The new Sonos Mobile App & Web App

The data being received from the speakers is the same. The UI refresh means it is being displayed to you slightly differently.

@Corry P 

Are you able to say by way of assurance to users that no more borderline Sonos kit will go underwater as it did recently via just a S2 update, if they run an update to S2 that will move them to this new UI? As happened a few months ago because of changes to S2 that were nothing as major as the S1/S2 split?

I am sure you remember your words here of how the case of such users affected and a solution to their woes is being given the “highest priority” by Sonos. That was two months ago.

This is feeling more and more like what I would term a reskin. It sounds like the UI has been completely rewritten but what we used to call the “business logic” has been left the same, so the guts of the coding that does all the work will be the same as in the S2 version.

I could be 100% wrong though 

No, I don’t think you are. A UI refresh is exactly that, a ‘reskin’ of the same data. Which is what Sonos appears to be doing. 

Airgetlam wrote:

How can you say it's a reskin of the same data if they're actually removing functionality - functionality that has been there since day one?  It will still show the data, let you navigate and play it but not let you search for it.  I imagine even you would think that's bizarre (but wouldn't say so here).

A reskin removes or adds no core functionality, but can make doing some things easier or harder depending on point of view, not remove it.

With a reskin you can opt to leave out the links to those functions by not putting the menu options in the interface etc. So whilst the code might still be there to perform those functions, there’s no way for the user to select them.

Oh behave. Of course they could ‘hide’ almost anything but why would Sonos deliberately antagonise customers by hiding functionality they use and keep the code?

I’m just saying how it could happen. I’m not condoning it or saying this is what they have done.

What exactly is the reasoning behind not being able to search through the personal music library? Why would you actively downgrade your product? 

Almost certainly the usual reason in this industry: the product is not ready, but Marketing say it must be released anyway.  Searching through the personal library will be in release 2(b) - probably.

@Corry P Will the personal music library (on my NAS) still be searchable  with the Windows Desktop Controller once the new app has been released? TIA.

‘Fraud not.  Elsewhere the information given is that local library search has been removed and there was no suggestion of a future return.

The reason people react and get nervous when there is a ‘major’ software release is that quite often companies want to steer their products towards a new direction or into a new market, which quite often is not where their existing customers want to go.  
 

Its interesting that setting up a local library is the only setting that we know is coming but that didn’t make it in to the initial release. The functionality was already there in the earlier version , and if all they were doing was moving the setting to a different place, well that’s no big deal, right?

I suspect (and this is only my opinion) that people with local libraries are an ever decreasing proportion of Sonos owners, fewer people buy CDs and the music market marches on to ever more streaming.  Removal of local search can only be considered a deprecation of local library functionality.  I suspect Sonos would quite like to remove local libraries altogether but removing the search was only the first stage, and maybe used to gauge user reaction.  I believe if there is little fuss, local libraries will go altogether in some future version.  Again, this is just my opinion.  

Agreed - Sonos have clearly decided that these users (myself included) don’t matter as part of their current core base.

However, there are other options, some of which also get round Sonos limitations (e.g. number of files and metadata, and playing hi-res files without conversion). My backup system is in place, consisting of a music server on a NAS being accessed by chromecast compatible software. In the case of the Gen1 Play 5s, a chromecast dongle - in the case of my main AV system, the newer AV amp is chromecast compatible. So we can still play via Sonos kit, if required, as you only need one device to have a line-in. 

I intend to use Sonos normally as long as I can on S1 and then contine to use the hardware whilst broadly ignoring their software.

I was going to be angry about the local library issue too, then I realized how long it has been since I played any of the few ripped CDs that I can’t also access from a streaming service.

Worst case I’ll pick up an old, used S2 Connect and feed it from a Raspberry PI holding my music files if I decide I really need Sonos to play them rather than one of my other options.

If you stay on S1, in addition to being free from the update churn, you will continue to have full access to local libraries in a straightforward way. In my case, I use their software on S1 for just that, from time to time. For the most part, my UI is the Spotify native app on Echo Show devices wire connected to Sonos line in jacks of which I have plenty, relegating Sonos to being dumb hardware, where it still gives excellent service. As a bonus, I get album art everywhere there is a Sonos zone, including during grouped play, without having to use voice control when it is silly to use it.

The only downside is that one is no longer able to be an active member on the threads here, being rendered obsolete with respect to the latest Sonos issues - of which there are plenty - but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing because that frees up time for other interesting pursuits.

It is some years since Sonos said so themselves - streaming service users were more than 90% of the user base then and that number must be closer to 100 by now.

The other advantage to staying on S1 is that none of us have suffered what later buyers of Sonos kit like Connect Amps/Play 3s using it on S2 have in recent months - equipment failures brought about by higher memory demands of later versions of S2, that Sonos has been unable to offer a fix for till now.

To use an auto analogy, for those of us that look upon this kit as just appliances, a reliable Toyota is better than a German car with cutting edge tech, that breaks down just when you do not want it to.

I know it’s not an answer for most people (because few people use Linux on a day-to-day basis) but I’ve been really impressed by the Noson client. It seems a one man development “team” can do quite a lot, and keep it working for almost a decade (started in 2015, apparently).

Perhaps if Sonos head off down the “streaming only” route, someone in the open source community will continue to provide alternatives that meet the needs of those of us who don’t only want to use streaming services.

I’ve been using the flatpak version of it for some time now and it is quite handy.

https://janbar.github.io/noson-app/

Noson is published in the flathub repository and it can be installed on any others Linux using flatpak. Go to noson in FlatHub for further details.

Maybe the new App should be called S3 allowing us "minority" local users the chance to still search our local libraries stopping further damage at S2?

We're still not sure if the new app prohibits us from searching our local music libraries. I've asked @Corry P to elaborate on this (see earlier in this thread) but haven't heard back from him. Maybe he'll respond after the weekend.

Maybe! What about the inability to add shares to the local library other than through the desktop controller. Sonos have reduced functionality of the Desktop Controller over the years.

Can someone remind me how to successfully block Auto Updates as I have lost that info - I seem to remember it was something to do with blocking update.sonod.com on my routers settings?

I would like to block this upgrade until it is clear what effect this is going to have on local library users.

This pop up just appeared in the app. It's very kind of Sonos, removing access to my local library in order to protect my security and privacy. Why don't they just admit that the people who bought into Sonos' original ethos of being able to access and play your own music are no longer needed. Bizarrely, it includes a How to add a local library link.

That have confirmed it in this thread.

So the music is all there and indexed and you can play it and navigate it but the contents are deliberately not shown in a search.

@Corry P : Comments? How does this reconcile with what you have been saying here so far about search going missing only for a while? Does this apply to S1 as well?