No-one is asking for help anywhere... Every thread is thick with complaints from people who simply cannot be bothered to try to help themselves. Sonos appears to be working on fixing this so that people can operate their systems without any further issues or any requirement for effort (as it should be, I hasten to add). But in the meantime, people’s resourcefulness is acutely absent. Some people are busy, I get it. Some people don't have any confidence in making any technical changes, I get that. 

But the vast majority of haters on here are people who operate music libraries which takes a decent level of technical know-how to make it work. So I don’t believe for a minute that the number of people lacking skills to look into technical adjustments is as high as is being made out. 

I will say one more time for the record. Aside from one tongue-in-cheek post much earlier, I am not bragging that my system works. I am making it very plain that there is an environment in which everything does work. In truth, I could not care less whether or not yours or anybody else’s system is working (and the reaction to me on here makes me hope it never comes back for them). But the empathetic part of me is very happy and willing to help anyone make adjustments to find a way for their system to work in lieu of fixes from Sonos. 

All I get in response is abuse. It’s like:

“Hey everyone, I have a cure for a terminal disease if anyone is interested?”

“No, you’re just showing off because you’re cured. My disease is getting worse. I’m waiting for my doctor to give me more treatment. You’re obviously paid by the health service to be cured.” 

“I can help if you like. We could take a look at the medical treatment I’ve had to see if there is anything you can do to adjust your treatment to also alleviate your symptoms?”

“No. Don’t want to. F*** off.”

Suit yourself. My input on this thread is done, you’ll be delighted to hear.

“In truth, I could not care less whether or not yours or anybody else’s system is working (and the reaction to me on here makes me hope it never comes back for them).”

Your comment, and the following ones weren’t  tongue in cheek, come on it’s transparent that you are just trying to stir things up.

You are also being incredibly unfair to many of the posters here with your comments. People have identified and in some cases come  up with solutions to problems that SONOS has left owners to deal with. Anecdotally dozens of them, recently the battery drain bug. 

Correction: this is my last input in this thread.

It is painfully clear that it does not matter how measured and specific one is in a post, someone will only read what they want to read. And to isolate that sentence out of context could not demonstrate this further. I could not have been clearer and still ignorance persists.

I don’t expect anything good soon. Having re-instated the music library search I now find that the results it gives are nonsensical. Spoke to support who say this is a known issue and will be fixed sometime in the future but they don’t know when. This is one of the “fixes” Patrick spence tells us should help rebuild trust but sending out bug ridden fixes does the opposite. Apart from meekly putting your hand up you should make sure heads roll. I hope these problems  knock a lump off your share price, then maybe we might see some proper action. Shame on you Sonos, stop talking and start doing

This “apology” letter is too little, too late for me.

I haven’t been able to use any of my Sonos speakers since May. I’ve attempted to add them back into the system 50+ times without success. 

So I ordered new speakers thinking my older models were the problem. 

Boy was I wrong! The new speakers don’t work with the app either. Maybe some of you are having better luck with new speakers but I’m spending more time trying to connect to the app than anyone ever should. For me not having access to decent sounding music since May is unacceptable. 

I’m sending my new speakers back for a refund and going to an entirely different company. It’s a shame. I really loved the speakers when they were first installed. 

Mr. Spence,

I appreciate your apology letter, but it shouldn’t have taken this long to react and respond ?. This has been going on since May. As CEO, it is up to you to keep your customers and shareholders satisfied. As each update seems to fix one thing, it has also created 10 more issues. Who is minding the store at Sonos ?. I have too much money invested in this to just jump overboard, but how I proceed going forward is still up in the air. Because this has been such a mess for so many people, I would’ve directed your team to give “daily” community updates on the progress to all the needed fixes. That in itself would’ve shown your customers that Sonos really cared about their end users, and might’ve helped with a lot of the backlash now happening. Unfortunately, as much as I am looking forward to the next update/fix, I am also a bit worried too as to what will happen next.

Thank you.

An empty apology whilst they continue to treat paying customers like beta-testers. This is completely unacceptable no matter how much mental gymnastics you are doing.

Roll back the app, now. It’s not too late. You can always work on your app update in private, Sonos!

Perhaps we all need to be reminded what Sonos told its clients before the current debacle began; and to help understand why a considerable amount of disappointment and resentment among longtime Sonos customers is to be expected.

On April 23, Sonos issued the following press release:

Modernized app and platform puts listeners in the driver's seat with a personalized experience that makes listening easier, faster and better

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., April 23, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sonos (Nasdaq: SONO) today revealed its most extensive app redesign ever, creating an unprecedented streaming experience that allows listeners to organize their favorite playlists, stations, albums and more from over 100 services on one customizable Home screen. The new Home screen provides faster access to Sonos system controls with one easy swipe up, making tab to tab jumping a thing of the past. As a leader in sound experience that’s focused on creating a better way to listen, Sonos intentionally redesigned the app on a modern software platform for an easier, faster and better experience that can support more rapid innovation. The reimagined app supports all existing S2 products and will be available globally through a software update for the S2 mobile app and via an all-new web app on May 7, 2024.

Admittedly, we did get ‘an unprecedented streaming experience.’ Unfortunately, I don’t think any of us thought ‘unprecedented’ was being used as a synonym for ‘screwed up beyond recognition.’ 

Which no reasonable, unbiased observer can deny is what we got with the ‘most extensive app redesign ever.’ Nor can anyone honestly say we expected things to remain screwed up all the way into August, September or perhaps even October.

So while I do not condone some of the fiery, over the top, at times even crude rhetoric that appears in Sonos Community posts, it’s beyond disingenuous for Sonos and some of the commenters here to berate others who are justifiably angered and disappointed by Sonos’ dismal failure to deliver what it promised; and its inexplicable failure to communicate with customers and to address their concerns promptly and effectively.

Shame on anyone that was a current user on launch day, that had experience with the buggy S2 App and update process over the last couple years, who was expecting Sonos to actually deliver on this promise in any short or mid term period. 

It’s posts like this that get deserved ire… In what world does network setup, app setup or anything else you can tweak make up for the basic lack of functionality missing from the app? A key usage case for Sonos and almost any other system is the ability to put the songs you want in a Q and edit it. Where Sonos scored was the ability to do that on local and streamed music. Basic Q editing is still not here. Even if you have no idea what a CD, NAS or tagging are, you probably use Q’s. If you do know what any of those are, the basic missing function of being able to jump quickly to artists by pressing a letter is mind boggling. 

Posts that try and claim everything is fine are just red rags to rightly outraged bulls. It is only fine in certain limited use cases. Great if that’s you but don’t go telling others they’re just wrong or worse lazy because they don’t use their system in the same way you do. It’s deeply unhelpful. 

If you can point me to how I can tune my network/app to enable full q editing and easy local library artist selecting without getting scroll RSI, I and many others will be extremely grateful. 

Hey, I’d be happy just to get basic Local Library functionality working again, served from a local drive on the Mac running the Sonos app for MacOS - with my playlists that I’ve already defined in the Apple Music app (so I use them on my iPhone, too). A formerly (mostly) seamless integration into the Apple Mac/iOS ecosystem has turned into a broken system that only works for streaming services - of which I have several, so it’s not useless.

Are the folks claiming that everything is fine using a local library, that is still working? All the workarounds Sonos has previously given to overcome the issues from the April updates stopped working for me in mid July. I have tried most of the helpful suggestions posted here over the last two weeks, and none have solved the issue. The only things I haven’t tried did not appear relevant to my setup.

I’ve never seen anyone refer to a queue as a ‘Q’ before.  Not sure if it’s a trend I’m not aware of, you’re starting a trend, didn’t want to bother spelling out the word, or didn’t actually know how to spell queue...which I would not knock you for as it’s a weird word.

If any of my junior developers ever referred to a queue as a ‘Q”, I’d ban that usage immediately, like I did the trailing brace in ‘C’ code or using their initials as counters/indexes instead of i and j.  Why?  Because I can ban things that bother me, and that stuff bothers me. 

I’ve seen it referred to as a ‘cue’ on some occasions here in the community.

Thank you for addressing our concerns so thoughtfully. I appreciate the transparency and the commitment to improving the app experience. It’s reassuring to see that you’re dedicated to resolving these issues and enhancing user satisfaction. I look forward to seeing the continued progress and positive changes. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to your customers!

If Patrick Spence actually cared they wouldn’t keep drip feeding functionality. They would roll back to a previous known working version until a fully functioning update is available

The message says “we hear you” but the actions say “we’re ignoring you and going to carry on regardless with whatever ridiculous plan we had in the first place”

You opened this thread with a comment about toxic posters and then dogged everyone’s opinions, while setting up massive straw men.

“No-one is asking for help anywhere” where have you been? This forum, and Reddit, are littered with people asking for help. People who don’t have 2 hours to sit on the phone waiting for help with a system that was PERFECTLY FUNCTIONAL in May.

I think they have every right to be peeved, and it’s not their fault that they’re constantly reminded that they can’t listen to music, whenever they want to listen to music. The fault lays at the feet of Sonos, and everyone that chooses to work there.

Honestly, they don’t need your charity support, and they don’t need your defensive work. They need to fix this mess and allow people to install 16.2 in the meantime. Thats it.

No one owes anyone else a world free from harsh words and criticism, especially when the harsh words and criticism are due to a self-inflicted wound.

I’m angry too. I had a perfectly functioning system until Sonos messed it up, and all the good intentions and corporate-snake-oil letters mean nothing, so long as my system is less than 100%. The fact that Sonos had ZERO fallback to mitigate a   failed rollout speaks volumes to the state of management in that place.

Nothing I have stated is a personal attack. I’m not impugning you, your character, or any Sonos employee’s character. People make mistakes or do things because they want a quick buck. None of the reasons matter at this point. The only thing that matters is that every single time someone tries to play music and can’t, they’re reminded of who gave them a non-functional product: Sonos.

EDIT - I meant to include that I’m grateful that you’re willing to help users with issues. Communities are always better when people like you do that. Seriously.

To say this app is utter garbage is an insult to garbage.

My SiriusXM subscription constantly says “Something went wrong.”  Can’t use it.

Every few seconds the app loses all my devices.  They may or may not show back up.

My two Eras will auto mute themselves, and I can’t unmute them in the app (they just go back to mute).

I lost the ability to play my iTunes library, and no workaround listed on these forums works for me.

Buying any more Sonos systems is a waste of money and trying to workaround this massive insult to garbage is a waste of time.  I went back to using bluetooth via my phone to my Eras SINCE IT IS INFINITELY MORE RELIABLE THAN THE SONOS APP.

I used to recommend Sonos to everyone - now I just tell them to stay the *** away and use something, ANYTHING else.  Never buying anything Sonos ever again. 

So keep your lame apology.  Some QA would be nice, but far too late.  No matter what you do, you lost a customer.  I will never, ever turn to Sonos first to play music on ANY of my devices.

I work for a AV installer/ Sonos dealer. I am buying the business. I will be dropping the Sonos line like a hot potato. We have over 5000 customers and many are unhappy asking for an alternative. Sonos is done!!!!!

I hear you and I agree with you. I’m just a lowly user who now has a broken system. Any ideas what I could/should buy to replace this now pile of junk. I have various speakers, a soundbar and I was looking to buy a move 2 all to work off my NAS. If Sonos are reading this, I DO NOT HAVE ANY STREAMING SERVICES AND DON’T WANT TO - I AM OBVIOUSLY A PHILISTINE.

I too don’t subscribe to streaming services. I stream the music I have purchased on CD and ripped to FLAC format on my NAS drive and also listen to a couple of internet radio stations.

I’m lucky as I realised that my iPad had auto updated to this mess of a release and stopped the auto update on my Android devices so I still have a working system. For a short while I gave the new update a try on my iPad (the 2 versions could co-exist at that time) and it was awful so I completely removed Sonos from my iPad.

It is inconvenient to have to manually update apps on my Android system to avoid updating Sonos, but I will continue to do so.

Is that correct? I always thought with Android that you just switch off the auto-update for just the App/Apps you don’t wish to update and let any others auto-update. See attached example from my Android device (I’ve just selected Disney+ here, but it’s the same for the Sonos App too?)

If you manually select Update All (because you want to control when updates are applied), All Apps are updated.

Thanks,  I’m not a huge Android user, but have always thought that the Apps on my tablet all auto-updated except the ones where I uncheck them in the Play store. Those unchecked Apps (I thought) had to then be manually updated? 

I do update all my apps automatically anyway, so I’ve never tested these things.

Do you allow your developers to write “Something went wrong” error messages?
Just curious… :)