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Since the catastrophic release of the “new and improved” app, we have seen less and less engagement from the Sonos staff who “look after’ this forum.   @Mike R H @Corry P @Jamie A @Sotiris C.   - we get this is not your doing, and you have been placed in the difficult position of dealing with an angry tirade of problems that you cant do anything about.    I am sure much of your job satisfaction comes from solving problems, and currently you cant do that.

I also understand that you are conflicted, with a Management team who clearly are not putting customers first, it is unlikely they are going to be sympathetic to you if you stray from the ‘party line’.

I hasnt gone unnoticed that your engagement with the community has dropped dramatically, some of you have not posted or replied for as much as 10 days, others more recently but much less than we might expect.   And I am sure thats because you dont really have much to say.    Other than moderating the language and shutting down the ‘sue them’ posts which I am sure you have been instructed to do.

What I would ask however is that buried in amongst all the angst and anger are a couple of common and related themes.   Bring back the ‘gold’ app, and how to reinstall that in the meantime.   The first you cant do anything about other than repeat to your deaf management that the longer they wait to do that (and they will, eventually) the worse it gets.  The second however you can help with.   

Enough forum members have examples and suggestions on reinstalling the old app (even after upgrading) that firstly ‘proves’ there is no reason that Sonos could not do that.  Secondly all these suggestions are buried in various threads.    

If you could use your Sonos expertise to bring these together and where possible ‘verify’ the options, that would be of great benefit and you could get some satisfaction at least by quelling some of the angst.     As a couple of examples there are those running android versions of the old app, and a recent post suggesting that IOS 15 and below will not update to the ‘Killer BLack” app and leave you with “Gold S2”.   Does that work with new firmware if someone has been unlucky enough to do that, and if so what doesnt work?    Does firmware or software kill smbv1?   IS there truth in the suggestion that if you have installed the new app the old one will not work with the same Apple ID?   IS it true that you now need internet to operate Sonos at all?   Is that firmware or software triggered?  etc etc...

It is important that you feel able to “tell it how it is” - and perhaps thats tricky if you have been given a party line to adhere to.   But thats for your own conscious to deal with - it will be hard to rebuild trust in the support at Sonos after this, but some honest answers from the closest we can get would be very helpful - even if it comes with some caveats.

I do understand this is a very difficult time for you, I am sure these decisions were not yours - and appreciate whatever help you are able to give.   But unless the “Gold” app gets rereleased imminently anything you could do to help those community members who are still arriving every day looking for solutions is going to help.   With over 70 pages to scroll through on one thread alone some verified shortcuts I am sure would be appreciated by those who have never used the forum before and have arrived out of desparation.

It is going on 30 days since the new app was released, I can hear Patrick in the Board room saying “give us 30 days, it will blow over”.    From the ever increasing Forum activity I dont think thats going to be the case…..

The moderators have been put into an impossible position, not only by Sonos but the very users they are here to help.  Just look at the AMA, anything and everything they post will be copied and pasted dozens and dozens of times, twisted and manipulated, criticised and shot to pieces.

I'm sure that they would very much love to return here to helping the community as it was.  For whatever reason the  forums has been inundated with rude people, abusive and divisive language, and any moderate voice is just fuel for their vitriol.  Anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint is abused in public and probably by PM, as I was. 

it is completely understandable now that the less they say the better. 

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Not to mention they are likely trying to stay on top of, and report the data from, this substantial flood of new threads. I can’t imagine they have much spare time for anything else. 

SMBv1 was killed by the latest firmware update.  A subsequent firmware could reinstate the protocol. On current performance this is as unlikely as an official rollback.  The die has been cast, for better or worse. 

SMBv1 was killed by the latest firmware update.  A subsequent firmware could reinstate the protocol. On current performance this is as unlikely as an official rollback.  The die has been cast, for better or worse. 

SMBv1 is no loss, but the other feature deletions are. And the new bugs are not wanted.

SMBv1 was killed by the latest firmware update.  A subsequent firmware could reinstate the protocol. On current performance this is as unlikely as an official rollback.  The die has been cast, for better or worse. 

SMBv1 is no loss, but the other feature deletions are. And the new bugs are not wanted.

Well,  its removal has left a heck of a lot scratching their heads and wondering 'where did my music go'?  Seems a lot have no recourse if they were using a memory stick in their router (and which can't be updated).  All in the name of spurious security concerns. 

Much of Sonos's popularity and success is/was founded on a plug and play basis.  People don't want to become computer experts just to listen to their music.  End result, many angry, confused and resentful users.

I only hangout in the home theatre section but having said that I have seen a lot of engagement here since they started cutting back quite a while. I imagine they had limited time even before this.

SMBv1 was killed by the latest firmware update.  A subsequent firmware could reinstate the protocol. On current performance this is as unlikely as an official rollback.  The die has been cast, for better or worse. 

SMBv1 is no loss, but the other feature deletions are. And the new bugs are not wanted.

Well,  its removal has left a heck of a lot scratching their heads and wondering 'where did my music go'?  Seems a lot have no recourse if they were using a memory stick in their router (and which can't be updated).  All in the name of spurious security concerns. 

Much of Sonos's popularity and success is/was founded on a plug and play basis.  People don't want to become computer experts just to listen to their music.  End result, many angry, confused and resentful users.

The removal of SMBv1 hasn’t been the real problem as no sane person uses that out of choice, the real problem is some new permissions issue (that generates error 913) affecting some users, and the removal of library setup from the mobile app.

Well,  its removal has left a heck of a lot scratching their heads and wondering 'where did my music go'?  Seems a lot have no recourse if they were using a memory stick in their router (and which can't be updated).  All in the name of spurious security concerns. 

Much of Sonos's popularity and success is/was founded on a plug and play basis.  People don't want to become computer experts just to listen to their music.  End result, many angry, confused and resentful users.

 

I’m with you on the spurious security concerns, been preaching that for years.  But as this fiasco shows you, sometimes Sonos mistakes very prolific posting by a few users for occasional posts by 1000’s of users, and the posters (+ their sock puppets) know it.  However, the number of complaints about losing SMB v1 (while bad) are manageable.  They aren’t in the millions, or even 10’s of thousands, and hopefully Sonos’ email warning of the changes helped some stave off coming here.  

Well,  its removal has left a heck of a lot scratching their heads and wondering 'where did my music go'?  Seems a lot have no recourse if they were using a memory stick in their router (and which can't be updated).  All in the name of spurious security concerns. 

Much of Sonos's popularity and success is/was founded on a plug and play basis.  People don't want to become computer experts just to listen to their music.  End result, many angry, confused and resentful users.

 

I’m with you on the spurious security concerns, been preaching that for years.  But as this fiasco shows you, sometimes Sonos mistakes very prolific posting by a few users for occasional posts by 1000’s of users, and the posters (+ their sock puppets) know it.  However, the number of complaints about losing SMB v1 (while bad) are manageable.  They aren’t in the millions, or even 10’s of thousands, and hopefully Sonos’ email warning of the changes helped some stave off coming here.  

I didn't see the email. I'm relatively computer literate, but took me a couple days to cobble together the equipment to implement a fix.  My older friends and relatives would be lost, that's how it is.  Having built a user-base  based on ease of use, etc. recent events at Sonos have no doubt damaged its reputation badly. 

Well,  its removal has left a heck of a lot scratching their heads and wondering 'where did my music go'?  Seems a lot have no recourse if they were using a memory stick in their router (and which can't be updated).  All in the name of spurious security concerns. 

Much of Sonos's popularity and success is/was founded on a plug and play basis.  People don't want to become computer experts just to listen to their music.  End result, many angry, confused and resentful users.

 

I’m with you on the spurious security concerns, been preaching that for years.  But as this fiasco shows you, sometimes Sonos mistakes very prolific posting by a few users for occasional posts by 1000’s of users, and the posters (+ their sock puppets) know it.  However, the number of complaints about losing SMB v1 (while bad) are manageable.  They aren’t in the millions, or even 10’s of thousands, and hopefully Sonos’ email warning of the changes helped some stave off coming here.  

I didn't see the email. I'm relatively computer literate, but took me a couple days to cobble together the equipment to implement a fix.  My older friends and relatives would be lost, that's how it is.  Having built a user-base  based on ease of use, etc. recent events at Sonos have no doubt damaged its reputation badly. 

 

Your not the only one not to get notification.

I didn't see the email. I'm relatively computer literate, but took me a couple days to cobble together the equipment to implement a fix.  My older friends and relatives would be lost, that's how it is.  Having built a user-base  based on ease of use, etc. recent events at Sonos have no doubt damaged its reputation badly. 

 

Oh I’m not saying it was handled well, it wasn’t.  Unfortunately, Sonos fell for the BS in the dozen or so threads a few security obsessed posters kept going for the last few years.  There isn’t one documented case where SMB v1 was the cause of a hacker getting control of a Sonos system, despite the hue and cry from those few posters.  Even so, if they were intent on shutting those threads up, Sonos could have done better.  

 

Your not the only one not to get notification.

 

Unfortunately, Sonos hasn’t figured out how to separate sales advertising from critical notices, and opting out of one means all are blocked from the user. 

 

Your not the only one not to get notification.

 

Unfortunately, Sonos hasn’t figured out how to separate sales advertising from critical notices, and opting out of one means all are blocked from the user. 

 

 

I’ve only ever used default settings. I’m not a power user. I certainly got a lot of inbox notifications. They can email me if they like.

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