Update on the New Sonos App and Future Features - October 28, 2024

You are unfortunately correct. 

I've been a Sonos user for 14 years now. Avid music / cd collector.

Music Library is pretty important for me (understatement).

Essential, and pretty simple feature tha has been removed and not added again : proper Music Library Folder support; Playing and adding (sub) folders to the queue.

It can be done on the Windows app, for crying out loud :P

Simple request, re-add 2 simple features:

1. Play Folder (+subfolders if applicable)
2. Queue Folder (+subfolders if applicable)

That would make my life complete :)

Positive note: on the roadmap it shows that Music Library Album Art is coming back to Android App!

This Sonos-Alexa issue is pure insanity!!!!  Sonos has a problem.  I’m left with a very expensive system that can tell me what time it is. 

Access to a local library can, of course, be made via the (now) ‘old’ Windows App (which is in maintenance only mode by the way and soon to be deprecated) because it’s using sharing protocols that have widely publicised vulnerabilities - see below screenshot from Sonos and perhaps search online for SMB v1 &/or HTTP share vulnerability issues.
 

The new Sonos App uses a newer version of SMB - version 2 (and higher) and local libraries using that later sharing method do all work perfectly fine with the ‘secure’ sharing method, see the screen-capture at the end of my post showing my working local library in the Sonos App (iPhone XR).
 

Ideally, users need to change the way they share a local library, not least to perhaps avoid falling foul of the publicised vulnerability issues. The library will then work with the new Sonos App.

​@Ken_Griffiths My Music Library works fine, only Sonos has removed functionality from the "Folders” section, where you cannot play a Folder+Subfolders anymore, or add Folders (+subfolder) to the queue… (opposed to searching on Artist or Album, where this is working...)

Funny that the GIF contains a search query on "Canis” (see my username)

Oh I see, that’s my mistake, I thought you were inferring that the playback was working via Windows App and not via the Sonos mobile App. Admittedly I rarely use the folder area of the local library and tend to browse via Artist, Albums, or will use my own *.m3u playlists - some of which play an Artists entire music collection. I don’t think the Sonos developers have finished with local libraries yet in the new Sonos App, so I’m guessing the features you mention will be included at some point going forward. Meanwhile some simple playlists might be able to resolve the issues you mention until those features are perhaps included.

What issue is that ​@Sharla🤔 - Alexa seems to be working okay here on Sonos. "Alexa play some music” for example, auto groups my designated speakers and will begin playback from the set default music service (Amazon UHD in my case).

Swallow your pride and roll out the old one!
Be nice to have some music to listen to with out having to spend a morning reconnecting and messing about. 

If you’re perhaps having to regularly reconnect your Sonos devices, my thoughts here are that anyone with the type of issue ‘perhaps’ could have a multicast ‘device discovery’ issue across their network that’s preventing the controller device from communicating with their Sonos speakers. See attached re: SSDP/mDNS.

Such communication failure can occur across networks that use WiFi extenders, EoP adapters, or if managed switches are misconfigured. It can also happen if some settings on a local router are incorrect, or there’s software running on the mobile device that is getting in the way of the multicast communication, such as security software, VPN client, firewall, site blockers etc.

I’d perhaps investigate further in the areas mentioned and if still no luck, then it maybe best to reproduce the issue(s) seen and then immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to help you to resolve the matter.

Attachment: 

​@Ken_Griffiths 
Your assertion that “! . . local libraries using that later sharing method do all work perfectly fine with the ‘secure’ sharing method,  . . “ is not accurate for all users.  On my iPhone and iPAD the Music Library option just does not appear even though it is housed on a NAS which is running the later, secure, versions of SMB.  It appears on the windows app, and any music launched from there can be controlled (Skip back/Jump forward/Pause/Resume) from either of the mobile devices but it cannot be initiated from them becasue the option to do so just does not exist.

I have spoken with Sonos Support who have confirmed that this is a “known issue” and that they are investigating it.  They suggest that as a workaround, any time I wish to use my portable speaker(s) to play music in the garden, I retire inside, fire up the PC open the Windows and select it from there.  I shudder to think what they will suggest when the Windows app is deprecated.

This may seem trivial to some who have more pressing issues of connection/reconnection etc, but it really is a major annoyance to me.

Ah okay, I guess there can be exceptions to the rule, but just curious, which NAS (make/model) are you using and what SMB version is it using? - if the SMB interface has advanced features can you perhaps comment too on what settings you perhaps have in place for the following SMB options; 

• Min/Max SMB version
• Oplocks

Write Options:

• Preallocate
• Strict Sync

Security:

• Restrict Anonymous
• SMB Encrypt
• SMB Signing

Re: Local Library/ android app

Since 80.12.04 adding individual tracks/album to a queue is hit and miss - it's alway been very reliable and rock solid before May and since. Still cannot see all my Sonos Favorites... so Windows app is still my first port of call for queuing my listening... hoping it will all be over by Christmas... 

I now officially HATE Sonos. 

My generation 1 PLAY:5 sits in the box because I'd have to run a separate Sonos network for it (S1). 

Every time I go to play something using the Sonos app, ONE of the following things WILL happen:

• Require an update (takes forever)
• Room(s) not found
• Move not connecting to WiFi - thus cannot Airplay
• Endless spinning (loading) wheel
• Now playing display in Sonos app shows incorrect song
• Hitting next track, volume, or any other button, is followed by a long delay - the Sonos speaker may react to the command. 

THIS COMPANY HAS BECOME A SCAM.

All the early adopters got screwed.

There are endless threads about all the issues and how they keep getting worse. 

Want some advice, SONOS ?

Rework the whole app and be damn sure to include all the S1 speakers in it too. We all know it's possible. If you turned it off, figure out a way to turn it back on. I believe that 80% of your efforts should be directed at this. No more company parties, no more salad bar, none of that crap. You need to go Elon Musk Twitter take over - fire everyone who does not see themselves aggressively working towards fixing the APP. This is top priority!

Use the other 20% for continued R&D, advertising...whatever. But you won’t need to design more products if the APP still sucks and you alienate the CORE customers, but focussing on NEW acquisitions. I know that is what you are doing and I’ve had enough!

Who the heck am I?

I’m the owner of 15 SONOS speakers and 1 junk app. 

I don’t see why you have your S1 speaker in a box - it will happily run on the same WiFi network as an S2 system - simply have it use a different HouseholdID. I’ve run both systems side-by-side since the S1/S2 split in Nov 2020 and never had any issues with either Household - both run on the same WiFi SSID.

If your Sonos devices are not being discovered then I ‘suspect’ that you might have an mDNS/SSDP ‘device discovery’ issue over the LAN segments, which maybe preventing the controller device from communicating with the Sonos speakers.

Such communication failure can occur across networks that use WiFi extenders, EoP adapters, or if managed switches are misconfigured. It can also happen if some settings on a local router are incorrect, or there’s software running on the mobile device that is getting in the way of the multicast communication, such as security software, VPN client, firewall, site blockers etc.

I’d perhaps investigate further in the areas mentioned and if still no luck, then it maybe best to reproduce the issue(s) seen and then immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to help you to resolve the matter.

Honestly I am losing faith, I just read your statement, I don't feel the same way as you do, I am your customer.

So I just thought I'd take a look at the android app and just try something simple, not techie, not specific, just try and play some music. 

This is what happened, 

Entered the app, unusually it showed almost immediately the last music playing on one set of my speakers, good start. 

Searched for a playlist on deezer, Found it fairly easily, all good. 

Pressed play, within a second it so the first track started, all good. 

Pressed track fwd button, waited 2-3 seconds, not goo d, eventually skipped fwd. Not good

Pressed again, nothing, no indication that anything was happening, waited 5-6 seconds, skipped onto next track, not good.

Eventually it skipped fwd, then added two other speakers, delay of 5 or so seconds, one came in, then the other, then the other, took 10 seconds or so to get them together. Not good

Tried to pause the music, no response  not good

Wanted to alter the global volume from the play screen, am o daft? Can't see how to do that. Not good

After 10 seconds or so of play, app switched to Can't find your system screen, 3 speakers shut down, two stayed live but much lower volume, app can't see any music playing on any of those speakers, so no I can't stop it or control it all. Very not good!

Gave up at this point.

Just to be clear, I don't have any fancy or specific requirements, just want to choose and control the music I am playing, not complicated.  IT DOES NOT WORK!  IT DID BEFORE.....

Not really enough information in your post to suggest a solution. For example, the speaker SNR levels maybe low in your setup and/or some of your devices may have interference due to excessive channel-width, or even use of non-overlapping WiFi channels, or simply you’re experiencing bandwidth, or WAN/LAN network, connection issues. Stating the issues is one thing, but if looking for answers you ideally need to provide at least some relevant detail about the way the network and Sonos devices are configured. Further issues can be caused by EoP adapters, or WiFi extenders/repeaters and issues may arise from security software running on the controller device.

If looking for a solution, I suggest it maybe best to reproduce the issue(s) seen and then immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to help you to resolve the matter.

Thanks, the real simple fact is nothing has changed since the ridiculous app upgrade in may, I accept that your reply totally makes sense, thanks 

​@Ken_Griffiths 

its a QNAP TS-112 with a basic but functional interface but unfortunately does not have any advanced SBB controls or options.  I have, however, managed to determine that is SMBv3 compliant.

However, Idon’t believe the issue lies with SMB because, for a while, after the dreaded May update and it was one of the later “fixes” that killed my Music Library ☹️

i guess I’ll just have to wait, with everything crossed, for the much vaulted December release🤞

There are three versions of SMB version 3… 3.0 / 3.0.2 / 3.1.1 - in my own experience I’ve not got Sonos to work with SMB v3.1.1, but the other two versions seem to both work fine. Are you able to set a lower version of SMB? If so, even if it’s just version 2.0, or 2.1 maybe give that a try - set the same version for both min./max. options if your NAS has those features and see if that resolves the matter.

Patrick Spence

Well, I think you've done it! Can't even set up a new system at all now in Android. Take a look at the last 20 reviews on the Play store. All of them are one or two stars saying there are issues. 

I've been a Sonos user for over 10 years. I have bought over $5,000 in Sonos speakers for three different households. 

The can't even set up a new system right now on Android is telling... Whoever's running the show is not an engineer and the Sonos board should replace who is ever in charge with an actual engineer. 

I'm so frustrated and so sad. Because Sonos was the best thing out there. Sonos used to be fast too. I don't even know if many people know that. Volume control was instant, under a second and now it takes many seconds to change volume even on a system that is already set up. 

I think you guys fired the wrong people or somehow didn't retain the right people. Because it's obvious that whoever is maintaining the software right now doesn't have the historical knowledge to maintain it. I'm a software engineer and writing software is the easy part. Updating. It is the hard part. Doing this for both hardware and software is a pretty big feat, and it's what made Sonos so successful. And somehow that talent is now no longer. 

I feel sad about this and grieve this loss because nobody else really has what Sonos offers. And so many of us have invested so much money into our Sonos systems. I think the Sonos board has a decision to make.

So, after a Summer of No Library, finally got it back in September and though not perfect, at least allowed me to play music from my NAS. In recent weeks though I could see said working NAS in Windows, Sonos App (Win 11) Sonos would skip songs like spinning wheel then play one, then skip many then play another. NOW, this week, every time I play an album, or a playlist or a song, my play all in all speakers separates to individual speakers not playing anything. I group them and play for a minute and separate again.. HOW much pain can you cause what once a fine working system !!????

Duplicate post here:

This thread is geared towards the Sonos App, but from what you describe, it’s unlikely going to be App-related. As an example, the Sonos App is not a music player, but is simply a remote controller for your Sonos devices, so once music is initiated from any source from within the App, you could actually close the App and power off the computer, or mobile device that holds the App and the music will (or should) continue the playback. If it doesn’t, then more often than not it’s a network issue between the source device (your NAS) and the Sonos speaker(s). So I’d suggest looking a little closer at those things being at the root of your issue. I use my NAS library most days and am not encountering an issue with the latest Sonos updates, so maybe checkout this link below to begin with and see if it may help you to discover the cause of the playback issue.

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/reduce-wireless-interference
 

If the problems do persist however, then it maybe best to reproduce the issue(s) seen and immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to help you to resolve the matter.

It’s still rubbish. Who are you trying to kid? Yourselves or your shareholders because as a user it is still awful, clunky, missing features, music library still not working properly and as for the GUI, who thought it was a good idea to have the layout the way it is!