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

5 people like this 👍 sadly you can’t not like it so it’s a bit of a one sided view. Maybe add the 👎 to get a balanced view????

It’s still the case for the majority of non-technical users I suspect and it’s only in the minority of cases where some small amount of networking knowledge is required and in the majority of those cases it’s likely down to the users lack of knowledge in the first place (obviously) that their local networks are perhaps misconfigured and causing them issues with their system. - it rarely affects those that are knowledgeable, as they go onto fix the issue.

Sonos has published some aspects around this showing the new Sonos app is already equal to or exceeding five key areas compared to the previous S2 App based on the data they have gathered, during their own monitoring.

What is the status of the investigation into the “fragmentation of compilation albums” issue? 

I understand that it can be resolved for ‘some’ users by changing the ‘Group Albums’ option in the desktop Sonos App. See attached. Simply switch it to Album Artists and set the compilation Album tracks ‘Album Artist’ tag/field to ‘Various Artists’ - hopefully that will work for you.

 

Hi, I gave the answers I had some thought, and tried something quite simple with my router that seems (fingers crossed) to have resolved lots of the long list of issues I have with the new app, mostly issues about response and disappearing speakers.  I switched on QOS quality of service on the router, then allocated each speaker to be qos.  The effect was instant and seems to persevere, I will write back in a week or so and let everyone know.

As I said earlier, there is nothing by way of configuration options in the User interface of this NAS.  I have, by way of interrogating it via SSH, determined the following: -

smbd (samba daemon) Version 4.4.16
smbd (samba daemon) is running.
max protocol SMB 3 enabled.

As this is not a “new” or even “recent” product I would think that this would be 3.0 rather than any later version

I have a ticket open with Sonos support and they have my diagnostics so hopefully they will be able to wire in a fix for the issue.

Ah okay - I hope it gets sorted for you. 👍

So it’s now 7 months on from the release of the disaster that was the new app and I’m still stuck without Sonos on my iPad (because I had to delete the new app and couldn’t go back) and on my Android devices I’m on the really old app.

It was said by many at the time and it still applies now in my opinion, a company that treats their loyal customers with such disdain really doesn’t deserve to be in business. No, I’m not wishing them to go under but I am wishing them to get someone else to run the company instead of someone who would rather release software that wasn’t even half way complete just to sell some new products.

Yes I’m still using my existing products but I will not buy any more. I, like many customers, have been a customer of Sonos for many years (2008) but I don’t consider myself as a customer of Sonos any more due to this shambles, I’m merely a user who will not replace any products when they cease working.

For all those suffering ridiculous delays in the app operations, give QoS a try on your router, switch it on, then allocate the Sonos products you have to use the QoS service.  I would say it has pretty much solved all of the basic issues I had with the new app, slow response, lack of volume control, missing syncing between pairs etc.  Basicallyz app to hardware issues.  Give it a try, I can almost play my music again, still hate the UI on the app though, it's so confusing.

Thanks but I don’t think I have QoS on my BT router?

but it’s still unbelievable that 7 months after the release of this appalling new App my Sonos speakers are playing music but the app tells me ‘No Content’ !!

so I can’t turn anything off or change the music. 
So frustrating and so disappointing after 15 years with Sonos.  I agree with the above contributor about never buying Sonos again 

Drives you mad doesn't it, madness

I don’t know why Sonos is again so quick to claim victory;  I get things are maybe working for some, but it’s clear the average user is still struggling daily… I take the above as nothing more than an attempt to cast some positive vibes over the present negative sentiment on this forum. 

Here are just a few of the barriers that have stopped me from playing music today:

Endless re-authorizations for accounts. After reauthorizing, I get the same screen.

When re-authorizing Sonos Radio, I often get the message that my account does not exist (anymore I guess?).

Looking at an endless loading screen. Restarting is required to get it working.

Looking at a spinner for minutes at a time. In the end, nothing will start playing.

Endless re-tuning. Never seems to save the state for a prolonged period.

Additional issues just this week include:

• System not found.
• Sonos found two systems (my system now randomly splits into two with no way to manage them).
• Unable to play music (on multiple speakers simultaneously or on any speaker at all).

You just have to look at the app reviews in both ios and android (in most recent order) to see what a pile of junk this still is. I won’t be changing from my 16.1 version any time soon and it makes me wonder if I ever will be able to move from this version.

Well being I’ve been a network tech/architect for over 30 years I think I know the difference. There is no way someone without network knowledge could fault find this. There are hidden tools to help but frankly they only offer limited insight and as for the support Sonos offer, which is often based on restarting the system and ensuring you have them latest updates, I stand by my previous comment.

I’m not currently seeing any issues with the new Sonos App, ALL seems to be working well here …and maybe with your network background, I would not expect to see you encountering too many difficulties either, assuming you know the Sonos requirements and what you’re doing.

For anyone that doesn’t understand what they may need to do to resolve their own issues, then Sonos Support is certainly still an option, but I guess some things network-related may sometimes be outside their remit when it comes to providing some areas of support for Sonos products. There’s only so much "hand-holding" they likely can do - even configuring routers/managed switches for mDNS/SSDP multicast support is probably outside their terms of reference, but no doubt they will offer advice to perhaps try to assist the customer. Although like most customer support staff, there’s probably a script they are paid/trained to stick to. 

In my own case, aswell as sometimes contacting customer support desks, I tend to call on friends and family with similar experience to yourself and of course read things online to usually resolve my own hardware/software issues that I encounter along the way. I’m no network expert, but will happily read my way to find an answer to most things. Admittedly though I’ve not had too much bother with Sonos, even since the changes occurred on May 7th.

FWIW: A short excerpt screen-capture recording from my own Sonos ‘controller’ App… it at least shows the App can/does work in a Home network environment:

Sonos admit that there remains issues with the app and speakers. But anyways there’s always at least one unicorn. 

This link below outlines what Sonos are saying (December 10th update)…

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates

Exactly. Please read this there remains many issues as they admit. 

Yeah, but it seems a minority are affected for some things and some improvements like "A-Z local library searching" are not what I’d call ‘show stoppers’, but more ‘nice to have’ (back) features... plus in Nick Millington's earlier update, there’s the table of 5 main categories where the new Sonos App, from data collected, shows that the new App has equalled/improved on things in those areas listed.  So it’s heading in the right direction by all accounts and my own experience is based more in the majority of Sonos users, rather than the minority.

The minority though will often shout louder when things are not working for them, whereas when things are working fine, rarely do people bother to post about it. I guess that’s really where the unicorn shows up occasionally.

Little has changed for me. I switch on the Sonos speaker and I’m told that it’s not on the system. Go through the bother of getting it setup… works for a few minutes and then either shuts down and ‘cannot be found’, or if I want to change the music the interaction with the app freezes (‘it cannot be found on the system’) but Sonos speaker continues to play previously selected tracks…

After 5 years of Sonos I’m sick to the back teeth with these issues with their app!

It could just be an mDNS/SSDP device discovery issue in your case - what is your local network setup that you are using/trying to use, with the Sonos System? Are there any WiFi extenders/repeaters perhaps?

Ken, I know you are trying to assist me (genuine thanks) but I’m not a techi and simply want my expensive Sonos to work after downloading the app. Hence my frustration with Sonos.
 

I have no idea what a ‘mDNS/SSDP’ is.

They are the multicasting protocols that Sonos (and others) use to discover your speakers on the local network subnet - my thoughts are you’re not seeing your devices on occasions because the packets are not getting through from your controller App to your speakers.

I did ask if you were using WiFi extenders/repeaters, because some can disrupt that type of communication.

However if you’re struggling with your Sonos setup and have not contacted Sonos Support already, I’d perhaps give that a go, as they ‘might’ be able to resolve your issues. They apparently have tools at their disposal to help identify these type of issues. It can even be a simple setting-change is needed on your router (IGMP Snooping, for instance, that might need to be enabled), or even something running on your controller itself that’s getting in the way (eg. VPN client not allowing local access). 

I would not assume the issues you’re seeing are perhaps down to the Sonos App, as it might (in some cases) just be something local.

Thankfully Spence has left Sonos so let’s hope someone with sense who puts his customers first takes his place.

That’s not going to happen. They just let go of 200 employees, meaning less manpower—yet they still think they can fix this?

The smartest move would be to go open source or bring in skilled developers from the community to help sort things out.

But they won’t, because profits will always come before long-term survival or customer satisfaction.