The next generation of Sonos software is now available. Sonos S2 is a new app and an operating system for compatible devices, which brings support for higher resolution audio, saved groups, support for new Sonos products, and more.
Learn more about the Sonos S2 app on our S2 home page.
Support for the newest Sonos products
The all new Sonos Arc, Sonos Five, and Sonos Sub will require the Sonos S2 app. These new players are not supported by the Sonos S1 Controller.
Saved Groups
The new S2 app can save groups of rooms to create groups quickly and easily. Once a group is created, you can select it to start playing music and the players will automatically group up.
High Resolution Audio
With S2, Sonos speakers now have support for high resolution audio, 24-bit, 44.1/48kHz for FLAC/ALAC only. This support is for local music libraries shared from computers and network attached drives. We’ve updated the article on Sonos supported music formats here.
The Sonos Arc is a Dolby Atmos soundbar, and S2 brings support for that audio to Sonos for home theater and music. Dolby Atmos can be read from Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby MAT, and Dolby TrueHD.
How to get S2
All Sonos systems will be able to update to Sonos version 11.2, which contains some bug fixes and stability improvements. This version is a new S1 update, and compatible with all players.
Once the 11.2 update is completed, systems compatible with Sonos S2 will receive a notification that the new app is available. You can tap that notification to start updating and the new app which will guide you through updating compatible players to the new platform. If you don’t see the notification banner, you go to System Tools in Settings to check compatibility and update. Sonos S2 is Sonos version 12.0.
You can check our Sonos S2 Compatibility article for a list of products that are compatible with S2.
Articles and important information about S2
We will support products on Sonos S1 with bug fixes and security patches, and we will do what we can to ensure they keep working with the music services you love given their limited RAM and processing power.
We’ve put together answers to some of the top questions we’ve seen around S2 here, so please check out the following articles on:
If you’re interested in updating older Sonos speakers, here’s all the details on our Trade Up program, a way to get a big discount on any new Sonos products that are S2 compatible.
Trade Up home page - Get a general overview of the Sonos Trade Up program.
Trade Up support article - Step by step instructions on how to trade up your eligible Sonos products.
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One change at a time, they only have a finite amount of support staff. I’ve now got a split system, works fine for me with a few speaker moves.
Wrong change, wrong time. The number of streamers using Sonos speakers far outnumbers those playing files from their local libraries. Streaming is the present, playing files stored on a hard drive is the past. Most businesses support the majority of their customer base, not the minority.
This is not fair, IMO. My NAS device is cancel-culture and license-litigation proof.
Introducing the crappy new icon you must look at if you don’t upgrade your system.
Introducing the crappy new icon you must look at if you don’t upgrade your system.
Yes it is. I’d like Sonos to pay attention and fix this.
Anyone else having issues with the new S2 app? I made to ultimate mistake of upgrading to the S2 app and for 3 days now I have been trying to use it! It is completely unusable! It does not connect to any of my 13 players! I have reset all 13 players one by one and tried to add them back, not working! this is very disappointing to say the least. this app does not work with any of my phones. I got a new Boost yesterday and it won't even find it. frustrated!
Yes I had some initial problems -- I decided to try a fix for an old problem. My old problem was connection, my new problem was wonky error messages about music file format, other connections. This fixed it both times (the second entry, labeled “Best Answer”:
I upgraded my full system to S2, however, due to having some legacy products, wanted to make a split between S1 and S2.
Found out that once individual speakers have been upgraded to S2, they are no longer compatible with S1!!
Tried it with both my Play:1 and Symfonisk speaker, see screenshot.
Why wasn’t this clearly communicated??
So here’s an interesting issue.
I upgraded my full system to S2, however, due to having some legacy products, wanted to make a split between S1 and S2.
Found out that once individual speakers have been upgraded to S2, they are no longer compatible with S1!!
Tried it with both my Play:1 and Symfonisk speaker, see screenshot.
Why wasn’t this clearly communicated??
Not sure what you are trying to do here when you say “no longer compatible with S1”. If you mean an S2 capable speaker cannot be used in an S1 and S2 system at the same time, well yes that was clearly communicated. If you want to remove a speaker from an S2 system and add it to an S1 system, you first need to factory reset the speaker, then add it to the S1 system.
@jgatie: that’s what I did, a factory reset. However, I can’t any of the speakers that were previously part of the S2 system to join the S1 system after the factory reset...
None of my Play1 works with the new app. Try to reset 100 times.
Thank you for killing my systems. So worthless. Do not tel my to cerats a new email. So from the 80 s.
Henrik
Sonos fan (mostly) with 19 devices and all now upgraded to S2 compatibility. Despite the many warnings on the the Apple App Store about S2, I stupidly ran the “compatibility test” and now the iOS/Win apps require I upgrade to S2 which I had to do. WOW, EPIC FAIL!
Start with the visuals. Gone is eye-strain-reducing black background, now it’s Military Gray, Monkey Vomit Green Infobars, and Baby Poo orange icons etc.
NO improvements for HD/UHD from streaming services.
And it took over an hour to get the various devices and apps recognizing each other even though S1 was working perfectly for weeks on end!
And that’s just today!
Honestly, this LONG AWAITED upgrade is a backward step and so disappointing after the breathless promotion from marketing/management on the promises of the S2 paradigm.
Amazing hardware, disappointing software/apps (probably contracted out now) and an out-of- touch management team.
How long will we have to wait till they sort it out? The reviews on the app store are pretty negative and realistic.
The lack of SMB2 completely is a disaster at this point. Almost every new NAS, and every default Win10 is SMB2/3.SMB1 is a security nightmare. There is no reason that Sonos has to be this far behind.
I got Playbase + Sub (Gen 2) + 2x Play:1 as surround sound, would it break my surround if I upgrade to S2? other Sonos I got 2x Play5 (gen 2), Move, Beam, and 2 more Play:1
Everything is working good I don't want to mess with it but I hate the upgrade pop up can I disable these upgrade pop up?
On my system upgrading to S2 worked like any other update. Perfectly. Looks like all your gear is modern (please check: https://www.sonos.com/myaccount/system/households/devices/). If it is there's no reason you should not update. Why would it break your surround especially?
Honestly I found this S1 and S2 split is confusing and unwarranted and it a step away from what made Sonos good in the first place simple to use don’t have to read up on what works, what compatible etc ...
I just want something that just works like an iPhone and that the reason I went with Sonos in the first place but lately I think they are stepping away from this philosophy.
I have a lot of sonos products and I like it a lot but with phasing in and out of hardware support and you have to work out what works
it give me second thoughts about buying more
I have done some alternative research and will buy the next speaker with bluesound as a test and if it works out well and as my Sonos coming to end of life in coming years I move to bluesound.
Introducing the crappy new icon you must look at if you don’t upgrade your system.
I realise it’s a double post, but I agree. It seems they went out of their way to show a “faded” icon to indicate that we shouldn’t be using S1 for too long.
Sonos for me right now is like Microsoft was in the past. I still bought a new Windows licence because it seemed like the least worse option, but years later I moved onto better things.
Similar with Sonos, I think a combination of the upgrade programme and not wanting to invest in something more high-end right now makes it just about worth it, but they cannot count on my loyalty without a complete transformation.
So, about S2, will it fix these problems?
Spotify (and sometimes YouTube) skipping tracks. I’ve seen numerous threads on this and the problem seems to have gone away for now, but I could never understand how this can happen with five Sonos players ALL wired in to a reliable Ethernet network and broadband connection. I discovered that Amazon music was immune to the problem and just used that for a while.
The fact that it can take up to a minute of frustration to get my playlist off repeat each day, because for some stupid reason they changed the alarm clock to auto-enable repeat with no option not to, and for some insane reason neither the Android nor the OS X controllers get a reliable response to the repeat button. (Support long since contacted and unable to help.)
The fear I feel every time I use the app while music is already playing, because it’s insanely easy to interrupt the current track with a single press. The dots are too easy to miss although a long press is a bit safer. Sonos used to be fun at parties until they changed this.
The weird habit of inserting a new track second in the list. e.g. if I have tracks A1, A2 and A3 in the queue and A3 is playing, and I play B1, then I end up with A1, B1, A2, A3.
Alarm hidden away in system settings
In short, never mind new features, can I expect the usability and lack of bugs that we used to enjoy in the heyday of Sonos (first five or so years after I got my first ZP80 and CR100)?
Worst update ever
I stupidly updated my system to the new software and the new S2 app. It worked for a few days but now I can’t stream any music, radio etc.
Will this be fixed at some point hopefully soon? People are not exactly giving great reviews on the various forums and app stores at the moment. Stupid way to kill an otherwise nice system
Worst update ever
I stupidly updated my system to the new software and the new S2 app. It worked for a few days but now I can’t stream any music, radio etc.
Will this be fixed at some point hopefully soon? People are not exactly giving great reviews on the various forums and app stores at the moment. Stupid way to kill an otherwise nice system
If it worked at first, and stopped after a few days, I would check your router/wifi environment rather than blame the app. I suspect IP address conflicts, which can be resolved by powering down all speakers and router. Reboot router and wait for it to fully restart. Then power up speakers one at a time, letting each fully restart before powering the next.
This new Sonos S2 software is absolute sh*t!
99% of the time it dosen’t work. There are too many issues to list but here are a few; if I try to change a station on XM radio or move to a different music service, all hell breaks loose. The system will go into a time-out or say it can’t connect. Or when it finally does connect some of the the speakers take minutes to catch up. And then it skips or I can’t control the volume. This new up-date has made listing to music very irritating and frustrating for my family.
We have 6 smaller speakers and one sound bar which are basically “bricked” with the new software and I expect Sonos to issue me a refund because they are useless without working Software.
It makes me wonder what is different about my 19 speaker system, which is working fine under S2, and yours. Have you followed the recommendation made by nik9669a, in the post immediately before yours? Have you contacted Sonos support for assistance in troubleshooting your system?
What is going on?
I can't find a way to get a ticket open to explain why a speaker that worked yesterday now disappeared and is both not reset (when it is) and has been fine for 2 weeks since app update.
This is utterly ridiculous. I had a different speaker drop yesterday and magically reappear.
Sonos support now none existant and only available by calling the USA what is this ??
My system worked almost flawlessly with the old app and I’m not the only one having problems with S2. I can’t even keep up with all the bugs that are happening because just about every time I try to use it a new issue occurs.
For instance, 2 nights ago the bedroom TV sounbar began playing the TV program on every speaker in the house and I never changed a setting to make this occur.
On some speaker, even though I have the indicator light switched off they will appear at random times.
This isn’t a little thing, it’s a major problem for me when your system basically stops working. I‘Ve done the resets and troubleshooting and it’s still the same.
So what is the user experience if I have a mixture of new and old equipment which is going to be the majority of us for some time. Do I have to use one app for the S1 equipment and then the newer S2 for the newer equipment? How do I sync playing music across that ecosystem? Thanks
It is awful. It rarely recognises my sonos kit and then it picks and chooses what it wants to recognoise, onew day the kitchen the next the sittign room another day a bedroom. And even then it rarely allows me access to my music files or radio station.
Strangly the app on my phone works ok so I thought maybe it is a network connection but that makes no sense when the old app worked fine and this one is a disaster.
Worst update ever
I stupidly updated my system to the new software and the new S2 app. It worked for a few days but now I can’t stream any music, radio etc.
Will this be fixed at some point hopefully soon? People are not exactly giving great reviews on the various forums and app stores at the moment. Stupid way to kill an otherwise nice system
If it worked at first, and stopped after a few days, I would check your router/wifi environment rather than blame the app. I suspect IP address conflicts, which can be resolved by powering down all speakers and router. Reboot router and wait for it to fully restart. Then power up speakers one at a time, letting each fully restart before powering the next.
Thank you for the advice. It worked for approximately one day. Now the app rarely connects to anything and if it connects, it only lasts for a short while. Really a deal breaker especially since I had absolutely no issues with the old S1 app. Anyways, I’m sure they will prioritize this and get it fixed before the bad publicity spirals out of control....
Just don’t do it. Do not upgrade. I’ve gone from a rock solid Sonos system to one plagued by problems for the last month or so (since “upgrading”)
Customer support was abruptly stopped on twitter with no warning and no way to continue the discussion. Just appalling contempt for loyal customers.
I’m 100% going to switch back to BOSE because of this horrible app. I don’t even know where to start with complaining. The SONOS managers apparently never heard of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”
