Update on the Sonos App from Patrick Spence

Yeah Ken! We all hope so, but after 3.5 months of silence in all my Sonos speakers I GUESS you also would have been a little bit upset….

In my own case Stefan I’d have found what network hardware worked and perhaps thrown some money at it to get things working, but that’s just me and maybe not everyone is in that position.

The Sonos App in any event is not an audio ‘player’ anyway it’s just a ‘remote’ control - there’s plenty of other options I could use to play musuc to my speakers, including…

• 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)

You mentioned your Sonos products are on the network subnet as you can ‘ping’ them, so I’m guessing there must be some options in the above list that should still work for you, without having to throw any, or perhaps too much money at the problem.

You don’t hear what I’m saying.

the products are available to PING, guess you know what that is.

But the app doesn’t find them except two, firmware update doesn’t work, finding players using app doesn’t work.

If I would have a BT speaker I would have bought one, right??!

If the players are on your network subnet, why do you need the Sonos App? - when you likely have some of the other options to play on your speakers, as listed in my previous post?

The app strikes again

“However, Sonos’s stand-out feature has always been how seamlessly the speakers work together as a system. Even if I were totally incompetent—which I may be—Sonos is supposed to be idiot-proof, and at this point it just isn't. If you’re constantly fighting with the app, then there’s not as much of an incentive to go with a pricey Sonos system ahead of our more affordable top picks. ”

https://www.wired.com/story/sonoss-home-theater-system-rant/

Before I try to plug the gap with a paid app. Has anyone had positive experience with this? And if a third party can set this up quickly, why not Sonos??

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/sonophone-for-sonos/id815251931

Hi @fair SonoPhone has been available for some time, way before arrival of the new app. It is a great app, worth every penny, and quite popular with users.

Stefan.  

I’m an Apple user but I have to believe there is a Windows alternative for the below. 

The conclusion I have come to is use Apple Airplay2 with Apple music or a bespoke controller - there are a couple of recommendations in this thread.  I’ve had to figure out workarounds to replicate some functionality but I’ve managed to replicate everything I need.

Older Sonos speakers don’t work with it so Play1 and Play3s go straight in the bin but other speakers will work (assuming you can get them set up using the Sonos app!!!). It is a way to salvage at least some of your investment in Sonos and then you can gradually migrate and not need to spend a huge amount of money replacing your entire system.

When you decide to buy new speakers, you can then choose whatever speakers you want that work with Apple airplay which is a very wide range - budget through to audiophile - so provides a far wider choice than sticking with Sonos. For example, I’m thinking of replacing Sonos in some rooms with cheaper Apple speakers (HomePods) and treating myself to some high end speakers far superior to Sonos speakers for the rooms I typically listen to music in. 

Using this strategy you could decide Sonos provide a decent alternative and use upgrade points to get a good deal but honestly I’m at the point where I’d rather cut off my nose to spite my face.  As demonstrated ably on this forum they simply don't get it - the vast majority of users have never wanted to know what SMB stands for etc.. let along be reconfirming firewalls etc… They buy speakers to play music not learn about networks.  

Indeed; but you hear some say here that no, it is not a speaker, it is a network computer system that plays music. So you better know about networks. 

Sonos will not dare say this themselves because if they do, their target market will drop by many orders of magnitude.

It just makes me wonder how many people perhaps don’t share things over their local home network whether that’s using http, ftp, SMB, CIFS, NFS, etc and what they did in the past to setup access to their music libraries with the numerous Apps that are available these days.

I don’t personally know that much about electricity, but I know how to change a plug, or a fuse - and folder shares over a network are perhaps no more difficult than changing a plug.

There’s even information online (step by step with images) and YouTube videos that walk people through these things (some of which I’ve seen posted in the community here), but I guess people don’t have the time to read/watch these things for themselves and if it then still doesn’t work, for whatever reason, (eg: the computer or device OS needs upgrading etc.) then I personally would go ask a mate/colleague/family member etc to help; or call Sonos Support, even if that may mean hanging on the line for an hour or so  … or I guess you just can sit back and wait and live in hope that it may one day somehow sort itself, although I’m yet to come across a plug or fuse that can change itself. Of course if you have the wrong plug, or incorrect fuse to begin with, you might have to spend some money and get one that does work, c’est la vie.