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Player / Controller Versions - Why Update?

Player / Controller Versions - Why Update?

We have seen a few posts with people talking about firmware versions and being at different places within the last few updates. While this isn’t new to the recent Sonos app update, there are more and more conversations about it and I thought I’d try to help give some context to what we’re seeing.

One thing that may not be widely known is that by turning off Auto-Updates in the app store, it only addresses the updating of your controller app and not necessarily the firmware of the players. This means that while you may be blocking your controller from updating, the speakers may still update their firmware if someone else updates the system from their controller. Different people end up in different parts of the updating pipeline and while all the problems look different, they can usually be traced to this mismatch. You can check your speaker firmware by going to: Settings (Gear in top-right) > Manage > About My System

 

Here are a few compatibility scenarios that you may find yourself in: 

 

Old Player Firmware (78.1-52020)  + Old Sonos S2 App

  • In-app notification that an update is available.

  • Alarm Settings are available.

  • Any attempt to add a player to the system will require an app update, which will be followed by a player update before you can add a player.

 

Old Player Firmware (78.1-52020) + New Sonos App (Pre-Alarms Fix)

  • No indication about an app update being available.

  • Alarm Settings remain disabled.

  • Any attempt to add a player to the system will require an app update, which will be followed by a player update before you can add a player.

 

Old Player Firmware (78.1-52020) + New Sonos App (Alarms Fix)

  • No indication in the app about a system update being available unless you seek it out in Settings > Manage > System Updates > Check for Updates

  • Alarm Settings remain disabled.

  • Any attempt to add a player to the system will require a player update 

 

New Player Firmware (79.0-52294) + Old Sonos S2 App

  • In-app notification that an update is available.

  • Cross-version compatibility mode will block out access to all of Settings and Setup.

  • Will be encouraged within the app to go to the app store to update their app.

 

New Player Firmware (79.0-52294) + New Sonos App (Pre-Alarms Fix)

  • No indication in the app about an update being available.

  • Alarm Settings remain disabled.

  • Any attempt to add a player to the system will require an app update, which will be followed by a player update before you can add a player.

 

New Player Firmware (79.0-52294) + New Sonos App (Alarms Fix) 

  • Everything is up to date.

    • Improved playback settings including “Play next,” “add to end of queue,” and on iOS, the mute button

    • Improved product setup, Bluetooth discovery and WiFi settings

    • Added sleep timer settings

    • Improved Trueplay setup on iOS

    • Introduced distance settings for home theater surrounds

    • Improved navigation for users who are blind or visually-impaired 

    • Added VoiceOver support for toast messages on iOS

 

Hope this provides a little bit of context into what you might be experiencing and why you might be seeing it. Yes, the official guidance is to keep your devices updated - but more importantly we wanted to explicitly show what it looks like depending on the current state of your system. Hope you find this useful!

Note: This does not mean that updating alone will solve every system problem. We are very much aware of some issues around product set-up - however the very first thing before getting support would be to ensure your app and devices are completely updated.

62 replies

jgatie

^^^

Not sure what any of that means. But is there a link on how to make that change?

 

Depend on what device you are sharing from. A Windows PC is easy to change.  An NAS is too.  I’m not sure how to change a Mac (and it seems to be troublesome for others here). 

E

^^^

Not sure what any of that means. But is there a link on how to make that change?

 

Depend on what device you are sharing from. A Windows PC is easy to change.  An NAS is too.  I’m not sure how to change a Mac (and it seems to be troublesome for others here). 

Sharing from Windows PC

jgatie

Sharing from Windows PC

 

See this link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/file-server/troubleshoot/detect-enable-and-disable-smbv1-v2-v3?tabs=server

G
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

New Player Firmware (79.0-52294) + New Sonos App (Alarms Fix) 

  • Everything is up to date.

  • Alarm Settings are available
     

where Everything is up to date   Stand for  nothing works

E
Userlevel 2
Badge

Disable firmware updates if you rolled back to 16.1 because of the abomination that is the new app. They want you to keep it enabled so they can push an update to block you from using the old version of the app,just like they did when S2 launched.

B

Anybody seen the MUTE button anywhere?

i must be missing something… ?!

D
Userlevel 4
Badge

Personally, I cut my boxes from the internet and stopped using the new iOS app. After all, it does not work anymore as it does not let me skip this “Update your firmware” screen.

Why do I not update my SONOS Firmware anymore? Because I have totally lost trust in SONOS. To me it seems they want to have everything move through their cloud service. Without a clear public statement what the long term plan of SONOS is, there can be no trust.

All that CEO mumble stuff is just wishwash and not clear communication what SONOS wants to do to my speakers. I am afraid I am going to lose my local access and need to run everything through their SONOS cloud. With their release notes containing no information what so ever and their totally unreliable customer communication (yeah, great app update) SONOS is clearly a dead end.

D
Userlevel 3

The new upgrade is terrible, I would like Sonos to go back to the previous version. There are too many problems to even list.

 

D
Userlevel 3

I was going to buy more speakers but not now with this recent update. I currently have 7 speakers and I’m considering just scraping the whole system and going to something different if Sonos doesn’t fix the problems soon.

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

  • Any attempt to add a player to the system will require an app update, which will be followed by a player update before you can add a player.

Any attempt to add a player will probably require a purchase of new Sonos equipment. Yeah, can’t see that happening anytime soon!!! ;-) by me or anyone else. My Facebook post about the new app and the apparent distain that Sonos’ CEO has for its users, has already dissuaded a friend from his purchase of a Sonos system. He had Sonos as one of a couple of possibles, for his new system. NOT ANYMORE after reading my review.

‘How to loose customers and alienate users’ by Sonos, has the same ring to it as ‘How to win friends and influence people’

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Player / Controller Versions - Why Update?

 

DON’T !!!!

 

 

D
Userlevel 3

I wanted to avoid the update on my other devices but Sonos doesn’t let you open the app unless you update.  I hate this new version!!!!!

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

From my (and it seems most others, sorry ALL others. Please feel free to correct me if you like the new App ;-)  ) experience, updating this app is like the temptation to break the glass on the fire alarm or push the big red button on the escalator. You know the one, it says ‘to stop in an emergency press HERE’. You want to do it to just to see what happens. That little voice that you ignore, because you know it’s not a good idea. The ‘New update available’ is now like that little voice.  BEST IGNORED. We have done it so you don’t have to!! The new update has the same effect - it stops operation as you would like it or makes a big screeching sound like the fire alarm. (your scream when you see what it has done to your system)

D
Userlevel 3

I started with Sonos because it was easy and user friendly, not now. This is all way too technical and problematic. What happened to ease of use and customer service?

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

I wanted to avoid the update on my other devices but Sonos doesn’t let you open the app unless you update.  I hate this new version!!!!!

Yeah I found that too on iOS. If you have updated the app on one device with your apple id, from then on your id will only be able to use the new app not the old one, on any device. Other apple ids can continue using the old app but any devices using your id won’t work with the old app.

G
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Anybody seen the MUTE button anywhere?

i must be missing something… ?!

No, you haven't lost anything, there are no more muting buttons because, as skilled pickpockets, they have stolen them all to silence the answers to our questions.
O

SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! Sonos app SHAME!

G
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Anybody seen the MUTE button anywhere?

i must be missing something… ?!

something is moving,

with today's update (ios 80.02.04) in addition to other interventions,

the shutdown timer has been restored,

the mute commands have been re-added on individual devices (not yet for individual devices in a group),

Trueplay and other commands have been re-enabled to configure the system for TV level surround, Music level, speaker distance, sub pairing, surround, and stereo pairs

 

D
Userlevel 3

I lost all my Sonos playlists and I can’t insert a song in an existing queue without swapping the entire queue.

G
Userlevel 7
Badge +10

@Mike R. H. Please can this be updated for Firmware 79153290

S

Something else I have just noticed with the new app there is no option to play an entire album in the IDAGIO integration… please roll back to previous app… this is ridiculous… 

I
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

so..in my instance, all worked fine with the rollback until soneone else in my house updated their android app. this updated 3 of my four speakers to the latest firmware, (79.1.xxxx) and left one on the old firmware ( 78.1-52020).

With the new firmware, the nas doesn’t play, prob cos of the SMB version as noted above, but can't update my nas for that.

If one of the updated ones is plugged in, it wont recognize my nas library, and only will search streaming services. If i have just the old-firmware one connected, nas is recognized, and all is good on that one speaker.

If i plug a mix of versions in, the old one wants to upgrade and so nothing works, even the desktop controller wont let me fo anything until it is updated (streaming or local)

So i installed the LMS server ( https://lyrion.org/getting-started/ ) and added the UPNP/DLNA plugin (from the plugins tab ) on my mac, and loaded squeezer on my android devices, and all speakers play fine using my local storage.

Ditching the sonos app for now, in fact i prefer the squeezer interface to the new sonos app. Of course my mac has to be alwzys on to play from the library, but it always is anyway.

It even plays streams the sonos doesn’t, so is a solution for me at least.

I
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

so..in my instance, all worked fine with the rollback until soneone else in my house updated their android app. this updated 3 of my four speakers to the latest firmware, (79.1.xxxx) and left one on the old firmware ( 78.1-52020).

With the new firmware, the nas doesn’t play, prob cos of the SMB version as noted above, but can't update my nas for that.

If one of the updated ones is plugged in, it wont recognize my nas library, and only will search streaming services. If i have just the old-firmware one connected, nas is recognized, and all is good on that one speaker.

If i plug a mix of versions in, the old one wants to upgrade and so nothing works, even the desktop controller wont let me fo anything until it is updated (streaming or local)

So i installed the LMS server ( https://lyrion.org/getting-started/ ) and added the UPNP/DLNA plugin (from the plugins tab ) on my mac, and loaded squeezer on my android devices, and all speakers play fine using my local storage.

Ditching the sonos app for now, in fact i prefer the squeezer interface to the new sonos app. Of course my mac has to be alwzys on to play from the library, but it always is anyway.

It even plays streams the sonos doesn’t, so is a solution for me at least.

Update.. I decided to update the one that wasn’t working, so it was the same firmware level as the others, and just use LMS until any update came about…. I also founf I could enable SMB2 to be complient with Sonos.. so did that as well. doing that, the desktop version now doesn’t find the music library at all (music library no longer available, path may have changed, not powered on…..all of which is untrue as it worked before the update, and LMS sees it just fine)) , and my phone apps don’t paint properly to see the favorites etc on the home screen….. So uninstall the sonos app from everywhere and sticking with the LMS server/Squeezer app as they work fine.

N
Userlevel 1

Yes, what else should I write? The app doesn't work

Takes 2 minutes to load

Doesn't show favorites

Doesn't play Sonos Radio

Doesn't delete or save tracks, etc.

...

I've complained about this several times now, and I've heard it from you.

It's called "teasing" customers.

I've now recorded all the disruptions and sent them to magazines...

17 of our facilities wanted to switch to Sonos systems, but we were able to prevent that after these experiences. You missed out on €35,000, your management might understand this language better.

Countless unsuccessful contacts with your service are making me think more and more about how I can harm you.

Kind regards

Prof

Dr. Norbert Ammermann

Sent from Nine

T

The device is no longer useable.
It stops playing no matter the source.

Version is 16.2, S2 build 79153290

How can I recover from this "upgrade" ?
This is looking like a class action situation.

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