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.
When I first bought Sonos way back when, that robustness and just point it at an smb share simplified home use for me. I already had a server with nfs & smb shares for the computers and movie players in the house.
The CR100 controller and the not needing to run central dedicated server software that would need fixing after updates or when it randomly crashed was a breath of fresh air. SlimServer at the time was good at what it did, but it needed tinkering and fixing too often in the early days. The fun side soon wore off when I just wanted to listen to music and not bring my work home fixing a server 
It’s why I still cringe at all the ‘just run plex/roon/whatever server’ suggestions. The benefit of Sonos was always device level play queues (not supported by DLNA) and I don’t need another free or paid single point of failure piece of software to deal with to listen to music. If I’m going to run plex/roon/whatever then why bother with Sonos devices at all? And why would i want to add yet another system with it’s own issues and problems into the mix?
While I can sympathise with people approaching Sonos with a home audio perspective where devices can last for very long time, I personally have never considered them as more than an appliance that does what I need now. Unlike my AVRs/Amps which have slow moving hardware spec changes and I expect a long life from, the nature of services Sonos works and my early devices suffering hardware faults after 3 years mean I don’t expect a long life from them. If they do last it’s a bonus.
My last Sonos Amp purchase, was about 4 weeks before the May software release. I hadn’t even got as far as having it setup permanently because the room it was for wasn’t ready. More fool me, my main uneasiness around having the whole house Sonos became a reality 
I suspect you’ll get your wish on the CEO - normally 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.
I think you’ll be in for a long wait for that to happen the way you describe.
More commonly these days, once things are righted he’ll put on his golden parachute, if there is a public statement it will be about finding new challenges or spending time with family before finding the next challenge, then move on to the next company to wreck.
There are plenty of CEOs doing the rounds in Silicon Valley, the Bay area and beyond who turn everything they touch to a shadow of it’s former self. They have no trouble walking out of one company into the next and repeating.
Hello everyone,
We wanted to take a moment to address concerns regarding our new app that launched in May. At Sonos, delivering an exceptional experience is paramount to all that we do. Unfortunately, your experiences over the past several weeks have fallen short of our commitment to you.
Today, our CEO Patrick Spence published a letter that includes a detailed update on the progress we’ve been making and plans going forward. You can read the full letter here.
We sincerely appreciate your patience and continued support. We are working hard to earn back your trust and are more committed than ever to delivering a consistently great Sonos experience for everyone.
Thank you all for your patience,
Your Sonos Team
I have owned multiple Sonos products for the past few years in different rooms solely for music - speakers + subs. Always loved the great sound and convenience of the music I want wherever in the house I am. Particularly liked kicking back with the wife and having chilled Saturday night listening to favourite tunes.
However the new app has ruined everything. Try to listen and it plays in random rooms not the one I’m in despite careful selection of where I am. When a song does play I have no volume control, can’t stop, pause or play new songs. It’s uncontrollable which is contrary to everything this system should deliver. I’ve spent £000’s on this and not only is it now rubbish and not fit for purpose has negatively impacted my quality of life. Weekend nights with music are now frustrating fights with a system I genuinely can’t control. I want my money back. A letter from the CEO might be touchy feely but I want this sorted now. I paid for something I expected to work.
If the CEO was to be ousted it would have been yesterday when the quarterly earnings were announced. But he appears to have the full support of the board in his plans to fix the app.
You know that the “full support” of the board does not mean.a lot in publicly traded companies. You have full support, until you are ousted. A lot of discussions happen behind the curtains...
On the top of my mind, a recent exemple:
Press Release – Paris, March 1st, 2021
Danone's Board of Directors confirms unanimous support for Emmanuel Faber,who proposes the separation of Chairman and CEO roles
Press Release – Paris, March 15th, 2021
New governance at Danone Emmanuel Faber steps down as Chairman and CEO Gilles Schnepp appointed non-executive Chairman
In a 15 days timeframe, we have a press release giving “full support” to the CEO, then another press release to announce that he we asked to step down by the board.
My system of Beam + Symfonisk + Roam was still working as of the 7/31/2024 update. The 8/6/2024 update broke everything. I can update the network and add each product individually, but then the app doesn’t detect anything on the system. Sometimes when I join an existing system, it’s the Roam, other times, it’s the Beam. My Symfonisk is just a brick that uses electricity. None of the planned updates appear to address the basic connectivity issues that most are having.
If the CEO was to be ousted it would have been yesterday when the quarterly earnings were announced. But he appears to have the full support of the board in his plans to fix the app.
You know that the “full support” of the board does not mean.a lot in publicly traded companies. You have full support, until you are ousted. A lot of discussions happen behind the curtains...
On the top of my mind, a recent exemple:
Press Release – Paris, March 1st, 2021
Danone's Board of Directors confirms unanimous support for Emmanuel Faber,who proposes the separation of Chairman and CEO roles
Press Release – Paris, March 15th, 2021
New governance at Danone Emmanuel Faber steps down as Chairman and CEO Gilles Schnepp appointed non-executive Chairman
In a 15 days timeframe, we have a press release giving “full support” to the CEO, then another press release to announce that he we asked to step down by the board.
Whilst I agree with the sentiment you are trying to make and that Quaterly reports aren’t when the board will say publicly say ‘bye now’, I don’t think you picked the best example when more context is added
https://time.com/6121684/emmanuel-faber-danone-interview/
Quotes around the Chairman/CEO roles on the 1st March, say he would step down as CEO when a replacement was found to concentrate on his role as a non-exec chairman. Obviously that went sideways when a pair of stakeholders pulled off the coup and sideswiped him.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/danones-board-directors-confirms-unanimous-203400002.html
Danone's Board of Directors confirms unanimous support for Emmanuel Faber,
who proposes the separation of Chairman and CEO roles
Following a meeting on March 1st, Danone's Board of Directors reviewed the company’s corporate governance and decided, on a proposal from Emmanuel Faber, to separate the functions of Chairman and CEO in the near future. The separation will be effective upon the appointment of a new CEO. The process to recruit a new CEO has been launched and once complete, Emmanuel Faber will focus on his role as non-executive Chairman.
In the meantime, Emmanuel Faber will continue as Chairman and CEO, with the full confidence and unanimous support of the Board to exercise full operational responsibility for the company, and to lead the implementation of the adaptation plan Local First
There are always plenty of CEO/Senior Execs who have full support until they suddenly announce they need a new challenge, following behind the scenes conversations.
it's a bit late for the letter of contrition.
not only did you consciously remove functionality but also forced an update that wont launch on an android device.
repeated failures and total frustration.
i've got a total brick of a whole home sound system with no ability to control it.
total waste of thousands of dollars.
I hadn't seen he had been asked to stand down. Cant imagine why 
Hasn't even had the decency to reply to emails as he promised. Still waiting for the Music Library (Error 913) fix promised.
August 10th still unable to use the thousands of pounds of equipment. To be clear every day they make more and more money via subscriptions and radio tie ins and their own radio. I’m so sorry that Sonos staff feel bad while they rake it in. Headphones? Nope. New Sonos products? Nope. Sonos? Nope.
I hadn't seen he had been asked to stand down. Cant imagine why
Hasn't even had the decency to reply to emails as he promised. Still waiting for the Music Library (Error 913) fix promised.
Do the things mentioned in this Sonos Support link not work for you. It seems that most people have this fixed now…
If using MacOS, there is also a user-created guide with screenshots at:
If using Windows, there is this thread too:
I hope this helps.
Maybe, but option should be there, mine is sonos 5 s2 was very happy with old app and being able to go back to it would alleviate all the angst towards sonos, simple option and don't understand why not when this issue has destroyed their reputation. I have no way to play my music library and refuse to pay for streaming to get music I already have.
I have a few friends including a few in hospitaly that are now unhappy not being able to offer their music library for functions, not just home users unhappy. Less platitudes by sonos and more action us what has been asked.:)
If your friends are in hospitality and using Sonos for functions, would they not just be using Sonos Pro instead?
Or SoundTrackYourBrand to get rid of this Sonos play-doe product…
If your friends are in hospitality and using Sonos for functions, would they not just be using Sonos Pro instead?
Or SoundTrackYourBrand to get rid of this Sonos play-doe product…
Yeah, but it might be inconvenient and even cost a lot more to do that, particularly if the hardware is perhaps in situ already.
Regarding the new app and Patrick’s note to the community, Sonos has revised its fiscal guidance due the botched app rollout. Also Sonos is delaying 2 hardware releases to deal with the app. This is a staggering screw up, obviously affecting huge amounts of people.
"The company is now delaying two hardware releases originally planned for later this year as it deploys an all-hands-on-deck approach to fixing the app. "I will not rest until we're in a position where we've addressed the issues and have customers raving about Sonos again," Spence said during the afternoon earnings call."
Title of Patrick’s next community blog post: How to tank your company and alienate your customers in 90 days.
WHO would like to buy a Sonos product during these circumstances?????
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.
When I first bought Sonos way back when, that robustness and just point it at an smb share simplified home use for me. I already had a server with nfs & smb shares for the computers and movie players in the house.
The CR100 controller and the not needing to run central dedicated server software that would need fixing after updates or when it randomly crashed was a breath of fresh air. SlimServer at the time was good at what it did, but it needed tinkering and fixing too often in the early days. The fun side soon wore off when I just wanted to listen to music and not bring my work home fixing a server
It’s why I still cringe at all the ‘just run plex/roon/whatever server’ suggestions. The benefit of Sonos was always device level play queues (not supported by DLNA) and I don’t need another free or paid single point of failure piece of software to deal with to listen to music. If I’m going to run plex/roon/whatever then why bother with Sonos devices at all? And why would i want to add yet another system with it’s own issues and problems into the mix?
While I can sympathise with people approaching Sonos with a home audio perspective where devices can last for very long time, I personally have never considered them as more than an appliance that does what I need now. Unlike my AVRs/Amps which have slow moving hardware spec changes and I expect a long life from, the nature of services Sonos works and my early devices suffering hardware faults after 3 years mean I don’t expect a long life from them. If they do last it’s a bonus.
My last Sonos Amp purchase, was about 4 weeks before the May software release. I hadn’t even got as far as having it setup permanently because the room it was for wasn’t ready. More fool me, my main uneasiness around having the whole house Sonos became a reality
so incredibly frustrating....i understand your pain
If your friends are in hospitality and using Sonos for functions, would they not just be using Sonos Pro instead?
Or SoundTrackYourBrand to get rid of this Sonos play-doe product…
Yeah, but it might be inconvenient and even cost a lot more to do that, particularly if the hardware is perhaps in situ already.
Yeah… but their products WORKS…………
If your friends are in hospitality and using Sonos for functions, would they not just be using Sonos Pro instead?
Or SoundTrackYourBrand to get rid of this Sonos play-doe product…
Yeah, but it might be inconvenient and even cost a lot more to do that, particularly if the hardware is perhaps in situ already.
Yeah… but their products WORKS…………
Ooohhh yes…. What do I HEAR???……. NOTHING…. I’m using Sonos products………..
If your friends are in hospitality and using Sonos for functions, would they not just be using Sonos Pro instead?
Or SoundTrackYourBrand to get rid of this Sonos play-doe product…
Yeah, but it might be inconvenient and even cost a lot more to do that, particularly if the hardware is perhaps in situ already.
Yeah… but their products WORKS…………
Ooohhh yes…. What do I HEAR???……. NOTHING…. I’m using Sonos products………..
Ah that’s just a school girl error where you’ve forgotten the speakers need to be plugged in. I will just say you’re not the first person to make that mistake and I’m sure you won’t be the last either.
It’s quite easily done, I guess.
If your friends are in hospitality and using Sonos for functions, would they not just be using Sonos Pro instead?
Or SoundTrackYourBrand to get rid of this Sonos play-doe product…
Yeah, but it might be inconvenient and even cost a lot more to do that, particularly if the hardware is perhaps in situ already.
Yeah… but their products WORKS…………
Ooohhh yes…. What do I HEAR???……. NOTHING…. I’m using Sonos products………..
Ah that’s just a school girl error where you’ve forgotten the speakers need to be plugged in. I will just say you’re not the first person to make that mistake and I’m sure you won’t be the last either.
It’s quite easily done, I guess.
Pay you electricy-bill, I have done but still doesn’t work….. ehhhhhh get back previous software and get your customers happy again.
stop lying about other non existing errors!
Pay you electricy-bill, I have done but still doesn’t work….. ehhhhhh get back previous software and get your customers happy again.
stop lying about other non existing errors!
I don’t use Sonos Pro, personally speaking.
With my speakers powered though, there is always ‘Hope’ Stefan, as the below recording perhaps shows from my own Sonos App. If you’re inferring that Sonos Pro, or the App, is not working for you, then you can always go onto reproduce the issue(s) seen and immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the 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.
After spending about eight hours with support on and second line support, perhaps YOU would like a try?
I have a lot of Sonos products but as we speak only two of them are availble, but NOT working.
ALL devices responds to ping though….
I hadn't seen he had been asked to stand down. Cant imagine why
Hasn't even had the decency to reply to emails as he promised. Still waiting for the Music Library (Error 913) fix promised.
Do the things mentioned in this Sonos Support link not work for you. It seems that most people have this fixed now…
If using MacOS, there is also a user-created guide with screenshots at:
If using Windows, there is this thread too:
I hope this helps.
I’ve tried these fixes - I suspect the original poster has too - and none of them work for me and many others I’ve spoken to including professional installers. I’ve factory reset, I’ve endlessly rebooted, migrated to wifi off Sonosnet, played with firewall settings, eliminated old kit from my set up, the lot. I have no idea if the issue is something other than the app - it could be some pesky setting somewhere I’ve overlooked but I’ve simply spent too long on this. I do know I don’t get this sort of issue from any other smart home product I use and I’m drowning in them.
I have sent tons of diagnostics to support and been working with networks since over thirty years, so please, I’m not the guy that just bought a Sonos player at wallmart….
I hadn't seen he had been asked to stand down. Cant imagine why
Hasn't even had the decency to reply to emails as he promised. Still waiting for the Music Library (Error 913) fix promised.
Do the things mentioned in this Sonos Support link not work for you. It seems that most people have this fixed now…
If using MacOS, there is also a user-created guide with screenshots at:
If using Windows, there is this thread too:
I hope this helps.
I’ve tried these fixes - I suspect the original poster has too - and none of them work for me and many others I’ve spoken to including professional installers. I’ve factory reset, I’ve endlessly rebooted, migrated to wifi off Sonosnet, played with firewall settings, eliminated old kit from my set up, the lot. I have no idea if the issue is something other than the app - it could be some pesky setting somewhere I’ve overlooked but I’ve simply spent too long on this. I do know I don’t get this sort of issue from any other smart home product I use and I’m drowning in them.
I regret with you and if you find a working competent product instead of Sonos please let us all know.
I’ve tried these fixes - I suspect the original poster has too - and none of them work for me and many others I’ve spoken to including professional installers. I’ve factory reset, I’ve endlessly rebooted, migrated to wifi off Sonosnet, played with firewall settings, eliminated old kit from my set up, the lot. I have no idea if the issue is something other than the app - it could be some pesky setting somewhere I’ve overlooked but I’ve simply spent too long on this. I do know I don’t get this sort of issue from any other smart home product I use and I’m drowning in them.
What type of local library share is it, Windows, MacOS or a NAS box (make/model) and what version of the OS are you using?
Have you confirmed the share is using SMBv2 or higher and that the user is set on the share as having read-only privileges with a password attached to that users local account?
When entering the path to the shared folder make sure it’s the network UNC path - try it with either the netbios name, or if that doesn’t work, give it a go with the IP address instead - as examples…
//MyPCName/Music or…
//192.168.0.131/Music
The above are just fictitious examples of course - then add the username (the account you’ve assigned as read only) and the password to the shared path in the Sonos mobile App - ensure the use/credentials apply to all sub folders and files within the shared folder too.
When complete then run a scan and wait and see if the music library appears and is accessible.
If that doesn’t work for you, you could always go onto try with a different folder and setup/share that from scratch perhaps with a few .mp3 tracks held in it for testing purposed, but ensure it’s shared across the LAN and again has an assigned user and password with read only credentials.
Anyhow, there are other things that can stop shares, in addition to firewalls, for example on a Windows PC the mode of the local network connection by default is set to ‘Public’ that needs to be set to ‘Private’.
A computers netbios name should not contain any spaces, or special characters and should not be longer than 15 alphanumeric characters.
If the library share is on a drive linked to a Mac PC then see this link too about unsupported file systems…
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/shared-folder-not-added-due-to-unsupported-file-system
If all still fails after exploring these things 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.
After spending about eight hours with support on and second line support, perhaps YOU would like a try?
I have a lot of Sonos products but as we speak only two of them are availble, but NOT working.
ALL devices responds to ping though….
If Level-2 Sonos Support Staff are dealing with the matter, then it’s probably best if they just continue to handle the matter with yourself - they no doubt will have the support reference and full details and I guess they will get back to you at some point.
