What strikes me as very peculiar is that many of the complaints are from OP’s who have joined the community recently within the month (May) when the new app was launched.
That said I guess I’m to believe that those complaining never had any issues that would have caused an inquiry to this community when the previous app was in place. I’m to assume the issues were direct to Sonos Support and resolved accordingly.
I’m just saying…strange, very strange indeed 
EDIT: Maybe the information in the post below explains why? It also kind’a supports my theory that a lot of the issues have to do with network flaws being exposed by the new app..
For anyone who works in software development or with online platforms increased support and complaints after a major upgrade, especially if it modified ui/ux is just business as usual. Big bang changes are usually carefully considered and avoided where possible.
Sonos managed to shoot themselves in the foot with both barrels by rolling up a wide number of things into the app rollout:
- ui/ux change, which would naturally increase support
- no screen reader implementation, self created increase in support
- removal of existing features without warning, self created increase in support
- change from ssdp to mDNS, self created increase in support
- decision to roll out firmware with removal of smbv1. Self created reload and shoot self in the feet again increase in support. This could have been a calculated decision to get it out and rolled into the existing mess and ‘new app’ complaints rather than cause another significant support spike at a later date. Yes companies do this, deploy features they know will cause issues/irritation in the middle of existing issues.
- changes to online services and integrations causing failing user journeys and integrations not working, self created increase in support
The article you link to point more towards the issues being a Sonos application problem rather than a user network problem.
mDNS is a multicast implementation that is well defined and is commonly known as Bonjour/Zeroconf in the Apple and Microsoft implementations. Linux usually uses Avahi. Bonjour is one of the underlying technologies used by Apple discovery for AirPlay/Airprint and has been used in Mac’s, iOS, Apple TV,.
If the old app using ssdp works, there is no reason from a network perspective that mDNS won’t work as they both have the same requirements from a network level multicast perspective. How well the mDNS client has been implemented in the mobile app or if online services are now involved with the discovery completion is a more likely explanation.
Sonos have had mDNS in the player firmware for years. The device startup scripts used to bind it to the wireless interface, most likely to run discovery for SonosNet, along with configuring ssdp.
The Sonos platform has three inter-dependant components. The local players, the mobile app (which is a local controller, online service interface and bridge between the two) and the online services. The old app would load and perform ssdp discovery without needing the online services or to be logged in to your sonos account. The new app has introduced a dependency on the online services, which Sonos have acknowledged making improvements to in their release notes.
While I am happy your system works flawlessly for you, your continued insistence that anyone who has issues is due to their local network, suggests limited understanding of how networks, specifically multicast and technologies involved with integration of online connected platforms actually work.
Those of us who work daily with these things know it’s not uncommon that what works for X amount of people doesn’t work for Y, it doesn’t mean Y people have broken networks though.
If anyone is interested in the full article and comments discussion in Andy Pennell's article on LI this should take you there:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andypennell_software-is-hard-heres-an-example-and-my-activity-7215454255229337600-tiJS
The new app sucks as it does not function with my library. Tech support is NO help. Thinking about going elsewhere.
The new app sucks as it does not function with my library. Tech support is NO help. Thinking about going elsewhere.
Whereas I’m going to stick around, as the Sonos App here works fine, even with my NAS local library.
The new app sucks as it does not function with my library. Tech support is NO help. Thinking about going elsewhere.
Whereas I’m going to stick around, as the Sonos App here works fine, even with my NAS local library.
Can you append to queue now with your library? I just get an error message. Getting anxious for it to be fixed.
The new app sucks as it does not function with my library. Tech support is NO help. Thinking about going elsewhere.
Whereas I’m going to stick around, as the Sonos App here works fine, even with my NAS local library.
Can you append to queue now with your library? I just get an error message. Getting anxious for it to be fixed.
Have you tried SonoPhone? It returns all missing features and oh most importantly actually works.
The new app sucks as it does not function with my library. Tech support is NO help. Thinking about going elsewhere.
Whereas I’m going to stick around, as the Sonos App here works fine, even with my NAS local library.
Can you append to queue now with your library? I just get an error message. Getting anxious for it to be fixed.
Have you tried SonoPhone? It returns all missing features and oh most importantly actually works.
Yeah, probably don't want to be spending money. At the moment I'm watching my 4k Bluray more to fill in the day. I’m in my modest forever home now. If stuff breaks I am comfortable with the idea of transitioning away from Sonos.
A homepod mini will be replacing my bedroom One I used to set up my spare room. Maybe for the kitchen too, they are cheaper and will work with my Apple TV and smart bulbs.
After 2 months of relying on the legacy desktop sonos controller and the old S2 app on my android phone to play sonos, I have discovered a new ios app version become available, and I gave it a try, and just re-installed the new S2 app on my ipad. The app version is 80.04.04.
It recognized all speakers on my network instantly. It loaded my spotify instantly, and the sleeptimer is BACK !
However, it still has issues to group more than 2 speakers in my house. But I can live with the current version of app on my ipad. Thank you sonos, please continue to make the app better.
Hi Everyone
We moderators of the community - @Corry P, @Jamie A & @Sotiris C. - wanted to take an opportunity to explain some of what is currently happening on the community.
First of all, we value all the feedback you are providing about the new Sonos App. We hear you. Feedback is coming in fast and thick, however - for understandable reasons - and to be frank, we are having trouble just keeping up with it all. For this reason, some topics that have not yet been replied to will go unanswered. We will, however, do our best to amalgamate some of these separate threads into bigger, related threads (such as one big thread for Alarm complaints and another for Queue Management) to be answered en-mass. The threads that are feedback on other aspects of the new app will be merged with this post.
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.
Please be aware that we are reading every post, we are recording and collating all feedback, and all of it will be passed over to the app software development team. In addition, we are doing our best to identify previously unidentified issues and report them to our technical teams.
We know many of you are concerned about certain features going missing, so let us take this opportunity to say that the following features are coming back:
- Alarms management
- Sleep timers
- Queue management
- Playlist editing
In addition and contrary to some speculation, local Music Library is not going anywhere, though SMBv1 support has been permanently removed. Local Music Library searching is something that is still being worked on.
We’d also like to thank everyone who has taken it upon themselves to help others here with their questions and concerns - we appreciate you all!
Thanks for listening - take care of yourselves, and each other.
Combined threads:
General feedback (not relating specifically to those below):
Queue management:
Alarms:
Playlists:
Music Library:
Sleep Timers:
Please note that there is an official statement that can be read here.
You wrote „we hear you“, but to hear is not to understand.
The new app totally sucks.
How can i downgrade?
The new app sucks as it does not function with my library. Tech support is NO help. Thinking about going elsewhere.
Whereas I’m going to stick around, as the Sonos App here works fine, even with my NAS local library.
@Ken_Griffiths
Is this you “genuinely trying to help” again?
At this point, i think you are getting money from Sonos to fill this (and other) forum threads with these types of comments as you have 20k+ of them.
Seems like a move Sonos could make.
The new app sucks as it does not function with my library. Tech support is NO help. Thinking about going elsewhere.
Whereas I’m going to stick around, as the Sonos App here works fine, even with my NAS local library.
@Ken_Griffiths
Is this you “genuinely trying to help” again?
At this point, i think you are getting money from Sonos to fill this (and other) forum threads with these types of comments as you have 20k+ of them.
Seems like a move Sonos could make.
Yes it’s me, as for the rest of your statement, don’t be so ridiculous. I’m retired and live in the UK (I’m not employed by Sonos, or anyone else) and I did help by showing the user that a NAS library does work with the new App, but you haven’t showed that when quoting my post. I’m also being truthful when I say I am sticking around and my 20k+ comments are because I have been part of the community here for a good many years. Feel free to read them all and you will see the help I’ve tried to provide to others here.
I’m not having any issues with my NAS based library. I mostly use the Windows based controller.
I’m not having any issues with my NAS based library. I mostly use the Windows based controller.
Having zero issues with NAS library as well, when using the desktop app and SonoPhone.
I’m not having any issues with my NAS based library either, whether I use the Windows Controller, or the new Sonos App on iOS (iPhone/iPad) or their App on an Android Tablet. The new Sonos Web App works on all those devices too and sees/plays from the library.
I’m not having any issues with my NAS based library either, whether I use the Windows Controller, or the new Sonos App on iOS (iPhone/iPad) or their App on an Android Tablet. The new Sonos Web App works on all those devices too and sees/plays from the library.
Hello Ken from the UK. I have been reading your posts over the past month or so and I have always saw you as a sincere person trying to help fellow Sonos users. You have always provided very detailed steps and instructions. I also have been retired for a while and have no problems using my system. ( I’m a degreed Networking Professional with a BSEE and have an extensive radio communications background from my eight years in the Navy.) I did have major problems however in the beginning when they first came out with the new app, but from reading all the posts and issues, I was able to recover my music library and playlists by moving my music onto a WD My Cloud NAS drive and had already completed the steps that were posted a few days ago (somewhere) on how to add a NAS drive to your network. But I read where someone’s app is constantly resetting and I do agree, that this seems like a local problem, even though we all had no problems before this new app was introduced. So yes, a month ago, nothing would play for me and I had lost my music library, and everything. I don’t subscribe to music services, and only use one Alexa alarm to remind me to take my very important seizure medication twice daily. All the music I have has come from my 800 CD collection or purchased on the iTunes Store, so I guess my setup is kind of simple. I am John from NJ. But thank you Ken for all your help and input.
Hello Ken from the UK. I have been reading your posts over the past month or so and I have always saw you as a sincere person trying to help fellow Sonos users. You have always provided very detailed steps and instructions. I also have been retired for a while and have no problems using my system. ( I’m a degreed Networking Professional with a BSEE and have an extensive radio communications background from my eight years in the Navy.) I did have major problems however in the beginning when they first came out with the new app, but from reading all the posts and issues, I was able to recover my music library and playlists by moving my music onto a WD My Cloud NAS drive and had already completed the steps that were posted a few days ago (somewhere) on how to add a NAS drive to your network. But I read where someone’s app is constantly resetting and I do agree, that this seems like a local problem, even though we all had no problems before this new app was introduced. So yes, a month ago, nothing would play for me and I had lost my music library, and everything. I don’t subscribe to music services, and only use one Alexa alarm to remind me to take my very important seizure medication twice daily. All the music I have has come from my 800 CD collection or purchased on the iTunes Store, so I guess my setup is kind of simple. I am John from NJ. But thank you Ken for all your help and input.
Ah thanks
John from NJ, very few folk take the time to post here when things are working for them and it’s nice to know that you (and others) are having success with the new Sonos App and your locally held NAS library. Maybe it’s a retirement thing and experience that allows us to resolve these issues
.
When I initially installed the new Sonos App, I found I had a delay in the App start-up from a fully closed state on my iPad controller, but quickly saw others here in the community, had a much better response time. I realised the App delay I was experiencing was likely down to my device low SNR connection levels (as now seen in the new App), particularly in some remote areas of our Home, as mentioned here:
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/understanding-the-network-details-section-in-the-sonos-app
I set about improving those connections by shifting my WiFi mesh Hubs slightly and moving products onto the faster 5Ghz band, whilst maintaining a SNR level of 45dB, or higher … here’s my current SNR levels of the main products here:
- Dining Room 68dB
- Fireplace-L 56dB
- Fireplace-R 57dB
- Hallway 58dB
- Kitchen Beam 68dB
- Living Room 82dB
- Main Bedroom 66dB
- Media Port 66dB
- Moveable-L 58dB
- Traveller-R 52dB
- Polo-L 57dB
- Polo-R 54dB
- Portable 52dB
- Utility-L 52dB
- Utility-R 54dB
- Outlook-L 50dB
- Outlook-R 52dB
- Noshery-L 54dB
- Noshery-R 56dB
…and I continue to try to improve them.
The above has got the App opening/device-discovery time now to around 6 or 7 seconds. That’s finding 25 Sonos speakers and loading up connections to 18 musuc service ‘containers’, Including a local NAS library. That’s quick enough for me.
I’ve been lucky with the NAS library here too, as I had switched that some years ago (around 2019/2020) to use the later version of SMB v2 (min.) to v3 (max.) and so that has happily continued working with the new App update - Thr only issue there is with my Android Tablet controller and the App on that device not showing some Artwork, but it still works for playback. I understand that’s a bug in the App anyway, so I assume it will be fixed at some later stage (it’s non-urgent).
Anyhow it seems clear to me that the new App is likely here to stay, so I’m just trying to assist others here and of course I (still) keep learning (every day is a school day) and if there are still outstanding issues for some, then I just signpost them over to Sonos customer support, which in my view is the best thing to help users get their problems solved.
Anyhow glad to hear that all is well with your Sonos setup too. 
I am glad the new app works out well for you. Honesty, I really don’t have great deal of time to figure this out. The bottom line is when the company pushes out new app it should not have so many issues assuming nothing else has changed. Many of us are not that tech savvy and it’s not our job to improve the app. Obviously, we need to send feedback and I am hoping this will be heeded.
I am glad the new app works out well for you. Honesty, I really don’t have great deal of time to figure this out. The bottom line is when the company pushes out new app it should not have so many issues assuming nothing else has changed. Many of us are not that tech savvy and it’s not our job to improve the app. Obviously, we need to send feedback and I am hoping this will be heeded.
If something isn’t working in the new Sonos App, that you perhaps see others in the community here already have working …and you are not sure how to resolve the matter yourself, then you are probably best to call into Sonos support via this LINK and hopefully the Staff there will try to assist you.
Sometimes these things may not always fix themselves and it might be the case that Sonos are unaware of the problem until people do get in touch with them and report it.
If something isn’t working in the new Sonos App, that you perhaps see others in the community here already have working …and you are not sure how to resolve the matter yourself, then you are probably best to call into Sonos support via this LINK and hopefully the Staff there will try to assist you.
Sometimes these things may not always fix themselves and it might be the case that Sonos are unaware of the problem until people do get in touch with them and report it.
Hi @Ken_Griffiths you raise a good point, especially in the case of an ‘episodic’ issue when something works some of the time. Such problems are frustrating and challenging to debug. In these instances, performing a “submit diagnostics” captures details of activity that are simply not available to we users.
Sonos techs may find something in these diagnostics that points to a specific issue that can be addressed by a user, and if not, these diagnostics may help identify a bug in the app or firmware that needs to be addressed by Sonos.
I am not dissuading folks from asking for help on these forums! In many cases, fellow users make suggestions that can fix an issue. If you learn that something works for some users and is broken for other users, and you reach a dead end, consider reaching out to Sonos support.
Sometimes these things may not always fix themselves and it might be the case that Sonos are unaware of the problem until people do get in touch with them and report it.
100%. Bugs should be reported. Sonos is probably unaware since the app was released before it was ready and they allegedly ignored beta feedback. We are all beta testers of this buggy pos whether we want to or not.
@Ken_Griffiths & @John Guarr , Thanks for your posts especially regarding the SNR levels on your system (@Ken_Griffiths) which made very interesting reading. My levels are not quite as good as yours though but none below 46 to node and 58 between nodes which ain't bad.
I too have no issue (and never have had) with local library access. The real issue I have is discovery time which, for 11 rooms including 1 stereo pair and 1 full surround system has, until this afternoon, been 3-4 minutes on app load. Now it is down to circa 50-70 seconds which is an improvement that must have been made (or 'triggered') on the Sonos side somewhere as my network is unchanged and reporting the same stats.
A secondary issue for me is the 'loss' of favourite population - a 50/50 delight which can also disappear without notice. Tends to disappear post app load though...
I make an additional observation with regard to the new discovery route (cloud not withstanding) of mDNS vs. SSDP. I have diagnostic tools that discover all speakers in the sub 10 second range (using both protocols). Consequently I still find it difficult to believe it is (in my case) a local issue but rather, maybe, an issue with the Sonos architecture cloud interactions... 🤷🏼♂️
I also have no real issue with the app. per se. Yes, it has different navigations and approach but that in itself is not abhorrent and change can always be difficult…
For the record, also UK based, almost retired and also an IT career in development, UI and technical (incl. ISP network) test.
Let's see what the next few weeks will bring 
Actually anything over 45 SNR is considered matrix level 30-40 is considered very good
as I spent the last 30 years doing 1st, 2nd and finally 3rd line support in a 25k seat government network environment doing user, network and server fault finding and resolving now I am retired I really don’t want to carry on doing that
I don’t even own a pc/laptop anymore I bought Sonos for my twilight years to use and enjoy not to beta test software, before anyone replies my system works fine as I didn’t update I am using pre may 7th software. However due to the information on this forum and elsewhere I have decided to move away from anything this firm releases.
thanks to prime day my moves and roams are now powered down and in storage replaced by echo dots, battery packs to follow. For 4 weeks now I have been using a WiiM mini plugged in my 5 line in for all my music rarely opening the Sonos App even though it works fine.
at Christmas I will treat myself to a class a/b amplifier and a pair of floor standing speakers as my main music listening system with WiiM ultra connected for streaming high res music.
my HT arc and beam can stay for now but they eventually will go as well shame as I have enjoyed them over the years I have used them.
please don’t reply telling me I am wrong as I don’t care 
My levels are not quite as good as yours though but none below 46 to node and 58 between nodes which ain't bad.
I make an additional observation with regard to the new discovery route (cloud not withstanding) of mDNS vs. SSDP. I have diagnostic tools that discover all speakers in the sub 10 second range (using both protocols). Consequently I still find it difficult to believe it is (in my case) a local issue but rather, maybe, an issue with the Sonos architecture cloud interactions... 
♂️
Hi @User117655 you raise an excellent point: there is certainly a level of Wi-Fi throughput that is “good enough” for a given application. Streaming audio is happy with 1Mbps (lossy) to 3Mbps (‘HD’ lossless) of throughput. Absent a horrible amount of interference—which would manifest itself as noticeable dropouts—latency on a Wi-Fi network will be in the low 1s of milliseconds.
Hi to you @press250 and thanks for your reply...
I should also have mentioned that I have external ping latency (google.com / bbc.com) averaging around 24 ms, internally to my Sonos client and speakers of around 5 ms, and to my gateway of around 15 ms with no package loss. Also good down/up speeds of 74.7/18.8 mbps. All of which should be more than adequate to allow Sonos to discover speakers and populate (and not loose) favourite lists and information panels in good time whilst maintaining app/speaker response times.
@Ken_Griffiths I appreciate that nothing home networky is ever, or rarely 🤪, going to be perfect. However, taking into account the information that came to light in the LI article, I can't find a local issue that is worth spending time attempting to fettle that could cause the Sonos behaviour I am seeing.
I stand to be corrected of course but...
Hi to you @press250 and thanks for your reply...
I should also have mentioned that I have external ping latency (google.com / bbc.com) averaging around 24 ms, internally to my Sonos client and speakers of around 5 ms, and to my gateway of around 15 ms with no package loss. Also good down/up speeds of 74.7/18.8 mbps. All of which should be more than adequate to allow Sonos to discover speakers and populate (and not loose) favourite lists and information panels in good time whilst maintaining app/speaker response times.
@Ken_Griffiths I appreciate that nothing home networky is ever, or rarely 🤪, going to be perfect. However, taking into account the information that came to light in the LI article, I can't find a local issue that is worth spending time attempting to fettle that could cause the Sonos behaviour I am seeing.
I stand to be corrected of course but...
I’m not sure what the LI article is you’re referring to? - Have you raised your use-case issue with Sonos Support?
