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Your feedback on the new Sonos App

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.

 

3397 replies

8

The new app does not recognise my products on our I-pads. I keept the former release to keep my system going. We followed the instructions to Connect without succes.

 

what to do? 

R
Userlevel 2

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:

Queue management: 

Alarms:

 

 

It's shocking how terrible the new app experience is and how little Sonos users who've paid a lot of money for this system were included in the design.

 

I used Sonos to play my Plex library of live music, and now only see a fraction of the albums I should see. The rest are unable to be found. This is garbage and the most basic functionality and the main reason why I went with Sonos, it certainly wasn't the affordable speaker cost.

 

Add to that I want to listen to music and have the TV on. When the music isn't playing I should be able to volume up on the TV and have the audio switch from music to what's on the TV. Now with this stupid app the only way to do that is go into settings and turn back on TV Autoplay. With that switched on, anytime I turn on the TV it will stop the music playing.

 

Again, these are THE MOST BASIC FEATURES OF YOUR SERVICE and your crack team of product "experts" have removed them and pissed off thousands of customers around the world. Well done.

 

At this point if there was another system provider option I would switch immediately. Absolute garbage app design. -10 out of 10. WTF.

O
Userlevel 6
Badge +8

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.

Does this include posts in the big “The new Sonos Mobile App & Web App” thread (which currently has more than 750 posts)? I’ve put a few pieces of feedback about the new UI in that thread, but was worried it might get missed amongst all the complaints about missing features.

Why not post the links here so we can check them out?  

It would be nice if this thread could be kept less inflammatory than the monster one 😏

 

The main one that I hope doesn’t get missed is to do with navigating back to the home screen

https://en.community.sonos.com/product-updates/the-new-sonos-mobile-app-web-app-6891770/index28.html?postid=8145#post8145

I can get used to the way the home screen shortcut is currently presented, but I think it will continuously confuse some others in my house.

W
Userlevel 6
Badge +4

I notice there was no mention of fixing the shocking performance of local libraries. That has clearly been ignored.

All Sonos products replaced due to appalling app and sheer arrogance of CEO.
M
Userlevel 1

I am not one for forums or generally mouthing off about apps, I generally learn to live with it. Even when S1 got canned I was annoyed but still ambivilant. 

This new app is shocking in its experiance and user interface. So many features removed for what reason? I know things have to change and evolve but this feels such a backward step. 

My main gripe is the loss of the widget, which I didn’t realise how much I used until you stole if from me. 

It just feels rushed and putting fashion over funciton. 

L
Userlevel 2

Why, oh why, did I hit ‘update’ before knowing better with Sonos. 😥

This is not the first time I’ve had issues with Sonos updates… I should not be so finger-trigger-update ready. Damn it!

I really hope that this app version can be wound back so I can actually USE MY SYSTEM.

Since updating:

1) All my speakers have been lost from my network. 
2) Randomly, even though it says I have no connected speakers, it did let me do the voice control update through my Sonos Move?!
3) I was able one time through System Settings to add one of my speakers… but that didn’t last long. Closing down and opening again it had magically disappeared. 

So after investing in Sonos, I have a system that is completely inoperable until someone sorts out this mess.

Don’t Sonos engineers actually use the app?

PLEASE!

Ken_Griffiths

Why, oh why, did I hit ‘update’ before knowing better with Sonos. 😥

This is not the first time I’ve had issues with Sonos updates… I should not be so finger-trigger-update ready. Damn it!

I really hope that this app version can be wound back so I can actually USE MY SYSTEM.

Since updating:

1) All my speakers have been lost from my network. 
2) Randomly, even though it says I have no connected speakers, it did let me do the voice control update through my Sonos Move?!
3) I was able one time through System Settings to add one of my speakers… but that didn’t last long. Closing down and opening again it had magically disappeared. 

So after investing in Sonos, I have a system that is completely inoperable until someone sorts out this mess.

Don’t Sonos engineers actually use the app?

PLEASE!

You maybe best to contact/chat with Sonos Support via this LINK to discuss the matter in detail and see what the Staff can perhaps then suggest to resolve the matter.

S
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

 

 

So many bits missing or badly implemented that it's difficult to know what's broken, what's intentional, what's absent...

This is a huge point, it's sooooo bug-ridden it's difficult to tell now if things are ‘expected behaviour’.

P
Userlevel 1

Boy, this app sucks….
Looks better, cleaner, but only looks.

It lacks tone of simple stuff:

  • Try getting back to the specific part of a track: you cant - there is no slide bar there. [tidal]
  • Try playing all music from the "top tracks" of an artist. You cant, there is no way to add them all to the next to be played, or to play the entire list. [tidal]
  • Same thing under "artist radio" [tidal]
  • alexa in multiple languages? cant, still, like 6 years in the works and absolutely no news here

I'm waiting for the day they will just brick my system because it is to old. Sad to see such an once amazing company follow this path….


Super bad user experience.

C
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

I work in technology and run a software development team. Releasing this dog pile of bugs and missing features is an embarrassment and a disservice to their users. It is easy to understand why there was so little release level communication given that embarrassment. Frankly, it beggars belief that the release wasn’t delayed and I would love to hear what their motivations might be.

Bonuses? 😜

Releasing the headphones and the earnings release, so the app had to move. It’s * of an awesome company and its products.  


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

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

The new app is not able to connect without resetting every piece. Nope. Not going to happen since the old app still works fine on my iPad since I did not upgrade. Give us the ability in the App Store to choose while you figure this out. 

M
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

@Corry P

 

I absolutely don't understand this. Sonos hurt hundreds or more likely thousands of users with this horrible update, plus lied that the functionality would not change. This has caused countless hours of trying to get the system back up and running or finding a solution. Why is Sonos unable to acknowledge the error, revert to a working version of the app and, most importantly, apologize?

P
Userlevel 6
Badge

I see that the Sonos S1 app is still available to download - I might give that a go, can't be any worse

S
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

I see that the Sonos S1 app is still available to download - I might give that a go, can't be any worse

S1 is brilliant.  S2 was launched as a clean slate to allow all sorts of things that S1 (devices) couldn't support.  It's almost indistinguishable still, but supports newer devices.

F
Userlevel 2

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

Pertinent question here is, when?

What is the timeline for reinstating these core (and pretty basic) features of a music based application?

C
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

@Corry P

 

I absolutely don't understand this. Sonos hurt hundreds or more likely thousands of users with this horrible update, plus lied that the functionality would not change. This has caused countless hours of trying to get the system back up and running or finding a solution. Why is Sonos unable to acknowledge the error, revert to a working version of the app and, most importantly, apologize?

If we look at the big picture, perhaps they are seeing only a very very small set of people affected. Perhaps those who are impacted are the Sonos champions while the normal users don’t care because they never use the app?

 

 

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

I see that the Sonos S1 app is still available to download - I might give that a go, can't be any worse

Does not work for me on my iPhone. 

W
Userlevel 3

I cannot find any suitable words for what Sonos has done now. What a disaster app... crashing all the time, missing features, Sonos Radio not working anymore, InTune stations gone…

I invested heavily in Sonos speakers over the last 12 years. What Sonos is doing now is a disgrace. 

Diificulties to not loose my nerves even more. 

W
Userlevel 3

When is this mess fixed and is Sonos going to reimburse its users globally for the lost time and possibly investment? Does it need a lawsuit? 

Why not simply revert to the previous app version that was actually working quite OK?????????????? At least until Sonos has fixed this mess

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

When is this mess fixed and is Sonos going to reimburse its users globally for the lost time and possibly investment? Does it need a lawsuit? 

Why not simply revert to the previous app version that was actually working quite OK?????????????? At least until Sonos has fixed this mess

That would be a smart move. 

P

My biggest gripe has always been the song limit on the local library.  And the excuse has always been that it’s a hardware limit.  Seems like software solutions should not be insurmountable.

starflyergold
Userlevel 3
Badge

In addition to the many many justified complaints, here are my priorities:

  1. Clear and unambiguous admission you got this wrong.
  2. Roll back app to previous version for iOS users. It is not acceptable to make your entire customer basis beta testers with an inferior and buggy app with missing functionalities. Come back when all issues are resolved.
  3. Enable full search of local library (and not in some months).
  4. Add easy way to add custom URLs for radio stations (and ideally transferring from legacy TuneIn)
  5. Ability to order “Your services”, not just the “preferred” one
  6. Restore all Sonos Playlist favorites
  7. Fix icons in Mixcloud
  8. Dark theme (settable within in the app, not iOS dependent), optional: a range of app backgrounds as white is just awful.
  9. Ambitious timelines for implementation
D
Userlevel 2

The number one feature I use the Sonos App for … number 1 …. Playlist Creation/Management, I have a large playlist that I update weekly with New Releases and with the new update I cannot delete out old tracks or add the tracks to the playlist. The only thing it looks like I can do is replace the queue. TOTAL FAIL. This is an essential function, not an enhancement or wishlist feature … ITS AN ESSENTIAL FEATURE!!! 

I already saw somewhere a response that playlist editing is coming back … but it should have never been taken away!!! C’mon, I can get used to a new look and feel to the app, I can navigate through the search (Artist should be at the top not buried in among their albums) … that I can get used to, but not being able to add and subtract to the playlist, there is no workaround for me … well there is I suppose … I guess I could just re-create the playlist in Spotify, update and maintain it there and then stream from Spotify .. then I don’t even need to open the new, updated Sonos App… but I don’t think that’s what you’d want me to do … seriously EPIC FAILURE> 

 

J
Userlevel 1

The new app has a serious bug. Every time the app has run in the background for a few minutes, it shifts the focus to my other room’s speaker system. So you start playing an album on room A, and ten minutes later you open the app to change the volume, the app controls room B. I would then choose room A again and deselect room B, but then the app stops playing altogether and goes back to the first song on the playlist or the album.

It’s baffling to me how such a fundamental bug has slipped through QC. Not what I expected from Sonos.

Dogdad
Userlevel 6
Badge +14

I for one can’t complain…no issues at all..zero..nada….but lucky me still using the old app. Never have liked and trusted Sonos and it’s never ending updates..

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