Answered

Speaker Firmware rollback to June release (Play:1)

A

We have an older Sonos Play:1 speaker that I bought for my wife a few years ago, which she uses to play her music (MP3s converted from her CDs) from the SD Card of her Android phone. This has always been our only use for this device, with no interest in streaming services beyond occasional linear radio station listening.

We disabled Android app updates via the Play Store a couple of months ago in order to block Sonos's stated intent to deliberately break our purchased product by preventing local file playback, and this seemed to be working fine until fairly recently.

What I think has happened is the firmware in the speaker itself has somehow been updated, the result being that all of our phones are now insisting that we need to also update the apps before it will continue - which of course is the last thing we want to do!

Web browser interface status report for the Play:1 speaker shows:
SoftwareVersion 74.0-43110
BuildType release
SWGen 2
SoftwareDate 2023-07-11 16:10:46.995094
MinCompatibleVersion 73.0-00000
LegacyCompatibleVersion 73.0-00000
HardwareVersion 1.20.1.6-2.2

I've Googled rolling Sonos firmware back, but most of the results are about doing a full factory reset in order to downgrade a S2 system to work with the S1 app, whereas we only want to roll back (and then lock) to the immediately preceding firmware build.

Could someone point me to how to reset the device, and then force an update to whatever specific firmware version would have been active in June (rather than the latest build)? Otherwise, this firmware update will have created a Sonos Brick as this expensive speaker is currently utterly useless to us. :(

Thanks,

Andre

icon

Best answer by Andre Willey 5 August 2023, 10:35

View original
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

15 replies

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

I don’t believe there is a path to roll back a firmware update to a previous version. I suggest you call Sonos Tech Support to discuss your concerns. 

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
buzz

Unfortunately, rollback is not possible.

Does your router support USB sticks?

A

Thanks for the replies. If rollback is not possible, how do people rollback S2 devices to work with S1 firmware?

Will be really annoyed if Sonos have deliberately bricked our speaker. :(

Andre

buzz

Rollback from S2 to the latest version of S1 is possible for older units that support S1. Rollback to an arbitrary firmware version is not supported.

Airgetlam

It also could be an Android update, the reason Sonos was forced to remove that ‘on this device’ function was that Google was changing their OS so that Sonos would be locked out. Much like Apple did several years ago now. 

Bruce
A

Running Android 11/12 on our devices, so the potential future issues with Google’s Storage Access Framework on 13+ have no impact here. And Sonos lied about SAF too by the way, it’s perfectly possible to read files from local storage folders on any version of Android, but they do need to write their code following current guidelines to gain proper access. But I agree Google doesn’t make it as simple as it should be.

Andre

A

Sounds like we might need to roll the Play:1 speaker back to S1, and find a copy of the S1 app for all our devices (and two Windows PCs). Both versions have been pretty dreadful IMHO (sorting of albums by folder for example is very poor) but S1 is no worse than S2 in that respect. Nice hardware let down by inflexible software.

Andre

buzz

Downloads.

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17
  1. I think you need another S1 speaker to downgrade?
  2. Can you still play music stored on an Android phone from S1?

edit: My remark under 1. isn’t mentioned here https://support.sonos.com/en-nz/article/downgrade-a-sonos-product-from-s2-to-s1

Mr. T
Userlevel 7

Thanks for the replies. If rollback is not possible, how do people rollback S2 devices to work with S1 firmware?

Will be really annoyed if Sonos have deliberately bricked our speaker. :(

Andre

Your speaker is not bricked. 

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

You could indeed look at the other possibilities to play you music, from Youtube Music (free) to iBroadcast, to using a NAS or a USB-stick in your router.

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Sounds like we might need to roll the Play:1 speaker back to S1, and find a copy of the S1 app for all our devices (and two Windows PCs). Both versions have been pretty dreadful IMHO (sorting of albums by folder for example is very poor) but S1 is no worse than S2 in that respect. Nice hardware let down by inflexible software.

Andre

Switching back to S1 won’t help you, this feature was removed from the S1 system as well.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
A

Your speaker is not bricked. 


It is from the point of view of playing local device audio files via Sonos’s app, which is exactly what it was purchased for. She has no interest at all in the vagaries of streaming services, wanting to play locally stored albums that she has already paid for. My wife was all for throwing the thing away when it stopped working and no obvious solution was available; as far as she’s concerned it’s now completely useless.

As luck would have it, I have just discovered from the Facebook Sonos User Group that the Samsung Music local playback app has recently been updated to include streaming output to Sonos, so panic is now over. Clearly their developers must be more capable at their job than Sonos’s if Sonos are saying it is now technically impossible to play local files (I agree SAF can be a an initial pain to work around, but it’s very doable).

Anyway, as long as it works again Angela is very happy - and she uses the Samsung Music app anyway when listening to her music on the phone’s speaker, so one simple app to do everything will actually be a better solution for her..  

Andre

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

That’s a good tip, using the Samsung Music player!

K
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

I'm on latest Android update but haven't updated my S1 system and I still have the function to play from this device.

Nice to see you have found a work around.

 

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings