Sonos Play 3 no longer supported?

B

I’ve been suffering audio dropouts for months on my most-used speakers - a pair of Play 3s in the bedroom. I’ve tried so many things reconfiguring my network and with/without SonosNet, but the problem always returns.

A reboot fixes them for 24-48 hours.

After four lengthy support calls with different technicians over the last two weeks, I was told this morning that the problem is that the Play 3 has not got enough memory and after 24-48 hours it runs out and that is why the audio starts dropping. I was told to either replace them or switch them off at night and switch them on again in the morning.

Setting a different alarm to switch my speakers on so that the Sonos alarm can wake me up with the radio is self-defeating and is a total hack. This is clearly a SOFTWARE problem if the memory is sufficient after a reboot but then “fills up” over time. This is just about memory management and I don’t like being told that my much-loved speakers are now obsolete.

I have 13 Sonos speakers around the house and I am sick of being woken up by sound dropping in and out - it’s a surefire way to start the day angry. Wish I’d never bought into the Sonos ecosystem now.

 

Am I alone in this? I found a thread describing a similar problem to do with Sonos Amps. Can anyone suggest a way forward that doesn’t involve me replacing my speakers?

18 replies

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

To be honest I'm not sure if Sonos decision to support such old devices as Play1 and Play3 on S2 was a good one. Their intention was to make as many users as possible happy when S2 was introduced. But with ongoing time and many updates S2 was becoming more and more complex, so hardware of the old devices came to its limits. To be fair I think you have to accept that a Play3 can't stand it any longer and has to be replaced, if you still want to get full S2 performance. That's the way like most technical devices get to their end of life point these days. Just remember how long the Play3 has been supported… not many other similar products do or did. 

If you like to use your P3 stereo pair in a performant way, I suggest to downgrade it to S1 what imo will increase performance a lot.

Ralf
K

I suggest to downgrade it to S1 what imo will increase performance a lot.

This has been known to yield uninterrupted stability in one case reported here. Downside of course is a split system, unless the rest of the units can also be rolled back.

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

I suggest to downgrade it to S1 what imo will increase performance a lot.

This has been known to yield uninterrupted stability in one case reported here. Downside of course is a split system, unless the rest of the units can also be rolled back.

Yes, without any compromise things won’t get better. 😉 But it’s an alternative to a replacement and you can use the „oldtimers“ in a satisfying way. 

Ralf
B

Thank you for the replies. I really don’t want to split the system to S1 and S2 - it’ll mean the Move 2 in the ensuite cannot be grouped with the bedroom, and this group is the most-used in our house.

Can’t easily replace the Play 3s either because they’re installed in custom made furniture.  

Damn.

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Thank you for the replies. I really don’t want to split the system to S1 and S2 - it’ll mean the Move 2 in the ensuite cannot be grouped with the bedroom, and this group is the most-used in our house.

Can’t easily replace the Play 3s either because they’re installed in custom made furniture.  

Damn.

Maybe fitting passive speakers and a Sonos Amp could be an alternative. 

Ralf
106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

If Sonos really does not solve this, and so in fact ends support for older speakers on S2, I would expect them to at least be open about this. According to Sonos’s pinned reaction in the thread linked below this still is a bug however:
 

I surely hope Sonos solves this. My Connect (gen 2) also suffers from this.

B

What baffles me is why Sonos support went through many hours of talking about and diagnosing network stuff. Why does nobody in support say, "audio dropouts on a play3, yes this is a memory issue caused by a firmware change.".

What a waste of my time and theirs.

K

 

What a waste of my time and theirs.

It is very strange. It is like they don’t want you to come to the end point you have, of finding out what really ails your units, which is a Sonos screw up that they are being tardy about admitting, let alone fixing.

A lot of ill will to Sonos is being generated by this ham handed behaviour up and down the Sonos organisation.

It is quite like the approach taken by some user members here in the Sonos forcing people thread, in the first two pages of that thread. Although in that case I am sure they too were just as clueless as the OP there, and had no intent to misguide.

A
Badge +1

This morning I split my system into S1 and S2. I downgraded the Play:3 stereo pair to S1 leaving my Amp and Roam on S2. The difference is night and day. S1 with the Play:3 stereo is as rapid as it should be and S2 is fine with the Roam and Amp. Luckily Spotify connect on PC does not care if the products are S1 or S2 and I can still play to all from PC with Spotify Connect. S1 uses SonosNet on Ch1 and S2 uses SonosNet on Ch11. Grouping loss isn’t really a concern as I rarely grouped the office stereo pair with the Amp or Roam.

B

Unfortunately that isn’t an option for me at the moment because we keep our bedroom Play3 stereo pair grouped with the Move 2 in our ensuite bathroom.  If I downgrade the Play3s to S1 it will be impossible to group. :( 

B

In desperation, I decided to try downgrading a spare Play1 speaker from S2 to S1 and see how it behaved with the S1 app. The answer is “unsatisfactorily”. 😓

I’ve added my music services back and everything seems OK but there is a permanent banner stuck at the top of the app saying “The Sonos S2 app is now available Check Compatibility”.

How do I get rid of this? I’ve searched the forums and not been able to find a solution that works. There is no “Ignore” option. Turning off in-app notifications on my profile on this website has no effect either.

I’m so fed up with this. I just want to be able to listen to music.

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

@Bonce38

The banner will stay permanently if you use a S1 system where ALL devices are S2 ready. Sadly it can’t be hidden. 

Ralf
B

That’s rubbish!  My devices may be S2 “ready” but they don’t bloody well work on S2 and I’m being forced to use S1. 😡

To be nagged to “upgrade” them to S2 is adding insult to injury. How hard can it be to make a nag message dismissible?

A
Badge +1

The banner shows if you are on the S1 app ‘home’ screen but doesn’t appear when going into a speaker grouping / now playing. I can live with that.

 

A
Badge +1
Same with the S1 Windows app, no banner there fortunately.

 

buzz

Using a phone/pad controller go to Settings → App Preferences and turn OFF Show Notifications. This has suppressed this issue for me.

Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Using a phone/pad controller go to Settings → App Preferences and turn OFF Show Notifications. This has suppressed this issue for me.

I can just speak for iOS and there is no such option. :-(

Ralf
Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Using a phone/pad controller go to Settings → App Preferences and turn OFF Show Notifications. This has suppressed this issue for me.

Checked on an Android phone and found the option there… 

But… if you turn it off you loose other functionality like lockscreen control and home screen volume control. 

Ralf

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