Is Sonos getting worse??

All of the symptoms you mention suggest a difficulty in the controller app consistently reaching the speakers to communicate with them. It could be wifi interference , or potentially a duplicate IP address issue in your network. Beyond the suggestions in the linked FAQ, I’d do a network refresh, by unplugging all Sonos devices from power, effectively turning them off. Then I’d reboot the router, forcing it to reload all of its firmware. Finally, I’d plug back in the Sonos devices before testing.

However, if neither approach resolves your issues, I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Thank you. I really appreciate your help.  Our wifi is the latest and greatest's Orbis - with 4 units in total.  We tend to have between 200 to 800 down and 50 up and everything else seems to work. We have about 180 items attached to the network, but only sonos items cause problems (and it is getting worse). I have more than 30 Sonos which is why I am still trying (if not I would switched a long time ago). 

We do not seem to have any duplicate IP addresses. If we did, we should get warnings on boot up, and we do not. We have tried turning the many Sonos units off (disconnecting power) combined with modem and routed power cycling as suggested to no avail. 

In essence, I think I have tried everything you have suggested to no avail. As mentioned, we have more more than 30 sonos units so it is quite a chore to reset. I’d like to call tech support when stuff happens, but the wait time is typically over an hour and when you get there, the help is pretty much non-existant. Even  though the upgrade has been a disaster it looks like they did not hire additional tech support. 

Having owned a software company, if we had done this we would not have been in business by now. But thanks for your feedback. I am seriously considering just junking the sonos stuff and start over with something that actually works. 

The ‘delay’ in time is why you would want to submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, to ‘freeze’ the data in Sonos database, so their employees can reference that data from the time that you submitted it. You can then give them the reference number at whatever point you call in. 

However, if you’re unable to commit the time and effort to recovering your investment, there are many here that would be willing to take the devices off your hands, no need to ‘junk’ them. 

I don’t have Orbi’s myself, but suspect there is some potential misconfiguration causing the issue. Sonos spends much more time communicating amongst its several devices than pretty much any other device, so that they can stay in sync, and play the same data, something that isn’t necessary with pretty much every other device normally connected to a network. Hence the requirement for all Sonos to be on the same subnet, which some mesh systems require more attention to make happen. 

Does the Orbi firmware system provide notification of duplicate IP addresses? My older Netgear’s firmware does not. 

More than 30 Sonos devices is somewhat concerning, Sonos has a hard cap of 32 units. If you’re over that, I’m not overly surprised you’re having issues. 

Your up/down speed isn’t overly significant, that is measuring speed between your router and somewhere outside, what Sonos is much more concerned about is speed between the Sonos devices and your router. The router’s connection only becomes significant at that point, and there is a lot of potentials for either interference (especially given the number of devices you state are connected to your network), or duplicate IP addresses, which are frequently ‘exposed’ when Sonos updates their firmware, as each Sonos device reboots, and requests a ‘new ‘ IP address from the router. Unfortunately, Sonos, just like any other network device, has no way of knowing if the router has given it ‘dirty’ data.

If you’ve ever been involved with software customer support, you’d be aware that often it is difficult to predict what levels of hiring need to be done for specific releases, and given the time necessary for both hiring, and training, it can be challenging. 

It’s entirely up to you as to whether your time investment in fixing the issues your Sonos is experiencing is worth it. 

Although no-one can provide any firm reason why, using DHCP reservations for Sonos speakers to fix their IP’s seems to be a helpful step, *if* the Orbi’s support enough reservations for your number of speakers…

The other Q I would ask, especially with such a large number of devices, is are any of them plugged in via ethernet, and if you have ethernet switches in conjunction with the Orbi’s, what’s the basic topology? 

Sonos should probably let potential consumers/customers know that a “significant time investment” may be needed for their Sonos system to work in a reliable/normal enjoyable kind of way. I believe most purchase Sonos expecting it to be fairly reliable out of the box. I have been a Sonos customer since 2017 and have been consistently frustrated at times over the entire ownership period.  I have spent (invested) many many hours learning about network/IT issues associated with the Sonos Network/System over the years.  I have spoken to Sonos customer support. I have submitted the system diagnostics as requested. I have spent hours on the forums trying to better understand and make my network work more reliably. Sometimes I will go through periods where it works fairly well. However, unfortunately I have been consistently disappointed and frustrated when, despite the investment in time and accessories to make it work better, it does not.  I certainly understand and appreciate the frustration others are having and hope that Sonos is able to make the Sonos system more reliable and user friendly so we may all spend more time listening and less time trying to fix our Sonos “issues”. (To add insult to injury as I type this my system is cutting in and out and skipping as speakers drop in and out (I did earlier today do a complete system reset) - oh well hope springs eternal). GLTA

So I followed your advice - unplugged all Sonos speakers, reset the modem an all mesh units. Then I turned everything on in reverse order and saved a diagnostic code. I also deleted all my Sonos app and reinstalled. When I Sonos app on I got the message that a ERA 300 needed to be added. Tried that and I did not work. Called tech support and it took almost an hour for them to figure it out. In the meantime it kept telling me an Amp needed to be added as well but the tech support told me to ignore it. I send her an additional 4 diags. 

After we were all done, it was worse than ever with skipping and speakers turning on and off a random throughout the house. The tech support person insisted that our internet 900 mbs download and 50 up was not enough. That is simply ridiculous. We told her we have no way to increase those speeds. So when we asked for a supervisor the tech support person told us we were rude and not listening. After a while of listening to that, we hung up and started thinking logically about the problem. It all started when we added a 2nd amp. That was the amp tech support had told us to ignore. So we turned it off and on and added it to the system. 

THEN EVERYTHING WORKED!   

Hi @kd nyegaard 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

I’m sorry to hear of the issues you’ve been having, but I’m also glad to hear that things have now improved for you.

I found your case and have asked for an audit of it - if we find some further training is required for the agent you spoke to, they will receive it. Thanks for reporting!

Thanks! Much appreciated. It is one thing that the app is frustration, it is another that as a customer having to deal with a both rude and incompetent tech support person. The solution was straight forward and straining at us  (amp not installed), and had she not given us the wrong information (to ignore the warning message), we could have save more than a hour of frustration. 

Hi kd,

My 2 cents, although I see you have found a solution already...

I have had similar issues with my Sonos devices. It started when I introduced TPLink Mesh devices in my network. I also was unable to resolve for ages, so I feel your pain man.

Long story short;

All Sonos Devices started working perfectly again the moment I excluded them from my Mesh devices (via MAC filtering). They only connect to my main router now.

Short story slightly longer again;

I understand that this might not be a final solution for you as you do not have the Mesh for no reason, but it might be worth to try and pinpoint the issue. 
And if the Mesh is the issue, it could well be that the Sonos devices constantly jump between Mesh devices and router. My intuition told me that was the case for me..
So if that is the case, you might resolve your problems by allowing every Sonos device to connect to only one Mesh device ( or just the main router if that's closest ) - using MAC filtering or whatever - This way the devices will no longer jump between all the access points…
 

Good luck!

Sure their sound quality is amazing. But when their connectivity/IoT is worse than a cheap gadget from Walmart then there’s a seriously problem. Even their app lags like nothing I’ve seen for over a decade. Have been shedding my Sonos products one by one because it’s been years now and they just keep getting worse when it comes to connectivity. 

Ok - all of these stories confirm that my problems with this once great product are not unique. 

I don’t have hours every week and thousands more dollars to hire IT consultants to figure out how to get my Sonos to consistently play music. So frustrating!
 

I’m going back to wired speakers - who is with me? Any other suggestions?