, “Sonos apologists” etc etc.

For those still having issues with their Sonos system, I’m curious – what is your router’s Wi-Fi security set to? Mine is set to “WPA2-PSK [AES]” and has been throughout. I wonder if anyone has their network set to a different security level – such as WPA, WPA3-only, or None – and whether that could be causing connection issues or dropouts with Sonos…? 

That said, from what I’ve seen, the main causes of Sonos not finding speakers or dropping out often relate more to network setup than Wi-Fi security. Things like:

• Mesh networks with separate bands or nodes, where devices can’t properly communicate

• Smart Connect or band steering enabled, which can separate devices onto different frequencies

• DHCP or IP assignment conflicts

• Access Point (AP) isolation or client isolation enabled on the router

• Interference from other devices, or weak Wi-Fi signals in certain rooms

So if you’re still having issues, it might be worth checking both your security settings and these other factors. I appreciate it’s not straightforward for some people to do some digging into these things if you’re not technically confident (and I also appreciate no-one should have to) but often just one toggle of a setting can bring a network back to life.

• WiFi Assist enabled on iOS causing phone to connect to mobile data when WiFi coverage is not ideal. Similar on Android, eg ‘Adaptive Connectivity’

But Sonos DID start over on app development, that is how they got into the current mess. A better idea would be to go back to the pre-May 2024 version.

Or, you know, try a third party app :-)

I don’t know how anyone can conclude that an app is unfixable without intimate knowledge of the design framework and coding behind an app.

Rhonny, with all due respect because you’ve helped a lot of folks on here as have other stalwarts.  But you/they keep NOT responding to the overwhelming and recent negative reviews on the App Stores, on product reviews, on tech and retail press coverage, and even Tom C. admitting they have a long way to go.  Just because there are fewer (In your estimate) complaints on here doesn’t necessarily mean we’re back to pre-May 2024 levels of satisfaction/functionality. 

Many… Too Many Sonos users new and old have abandoned this product line and many others who are having serious issues don’t come here any more b/c there are told too many “it’s you network, not the app/firmware change” so they give up.   Don’t forget to count those.   

Nor does it address why those still on S1 or S2 orange are NOT having these issues and that still more use SonoPad and SonoPhone with ease.  

We are pleased as punch for those who have the magic set-up that works, but that misses the whole point.  It should NEVER EVER be this difficult for the mass majority of new and veteran users of these whole-home wireless speakers to get them to work OUT OF THE BOX.  + Support now is an exercise in frustration and takes too long.  Return rates for new product purchases are much higher than prior to the rotten app update the company was deceptive and lied to its loyal customers on the roll-out.  Glad yours is working, but don’t assume the majority of others are.  And truly, thank to you and so many through the years who have helped others on these forums. I wish Sonos’ own support team was as well and able to assist their customers.  

Happy listening.