Apologies, older. You’re using Play:3 and Play:5 which can be downgraded to S1 can’t they? I checked your biog for speakers before replying to try to advise appropriately. 

Without reading tons of comments and info we all know, why didn’t Sonos roll back their app to the previous last version that everyone knew and loved (somewhat) and let us delete this crap update app, and reinstall the older app? Did Sonos not retain the other version to roll back to? Stop the update requirement to the messed up app! What the heck has been going on all this time?  It’s August and I still can’t use Sonos app. What happened to your developer team? Didn’t you test first before rolling out updates? I deleted my Sonos app, installed Sonos1 and immediately it prompts me at mid point of setup to update to Sonos2! A total wall! 

I don't think that's the correct way to downgrade to S1. You need to use the S2 to S1 downgrade tool. You also need to make sure all your speakers are compatible with S1: some of them only work with S2.

This is literally the worst app update I have ever seen. It’s 100% unusable. I thought the SIRIUSxm app was terrible, but gesus, this one wins top spot for worst app and the clueless developers & testers that created it.

The new app is unusable, truly awful! How clueless does a management team need to be in order to release something this awful?!

This comment is going to upset 99% (possibly 100%) of you posting in this thread.

The CEO is the title of a person who answers to a board of directors. Has anyone given thought to the possibility that Patrick Spence was over-ruled (by the board) regarding the decision to release the app unfinished.

A CEO is like a football quarterback (I’m speaking of the USA version). It doesn’t matter if the surrounding players are failing at their position the quarterback still gets blamed for all failures in the final analysis. Rightly so as the quarterback gets all the accolades when things go right. That’s one reason why the quarterback is typically the highest paid player on offense and possibly in some instances the entire team. 

Patrick Spence is a highly compensated executive. Therefore regardless if the decision is his to move forward or that of the board with or without his full backing...Patrick Spence has to take the heat for failures the same as when he takes credit for successes.

A “No-Confidence” rating of a CEO can be achieved either by their own lack of leadership skills, forced decisions by a board of directors or by orchestrated board moves to place the CEO in a bad light thus forcing their ouster.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are examples of CEO’s that were removed from their positions. Unlike Bill Gates, Steve Jobs was invited back to helm Apple. However, it makes one wonder why Jobs was removed in the first instance.

In reality all I have just written regarding Spence is conjecture; but it begs consideration as a plausible possibility. To be clear I’ll not be responding to negative rebuttals. I’m not looking to engage in fruitless banter to justify my view/reasoning that benefits no one; and most certainly not me. My time is too valuable to waste. I’ve only presented another point of view to which I’m entitled. 

No they can’t none downgraded!

i have upgraded all players to new ones, just to get them into bricks after the magical app upgrade!

Excactly my question! What is going on?

Roll back to a working S2 version and all your customers will be happy, you do have a BETA-program for persons that like to test software that might not work, let them try this painful new version IF THEY LIKE!

But what a weird take. Sonos stans continue to amaze at the lengths they’ll go to frame the narrative around this boondoggle  

Also this is a discussion forum if you don’t want replies, posting it on your personal blog where you can moderate replies would be a better venue. Just a suggestion.

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Play:3??? Kicked that one out when Sonos forced us to get to S2!

THAT forced upgrade what “smooth” upgrade compared to this catastroph!!!

We ALL want replies AND solutions so PLEASE Sonos, release a roll back!!!!!

The old app isn’t going to come back. 

OK folks, let it go. [ ed: I can’t believe I’m replying in this thread ]

Actually the CEO is more like the coach… and coaches get fired when they assemble a cruddy team and put bad product on the field.

It’s all relative, what is simple and what isn't - YMMV is very right. Remember VCR programming and how few would venture there back in the day? There is a difference here though; for the many that would not go there, the VCR basic task were still delivered. All they lost were the advanced features the device was capable of rendering.

Interesting view, but I’d be very surprised if the board made the decisions on app go/no-go, the same as I doubt they made a decision on the initial release date of the hardware.

It wasn’t a short project, in the Q3 transcript it was a multi-year effort, there is little sensible reason the board would push to destroy years of investment and work that was meant to be the start of a brighter better future and more money being made.

Regarding Jobs, he was only ever CEO once, when he rejoined Apple in 1997 until standing down due to his health in 2011. The biography by Walter Isaacson is a good read. It’s not just a rainbows and sunshine book and happy things.

Jobs had only ever previously been Chairman of the Board and later took over the Macintosh Division. It was Jobs who hired Sculley to be Apple’s 3rd CEO.

Where it went wrong was Jobs and Sculley had very different views on the direction Apple Inc should take. Jobs was very controlling, so even though he wasn’t CEO, his position as chairman and head of Macintosh meant he still did whatever he wanted.

After the Mac lost the market to the PC, Sculley proposed a restructure to the board that would move Jobs to a division with no real say in Apples future products so he could take Apple in the direction he wanted.

Jobs started planning a coup, to oust Sculley and take over as CEO, but confided in the wrong person, who blabbed. Jobs threatened to leave, Sculley got the votes he needed.

Jobs resigned, along with a number of the board members, and he went off to form Next Inc. and also fund The Graphics Group (before they became Pixar) so they could leave LucasFilm.

To complete: Sculley is a footnote; Jobs came back to Apple and resurrected it. That completes your good short version of the Apple story!

Accurate take, @sigh. I’ve been an executive with publicly traded technology companies, attending (and presenting at) Board of Directors meetings. While the BoD is kept apprised of major product development efforts, they very rarely play a role in managing those efforts. I cannot imagine any BoD overruling the decision of the CEO, unless the CEO was “on the bubble” and about to be dismissed. 

I agree, so disappointing.  I had things set up well and now it’s a mess.  sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  Locks up all the time, can’t adjust music easily, I am so frustrated.  Now it will be months to address.  I have a dozen speakers - not counting the old S1 - Play 5 and Play1s, so I can’t just start over.  These are way too expensive to be so dysfunctional.  I see the headphones are $459 - for what quality?  Not a chance! 

Your update that dropped today is f$#*%? $ GARBAGE! LOST all 15 Sonos pieces of equipment. God, you guys have destroyed a once-great product. 

The solution is -- restore the completely working old app while you fix this so-called update you released last May. 

Why allow all your users to suffer?? We paid you for all these items which we had assumed works and were without any issue whatsoever. 

Otherwise, just resign, Mr Spence. 

Then in some cases it may be a local network issue, it might be that the mDNS discovery of devices by the controller is not working that can sometimes be security software running on the mobile device (ie VPN client as an example) or it can be the implementation of managed switches, WiFi range extenders or EoP adapters or possibly an incompatible router. The devices might even be listed within a different Sonos Household ID .. the answer is if you can ping your devices on the subnet, then perhaps use other methods (temporarily) to play audio on your devices, such as…

• Airplay 2 (useful for grouping speakers too)
• Direct Control (PlexAmp/Spotify/Amazon Apps/iBroadcast/Emby)
• Bluetooth Audio
• UPnP/DLNA
• Alexa Voice Services (useful for grouping speakers too)
• Google Voice Services 
• Sonos Voice Control (useful for grouping speakers too)
• TV Apps (YouTube/Chromecast/Plex)
• Line-In audio
• 3rd Party Apps (Soro/SonoPhone/Orto etc.) (useful for grouping speakers too)

Meanwhile you mentioned in an earlier post that a level-2 Sonos Support Staff member was looking into your case, so just wait for them to get back in touch, or if you prefer, contact Sonos Support and get an update on the issue you reported. Either way you will need to resolve the access before setting up your library share using the steps provided in my earlier post.

It is easy to say they have may have learned their lesson but this is not the first time they had a huge app controversy.  There was a huge issue for Sonos Arc surround sound users where they lost all of their base from the sonos sub.  At the time, it didn’t get a lot of media attention but users were livid and they took several months to finally fix it (refusing to allow users to downgrade their software to earlier version until they came up with a fix).  And of course there was the whole Sonos 2 app issue a few years back.

For me, I never use the Sonos App - only for changing the settings on my arc for night time mode etc or adding speakers to a group which I don’t do very often.  I almost always use spotify connect or airplay for music playback because the user experience is much more seamless.  So I am largely unaffected.

However, I was in the market to replace my old Bose Quiet Comfort headsets with the Sonos Ace - the main benefit is the sound off feature with my Arc.  However, the reviews on that headset are mixed and I hear that the sound pass off feature is glitchy - I am not going to buy a Sonos product on the “promise of a software update to fix glitches”.  The track record on those updates improving your user experience is patchy at best - a far greater chance you go backwards rather than forwards.  I suspect Sonos will come to regret launching the headset because it is premium priced and offers no real benefit over its competition unless you own a sonos soundbar (which is very much a niche market) and really want that feature.  Going into a very crowded segment as a new entrant means adding something that doesn’t exist in the market or you can do it much better - this is not clear outside if you own a Sonos soundbar (not their regular speakers).  

Sonos has a competitive advantage in the modern audio market given its expandability in the ecosystem - so all they need to do there is not screw it up and not make things worse.  But it seems they are doing a good job at doing that.  

Despite the app furore (which has forced them to reforecast their full-year number downwards due to delaying launch of two new products), Sonos last week reported a 6% year-on-year revenue rise, “driven by the success of the Sonos Ace”.

Initial vs. sustained are often different. 

The next quarter will no doubt be the one where if people have stopped investing in extending systems, or have returned products due to the app issues, we’ll see a better picture. 

Also, it appears that word is spreading amongst tech sites, bloggers, reviewers, best buy guides etc. that Sonos is no longer the go-to solution because of the issues, and that is more likely to hit in the run up to Xmas, not to mention the distrust they are building up in the professional installation community where Sonos have hung installers out to dry. 

The next quarter has the potential to be very poor, and not just because they have had to delay new products.