Your feedback on the new Sonos App

Found a “new” problem as I was shifting my turntable and cd-player between my Sonos Port and the main Sonos Amp (have a second one for surrond)

When connecting the cd-player, the input volume has to be set to 2or 3 to avoid distortion but the turntable Technics SL1500C with built in phono stage I need to turn up to 6 or 7 to get leveled output.

Now to the actual problem - in the new Sonos app I can no longer see the line input setting on the main Sonos Amp and therefore not make adjustments. The line input itself is working but without any possibility to make adjustments to either level or naming the input!?

I tested to remove the surround Amp and then it returned and I was able to make adjustment, both renaming and level adjust. The reconnected the surround Amp and during process it states that line in level is disconnected (as it should on the surrond amp) so this means the Sonos have removed the app functionality even for the main Amp. On the old app it was still possible to access the line input menu.

Pls fix

​@vilden66 

Sorry to hear that you are having issues Line-in visibility with the Sonos app. You might try deleting and reinstalling the app to see if that resolves the issue.

Also ending your post with “pls fix” is not going to get the issue corrected assuming there is an issue. Sonos Tech Support (STS) doesn’t visit this forum to determine what needs to be fixed. You need to contact STS directly by phone and explain your issue. In that manner STS can establish a case number and move it through various stages if necessary to resolve the problem.

In fact if there is a problem STS  may already be aware of it and possibly provide an ETA for resolution. However, ETA’s are not as rule given as a definite timeline.

If my suggestion doesn’t resolve the issue please post back and members may have other things to suggest.

Hmm, the thread was started by Sonos staff and they wrote below in their first post. 

“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.”

That's why I posted this “problem” because I haven't seen any other comment regarding this issue. 

App uninstalled and reinstalled has been made multiple times over the last year… :-(

I’m assuming that one is Android specific as I don’t see it on the Apple App Store.

​@vilden66 

OK...point taken. However, if you read further the key word is ….

• “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.”

This thread was started over 10 months ago. If you are willing to wait until your issue is "collated” with other similar posts (assuming there are others and yours is not unique) then by all means sit back and wait.

For my money/investment in Sonos equipment I’d call STS to make sure the issue is on their radar. Of course that’s just me...but each to their own.

So I’m pretty happy overall with the new app at this point, except for one really significant issue: the usability of the volume slider. And that’s the single most commonly used feature of the Sonos app for me. I have some feedback on the usability of the volume controls.

1. It’s hard to move the volume slider in small increments. I have fat fingers, and trying to drag that tiny dot and accurately hit a specific volume number is really hard for me. A good solution can be seen in the Spotify app. On either side of the volume slider there is a “+” and “-” button. Pressing those will increment and decrement the volume by one, allowing for precision settings. Of course, in Spotify the slider still works fine too. Best of both worlds. Would be nice if Sonos did this.
2. I would like it if the hardware volume buttons on my phone controlled the Sonos speaker group volume when the Sonos app is in the foreground, the same way Spotify works. Hardware buttons are so much nicer than touchscreen buttons, solves my problem #1 above even better. Please take advantage of the hardware buttons.
3. I can’t easily set all my grouped speakers to the same volume (or if there is a quick way, I haven’t found it in the app, it’s not obvious to me). If I have, say, six different speakers all in a single group, and I want them all set to an identical volume, I have to set them individually. And because of problem #1 (it’s hard to accurately set the exact volume via the slider), I can only get the speakers close in volume, getting them exact is hard. In the old app, I could drag the volume of the group to zero, and then back up to a new value, and the speakers would be in sync. In the new app, that doesn’t work, the speakers remember their relative volumes. I think the new behavior is good, it makes sense, but I also want to a way to say “make all speakers exactly identical in volume”. Like a button that put them all at the volume of the speaker that was set lowest, and then I can change from there with them all in sync.
4. You’ve heard this plenty, but it’s still true: the app is still much too slow to start up and show me the volume slider. It can frequently take as long as five seconds or more. That’s WAY too slow. It needs to be under 1 second that I can control the volume, when someone calls, or is trying to talk to me, or whatever: it needs to be much faster. And putting the Sonos app in the background on my phone and then bringing it to the front should be EVEN FASTER, well under 100 ms response time would be appropriate.

Thanks for listening.

1. Tapping on either side of the slider button will increase/decrease volume one increment.
2. Apple/Google have strict rules for the hardware buttons and lock screen controls, and have forbidden control of 3rd party hardware via these methods.  
3. This would have to be implemented,
4. That type of wait is not typical.  There must be some type of bottleneck you are experiencing.  I’d contact support after submitting a diagnostic.

Cool! I didn’t know that. I still think adding the icons like Spotify does would improve the feature, it would be more discoverable. I didn’t know about this tapping until you told me; it’s not obvious, at least to me.

Yeah, fair point. Spotify works around this such that while you’re listening via Sonos, if you touch the hardware button, it brings up a software volume slider for Sonos. Since the Sonos app has the volume slider there at almost all times, probably no change needed here.

Well yeah! That’s the whole reason I posted suggestions to this forum, I would like Sonos to implement it. Any request I make that’s not already in the app “has to be implemented” so I’m not sure what your point is with this response.

I’ve done that already, thanks. I’m posting here just to emphasize the point publicly that it’s still an issue for at least some of us.

In response to your 2, the Spotify app is streaming (playing) on your phone, which you then send elsewhere, whereas Sonos is streaming (playing) on the Sonos speaker, not ‘on’ the phone. This is what ​@jgatie is referring to, in his term ‘ 3rd party hardware’. It boils down to where the music is being ‘played’. 

About your number 3. This would be difficult if you use different speakers. Some speakers play louder than others. Though maybe it could be remembered in named groups.

Why, after all this time, does the app still just not work properly? Speakers get grouped and ungrouped randomly. Want to change music? Maybe it’ll let you, maybe it’ll stop playing just because. Random speakers will either stop or start whenever they feel like it when grouped. 

Where did you hire your development team? Did you poach everyone that was working on HP printer software or something? 

It sounds like you’re perhaps not selecting speakers properly? There are two different speaker selection routes.

1. The primary one is to slide up the Now Playing window from the bottom of the screen (or tap the name of your Sonos system on the Home Screen) and it will bring up the list of speakers. Just tap the speaker you want which makes that the live speaker - then choose music and it will play on that speaker.

2. The other is only for grouping speakers together - you tap the speaker icon in the Now Playing window which brings up the Grouping screen where you can tick those you wish to group and ungroup.

Don’t use the Grouping screen for choosing individual speakers as that will just get messy.

This isn’t a case of not using the app properly. This is a case of the app and speaker communication not working properly. I even created a separate home network for just Sonos, followed all online guides and best practices, experimented with wired and wireless connectivity. Nothing helps. I manage technology and networks for a living, the issue is with crappy Sonos software / firmware. 

If the hardware wasn’t so great I’d ditch it all in a heartbeat, I’m sticking it out in the hopes that the software catches up one day. 

But Sonos needs to concentrate on base functionality and efficiency before looking at fluff features.

Fair enough. Hopefully my comment will help someone less savvy than yourself! :)

The physical volume buttons on my android phone control the Sonos volume when I have the app open. 

Is this not the case for everyone? 

Of course, it would be even better if I didn't have to unlock the phone and open the app to control the volume, like I used to be able to... But that isn't gonna happen it seems. 

I have a simple question for the gurus in here. Since the update last year, I’ve been trying to figure out why my Crucial SSD drive that houses my Music Library won’t appear under Your Sources on the iOS app. In addition, I can’t add it onto the S2 desktop controller OR the mobile app.  Quite a while ago, I saw someone post an issue related to the format of external drives and how his was resolved by formatting the drive as ExFat (Windows compatible).

Before I buy another SSD, format it as ExFat and drag my Music Library onto it, I wanted to know if attempting this might be THE answer I’ve been looking for. Currently, that Crucial Drive is formatted for the Apple File System (APSF). I’m wondering if support for this format was discarded when the code for the infamous May ‘24 app(s) was written.

Note: The SMBv - via Filebroswer - is NOT SMBv1.  My network paths are following protocol and, I keep a very bare system as it pertains to Sonos music files.

Thanks for taking the time to ponder this.
Brad

I keep holding on thinking things will get better and recently read:

https://www.strata-gee.com/is-sonos-adrift-and-directionless-or-on-the-right-track/

It says Nick Millington is collecting feedback, well, here’s mine:

Btw, I’ve owned Sonos products since 2014 with 4 Play:1’s, a Playbase, and an Arc. I unfortunately upgraded the Sonos app and still regret it. I find the new app (March 2025) to be awful.

In no particular order...

• I still don’t understand the new UX and find it confusing and disorganized, it’s not getting better and uses strange, unorthodox iOS UI patterns and navigation. It’s time to seek help from some folks who have deep iOS UX experience.
• Please remove login from being required. I should be able to enjoy my expensive hardware when my internet is offline and I can’t log into Sonos.
• With the new app most of my icons were undulating grey boxes that take many seconds to load. Please give me an option to delete any thing that’s disabled. I have no idea why this happened but I’ve finally deleted 20+ gray boxes after a year.
• Please prioritize my preferred music at the top of the home page starting with the Top Picks for You section which is on the music service tray, I shouldn’t have to tap to see this.
• Please add “Remove Service” to Sonos Radio, I’ll never use it, didn’t want it and it forces me to scroll to see Spotify in search.
• Nearly all of my “Sonos favorites” and “Recently Played” boxes were disabled when the app launched (starting when the new app launch) so I had to manually delete them all after watching them undulate for a year thinking it was a bug.
• Please allow marking sections shown for a service like “Top Picks for You” as a favorite, that’s what I want to see on my Home Screen.
• Please continue fixing alarms they are still rather a mess:
  • Slow to load
  • Can’t see nor edit which source the selection is from
  • Aren’t reliable and changing them is a crap shoot, Xmas music in Spring, no thanks.
  • Show which service “Music” is from for every alarm.
• Please remove Recently Played when it’s been turned off. I don’t want/need a constant reminder to turn it back on.
• Please, please, _please_ stop using UI that scrolls horizontally AND vertically, it’s an anti-pattern and makes scrolling hard, it shouldn’t be. Sonos uses this everywhere, please just switch to vertical especially on a phone. Maybe this works on an iPad but on a phone the experience is awful and actually prevents scrolling from working correctly.
• Please add sorting for Sonos Favorites. They’re listed in the order I added them which is the reverse of what I want them listed in.
• Please switch app navigation to a bottom Tab bar like nearly every other app out there. Look to Apple’s apps for examples. Sonos espoused a desire to reinvent the wheel and fly in the face of best practices, it’s time to move on from that mindset.
• Please replace the existing search UX. The floating search box with the pop _under_ tray with a cancel button is, well, let’s just call it silly. So many things wrong with this implementation. It’s OK to copy Apple or Spotify or pretty much any other app but would require you to abandon this silly tray UX.

I’ll stop here.

Good luck to Nick and Sonos, sadly it’s a long road back to where I would consider buying any more product.

Steve

Well, after the latest system update everything after 8 long months seems to be working for me....at the moment.   YTM has over 100 songs and not repeated over and over.  I can swap playlists.  Volume works.  No skipping tracks.  No system found hasn't appeared since the update.  Hopefully it continues and fixes everyone else's problems. 

Willy… Are you on Android or Mac and, how do you store you Music Library?  On an internal drive or external drive?  Or, do you mostly stream your music?

When you implemented the updates did you reset the mobile app before and/or after the updates or did everything sync up on it’s own.  Reason I’m asking is that I’d like to do the same and, in the right order, if it means success.  Currently, the mobile app won’t recognize my network path when I try to add it in.
I don’t Stream.  My music is - as was - stored on an external drive that used to work perfectly before May of ‘24.

Thanks, Willy.   Brad

Hi Brad, I let the update install overnight as I used too.  I never reset anything.  I mainly use Android but do have access to an iPad which I occasionally use and have had no problems on either.  I stream all my music from YouTube music so can’t help with that.

Thanks, Willy… If all I did was stream, I”d be set to go now. It’s my archived music that’s dropped off the Sonos system. Thanks again for getting back to me though.  Brad

Hi Brad,

I'm seeing on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/s/AZzBQ5jz3f  that people are seeing their local library's again after the latest update.   Both on NAS and USB storage.  They were saying to use the scan for new content. 

Hope it helps, 

Will

Really?  Can you please tell me where to find the “Scan for New Content” command?  Is that in the mobile app?  Desktop controller?  Thank you, Will.

Okay, I’m on the Reddit article and, I think scanning for new content is the same as Updating the Music Library.  I’ll need to update the firmware, mobile app and the desktop controller (when I build up the nerve) and see what happens.  Thanks again, Will.

One more addition to my ramble… The last time I tried, I couldn’t get the mobile app to accept the Network Path to my external drive containing my Music Library. I’m assuming that after doing the updates, I’ll have to try adding it back in. ??  Maybe I’ll get lucky and, like Sonophone, it’ll find it in the bowels of the speakers.