Your feedback on the new Sonos App

5.1 group continues to drop from my Sonos system since this weeks update(s). Showing as disconnected across the board again:

Rebooting Play Bar reintroduces all components but an hour or two later it is gone again... Rinse and repeat, still works with TV but linked volume control lost, 5.1 group remains on-line, visible and active on my WiFi network.

5.1 group functionality is now badly compromised. 

Windows Desktop Controller and Android Devices.

Still no progress on Manage\Add a Radio Station.  I am still unable to add a ‘custom radio station’ via the Windows desktop controller\Manage\Add a Radio Station.

The pop up box states (see image below) ‘The new radio station will be added to TuneIn > My Radio Stations’, but of course the TuneIn (old) service is no longer available and so the station does not get added.

I have searched in my services - TuneIn (new), My Tuner, Radioplayer and Sonos Radio for the custom station but it’s not listed so I am stuffed.

Please restore this functionality, it’s important to me.

Add a Radio Station

@HOXOH I do not think you can ad url’s to TuneIn this way anymore. Sonos has a new way to handle TuneIn. You need a TuneIn account (best do that on the TuneIn website and be sure to choose the free version) and ad TuneIn as music service. Then you ad the url to TuneIn via the library function in the TuneIn app.

Latest glitch. After updating the App to 80.05.05 all the Apple Music playlists that I had “Pinned to Home” disappeared across iOS iPADOS, Mac and Web App. Eventually able to have them re-pinned after several attempts and the App hanging several times.

So impossible attempts to load my Local Library with every update on every type of device iPad, Amazon Fire (Android) I phone Win 10 PC Win 11 PC. Today reloaded the iPad app and of course there’s no feedback as to if and if it’s actually connecting to my local library and three hours later, my internet radio station playing dropped out and, suddenly my SONOS playlist started playing!   Hurray! I can do everything I wanted to (at the time) but no Library shows as a source but heck I can play at least a playlist I created pre-Software change. Well left the iPad, got to my PC and stuck in a loop, first it tells me I need to update, then it tells me that I have no updates then drops entirely and tells me that some of my products need to be registered, then I log in and it tells me I have no updates, then tells me that I need to update and the loop continues and continues…. Must be Thursday and can’t even begin to understand how and how some more.. sorry no WiFi issues, ping plotted, no dropouts, WiFi speed 300 Mbps tested etc etc. sigh… no smb1 etc etc..

5.1 group continues to drop from my Sonos system since this weeks update(s). Showing as disconnected across the board again:

Rebooting Play Bar reintroduces all components but an hour or two later it is gone again... Rinse and repeat, still works with TV but linked volume control lost, 5.1 group remains on-line, visible and active on my WiFi network.

5.1 group functionality is now badly compromised. 

Have you tried playbar on/off ethernet to see if any difference?

The app update this week was partly successful, at first.  What's never come back:  access to my network music folder.  But the folder on a drive connected to the notebook did load and play; that was Wednesday i believe.  Come Thursday, the app could not play anything in the queue, when i tried to update the music library, it began to index and then just disappeared. Since then i've been unable to reload the music folder and get a mix of ‘access is denied’ and 913 errors.  

The update is really unstable and i still can't load the network folder.  How long is this going to persist?

Happy Friday.  

Based on your most recent screen shot, I suspect a network issue that may possibly be in your control. Can you describe your current network setup ? Apologies if already described somewhere, the sub threads in the mega threads are hard to follow.

@106rallye Thank you for the information, much appreciated. 

I am registered with TuneIn (new) and have their app on my android phone. However, in the TuneIn app, when I add a custom radio station, their URL renaming doesn’t work.  Therefore, I have to limit these stations to five as I can’t recognise anymore just by their URL address.

In the Sonos Windows Controller, I navigate to the TuneIn (new) Service\Favourites but custom radio stations do not show up.  I do the same process in the Sonos Android App where the custom stations do show and I can play them.  I then add the station to Sonos Favourites but cannot rename them.  I then switch to the Sonos Windows Controller where I can rename them.

All rather convoluted and confusing which is why I asked for the ‘Add a Radio Station’ to be restored.  Cheers

Hi @Ken_Griffiths , @paulrw , @craigski and @Toolio ,

Regarding the update and un/re-grouping of surrounds and sub from a 5.1 setup. I have an admission to make and some humble pie to eat too…

After giving it some proper thought regarding the proxying of the component IP’s through the controlling speaker and simply not being able to see a reason why updates may be blocked I delved into my router & logs:

• As well IP->MAC binding I also had anti-ARP Spoofing entries for all the 5.1 components
• This was being flagged and blocked by the firewall for the surrounds and sub as they are tagged with the proxied IP and the component MAC addresses, so triggering spoofing rule
• I removed the ARP entries for the surrounds and sub
• Went through 2 remove->add cycles for surrounds and sub without any issues at all - and well within the 10 miniutes @Ken_Griffiths suggested earlier

So this, seemingly, is why I had update and grouping issues this time around. I really should have picked up on this earlier. I am not 100% sure but I could swear the ARP rules were in place for previous successful updates. I have no recollection of changing anything recently but…

So, humble pie very much due - maybe with a cup of Tea , thankyou all for your input. 

Now the dropping off line issue:

• After removing ARP entries the 5.1 group still dropped out from Sonos apps across the board so I removed the remaining ARP entry for the Play Bar and rebooted - all was good in the land of Sonos but...
• After a while the 5.1 group was again lost by Sonos
• Repeated reboot->use->monitor cycle a few times and Sonos continued to loose the 5.1 group within an hour or so of reboot
• Interrogated router logs and the only entries present for the group were the DHCP server assigning IPs (for all components) on the Play Bar reboots in line with the binding entries. This was regardless of the ARP entry for the Play Bar (only) being active. All other log entries are clean with nothing else related to Sonos

So the dropping of the 5.1 group in this update is still an issue for me and very much a repeatable one. I have taken diagnostics but support wait time was estimated at 80 miniutes earlier so that will have wait for the moment…

Thanks again all, now some pie 

With tea I hope 

The HT components will proxy via soundbar, I have seen this before, when updating, although I wasn't blocking, I could see from ARP table:

Every day is a school day.

so Local Library continues to be an issue for me. Previously built SONOS playlist plays wonderfully (files from my NAS) but, Library Search can’t find NAS.

So I can play that playlist and it can find the NAS but a search turns up nothing… fun...

too right but I really should’ve thought!

Re network setup: Hardware is all discreet components ADSL Modem → Firewall/Router/DHCP → WiFi6 2.4 & 5 GHz Mesh as access point → Sonos on S2 WiFi. Also a few wired clients off a managed switch from the router. Never had any issues over many years, about 7 with this basic hardware topography and near 12 with the 5.1 kit and placement. Have recently switched from SonosNet (with Boost) to WiFi and upgraded, like for like, the WiFi mesh from W5 to W6. Same manufacturer and inplementation just differing units. Again no issues anywhere until now. IP’s are bound and ARP entries (for 5.1 group) are gone 

ISP speeds are good (70/18ish mbps), ping latency to external is good (11ms) with minimal to 0 jitter, no packet loss, ditto internally for Sonos (10-22ms) and WiFi strength is in the 44-75dbm range for Sonos → WiFi and between WiFi nodes. The network is generally unapposed on both frequencies, stable and not overloaded with other clients doing traffic heavy things like gaming ect.

I can see nothing in any logs or related behaviour to suggest the 5.1 group is being thrown off the network by ‘me’ (and I have looked and double checked as deep as I am able) so I have reached the conclusion it is disconnecting under it’s own steam… 

Any ideas would be welcome although I am unable to wire 5.1 group as I don’t have a long enough ethernet cable, moving equipment would be a last resort 

I wish when they designed the app going to the Now Playing window that it was different. Each time when I search and scroll down to find a song and start playing it, I have a tendency to want to adjust the volume by tapping on the selected song again to get me to the Now Playing window instead of remembering to swipe down using the little horizontal bar at the top. It’s just not a user friendly design. Not to mention every time you exit the Now Playing window it takes you back up to the top of your selected playlist, even though you’re playing a song 50 plus songs down. 

The latest update of the Sonos app squashed the option to use 16.1

The old version is nuked and forces the user to update. 

Sonos, please provide your customers an option while you sort things out. 

Sonos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You need to bring back where you long press on the volume slider to adjust bass and treble!! It would be great to be able to adjust your sub too but FOR SURE THE BASS AND TREBLE ARE IS A MUST!!!!!!!!!!!! Make it so it’s very quick and easy to access on the screen that shows what song you’re listening to. That way while you’re rocking out and just need to do a quick adjustment it’s there and you don’t have to dig and dig and by the time you adjust the song its half over.  Should also make it where theirs a green dot meaning good that your beam and sub and whatever else is connected in case your experiencing issues it will at least display that so you can figure it out. You guys had it that way before!

Thanks!!!

FYI I am using Sonos Version 16.1 Build: 78151030 on an Android Samsung phone. I turned off automatic updates for the app and system components when another android household device auto-updated to New S2 in May. I disabled all app updates etc on that device. Basic functions work but some services, TuneIn (new) require update to reauthorize. I did use the other device to reauthorize Pandora. SiriusXM favorites are gone in SONOS, but “recent channels” helps me quickly find them.  Music library finds all content folders, but will not play some albums “unsupported sample rate” “”it is not encoded correctly”. But some albums will play. In summary, I have a mostly working system, Despite SONOS attempts to trick me into updating app and hardware by disabling features on pre-May 2024 S2 and the other phone that got first S2 update.

Update on my 5.1 group issue...

Ungrouped sub and surrounds and placed into thier own room. New room was stable but the Play Bar continued to regularly drop from WiFi/Sonos…

Factory reset the Play Bar (this does not revert firmware) and re-introduced to Sonos. Play Bar seemed stable so, after a few hours, removed sub and surround room and integrated components to recreate the 5.1 group...

The new group appeared stable and has remained so overnight, problem solved

Seems to have been a Sonos issue managing the firmware for the original 5.1 group on the Play Bar, possibly frustrated by my ARP issues. Reset cleared the issue without any further update so maybe memory related? It was the Play Bar dropping the WiFi connection though and not a further network issue - which was a relief 😊

Since the May update I, and many others have not been able to control our Sonos systems.  We are frustrated!

We want an app that works, we don’t want the CEO acknowledging that “too many of you have experienced significant problems with our new app” and that “since launch we have found a number of issues”.

I contacted Sonos support, they confirmed that their app was problematic and advised that their updates would rectify the issues. 

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

I think that’s meant to sound like a rallying cry to gather people to stick it to Sonos. But it actually just sounds like 1) they’re working on fixing the app, and 2) you’ve found a good solution to your issues in the meantime.

Don’t forget, Sonos doesn’t really care what you use to control your speakers. They already have your money.

They already have our money but with the mass of negative reviews and feedback surely future potential customers are going to think twice. I know I would. 
 

I spent a fortune on my (extensive) Sonos system. I can’t just sit back, read their apologies and wait for random updates over the next few months to “maybe” fix the issues. 
 

I want to control my system now, reliably and easily. I’m happy to use the sonophone app to do that. In the meantime, I’ll leave it to Sonos to further damage their brand and their reputation. 

But they’d like more of your money. And bad news travels far and wide. Can’t see many that know buying any more speakers until this is sorted. I won’t and I have actively warned others not to when previously I would highly recommend Sonos. This will take some recovery !

Just piling on to anyone who feels like they can’t find anything in the new app.

Alarms - buried.

Even just figuring out what music to pick once I’ve made a group of speakers… Completely unintuitive.

Please hire better Product Managers and UI experts.  This kind of every-few-years re-platforming is hot garbage from a UX perspective.

Settings - Manage - Alarms. 
I understand how that might be a bit taxing for some.

Not everyone uses alarms, so having an alarm button on main page may use valuable screen space and/or offend those that don’t use alarms. I am sure if Sonos is listening, they could allow users to add alarm settings (along with other settings,  EQ settings etc) to home page as a favourite(s) in a future release of this perpetual beta.

It you are used to other Apps with similar UI (swipe up/down left/right), the Sonos UI does (to me) feel intuitive. 

Though I do not use the alarm function, having it under “settings” seems strange. Alarm is not a setting, it’s a function.

I must say I still find the app u intuitive too. The button that seems to obscure my screen and that isn’t only a button but two menu’s (choosing speaker or grouping speakers). The fact I have to choose a radio stream and have to tap it to start streaming it just irks. Using buttons and also lettering that functions as a button be does not look like a button is also just bad UI.

The app was meant to be personalised, but the only personalisation I’ve found is the ability to place one (yes: one) music service as the first in line in the app.