Sonos introduces New Search

The Windows and Mac desktop controllers have not been updated for years and are in ‘maintenance’ only mode. The search referred to here is for the mobile Apps only.

@Ken_Griffiths  Thanks for your input, however:
I updated Sonos’ S2 MacOs controller this morning to version 16.3 (build 80155014)
SEARCH as in cross-index search was available in my previous version, I used it yesterday. 
I create temporary album playlists on Sonos for new releases, I use more than one streamer, I have used SEARCH for years on Sonos for macOS. 

It’s still nothing to do with this thread and the 16.3 (build 80155014) recent update was a firmware change, just to clarify. The Windows/MAC Apps are just in maintenance mode as mentioned and many users expect those Apps to go and be replaced with the new Sonos Web App in the coming months. Anyway let’s wait and perhaps see what happens. 

@Ken_Griffiths thanks for enhancing my knowledge on Sonos. I think they have some strategic communications to improve across their blogs, forum and tutorials for consumers with wide diversity of knowledge levels understand where they are trying to get to, instead of everyone guessing. A firm vision at times lacking as demonstrated in recent times (making many loyalists -of all knowledge levels- upset). 

Besides the web-app -with plenty of space for improvement ..in general and by service/platform: Do you recommend a reliable third party app (for iOS) that will bring some of the former S2 functionality?

I still just use the new Sonos App on iOS as it’s been okay here. Library playback is fine, volume control is fine and all my devices and music services work.

All I’ve done is ensured my LAN subnet supports mDNS discovery and set the speaker SNR levels (as seen in the App) to greater than 45dB and steered my devices, where practicable, onto the 5Ghz WiFi band and reduced interference.

A quick example from my iPad controller…

Hi @Multiculti, check out SonoPad. It’s a bargain at $3.99. More information at https://sonopad.de/

One of the great things about SonoPad (and SonoPhone) is that you can install it side-by-side with the Sonos app, and use the one that minimizes frustration and maximizes functionality.

Taking notes here @Ken_Griffiths !

My ipad mini is newer than my old iphone SE2 (waiting for iphone 16) so the new Sonos app performance is considerably different.

I am a multi-multi-platform user like yourself (international household) and at times, however, even on the ipad, the “home tab”, does not upload all the rows or lanes beyond “Recently Played”, “Your Services” and “Sonos Favorites”, e.g. the pinned collections from different platforms like Audible, Apple Music, BBC Sounds, even Sonos Radio, etc. so I have to swipe away and reload. 

Also, it is random, but at times the cue on my Apple Music playlists simply won’t load up and setting a sleep timer takes a 3-5+ second wait if one’s lucky.

ETC, etc. 

I appreciate you have shared your knowledge here for I am bookmarking for future reference. 

ps great Genesis album choice by the way.

We were promised:

• “Local music library search and playback: mid-June”

Did it happen because I haven’t found it yet?

In my case the Sonos Controller App(s) work okay on my Network setup, whereas if things were not working, I would personally prefer to take the time to report the matter to Sonos Customer Support and give them the details and diagnostic data. If they find the problem is something on their side, then their Staff will often file a report, presumably with the data and information supplied to their developers and will get the matter fixed.

I think if we all just chose to not report the matter directly and just switched to using other 3rd-party Apps instead, then some things may never come to Sonos’ attention and perhaps never get fixed.

So if you do go onto try other ‘controller’ software @Multiculti, because of any problems seen with the Sonos App, then I would still go onto report the issue to Sonos.

In the past, I’ve seen some users in the community go to report an issue and have discovered it’s just an issue with their local network setup and the Staff have resolved the issue quickly over the phone, so it’s always worth a shot.

It got pushed back to this month (link) and the rumours are that it ‘might’ be in the next Sonos App update, due shortly, but it is just a rumour at this moment in time.

Hi @Ken_Griffiths, as I specifically called out above I am suggesting using SonoPad side-by-side with the Sonos app. If a user is experiencing an issue with the Sonos app and that exact same activity works with SonoPad, it saves a great deal of time diagnosing and debugging. It also puts the user in great shape should they report the bug, as they can do so with confidence and not have to wait for Sonos to fix things.

Most of all, if something doesn’t work in the Sonos app and does work in SonoPad it reduces frustration. I sincerely think the author of SonoPad and SonoPhone is doing Sonos a favor, providing a solution for those asking “give me back the Gold S2 app.” This is truly a win-win. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sonos released a pre alpha app on us with the promise features and services would all be there. I personally have zero patience for them.
 

IMO The idea that people should spend significant amount of their time waiting to talk to someone, reboot their network and do all the support script to report a bug is asinine. Personally no f’n way I would do this. 
 

If Sonos actuall wanted people to report bugs they would have an easy way to do so. Waiting on hold for 2 hours is not a viable way to do this. 
 

Agree with @press250 the best way for individuals to test is to check if it works in SonoPhone or the desktop app. I mean every issue I’ve had has been NOT present in either of these apps YMMV. 

I’m sure everyone is fine with that @press250, as long as each user doesn’t walk away and forget to report their issue… of course the same applies the other way around too, if the Sonos App works for somethings and SonoPad is not working - it’s best to always report the issues encountered and not just think/hope that the developers maybe aware. They often need the diagnostic data too …and the more reports they get, I suspect, the more likely things will get prioritised and fixed.

Hi @Bumper, I continue to be super surprised that Sonos doesn’t have a channel for users to submit tickets through a support portal. 10 years ago I was responsible for technical support at a $2B tech company, so I have really good data. We loved everything about portal-based support.

• Many users preferred the support portal to telephone support, which we also offered.
• Support tickets submitted through the portal were more precise. Users put more thought into self-documenting the issue, which helped our team better diagnose things. And some users told us that in the process entering their description, they solved their own problem.
• Satisfaction metrics were higher on support tickets entered via the portal vs telephone.

There is a cornucopia of superb support portals available through SaaS, including Salesforce which is used by Sonos.

In my own case I’m happy to pick up the phone and talk through the issues with any supplier, I don’t mind the time that may take and things have been fixed for me in the past. It’s each to their own, I guess.

I just see so many folk complain for days, weeks, or even months in a variety of different online communities and many of them have never bothered to call it in. It’s often why they carry on complaining, no doubt.

It’s probably a case that the supplier is unaware of their issue and may even assume that all is well with the world, if there’s no support case references being allocated to a particular issue etc.

As a user the message to me is they don’t want bug reports. If they did they would do as you describe. 
IMO they could care less. 

Ken_Griffiths wrote:

Multiculti wrote:

@Ken_Griffiths thanks for enhancing my knowledge on Sonos. I think they have some strategic communications to improve across their blogs, forum and tutorials for consumers with wide diversity of knowledge levels understand where they are trying to get to, instead of everyone guessing. A firm vision at times lacking as demonstrated in recent times (making many loyalists -of all knowledge levels- upset). 

Besides the web-app -with plenty of space for improvement ..in general and by service/platform: Do you recommend a reliable third party app (for iOS) that will bring some of the former S2 functionality?

I still just use the new Sonos App on iOS as it’s been okay here. Library playback is fine, volume control is fine and all my devices and music services work.

All I’ve done is ensured my LAN subnet supports mDNS discovery and set the speaker SNR levels (as seen in the App) to greater than 45dB and steered my devices, where practicable, onto the 5Ghz WiFi band and reduced interference.

A quick example from my iPad controller…

 

@Ken_Griffiths by “and steered my devices, where practicable, onto the 5Ghz WiFi band and reduced interference” do you mean something like what is discussed here?
https://tinyurl.com/2ah9dajm

...or are you referring to (I assume) the rest of your iOT and wifi dependent devices? as to not saturate 2.4Ghz ...so man smart devices are 2.4Ghz-only e.g. Google Home.

...or to specific Sonos products that allow specific 5Ghz use? If so, I am trying to figure out if it is possible to set up some Sonos products that allow such.

As to how from your video one can figure out SNR > 45db it goes beyond my current knowledge, but I will look into https://tinyurl.com/256oe7ft

If any clarifying, appreciated. 

We are #HereToLearn

Sonos doesn’t care about their users, if they did they wouldn’t have lied about the new app then release a pre alpha. They wouldn’t give the middle finger to owners using 16.1 by cutting them off. And if they wanted bug reports they would have an easy way to do. People are complaining for months here because the app was pre alpha and is still missing many features and is buggy POS. 

I wonder if it would be useful to see just how many recent problem/bug reports each user has filed with Sonos Support in their online community profile?… if just to highlight those that complain repeatedly, but likely never really do anything ‘constructive’ about it, such as taking up their issue with the Support Staff. Some may just live in hope that their matter might simply get fixed for them some day.

There’s always the case aswell, that when some are persuaded to eventually call in, that’s it perhaps not the software bug they initially thought it was, but something simply local to themselves, that they had maybe not considered, such as switching their SMBv1 library over to SMBv2 for instance, as perhaps ‘might’ be a more-recent example that initially springs to mind.

I hear you about communicating with “makers” and “programmers” and “decision makers”, it’s just that in the case of big well positioned brands such as Sonos, Apple, Google, etc. there is the perception of many smoke screens and robotic process standardization before one’s observations (compliments or complaints) get to decision makers, and one can never really know if gatekeepers care to bring it up in meetings or get on with their caseload until the COB (close of biz ...hrs). Moreover, branding and marketing people are always so self-celebratory that it seems like little attention is given to their digital beacons, their consumer insights, their loyal customers and moreover their brand ambassadors, so at times wanting to report, as pragmatic as it may be (in unity of the group of consumers creating a pattern with similar concerns) feels like a futile effort. 

Also, personally I cannot fathom the thought of firms like Sonos not having types-of-user-diversity amongst their employees and partners, to where they cannot come up with a continuum of points to improve themselves. For instance, quite possibly these posts won’t be read by gate-keepers much less decision-makers at Sonos ...not to sound to pessimistic, just realistic. I have answered so many surveys during critical interactions with brands and I always hesitate if the third party marketing research firm is even paying enough attention to summarize my entire participation into a one false liner: disgruntled user.

it’s time consuming and a waste of time. If they wanted bug reports they wouldn’t take 2 hours + to file. 
It takes 30 seconds to fire up SonoPhone and confirm the bug. This app is a buggy POS we all know it’s more than likely the app. 🙄

Hi @Multiculti, a good slug of my professional work is around networking and IoT so I wanted to comment on your excellent questions.

Broadly speaking, it is considered “best practice” to put your IoT (aka smart home) devices on their own Wi-Fi network. And given that many of those devices are 2.4GHz only, that dictates the band for your “Things Network.”

With regards to Sonos devices, it depends on your home Wi-Fi and your neighbors’ Wi-Fi. Ken is very much correct that minimizing interference is key to ensuring stable connectivity, and the 5GHz band almost always experiences lower interference than the 2.4GHz band. That said, the 5GHz band is shorter range than the 2.4GHz band which can be an issue if you have a larger home.

Here are some common sense rules of thumb:

• The closer you are to your neighbors the more likely your network may experience interference in the 2.4GHz band. Apartments/condos are the extreme case.
• The smaller your home the more likely the 5GHz band will cover it with a strong signal.
• A mesh network with a main unit and one or more satellites provides great coverage for larger homes and makes the 5GHz band even more attractive. 

I started a related point, feel free to part-take: https://tinyurl.com/29gyuc7p

I want to search my NAS library only. I have thousands of precious digitized  analogs I want to listen to. I want to make playlists etc. on my iphone App

How is this possible???

Searching your Sonos library is possible, but creating Sonos playlists or adding something to an existing Playlist not yet. 
See the other post where I have answered to your question.