Your feedback on the new Sonos App

Yes, of course. I’m just highlighting how it works today that may help someone trying to adjust volume and its not working how they would expect it to.

@craigski,

I was going to mention what @Rhonny stated, but was beaten to it. I accept that phone volume controls can sometimes be awkward - I have an issue (moreso) with the new Sonos Web App controls as they are difficult on my iPad screen, but I’ve perhaps got used to the Sonos App controls on the iPad - my iPhone is as responsive as the iPad, but admittedly I sometimes don’t always hit the spot, but I could probably say the same thing for a good many iPhone Apps.

It could always be worse 

Bad volume controls

@Ken_Griffiths As per your previous suggestion I have this morning disconnected my surrounds and sub from my 5.1 set up with the following observations which I hope may be of use to others as well as maybe providing some feedback:

• Removed the surrounds, updated them, and added back in. However one speaker (LHS) although showing fine in the app was not responsive, tried reboots ect ect to no avail. Removed surrounds again and app crashed - several times - trying to do so. Eventually got them removed and re-added to 5.1 group OK.
• Oddly, at this point, the system decided to unpair a totally unrelated stereo pair which I then had to repair, thankfully without issue - these are all Play:1 speakers.
• Buoyed by this ‘success’ I requested to disconnect my Sub resulting in an immediate and prolonged app crash cycle (over app/device and sub reboots). Eventually and despite app crashing it disconnected, although not through the full dialogue, and I updated it.
• Regrouped with 5.1 group and thought all was fine but app now showing old firmware version and failing to update. Cup of tea.
• Removed sub from group after several crashes actually through the full removal dialogue.
• Sub would not update, multiple failures, more tea.
• Re-paired the sub to another speaker (Five) successfully, ran update through PC desktop app as Android app was failing in the usual, previously reported, manner.
• All good so attempted to move the sub back to the 5.1 group - many many app crashes blocked this for some while, across reboots and another cup of tea.
• Eventually app let me move the sub back to 5.1 group and all seems OK now…
• At some point during this exercise the app is now showing my Line In source list - consisting of totally unrelated, and un-rebooted, Ports.

So, in summary:

• De-grouping the 5.1 set up allowed me to update the firmware on the component speakers - thanks @Ken_Griffiths for the suggestion yesterday although it has taken 2+ hours to achieve rather than the 10 miniutes you posited 
• The app is very flaky when it comes to doing this with multiple crashes when removing/adding surrounds and sub (especially the sub). However if it gets as far as the dialogue then it seems to see it through to the end OK.
• System also randomly seemed to unpair an unrelated stereo pair - which was fine until attempring this resolution - this remains a mystery?
• The laggy volume and at times play control remains on Play:1 singles and stereo pairs but not, seemingly, the 5.1 group with Play:1 surrounds

Finally I’ll say again, my network is fine and actually way above average. I have worked in the IT industry involved with testing networks at all levels, types and complexities all my professional life and there are no issues with my network, trust me… From the symptoms and coupled with the technical appraisal:

• https://en.community.sonos.com/owners-cafe-228997/interesting-read-on-how-sonos-is-changing-6899414 

my gut feel is that most of the issues I’ve seen/am seeing can be attributed to cloud-local syncronisation/communication related with some possible app/firmware responsiveness/memory use issues thrown in…

For reference I am running the app on dedicated Android 13 tablets and an older Android 11 phone which is slow to load but otherwise on a par with the tablets. 

Now, another cup of tea and some music I think 

If you suspect “synchronisation/communication related issue”, does suggest network related?

As I was curious, I just did a test on my system to see the sync for myself, as I haven’t made any configuration changes since new App and play.sonos.com released:

I have a pair of of P1’s grouped as stereo pair named ‘Lounge’

I opened play.sonos.com in browser, and they appear as ‘lounge’ - as expected.

I opened iOS App, and appear as ‘Lounge’, I remove stereo pair, and appear as ‘Lounge’ and ‘Lounge 2’ - as expected.

Refresh browser window, and see same 2 speakers, ‘Lounge’ and ‘Lounge 2’ - as expected.

Re pair in App, appears as pair named ‘Lounge’ and also ‘nag’ for Trueplay that I closed.

Refresh browser window, and now see stereo pair ‘Lounge’ as expected.

@User117655,

I think I can see what the problem is, see below…

This is what i was thinking, unbond everything before update, might make things simpler for the update.

@User117655 
Sorry, I couldn't resist - I don’t use the Android controller that much, truth be told, as I’m mostly caught up in the Apple eco-system, almost for as long as I can remember since my purchase of their first iPhone. I personally only buy cheap Android products, just to keep my hands on with any development on that platform, plus it’s handy as a tablet when things sometimes may work on Android and not on iOS etc. 

That said I don’t see the Sonos App crashing like you mention, in fact I can’t recall a time when either the Android, or iOS App, crashed. 

What soundbar/surrounds/sub are you using?  - if I perhaps have the same, or similar, Home Theatre setup here and get the chance later this afternoon, I’ll try unbonding and rebonding the Surrounds & Sub using the Android App and see if I perhaps encounter the crashes you mention too. 

The Tablet here is 64 bit Android 13 Octa Core with 10GB RAM/128GB ROM, WiFi 6.

Hi Ken, i have playbar, 2xplay1 surrounds and sub.

I was told by Cory, even though playbar is on Ethernet and sonosnet, to NOT disable wifi on it, as sub needs it. If it causes a problem the user should not be able to dissable wifi on the playbar…..

@Ken_Griffiths 🤪 you may well be right...

A further update to the above. The 5.1 room has now become 'not connected' in the Android/Desktop apps but remains working for TV playback and is connected and active on my network.

A Play Bar reboot has bought it back (with surrounds being slow to join in) for the moment but I appear to be back at my start point except all components are now running latest firmware...

This release round has seemingly crippled my 5.1 grouping…

Thinking I may need something more than tea now

(Play Bar, Play:1 surrounds and Sub - tablets similar spec to yours...)

The surrounds/subs here have always updated alongside the main players - so users shouldn’t have to unbond them - it’s just a case that @User117655 was faced with some difficulties with the devices not updating. I’d only unbond if you encounter the same issue. It’s not something that I’ve seen happen (so far) and I have several Home Theatre setups around the Home:

• Arc, Era 300s-Sub (Living Room)
• Arc, Fives-Sub (Dining Room)
• Beam2, Era 100s-Sub Mini (Kitchen/Diner)
• Beam1, Ones-Sub Mini (Main Bedroom)

I’ll play with one of them later and use the Android controller App, just to see what happens when I unbond/rebond things etc.

Worth checking on the webb app that all devices appear correct, it seems t be the golden check as app is so flaky

https://play.sonos.com/en-us/web-app

I did have this exact problem with previous update, play1 surrounds failed to update but playbar did, eventually messed about unplugging stuff but managed to put playbar in another home named the same thing. Power cycle playbar fixed things.

Good point.

Following on from my test a few posts back, when un-pairing and re-paring a stereo pair, from the iOS App, I noticed that the web app play.sonos.com was updated immediately when repairing from the App, and could play music straight away from play.sonos.com. The App did also change the paring straight away, but the App didn’t allow me to play music on the re-paired lounge, it showed in App, but unable to play music straight away. Force close App, same. Waiting a few minutes, then able to control ‘Lounge’ in App again.

Seems the config changes from App go to Sonos servers, but then have to be refreshed/cached from the servers back to App, and this is not always immediate, especially if there is some caching involved.

If you are making config changes, be patient take your time, don’t rush. making lots of change, restarts etc in quick succession before Sonos has caught up may cause some frustration.

Yes, Corry’s advice is spot on. When surrounds/Sub are bonded to any Sonos HT main product they use a 5Ghz ‘direct’ wireless link between them to communicate - the surrounds do not use the routers WiFi signal. A fast/direct wireless link is needed to keep things in sync with the display on the TV screen - there is minimal/negligible buffering on the players otherwise there would be lip-sync issues. I would not even recommend (personally speaking) wiring the surrounds in addition to the soundbar as that can involve local network latency - best to use ‘direct’ WiFi link.

The only issue I have with wiring a Home Theatre is IF it’s the only device wired in the setup, as it then acts as the SonosNet ‘root-bridge’ and all traffic for all speakers, using SonosNet, go through that main player - I don’t use SonosNet ‘wired mode’ these days anyway, as it’s 2.4Ghz WiFi is too slooow, particularly as many Sonos devices these days can use the much faster 5Ghz WiFi band supplied by a mesh setup around the Home. If I were to use SonosNet - I would personally use a Boost or a standalone product, like a Sonos One gen2 and I’d set it a minimum of 1 metre away from any WiFi AP, but that’s just my own preference, the further away from the router, the better.

Also only ever cable a Sonos product to the local router or a switch directly off the router - never cable to a mesh satellite and don’t use range extenders or EoP (powerline) adapters anywhere that may involve a connection to Sonos devices (or their controllers).

I opt to use 5Ghz WiFi with Sonos, wherever that’s practicable/available to use and I ensure all SNR levels (see Link) are at 45dB (or higher) .. and also use the least-used (non-ovelapping) channels for the 2.4Ghz band (channel-width 20Mhz only for that band).

I also like to reserve (fix) all Sonos IP addresses (and controller devices) high up in the Subnet out the way of other network devices. That seems to help with discovery and all Sonos updates.

Don’t forget that Sonos Support have tools that may inform them (and yourself)  where some problems may lie - I would not rule out speaking to them in the future.

I don’t have the older players - I did find this though (attached) showing differences in memory & storage - so maybe that’s a factor.

Anyhow I’ll go onto dismantle the Main Bedroom Beam gen1/One’s/Sub-Mini here and see what I see whilst using the Android Tablet controller.

@craigski I refer to local network and out to web, cloud issues/Sonos architecture optimisation and response times are out of my control...

This sounds similar to an update struggle I recently went through (and posted about here). After being notified by the app that firmware updates were available for my nine Sonos devices, grouped into three rooms, I continually received “update failed” messages for all devices. After following the usual Sonos advice one sees when clicking the “how to solve the problem”  message that pops up, the same thing happened  repeatedly.That included reboots of all my Sonos and network gear. I am network literate, and had made no changes in my network since the previous succesful firmware updates a week or two before that. In my case, the only thing that worked was to unplug all Sonos devices in all room groups but one, then the update worked for the products in that one group. Then unplug that one and plug in all the devices in another room group, and update that. Etc. I finally was able to update all devices that way.

Fast forward to another firmware update this week and everything went fine, with no need to do any of that. Nothing at all had changed in my network, but the updates worked fine this time, not the last time, fine the previous time. Before the “courageous” app “upgrade” I seldom had trouble with updates. Now I cringe every time I see an “updates are available” message because I have no idea whether I’m going to have to invest hours figuring out what’s going wrong or whether it will be a normal three-minute process.

And that’s in addition to all the other problems foisted on me (and everyone) by the “courageous” app for which the CEO of Sonos has had to apologize. Shameful, isn’t it?

@User117655,

So no problems seen whilst removing/rebonding Surrounds/Sub-Mini from the older Beam gen1 using the Android Sonos App - I made some video clips of that, which are too large to post here, but will temporarily share them at this link below for a short time, if you want to see (sorry they may not be in order but you can see what happened at each step of the way): I did not see a single crash…

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1o5vBKZ4vt9yO

I’m seeing the opposite. I regularly had system update reported as failed pre new App, with the Sub. My work around was to force close the iOS App, and restart 5 minutes later, all devices had actually been updated. I never had to unplug any devices, it was just the reporting back to the old App that was issue, especially with Sub (not directly connected, as using Arc for network)

Fast forward to new App, and I haven't had any reported failures.

If you see failed update in App again, force close the App, re-open in 5 minutes and see if all has been updated. Hopefully will be a (3 + 5)  8 minute process. 

Thanks for looking @Ken_Griffiths , app crashes aside when it worked I saw the same journeys with similar timings, it was just getting to amd iterating around that point that was troublesome!

Never had issues like this previously and the weird stereo pair loss ‍♂️

I didn’t look for the stereo issue (I forgot about it) but just checked and all looks okay here… just one of life’s mysteries, I guess. I didn’t encounter a single crash, or any issue, in fact. That reminds me, I must grab my iPhone and go back and Trueplay tune the room.

How about connecting to other music services? I still cannot play any music from Pandora or Spotify. Just get “Ooops something went wrong, try again

I only use the free version of both those service but each one is working okay here. Maybe check you have the latest App installed and have gone onto update the firmware too. If the issues continue, then it maybe best to reproduce the issue and immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and then contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to help you to resolve the matter.

Thanks for the advice. I wish it was that simple for me. In my last round of failed updates I tried and failed on my iPad, two Android devices and the Sonos app on my PC over the course of a couple of hours. Nothing worked until I did what I described in my post.