I appreciate the sentiment, and seriously, can you give me the ability to roll back and use the previous version; S2, of the app please?

Wow - that’s a heck of an answer and arcane process that I’m guessing only a few would know.  I’ll try it, but if that’s the solution for my suddenly spotty system, what the heck! Sonos must have trashed something in the firmware as badly as they did the app.

Don’t mean to shoot the messenger at all - thank you for the help.  I just find if shocking that this is “the thing to do” as implied by the posts that prompted me to ask “how to do it?”.  How would a normal customer - someone just interested in playing their music ever discover this?

Thanks again.

You’re correct. You really shouldn’t have to, or need to know, it should just work, and certainly should have continued working if you had no issues previous to the new app being shoved out. 

In my view it’s a bit of a bug in the Sonos system (that goes back to the old app as well) as if you initially asked for  it to be on your WiFi and not Sonosnet, then it should remember that and stick with it. It certainly shouldn’t just silently switch you over just because you plugged in an ethernet cable somewhere…

However if it helps anyone while Sonos try and get their act together it might just reduce some of the misery a little. 

I’m not sure why we don't like Sonosnet anymore and why about my system no longer indicates what you are using?  It seems to work fine for me and I don't understand why they are shifting from it now except that changes for the newer generation of speakers make it more problematic for Sonos perhaps.

There is a (clunky) adapter I believe for the USB-C port on the Era speakers that allows you to have a line in and an ethernet (The Combo adapter) for them. I don’t know if that provides Sonosnet capability, hopefully not, but would allow you to hardwire the network connections. Starts to get a bit silly though with lots of speakers IMO. 

I wouldn’t be upset at losing Sonosnet, I think it’s time has been and gone now, WiFi at home, especially with mesh systems is much better than it used to be. You could argue Sonosnet was effectively a mesh network just for Sonos which is why it was originally so useful, but now as it’s still stuck on antiquated STP versions, it becomes more hindrance than help. 

On points 2,3,4 I can’t argue with you. 

The downside of 5 is you still need the Sonos App to function enough to get your speakers setup initially to be usable on Airplay etc. Currently this isn’t a given… 

It seems to me that deprecating Sonosnet only benefits Sonos, not customers.

For me, the main issue now with Sonosnet is that they still refuse to use a modern STP implementation which can cause issues on networks where you have a mix of STP devices using different path cost values, so you can end up routing traffic you really don’t want over Sonosnet over it… Also, the new portable and Era speakers don’t support it, so you already have a mixed ecosystem which I’m sure adds complication (especially with the move to mDNS where Sonos may need to relay stuff between it and the outside world) and generally keeping it simple is better. 

The main problem it was designed to fix has now really been fixed by Mesh WiFi systems, so if they are now more than good enough, purely from a performance and interference perspective, less is more with WiFi. 

That’s my perspective at least. 

STP has only seemed to be an issue if you want to turn off wireless in speakers? This isn't a typical customer issue I would think.

Sonos didn't support mesh system? Now they do? Perhaps mesh systems have advanced?

I have the TP-Link M5 wifi mesh (3 nodes around the house) with various Sonos speakers connected to different nodes. But others with other major makes of mesh have also seen success. 

Good for you. Why do I care?

What? You said “Sonos didn’t support mesh systems, but now maybe they do?” That was posed as a question. I answered the question. What was wrong with that? Jeez…

(I also edited my post earlier to say that others had also seen success.)

Has Sonos always supported mesh? Has that changed. Your use of a mesh system means Sonos supports mesh always has always will. Jeez……...

Sonosnet changes seems to be a benefit for Sonos not customers.

No, it’s an issue when you leave it on. If you turn off the wireless in your speakers that are plugged in, then that is how you tell Sonos not to use Sonosnet. Sonosnet uses STP to manage the internal network between nodes if it is the STP root bridge. However, these days Sonos is not alone in wanting to control that and some systems use a lower default root bridge value and takeover… Sky Q in the UK for example used to do this… 

Sonosnet requires one speaker or Boost/Bridge to be wired with the wireless also on to create/manage Sonosnet. 

This old requirement is dropped for WiFi only and the new Era/Move/Roam speakers don’t support Sonosnet either now, or come with a built in ethernet connector. 

Yes. It's the change in the new speakers driving the change. I don't see that as addressing general customer issues but a cost benefit analysis for Sonos.

I’m using Sonosnet, I think -- I can't verify  in the app anymore, and it seems “fast” enough to play my music, a mesh system isn't going to play my music “faster”.

I’m suspect if Sonosnet was viable via the dongles this wouldn't be a topic of conversation. Clue me up.

I love it that those of us who’ve been around a while remember all these hints & tips. I used to study my network matrix semi-regularly, but now that’s less useful with Era speakers.

I no longer use Sonosnet. My Boost is somewhere in my loft gathering dust. Might prove useful one day for an upgrade credit (in the past I used a Bridge to get a chunky discount off a Sub at Richer Sounds).

FWIW, on iOS the free version of Phonos Plus is a great way of seeing whether a speaker is using Wi-Fi or Sonosnet as it’s reported under ‘Wireless Mode’ in the detail for each speaker.

You're prediction is somewhat true, but only because people are frustrated with the continuing issues with an app that was touted as a great improvement for SONOS users, but had proven to be quite the opposite. 

We have all spent a great deal of money on our SONOS equipment, and until now, have been happy with our systems. The "bugs" that were "found" would have been discovered pre-release, if more rigorous testing had been performed.  Certainly, issues will always "slip through" when a large-scale app retooling is released; but the sheer magnitude of undetected issues with this release is beyond comprehension.  Volume controls that don't work, useful functions that vanished, status displays that indicates no music is playing while music is actually playing, displays that don't show the correct current music selection, setting controls that instantly revert back to previous settings for no apparent reason, and the list goes on and on. Then, to add insult to injury, we receive an apology weeks after the app is found to contain dozens of flaws, some of which rendered some systems virtually unusable?  

I, for one, have no intention of dumping SONOS; I've invested far too much money into SONOS to abandon it.. But I'm hard pressed to recommend it after this latest debacle.  

Have 5 Sonos products and invested a lot - now takes 30 seconds to change a song or adjust the volume with a 2 in 3 chance nothing will happen.  Loved Sonos - now a very unhappy customer. Please sort it out! 

I think my biggest “um what” reading the transcript is that they are pulling in a Board Member to help ensure software efforts are on the right track. With how software dependant the whole Sonos Platform is and has been across cloud, firmware & controller app, you would have hoped they already had staff at multiple levels with a good understanding of software life-cycles and the stages involved. They are way past being some small start-up figuring out what works best for them as they go along.

I also wonder how close to the technical side Nick has managed to stay. In general, I’ve found as the role titles and responsibilities get grander people end up drifting further away from the technical side, even if their passion and background was being deeply involved originally.

On the one hand it sounds like statements to please the board, ie these people you know with years of experience will come and help out, on the other, if they are given free reign to step in it might work out. I have no idea what the internals of Sonos look like, but in many ways it raises more questions than it answers for me.

Hopefully it will all work out, although which is the important holiday season from a US perspective being talked about? Thanksgiving?

A good take, @sigh. If I was on the senior leadership team responsible for digital development, I’d be mortified if the board had to bring in a board member to oversee the correct implementation of my work!!

Over a year ago, we bought into this product called SONOS….. It was just what I was looking for and for some time it was superior to anything else that we looked at  for in house music and portability.  SONOS  meet our needs..

 Then not long ago  we started having issues bringing the system online. Some speakers would connect others would not. The biggest issue was SONOS  RADIO

I cannot play my music without having SONOS Radio also connected…. 

This product is now useless to me….

I do not understand  why the powers to be don’t roll back to the last working operating system  till better Beta Testing can be done without creating problems for the user.  I would appreciate getting something for my money.

Wes

….and the alarm “feature” is still only sporadicly functional. Today, when trying to delete an old alarm (my only one), the old alarm start time hangs up in the display (10:05). Adding a new alarm (10:00), which starts off at a default of 7:00 AM (why, BTW?), and going through the other normal steps of duration, music selection, etc., seems to work fine---until you finish, save, and return to home alarm window. Then, what do you get? The old time showing (10:05).  What a bunch of hooey. 

This is an odd complaint. Can you elaborate?

I have remained silent on this, but am by this time thoroughly fed up.  I spent thousands of dollars over a period of years on Sonos products, and until recently, I was thinking of replacing my last few Gen 1 products with newer ones.  No more.  I now see that the investment of money for hardware that can just be rendered nonfunctional by a screwy software update is not worthwhile, and I will be looking to migrate to some other solution, though with a lot of pain for the wasted money.  For me, a key to this system has always been the robust ability to access, search for, and play my own music library.  While bare access to the library has now been restored, simple functions like searching, having an alphabetical index on the side of the search box to quickly go to an item starting with a certain letter, being able to play albums with tracks from different artists (now all listed as if they were separate albums), etc., are not there.  I wouldn’t think any of those functions are complicated, and it amazes me that Sonos has not been able yet to restore this functionality. 

I’m with the group that thinks that a CEO of a company that screwed its customers (who had invested thousands of dollars each in its supposedly premium systems) should have been fired immediately.  That would have been at least one way to show, internally and externally, that this would not happen again. 

You lucky, lucky man - I would kill my first born for access to my music library again - instead I’ve swapped a 1002 error for a 913 error and have no idea if this is an app thing or something else.

I suspect you’ll get your wish on the CEO - often in these cases, given you’d need your head examining if you were willing to take over as CEO now, they’re kept on until the boat has been somewhat steadied and then (metaphorically) taken out the back and put out of their misery, with my guess, the CFO stepping into their shoes given the challenging financial situation they are likely to find themselves in very soon.