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Hi all,

We’ve been sharing app updates with you all over the last several months, and today we wanted to share commitments that we are announcing following our internal review of the app release in May of this year. In addition to all we have been doing to get you back to enjoying your Sonos products, these commitments will drive us to emerge from this with an even stronger commitment to quality. You can read highlights of the commitments below, and read more here: www.sonos.com/commitments.

 

To address the root causes of the problems of the app release, we commit to:

  • Unwavering focus on the customer experience. To deliver the highest level of customer experience, we will always establish ambitious quality benchmarks at the start of product development. We will not launch products until they meet these criteria. We will also enhance the tools needed to measure and maintain the standards our customers expect.
  • Increase the stringency of our pre-launch testing phases. Our beta testing program will include a broader range of customers and more diverse setups, helping us diagnose and resolve issues faster before going to market.
  • Demonstrate humility when introducing changes. In contrast to the all-at-once automated app release we issued in May, any major change to the Sonos app will be released gradually, allowing customers to adjust and provide feedback before it becomes the default. For new features smaller in scope, we will introduce an opt-in experimental features option in the app for customers who would like to participate in testing them.
  • Appoint a Quality Ombudsperson. This new role will ensure our employees have a clear path to escalate any concerns in terms of quality and customer experience. This person will be consulted by executive leadership throughout the development process and before any product launches. In this role, the ombudsperson will guarantee transparency and publish a report to management and employees twice per year, and will present regularly to the Sonos board of directors. 
     

In addition, we are also committing to the following to begin to regain your trust: 

  • Extend our home speaker warranties. To reflect our strong belief in the quality of our products, we will extend the manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year for all home theater and plug-in speaker products currently under warranty.
  • Relentlessly improve the app experience with regular software upgrades. We will continue to roll out updated mobile software versions every 2-4 weeks to optimize and enhance the app experience, even after the current issues are fully resolved.
  • Establish a Customer Advisory Board. We will form a Customer Advisory Board to ensure we never lose sight of our customers' voices. This board will provide feedback and insights from a customer perspective to help shape and improve our software and products before they are launched.

As a demonstration of the significance of these commitments, the Sonos Executive Leadership Team will not accept any annual bonus payout for the October 2024 - September 2025 fiscal year unless the company succeeds in improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust.

 

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for all of your support and patience the last several months - we’re excited to move forward and get you back to enjoying the quality that Sonos is known for.

Your Sonos team.

 

When the app fiasco that rendered a lot of systems unusable and/or people not being able to see their local libraries, I did NOT update my Sonos system via the PC application, as I was still able to use it from that application and use SonoPhone for mobile control as needed. I have been reluctant update the Sonos system software itself because I was concerned I would lose my current functionality. If I go the iOS app, it wants me to update the system, but I am afraid to do so.

Has anyone been in the same boat, but updated recently? I’m curious as to what happened.

Thanks for any input.

 

 

 

Hello Peter

 

Yes I updated (stupidly in hindsight) to the latest fiasco and what was a working system up to that point has now resulted in a complete unstable mess again.  The app (IOS) sees the system but refuses to group them together advising ‘ unable to connect try again later’ The hours wasted on all this from a users standpoint - the continual plugging, unplugging of speakers, modems et al is totally unacceptable and depressingly bad. The only positive side of all this is that I’m now an ex customer and I don’t work for Sonos in any form or fashion, the minions of which who are fronting this fiasco, I feel very sorry for. 

Thanks for your reply. I’m very sorry to hear about the issues you’ve experienced. It is unacceptable. It sounds like you saved me a lot of frustration for the time being, but I’m wondering when the time will come where I will be forced to update. How lame!!

Again, I appreciate the reply.

Thanks for your reply. I’m very sorry to hear about the issues you’ve experienced. It is unacceptable. It sounds like you saved me a lot of frustration for the time being, but I’m wondering when the time will come where I will be forced to update. How lame!!

Again, I appreciate the reply.

Hello again Peter - an update for you. 
My system consists of five zones (rooms) with legacy units (Play 1’s, Move, Five v2,) to the latest iterations Arc, Era100 and mini sub. 
The first attempt to update resulted in ‘bricking’ the legacy items and partially updating the newer versions which meant I couldn’t join all the zones resulting in the usual Sonos ‘ballet’ unplugging, plugging etc etc - and the usual resultant frustration, negativity and failure. 
Later that day I deleted the app ( IOS 13) and downloaded it again. Went to Sonos updates and tried again and this time success. 
I’m finding though the system is still ‘laggy’ to react and can’t really discern much of a difference ‘sound wise’, and yet to prove it’s stable going forward. I’ve yet to ‘Trueplay’ everything again. That will wait until everything appears to have stabilised - if ever! Just pleased to have my system back - for the present.  
Hope this helps. I think you’ll be faced with the inevitable update eventually so good luck! 

Thanks so much for the update. I sincerely appreciate it. My system is six Play 1’s, a Beam and Roam. So obviously the Play 1’s are legacy/older, etc. And yeah, I know I will be eventually forced to update and not looking forward to that. This is why I asked here in the community. I was hoping that the issues had been worked out since this happened a long time ago and I saw their recent statement. I stopped keeping track of the updates for a while, but I do keep the app on my iOS devices up-to-date, but I obviously can’t use them because they prompt me for the system update, which I am afraid to do. I have been using SonoPhone since the app issue started, and it works relatively well. In some ways, it’s better than the Sonos app. I may just have to bite the bullet and do it, but it harshes my mellow to spend my time on tech hell when I just want to listen to music.

So you are able to see your library (or libraries) and are able to add songs to a a playlist queue, now?

Hi Peter

In brief - I don’t really keep an ad- hoc playlist as such. I’m an Apple Music subscriber which suits my needs and save to their playlists which Sonos sees. I have been able to save and amend to that. BBC sounds has also been stable. and My other go to app - Pocketcasts has also stabilised of late. 
I have used SonoPhone as well which saved my sanity for a while! 
Have just been notified here in the UK that there’s an update available for the IOS Sonos app. Here we go again - in at the deep end!! 
 

Thanks for additional info. I have a VERY large library (around 1TB), so for me it’s Plex (due to the memory restrictions those of us with large libraries ran into years ago … the first Sonos surprise). So I don’t really use streaming services, although I am releasing a record soon and it will be on streaming services, so I guess I need to open a couple of accounts. My system is currently stable and I’m able to enjoy music. I have some reservations about hitting that update button in the Windows Sonos app. I just don’t have the patience for that right now, and funny enough, I am an IT person, so I can handle most troubleshooting, but also, since I do that for a living, I like to limit that outside of work, if you know what I mean.

Good luck on the app update.

….. and yes - updated and worked for all of ten minutes when it all suddenly dropped out for no apparent reason. First world problems - but so mind numbingly tedious and frustrating. If I wasn’t so heavily invested I’d junk the lot.
Good luck with your record release and making your upgrade decision. 

Agreed, as to it being ‘first world problems’. But yes, incredibly frustrating to say the least. And same, I feel relatively invested and also am not keen on the idea of chucking the speakers into landfill and going with another system. I’d feel terrible to even gift these to someone, as it would lame for anyone to have to deal with the issues, etc.

I think I’m going to hold out a bit longer on the update.

 

The “Leadership Team” should be fired.

I have been 6 months without my stereo system in working order. The Sonos product that I once relied on has turned completely to crap since your update.

Why would anyone on this forum believe you people?

Why would an existing customer buy more stuff from you guys?

These are existential questions, Sonos “Leadership Team”.

Hi all,

We’ve been sharing app updates with you all over the last several months, and today we wanted to share commitments that we are announcing following our internal review of the app release in May of this year. In addition to all we have been doing to get you back to enjoying your Sonos products, these commitments will drive us to emerge from this with an even stronger commitment to quality. You can read highlights of the commitments below, and read more here: www.sonos.com/commitments.

 

To address the root causes of the problems of the app release, we commit to:

  • Unwavering focus on the customer experience. To deliver the highest level of customer experience, we will always establish ambitious quality benchmarks at the start of product development. We will not launch products until they meet these criteria. We will also enhance the tools needed to measure and maintain the standards our customers expect.
  • Increase the stringency of our pre-launch testing phases. Our beta testing program will include a broader range of customers and more diverse setups, helping us diagnose and resolve issues faster before going to market.
  • Demonstrate humility when introducing changes. In contrast to the all-at-once automated app release we issued in May, any major change to the Sonos app will be released gradually, allowing customers to adjust and provide feedback before it becomes the default. For new features smaller in scope, we will introduce an opt-in experimental features option in the app for customers who would like to participate in testing them.
  • Appoint a Quality Ombudsperson. This new role will ensure our employees have a clear path to escalate any concerns in terms of quality and customer experience. This person will be consulted by executive leadership throughout the development process and before any product launches. In this role, the ombudsperson will guarantee transparency and publish a report to management and employees twice per year, and will present regularly to the Sonos board of directors. 
     

In addition, we are also committing to the following to begin to regain your trust: 

  • Extend our home speaker warranties. To reflect our strong belief in the quality of our products, we will extend the manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year for all home theater and plug-in speaker products currently under warranty.
  • Relentlessly improve the app experience with regular software upgrades. We will continue to roll out updated mobile software versions every 2-4 weeks to optimize and enhance the app experience, even after the current issues are fully resolved.
  • Establish a Customer Advisory Board. We will form a Customer Advisory Board to ensure we never lose sight of our customers' voices. This board will provide feedback and insights from a customer perspective to help shape and improve our software and products before they are launched.

As a demonstration of the significance of these commitments, the Sonos Executive Leadership Team will not accept any annual bonus payout for the October 2024 - September 2025 fiscal year unless the company succeeds in improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust.

 

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for all of your support and patience the last several months - we’re excited to move forward and get you back to enjoying the quality that Sonos is known for.

Your Sonos team.

 

Baloney! I am returning $2,000 worth of Sonos equipment tomorrow because the app foes not work.  

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