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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

M
Badge +1

nevermind

R
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Spence’s way too late to matter email email says: “While these software updates have enabled the majority of our customers to have a robust experience using the Sonos app”

 

Is that true? I know 10 or so SONOS customers and 100% either can’t use their systems or have given up even trying anymore. I doubt that anyone at all is having a robust experience.

Is anyone out there just simply enjoying their SONOS equipment?

 

My app has worked since day 1.  Not sure I’d consider the missing features and a few of the nagging bugs (queue management, missing album art, etc) as “robust”, but the app has been functional since the very first update.  Then again, my music library was already on SMB v2/3 and I’m not running any funky network configurations that would screw up the app’s share and/or discovery functions.  There are many others on here who state the same thing (most are regular posters, the vast majority who have a working system will never come here to post). 

Does that mean the app was fit for purpose?  Not at all.  It was a disaster.  However, the number of new users who registered to complain is still under 1000.  Even if you multiply that times 100 to account for those who don’t complain or just chuck thousands of dollars worth of gear and start over, that is still only a fraction of the millions of Sonos users out there.

One is a lot if you’re the one it happens to. My sense is that the number of Sonos customers who come here to express their dissatisfaction and concern is just the very tip of the ice berg. We’ll never know the final numbers; only time and share price will tell the final impact.

Just my 2¢, but then I’ve given up hope.

jgatie

One is a lot if it happens to you. My sense is that the number of Sonos customers who come here to express their dissatisfaction and concern is just the very tip of the ice berg. We’ll never know the final numbers; only time and share price will tell the final impact.

Just my 2¢, but then I’ve given up hope.

 

I’m not downplaying individual impact.  I’m just saying that even if we extend that impact out to irrational numbers, it is still a fraction of the overall number of users.

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

One is a lot if it happens to you. My sense is that the number of Sonos customers who come here to express their dissatisfaction and concern is just the very tip of the ice berg. We’ll never know the final numbers; only time and share price will tell the final impact.

Just my 2¢, but then I’ve given up hope.

 

I’m not downplaying individual impact.  I’m just saying that even if we extend that impact out to irrational numbers, it is still a fraction of the overall number of users.

Perhaps only Sonos’ leadership (if you can call them that) know what that fraction is, I suspect it’s a very large percentage b/c few folks take the time to ferret out this site, r/sonos, or other forums and post.

You can’t deny that the negative reviews on the Apple and Google app stores is the vast majority of posts since early May. It’s easier for folks to complain/post there. I’m not on FarceBook or Twitsville, yet friends say it’s pretty bad there as well. 

The old adage: “only about 1% of the customers you anger ever bother to communicate directly, the other 99% just move to your competitor.”

I’ve been on here for years and I’ve never seen anything quite like this :-( 

jgatie

 

I’m not downplaying individual impact.  I’m just saying that even if we extend that impact out to irrational numbers, it is still a fraction of the overall number of users.

Perhaps only Sonos’ leadership (if you can call them that) know what that fraction is, I suspect it’s a very large percentage b/c few folks take the time to ferret out this site, r/sonos, or other forums and post.

You can’t deny that the negative reviews on the Apple and Google app stores is the vast majority of posts since early May. It’s easier for folks to complain/post there. I’m not on FarceBook or Twitsville, yet friends say it’s pretty bad there as well. 

The old adage: “only about 1% of the customers you anger ever bother to communicate directly, the other 99% just move to your competitor.”

I’ve been on here for years and I’ve never seen anything quite like this :-( 

 

1%?  So my figure of 100 times the less than 1000 who registered appears to be accurate.   Though you are correct that it is not like any other outcry in the past.  That can be interpreted as being widespread, or a statement on just how tiny the tempests in teapots that came before actually were. 

U
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Spence’s way too late to matter email email says: “While these software updates have enabled the majority of our customers to have a robust experience using the Sonos app”

 

Is that true? I know 10 or so SONOS customers and 100% either can’t use their systems or have given up even trying anymore. I doubt that anyone at all is having a robust experience.

Is anyone out there just simply enjoying their SONOS equipment?

 

My app has worked since day 1.  Not sure I’d consider the missing features and a few of the nagging bugs (queue management, missing album art, etc) as “robust”, but the app has been functional since the very first update.  Then again, my music library was already on SMB v2/3 and I’m not running any funky network configurations that would screw up the app’s share and/or discovery functions.  There are many others on here who state the same thing (most are regular posters, the vast majority who have a working system will never come here to post). 

Does that mean the app was fit for purpose?  Not at all.  It was a disaster.  However, the number of new users who registered to complain is still under 1000.  Even if you multiply that times 100 to account for those who don’t complain or just chuck thousands of dollars worth of gear and start over, that is still only a fraction of the millions of Sonos users out there.

Perhaps the overwhelming of Sonos support could be another way of judging how many are affected by the situation. Additionally, in my experience people often provide feedback if they are either very happy or very unhappy, so on that basis...

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +12

Additionally, in my experience people often provide feedback if they are either very happy or very unhappy, so on that basis…

..everyone who has not left feedback is satisfied.

 

John Guarr
Userlevel 5
Badge +6

I just noticed yesterday’s new app has a problem. When changing rooms (speakers) whatever was in the queue gets totally removed. I verified this by watching it on my Windows Controller. So I would use one of my iPads and change rooms to a room that was just playing but paused, and I watched the queue disappear. So then you have to find that music queue (playlist) and place it back into that room. I tried this in three different rooms using two different iPads and an iPhone. All firmware was upgraded to 16.3 running the newest released IOS apps yesterday 7/22 even though the date in the app says 7/17. 

I’m not seeing this - if I switch room/group queues the tracks in the room/group queue stay put? Are you perhaps changing the Playing music room or group-co-ordinater in the ‘Output Selector’ screen instead, as mentioned in the Sonos App User Guide? In which case, I think that’s always been the case and ‘by design’.

I know it’s been three days and I hope you don’t mind me asking again about this topic. And thank you for the User’s Guide link. I did print out sections and have it scattered on my desk (with circles and arrows and you know the rest). When you mention switching room/group queues in our last conversation and the playlists remained in that room, how did (or do) you switch between rooms without over writing the existing playlists for that room? I discovered yesterday, clicking on the “Your System” name along the top of the home page in my IOS app and it opens cards of each room in my house. I just experimented with a radio station in my Kitchen SL, just selected “Your System” and can finally see all the rooms with the current playlists that are either playing or paused, and I think this is what you might have been referring to. Because, this is what I think I’m looking for. So if I’m saying this correctly, this “card” page of rooms would be selected first as a source, before using the output selector to select a room as the target?  I’m sorry for trying to understand this again, but overall, I’m getting to like the new app and it is working fine. I noticed that the Sonos Favorites area doesn’t work for my local playlists, but the Recently Played area does. Correction: Sonos Favorites does work if you have radio services.  Thanks again. 

jgatie

You can bring up the room selection screen two ways, by tapping on the system name at the top of the app, or by swiping up on the little bar on the current room at the bottom of the app.  Then tap a room to make it the current room, and then select a source to play.

T
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

Additionally, in my experience people often provide feedback if they are either very happy or very unhappy, so on that basis…

..everyone who has not left feedback is satisfied.

 

Lol. Any speculation on the silent majority is just that. They might be happy, they might just be using their speakers for Spotify and be happy. Equally they might all be selling their Sonos kit asap. eBay is awash with it and the app has been downgraded on all the stores as low as it can go. On the Android UK store there are millions of downloads but that does not equate to users happy or otherwise. There are 188,000 reviews and for it to degrade to 1.1  (you can't really go lower) a significant number of those reviews are new or like myself are previous 4/5 star reviewers who have actively downgraded it. And you can see from the comments that most people are long standing Sonos owners registering their displeasure. 

The FB groups likewise are unreliable. The alleged mystical poll of 97% happy poppies consisted of @104 participants. 

The facts are that the new architecture is ropey and volatile and in places poor standards are met, strange and bizarre development decisions were taken and there are gaping holes in technical documentation. The random and sporadic nature of the issues faced by most and the handful of happy, contented bunnies with no problems at all are symptomatic. All of this is documented by an industry leading engineer in his LI profile. 

Sonos have to address all of this but haven't. 

 

 

John Guarr
Userlevel 5
Badge +6

You can bring up the room selection screen two ways, by tapping on the system name at the top of the app, or by swiping up on the little bar on the current room at the bottom of the app.  Then tap a room to make it the current room, and then select a source to play.

Thank you very much jgatie. The Room Selection Screen. The User’s Guide says to swipe up on the Now Playing bar and I could never figure out what it was talking about. But thanks to your reply, I finally know what they are referring to. It’s a little sensitive, but I finally got it to work. Thanks again. 

P
Userlevel 1

Wow. Some varied opinions here. I am amazed there is a feeling of “let’s look forward  and anticipate the fixes” ( I paraphrase). I am in the camp that heads should roll. The development was highly flawed, testing ignored it not done, new app specifications not created or were ignored, marketing roll out plan not created or highly flawed, zero program management, senior management asleep and not asking the right questions. Take your pick. But if this is negatively impacting the company bottom line then, yes, heads should roll. Coming from a product development background I know I would for sure be gone. So what we don’t know is whether some of these actions were indeed taken. The fact remains I am still having a terrible experience. If I could trade my entire system (I.e. investment) into a different system I would right now.   So today I can’t get music to stop playing. There are several stop or pause buttons in different windows and none of them like each other. I don’t really want to leave the house while just letting it play and play.  Minor in the totality of my world, but little irritants add up and affect my mood and how I treat other people as I move through life. 

sigh
Userlevel 6
Badge +8

Does anyone know of a better wireless home sound system, able to stream and play already owned music? I am ready to throw in the towel and get rid of my 10 Sonos speakers. I’m thinking about Bose or another more reputable and reliable company. Any recs would be appreciated.

If and when Sonos gets their act together, there really isn’t a better system out there. I don’t know if the other companies like Wii’s, Bluesound, Denon, Yamaha, etc. make their own high quality speakers that sound as good as Sonos’ speakers. 

It will all depend on what you need.

Wiim don’t make speakers, and every manufacturer has it’s own set of issues and quirks.

For my needs I went Yamaha. I find the MusicCast 50 better than Sonos speakers they replaced without needing a Sub as well. Most of my system was Sonos Amps, a port and some sub minis. Changing them to MusicCast AVRs lets me keep all my multiroom playback and streaming requirements, has much better room eq and doesn’t suffer the amps ridiculously bad handling of bass levels when switching between music and video streaming.

More importantly to me, the hardware fully is operational without the app. It doesn’t matter what Yamaha do in terms of the MusicCast side, the ability to use my speakers as powered speakers with external players connected or the AVRs is not dependant on the app due to physical buttons, hardware remotes and built in webpages in the devices.

Sonos is more like Amazon echos and Apple HomePods where you buy the devices but your ability to use them is out of your control.

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

I hope everyone affected by this receives a speedy resolution but going by past events that may not happen.

I'm just glad I didn't get forced into updates by buying an ARC. 

Still a few thousand pounds in with our whole house system  but still on S1, still listening to my own local content via NAS.

Once our Playbar 5,1 system dies I can't see me investing in any newer Sonos kit, a leopard never changes it's spots and it comes up time and time again with these app "updates".

 

 

 

T
Userlevel 6
Badge +10

The problems with the courageous app never end, do they? Calm Radio is one of my most frequently used Sonos services (I'm a paying subscriber). For the last two days the Calm Sonos service works for a few hours, then all the station icons disappear and nothing plays. A few hours later, all is fine again, then the cycle repeats. Yet I can play Calm Radio through my Sonos speakers just fine with Roon, I can play Calm with my Wiim gear and app, and the Calm app plays just fine on my iPad and Android phone. All other Sonos services are working. Meanwhile, the Sonos status page claims the Calm Radio service is fully operational. This is reminiscent of the  introduction of the courageous app in May, when the Calm service stopped working entirely for the first few days of the “upgrade”.

Will this nonsense ever stop???

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

 

Will this nonsense ever stop???

Sadly it will not until the so-called leadership team is sent packing, the firmware and software is rolled back to 16.1 with S3 for the Bluetooth headphones put up on the app stores. 

Or some interested party like Apple et al, buys Sonos out (nice low price now thanks to P.Spence) and does the above themselves.  

A
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Now that Spence has come out and at least admitted the scale of the problem (sort of) do we think there’s any chance that they might now allow a rollback to 16.1 at least on a temporary basis for those who want to and are still encountering permanent and intermittent problems. 

I suppose the problem now will be that the subsequent firmware updates might mean that CAN’T happen. 

sigh
Userlevel 6
Badge +8

Now that Spence has come out and at least admitted the scale of the problem (sort of) do we think there’s any chance that they might now allow a rollback to 16.1 at least on a temporary basis for those who want to and are still encountering permanent and intermittent problems. 

I suppose the problem now will be that the subsequent firmware updates might mean that CAN’T happen.

Nope, any window for a rollback by Sonos has long gone.

During release planning I would say the only sensible window for rollback as a “what if it goes horribly wrong” blackout plan was between the initial May app release and the first firmware update that followed.

That didn’t happen so the decision was fix forward.

T

so nice the new app

nothing works decently anyhmore

alarms not go off as expected with the correct station

half the time the stereo pair in my bedroom looses 1 of its speakers.

only option is to unplug the power and plug it back in again.

 

e few months agbo I was planning to upgrade all my stereo hardware in my living room, game room, bedroom, keds room with sonos hardware.

but I am very glad I didnt do it (yet)

 

it is nice, but not working anymore the way it should be working.

 

and the arrogance that the company has towardds the people that paying in the end their salary.

 

for the near future there is not going to be any upgrade to my hardware at home.

too much money for what I expect that it delivers.

the app doesn't work decently at all..

how do you everr expect that people would love the changes you have made.

and there is no option at sll to not use it.

 

John Guarr
Userlevel 5
Badge +6

Does anyone know of a better wireless home sound system, able to stream and play already owned music? I am ready to throw in the towel and get rid of my 10 Sonos speakers. I’m thinking about Bose or another more reputable and reliable company. Any recs would be appreciated.

If and when Sonos gets their act together, there really isn’t a better system out there. I don’t know if the other companies like Wii’s, Bluesound, Denon, Yamaha, etc. make their own high quality speakers that sound as good as Sonos’ speakers. 

It will all depend on what you need.

Wiim don’t make speakers, and every manufacturer has it’s own set of issues and quirks.

For my needs I went Yamaha. I find the MusicCast 50 better than Sonos speakers they replaced without needing a Sub as well. Most of my system was Sonos Amps, a port and some sub minis. Changing them to MusicCast AVRs lets me keep all my multiroom playback and streaming requirements, has much better room eq and doesn’t suffer the amps ridiculously bad handling of bass levels when switching between music and video streaming.

More importantly to me, the hardware fully is operational without the app. It doesn’t matter what Yamaha do in terms of the MusicCast side, the ability to use my speakers as powered speakers with external players connected or the AVRs is not dependant on the app due to physical buttons, hardware remotes and built in webpages in the devices.

Sonos is more like Amazon echos and Apple HomePods where you buy the devices but your ability to use them is out of your control.

Thank for the Yamaha MusicCast info. I’ve always been a Yamaha fan since my first Yamaha DX-7 Synth years ago. And my Living Room stereo system is all Yamaha separates. Connected to this system is a Sonos Connect, which gives life to this older stereo system, of which I hardly would turn on since the Yamaha Amp is 440 watts and it rattles the house. After reading your information, I searched on-line for the Yamaha MusicCast system and Crutchfield has a nice video on the operation of the system. It does everything the Sonos system does, has its own MusicCast app, and their preamp even comes with a little remote if you like that tactile feel.  

So this could answer a lot of user’s questions on who and where to switch to should Sonos go out of existence. But for now, everything for me is working relative to Sonos and I’m going to hold in there and wait for their fixes and updates. Actually, since the new app came out, I realized that I never turned on my Living Room stereo system to make sure the Sonos Connect works. I just did that and it works as normal. So that’s good. And for now, I use my Sonos Windows Controller to add and remove songs from my playlists. You basically can edit your playlists using the Windows (or MAC) Controller, but I still prefer doing it on my iPad. Hopefully, that will come out soon. 

M
Userlevel 2

Two of my Play5 gen2 speakers are still bricked after a failed APP update last month. Then customer support suggested factory reset. Now stuck in a failed loop where APP detects add speaker, requires an update, which stalls at ¾, every time. Once left it for 24 hours.  I don’t read any plans for the APP to address S1 S2 upgrades, downgrades, or whatever it takes just to get back to playing Spotify, nothing else. Have decided to chuck them out, for sanity sake. My last forum entry. There appears to be no plans to fix.  No reply from CEO email. 

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

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

Now that Spence has come out and at least admitted the scale of the problem (sort of) do we think there’s any chance that they might now allow a rollback to 16.1 at least on a temporary basis for those who want to and are still encountering permanent and intermittent problems. 

I suppose the problem now will be that the subsequent firmware updates might mean that CAN’T happen.

Nope, any window for a rollback by Sonos has long gone.

During release planning I would say the only sensible window for rollback as a “what if it goes horribly wrong” blackout plan was between the initial May app release and the first firmware update that followed.

That didn’t happen so the decision was fix forward.

I used to agree but now I’m not so sure they can’t cobble together a firmware update that allows for 16.1 to work.  Yes it will require some temp app to get the new Ace owners the ability to play music, but firmware is not just a one way street, it’s all code after all.  P.Spence rolled back the option to go back to S1 the last time they biffed a new app roll-out.  It’s not out of reach, but the egos of this so-called leadership team might be.

S

My whole system have not been working and will not connect since the new app.

Please bring the S2 Sonos app back.

T

If your “Feedback is coming in fast and thick...” You have a * problem. You know the latest app releases are problematic, so admit it and tell us how you plan to fix it. Users have invested A LOT of money in their systems. Bad engineering is completely messed up. 
 

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

T

I have five speakers and am getting playback on one. I’m not sure if I should be grateful or sad.   Nothing changed besides an app update. Who does your project management and QC? How can you release this?

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