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Your feedback on the new Sonos App

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

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.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

3005 replies

A
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

A valid point that was raised by a user on the AMA was that local music library implementation should still work in an internet outage with any cloud services such as music suggestions allowed to fail gracefully.

A year or so ago we had a major internet outage for several months in our vicinity (a power cable was cut through and the exchange was running on batteries that only lasted a few hours). During the outages I was still able to search and stream my music from my NAS perfectly well using the old S2 app as the music stayed within the confines of my local network.

While this maybe an edge case, it doesn’t make sense for local music to go out to the cloud and back in to the local network. 

The app should also still work when there is no internet access, albeit with much less options, but configuration of local speakers and playing of local music should still be possible.

So what does happen now then, if you just disconnect the internet, but still leave the router and local WiFi network up and running?

All depends whether you can see your file storage in the first place.  Firmware update yesterday knocked out my trusty SMBv1 file store. Gone. Disappeared. Vanished.  Can't be arsed to drag out PC, fire up Windows to attempt to set up alternative file store.  It can't be done via the Courageous app.

As I said above, a total Dog's Dinner. 😝

My parents Sonos speakers play from a local music library on a USB stick plugged into their Asus router. It was running a SMBv1 share safely for 5 years behind their firewall.
I tried to upgrade Asus firmware but it still didn’t upgrade SMB to v2.
I then found Merlin firmware for the Asus router which did support SMBv2.
Upgraded the router, SMBv2 was running fine. Windows can read and write to the share, but Sonos indexing fails each time. WTF!! 
I did this before the app update as they got a pop-up stating SMBv1 support would be discontinued.

Question is, will the new app fix the SMBv2 indexing issue, where if fails to index music libraries over SMBv2??!!

Bring back the old Sonos app. It was clunky, but it actually worked!
Ken_Griffiths

So what does happen now then, if you just disconnect the internet, but still leave the router and local WiFi network up and running?

All depends whether you can see your file storage in the first place.  Firmware update yesterday knocked out my trusty SMBv1 file store. Gone. Disappeared. Vanished.  Can't be arsed to drag out PC, fire up Windows to attempt to set up alternative file store.  It can't be done via the Courageous app.

As I said above, a total Dog's Dinner. 😝

So I think you’re perhaps saying that it should work for me then, as I still see the SMB v2/3 library here… cheers.

I’ll perhaps check whenever the internet goes down, rather than do it as a manual test as I’m uploading some music here at the moment.

I know that the line-in port to a speaker will work without an internet connection mind, so there’s always that.

U
Userlevel 1
Badge

I’m baffled.  How can you justify pushing out software that is so obviously a big step backwards?  You took something that works and replaced it with something that does not work.  For example, why do I have to wait a month before I can play my music from my NAS?  This is extremely unprofessional.

The very least you can do is make the original app available and usable again.  By all means, keep working on the new app, but do not force it onto your paying customers when it is still in its infancy.

D
Userlevel 1

As a IOS user with a large Sonos system I simply would like to revert to the previous application which worked just fine.

Is it not possible to offer the option to revert?

The new application is probably the worst and least usable interface I have used in years.

 

Please just offer the previous application!

jim

 

 

C
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

So what does happen now then, if you just disconnect the internet, but still leave the router and local WiFi network up and running?

All depends whether you can see your file storage in the first place.  Firmware update yesterday knocked out my trusty SMBv1 file store. Gone. Disappeared. Vanished.  Can't be arsed to drag out PC, fire up Windows to attempt to set up alternative file store.  It can't be done via the Courageous app.

As I said above, a total Dog's Dinner. 😝

So I think you’re perhaps saying that it should work for me then, as I still see the SMB v2/3 library here… cheers.

I’ll perhaps check whenever the internet goes down, rather than do it as a manual test as I’m uploading some music here at the moment.

I know that the line-in port to a speaker will work without an internet connection mind, so there’s always that.

I've got numerous half tolerable squawky speakers I could use, but want something more like the beam for room quality.  Then there's aesthetics which rapidly diminishes potential replacements.  The muso qb2 is looking like a contender especially as it has chromecast and would fit in with LMS, Audible & Deezer... (all chromecast compatible).  It's just so damned expensive!

Another route would be Bluetooth ear clip headphones (I need to be aware of the environment which precludes over ears).  Ones I've tried are reasonable sound quality but are there any premium quality (Shokz, Ows, etc)?  One little known feature of LMS is that it can see bt devices as LMS endpoints (in a special setup on a raspberry pi).

 

It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -
Ken_Griffiths

I’m baffled.  How can you justify pushing out software that is so obviously a big step backwards?  You took something that works and replaced it with something that does not work.  For example, why do I have to wait a month before I can play my music from my NAS?  This is extremely unprofessional.

The very least you can do is make the original app available and usable again.  By all means, keep working on the new app, but do not force it onto your paying customers when it is still in its infancy.

Just on the NAS issue you might need to look at that, despite any changes from Sonos  in a month (or months) from now, it may not affect the access to your NAS share. 

Sonos have taken out the SMBv1 and http (insecure) sharing protocols from their new App - there is no announcement that they plan to go back to ever using those.

In the future Sonos have announced plans to still support local libraries using SMB v2 (or higher) shared libraries, which they already do today, even in the new Sonos app, but will be adding features like, search, indexing, setup of shares etc. in support of those libraries.

So the shared local libraries that are receiving these features in a month or so, you should be seeing in your new Sonos App now, see the ‘merged’ screenshot from my new Sonos App, showing where to look for the local library on your App homepage.

If the library is not there at all now, it probably won’t be in a months time too, unless you dig deeper and discover why it’s not in your Sonos App at this moment in time.

I’m only posting this to save you time and to perhaps help you get your existing library, backup and showing in your Sonos App.

You may also find this link helpful too if perhaps you decide to ever use a PC to share your local library instead of your NAS box (if it perhaps cannot be upgraded to use a compatible sharing protocol).

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers%2Dand%2Dmusic%2Dservices%2D229131/adding%2Da%2Dwindows%2Dsmb%2Dshare%2Dstep%2Dby%2Dstep%2D6892060

I hope the above will assist. 👍

1 Attachment
J
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Bring back the previous version of Sonos app, it worked. This one is a debacle. If Sonos keeps making their systems unusable. I am going to have to find an alternative. Music library, alarm function and queue features are all missing or broken. I was fumbling with the thing last night, right before I was going to bed. It’s maddening when it was working pretty well before the update. 

R

So disappointed with Sonos2.  Nearly useless.  They day it was courageous when in fact it was stupid.

Impossible to access music on NAS drives. . . so speakers become useless.  Their damage control PR group can say all they want but the new release was/is a disaster!  Timer feature gone, alarm feature gone.  What were they thinking?

Ken_Griffiths

Bring back the previous version of Sonos app, it worked. This one is a debacle. If Sonos keeps making their systems unusable. I am going to have to find an alternative. Music library, alarm function and queue features are all missing or broken. I was fumbling with the thing last night, right before I was going to bed. It’s maddening when it was working pretty well before the update. 

Aswell as an SMBv2 (or higher) locally shared music library being in the new Sonos App, the Sonos Alarms were added back in with yesterday’s App update (although some users say it’s not there for them). I see it in both Android and iOS controller devices here.


Queue management is mentioned here in this support link:

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates

1 Attachment
M

How am I meant to use the Terabytes of music I have on my NAS? This is a terrible update

Ken_Griffiths

How am I meant to use the Terabytes of music I have on my NAS? This is a terrible update

Which NAS make/model is it?

Ken_Griffiths

I've got numerous half tolerable squawky speakers I could use, but want something more like the beam for room quality.  Then there's aesthetics which rapidly diminishes potential replacements.  The muso qb2 is looking like a contender especially as it has chromecast and would fit in with LMS, Audible & Deezer... (all chromecast compatible).  It's just so damned expensive!

Another route would be Bluetooth ear clip headphones (I need to be aware of the environment which precludes over ears).  Ones I've tried are reasonable sound quality but are there any premium quality (Shokz, Ows, etc)?  One little known feature of LMS is that it can see bt devices as LMS endpoints (in a special setup on a raspberry pi).

There are over-ear headphones with environment awareness these days - Sony (just as one very quick example) allows for their Ambient (Awareness) mode to to be manually adjusted by a user, at a reasonable starting price-point of £134/$170. Obviously the more you choose to spend, then the better they may prove to be. You may not get LDAC audio at that price point, but they do have a version of the Sony DSEE audio engine which can often help to improve audio quality.

H
Userlevel 2

terrible user experience on Android.

I've watched Google Play ratings drop from 2.3 to 1.6 in 3days.

It was possibly 3.2 a week before 

skullc
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

terrible user experience on Android.

I've watched Google Play ratings drop from 2.3 to 1.6 in 3days.

It was possibly 3.2 a week before 

Shame the apple one is stuck at 4.4 and has been for 4 years😮‍💨

Network= livewire cpe pro 3 +eero 6 pro wireless
Q

with the recent app update, it is just not possible to load a playlist larger than 100 songs with amazon music. (last week, it was working perfectly)

Bumper

terrible user experience on Android.

I've watched Google Play ratings drop from 2.3 to 1.6 in 3days.

It was possibly 3.2 a week before 

Shame the apple one is stuck at 4.4 and has been for 4 years😮‍💨

Yeah they need to show for most recent versions. 

A
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

terrible user experience on Android.

I've watched Google Play ratings drop from 2.3 to 1.6 in 3days.

It was possibly 3.2 a week before 

Shame the apple one is stuck at 4.4 and has been for 4 years😮‍💨

Yeah they need to show for most recent versions. 

 Apples algorithm must need adjusting 

Bring back the old Sonos app. It was clunky, but it actually worked!
J
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Why would it take weeks to add music back that was already something that was working????

 

Coming soon
Additional improvements to screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
Adding to queue and playing next: early June
Sleep timer: mid-June
Snooze alarms: mid-June
Local music library search and playback: mid-June
Update WiFi settings: mid-June

A
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

To add insult to injury now when i use the tv remote to adjust the volume the sound cuts out for a couple of seconds. Don't tell me a volume change has to flow thru the web and come back before the volume changes. I am so sick of this crap. 

Bumper

Why would it take weeks to add music back that was already something that was working????

 

Coming soon
Additional improvements to screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
Adding to queue and playing next: early June
Sleep timer: mid-June
Snooze alarms: mid-June
Local music library search and playback: mid-June
Update WiFi settings: mid-June

Because they re did the app and released it before the prior feature set was built in. They are now playing catch up on features as well as what seems like dozens and dozens of bugs. Like what genius would release an app for wifi speakers without the ability to edit wifi settings? It’s been incredibly damaging to their brand and it’s not letting up. 

C
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Some epithets to describe the courageous app

(be aware that posts are moderated) 

 

Dog's Dinner

Piss Up in a Brewery

Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear

Car Crash

Lead Balloon

😁🍲🍺🐖🚙🎈😎

It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -
V
Userlevel 1

This is indeed very frustrating, thé app is so not intuitive:

  • auto sélection of the wrong speaker
  • no local radio available
  • no queing for songs by defaut

Can you please bring back thé old app ?

M

To add to the list:

  • no amount of reauthorising allows my selected services to be used; nor does de-installing and reinstalling app
  • When selecting a music service or playlist, app just spins until it times out
  • with the old app, music could continue to play on speakers even when My phone (with the app) was on airplane mode mode. Now, if I take my phone off Wi-Fi, the speakers shut down as well even though they are still connected to the Wi-Fi
  • this is beyond aggravating. I was persuaded to invest in a Sonos system because I love music and listening to music on high-quality speakers. I bought the giant sound bar, an app to connect turntable and other speakers, the SL Speakers, and a couple of those Ikea bookshelf speakers as well. When it was working, it was great. Now, I can’t make any sound come out of any speakers using the new app. 
  • can Sonos please provide at least some basic essentials app that we can use to turn music on and off?! Even if you can’t provide the bells and whistles that you’ve promised (and not yet delivered upon) with the new app, could you put out a bare minimum version with the essentials? Perhaps that would go some distance to forestalling the generalized fury and mistrust you are building in your community of users.

 

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Can someone explain why a broken beta version of an app is released right before a holiday?  If memory serves me right, you did this once before creating a storm of angry people. Why didn’t you learn from that debacle? 

C
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Can someone explain why a broken beta version of an app is released right before a holiday?  If memory serves me right, you did this once before creating a storm of angry people. Why didn’t you learn from that debacle? 

What holiday was that? 

It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -

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