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GMR
Avid Contributor I
January 16, 2026

Drastic action - Reset and go back to S1 App - Hints/tips appreciated

Ever since the 2024 update I have had issues with my Sonos system, but not a big enough problem to warrant taking drastic action. But the inability of the system to play a nice selection of Christmas music over the holidays has even had my wife saying the Sonos is a waste of time and money.

Hence, it’s time to do something about it.

I have had a good read at the comments about “downgrading from S2 to S1. These articles do appear to be, in some cases nearly 12 months old.

May I ask if it would be possible for someone to verify my understanding of what is required to “drop” back to the original S1 app functionality. All my devices are S1 compatible as they are typically 5+ years old.

All I want is my system to respond as it used to do, play the music I want and not drop speakers for days on end, only to then magically find the speaker again and play some random music.

My understanding is: -

  1. Download the original S1 app to another device to avoid confusion. Not sure if there is a particular version of theS1 App to use.
  2. Ensure the S2 app is up to date OR should I fully delete the S2 app from my mobile & tablet.
  3. Delete any windows PC-based apps/tools for Sonos.
  4. Unplug all Sonos devices from the mains power.
  5. Select one Sonos device and power it up, ensuring the Play & Pause buttons are pressed. Allow it to reset itself and wait until the green light appears.
  6. Now using the S1 app downgrade the device to S1.
  7. Unplug the downgraded device and repeat with next device, Key question, do I do this with all my devices so they are at S1? before moving to the next item (h).
  8. Add units one by one until they are being managed by the S1 app.
  9. Hope and pray its all working again!!

 

Many thanks

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    87 replies

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    GMRAuthor
    Avid Contributor I
    January 23, 2026

    ​@Mr. T 

    ​@buzz 

     

    I will try various settings and see what happens.

    If this was your setup, would you try and improve it or would you leave it alone. Being an engineer I always strive for the best I can get. Rightly or wrongly.

    Mr. T
    Mr. T
    January 23, 2026

    I will try various settings and see what happens.

    If this was your setup, would you try and improve it or would you leave it alone. Being an engineer I always strive for the best I can get. Rightly or wrongly.

    There is nothing of immediate concern in the matrix. Rooms can show OFDM ANI of 9 but still play music, but if you are experiencing issues with the app or playback then looking to reduce interference for the yellow rooms is a good starting point.

    What issues are you having with the system currently?

    buzz
    buzz
    Grand Maestro
    January 24, 2026

    Based on many years of experience, given the matrix above, I see no reason for concern — unless you have intermittent issues.

    There is more (undocumented) data available if you open a player’s info above the matrix:

    /proc/ath_rincon/status gives some more data about a unit’s RF conditions.

    Note that all data on this page is static. Refresh to observe changes.

      GMRAuthor
      Avid Contributor I
      January 24, 2026

      ​@Mr. T 

      ​@buzz 

      It was good to hear that you didn’t think I had a “big” issue. So my intention is/was to leave alone for a week or so and see what happened.

      System has been playing a radio channel across all speakers for the last two hours. As I write this message to you both the system has just gone off.

      GMRAuthor
      Avid Contributor I
      January 24, 2026

      ​@buzz 

      Based on many years of experience, given the matrix above, I see no reason for concern — unless you have intermittent issues.

      There is more (undocumented) data available if you open a player’s info above the matrix:

      /proc/ath_rincon/status gives some more data about a unit’s RF conditions.

      Note that all data on this page is static. Refresh to observe changes.

       

       

      Copy of the rincon/status.

      My system is currently going on and off every 5 minutes…..not a good sign.

      Mr. T
      Mr. T
      January 24, 2026

      ​@GMR - By “going on and off every 5 minutes” do you mean the sound is dropping? If so, is it dropping in one room, or them all?

      What does the matrix look like when this is happening?

      If you are going to group everywhere for music playback, start the stream initially on the wired Beam, then group the other rooms to the Beam. The initial device becomes the group co-ordinator, so you want that to be with with a good connection.

      GMRAuthor
      Avid Contributor I
      January 24, 2026

      ​@GMR - By “going on and off every 5 minutes” do you mean the sound is dropping? If so, is it dropping in one room, or them all?

      What does the matrix look like when this is happening?

      If you are going to group everywhere for music playback, start the stream initially on the wired Beam, then group the other rooms to the Beam. The initial device becomes the group co-ordinator, so you want that to be with with a good connection.

       

      ​@Mr. T 

      Sound is dropping across all speakers. It goes off for say 10 seconds, comes back for a minute or so, then drops again for 2 minutes, comes back and then stops completely.

      As an aside has the beam got to be the hard wired device or could I pick a more centrally located speaker, say the kitchen?

       

      This is the current matrix

       

      Mr. T
      Mr. T
      January 24, 2026

      ​@GMR - the communication between your speakers is excellent as it is, it’s the interference around the speakers that appears to be the issue. Try a different SonosNet channel and check the matrix after a couple of mins to see if any of the yellow or the orange box change to green.

      Stanley_4
      Stanley_4
      Grand Maestro
      January 24, 2026

      That really sounds like there is an issue, sadly consumer grade Wi-Fi gear is very misleading when reporting issues. Much of it only looks at signals that exactly match the Wi-Fi spec, they won't even show the 2.4 gHz Sonosnet signal, much less other signals in the shared Wi-Fi frequencies. 

      I don't have a good solution to offer. My expensive and a bit frustrating one was to switch to a Ubiquity Access Point and a Cloud Key controller. Far from perfect but it does allow the network functions to be suspended and an RF monitor tool to run.  It gives a complete picture of the average RF health of all channels, it isn't great at finding/showing pulsed noise issues as it averages them into the reported data.

      Sonos is so dependent on continious communications that  my solution, with the average readings, can miss things that are enough to disrupt the Sonos system.

      If there is something better, that gives instant RF and noise readings I'd love to know what it is. Be even better if it was actually affordable for a home user.

      buzz
      buzz
      Grand Maestro
      January 24, 2026

      Try systematically excluding each player from the Group and keep notes. If you can wire other players, experiment with that too. This is not a fun task, but checking PHY errors for each unit may uncover something. Don’t expect zero, that’s not how WiFi works, but if one player has high bursts, this is worth attention.

      I don’t have the need or spare time at the moment, maybe we could encourage Stanly_4 to brew something for a Raspberry PI to periodically monitor each player’s ANI, noise floor, and PHY errors. There are other things to watch, such as dropped packets, overruns, etc.

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