Will the S2 System ever work for the full scope of Sonos Equipment?

I can understand your frustration when faced by such problems, but some of your comments are misguided. 

First,  S2 came in years ago. A radical update to the app occurred in May of this year and it would be an understatement to say it has been problematic.

But it isn’t, indeed cannot be, responsible for the network latency you describe in point 1. That is a network issue, or possibly to do with the configuration of your Sonos system. And there is no reason why the Play:1s should not function under S2.

I see you have a Boost.  Is that wired to your router? What does the rest of your network look like?

Regarding your point on the full range of Sonos equipment, my system works well and includes a Play:1, Arc, Era100 psir, Era300 pair, Sub gen 2, Sub gen 3, Sub Mini, Move, Roam. Until 3 months ago it also had a Playbar.

I say all this in the hope that you will be open to the possibility that SOME of your issues are with your system, not generic issues.  Then they can be addressed. 

Regarding the network latency issues, well, I did not experience those problems using S1. It also doesn’t make sense in that the user plane content doesn’t suffer from these latency issues, only the control plane. It seems to me that some form of Sonos connectivity diagnostics would not go amiss. To at least indicate the system will not operate with sufficient performance given the underlying connectivity infra it is depending on, when detected.

The current network protocol is different from the previous protocol. Some network defaults do not adequately support the new protocol. If you give us details about your network (connections, model numbers, etc.) we may be able to help. If you submit a diagnostic within 10 minutes of an “event”, then contact SONOS support, they can see network issues.

What network defaults don’t support the new protocols? Is there a Sonos support document on this you could point me to 🙏?

Perhaps see the attached comments from Sonos - albeit most things mentioned now appear to have been addressed - it seems though that some router/network configurations are still having some issues.

I suspect they are perhaps now in the minority, but those who are having any problems with their Sonos setup, I think @buzz is correct to say that they should now get in touch with Sonos Support and see if they can assist, or provide the user with some further advice to help resolve any issues they are seeing. 

Lots of people still having issues with the app, just scroll the community. This isn’t what I asked for. Maybe you don’t understand what I’m asking. Can you link me to the Sonos support document for the network defaults that may cause issues? 

I guess this may sometimes depend on the network setup - for example if using managed switches then here are the STP settings recommended:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/configure-stp-settings-to-work-with-sonos

If using a Ubiquity Unifi setup then the router settings are here…

https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/18930473041047-Best-Practices-for-Sonos-Devices

But the general Sonos system requirements are shown here, including unsupported network setups and devices…

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/sonos-system-requirements

Theres also a network hardware incompatibility list here…

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/incompatible-network-hardware

If those things help?

@BMZ 

I do agree though with @buzz and that many things have been resolved by Sonos since the App was first launched in May, so if anyone is having issues with their Sonos System, such as ‘device discovery’ issues, or problems with grouping/ungrouping, or difficulty using room/group volume controls etc. then they’re perhaps best to go onto discuss the matter with Sonos Support and see if they can assist to resolve the matter.

No it does not. 

Been there done that. Sonos needs to fix this pos app. I’ve wasted a s*** ton of time dealing with their mistakes. Had zero issues with the old app. My network has not changed.  Would love to know what’s not compatible with the new protocols. 

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

@Reformer77 .- it may be helpful to check whether there s problem arising from your use of a Boost, for example if the Boost has developed a fault.  This is not as easy to check as it used to be, but if your Boost is wired to your router then any speakers that are wireless will appeared as wired in your router. Are you able to check that?

Are any other Sonos devices wired to your network?

What wireless channel is your SonodNet using?  What channel is your router using?

So, in answer to the question of this post, namely, Will the S2 System ever work for the full scope of Sonos Equipment, the answer is yes, but, perception is everything. I’m pleased to say that after contacting Sonos Technical Support today all of my major issues have been resolved. In summary:

1. My network topology was not ideal. Ironically the choices there were driven by a shortage of access to power sockets rather than how equipment should be ethernet connected. For example, the ethernet connection to the Playbar was not active since the power to the nearby ethernet switch had been removed. The Sonos boost was connected to the network router and to the NAS, e.g. the Sonos Boost was imbetween the router and the NAS. This was changed such that NAS, Boost and Playbar all had direct ethernet connections to the main network router
2. There was a second network router providing WIFI, connected to the main network router. This was removed.
3. Channels 1 and 6 had competition with neighbouring WIFIs. Channel 11 was selected in preference.
4. Connecting to my Music Library on my NAS was trickier. I downloaded the Sonos app for my MacBook at that app is easier to navigate than the iPhone and iPad apps. The solution was to ensure support for SMB3, create a sonos-music user on the NAS, make my /music directory a shared folder and grant sonos-music read/write permissions for all subfolders and files. Then on the Sonos app connect to the Music Library with correct host/path, username and password, in my case that was //DiskStation/music, sonos-music and ******. It took some time to complete the indexing, about 30-40 minutes. After restarting the app I could browse the Music Library.
5. The solution to the remote was twofold. Firstly, on the Apple TV select Settings, Remotes and Devices, Volume Control (TV via IR). Secondly, on the Sonos app, in my case the app on the iPad, select Settings, the room with the Apple TV and Playbar, e.g. Living Room. Scroll down and select “Use IR”, “IR Signal Light” ( I didn’t select “IR Repeater”) and select “Remote Control Setup” and follow the instructions using the Apple TV remote.

The system is now more or less usable. the network latency issues are much improved regarding volume control, play/pause and content selection. Sometimes the response is too delayed but I will investigate those problems further with my ISP and ensure that I’m getting the bandwidth I’ve paid for. It is now a usable system. The improvement is significant. There are only two remaining issues:

1. I had to reconfigure the Apple TV remote one more time and I’m not sure why. I do like to play music in the Living Room using Playbar, Subwoofer and stereo pair and in this mode the TV gets disconnected. I’m assuming that the TV gets automatically reconnected when being used. Anyhow I have not seen this issue again, so maybe all is well here.
2. The Sonos app on my MacBook works fine regarding the ability to search and browse my Music Library on my NAS but I can’t do this on the Sonos app on either my iPhone or my IPad and don’t understand why. This is more inconvenient than being show stopper, but if anyone has any tips here it would be appreciated.

Finally, I must say that Sonos Technical support is first class, exemplary even. I appreciate the challenges of integrating a set of technologies from variant vendors and making it work reasonably well is really challenging. I said that perception is everything. I believe it would help Sonos’s cause to perhaps build tooling to detect potential connectivity issues regarding bandwidth and latency in an attempt to focus the problems towards the actual root causes, such network issues. Otherwise Sonos will be perceived to be at error. In my case I had a system that was working fine on S1 but didn’t work well at all on S2. I was bound to suspect the S2 solution.

@Reformer77 .; Really good of you to take the time and trouble to post back in useful detail. I'm sure other users will benefit.

​@Reformer77 Thank you for sharing your solution. I have similar issues especially with my TV setup (playbar, sub, 2x Play:1) the app lag makes it almost unusable.

I will check my network config first and if need be contact Sonos Support.

Most often, delays are caused by network issues, between your controller and router, or the router and the speakers. I’d certainly check the wifi interference FAQ, as well as performing a Sonos network refresh, by unplugging your Sonos devices from power (or powering them off, if battery connected), and rebooting your router. Once the router has recovered, power back on your Sonos devices. This will give them both a fresh IP address, as well as a refresh of the Sonos OS. Finally, check your system for updates, in case there are any that need to be applied.