The Community Corner

Afternoon all,I remember a while back, Sonos stopped producing release notes for S1 updates. From memory, at that time, Sonos committed to no feature changes in any future updates and only required updates to keep services working?Fast forward a couple of years and I wanted to ask if there is currently any way to find out what changes are included in any S1 pending/new updates before actually applying that update to the product?  Thanks

Hi,I have 21 registered Sonos devices. I want to buy almost the same amount as we’re shifting to a new house. Sonos used to show and touts offers as part of upgrade program. I was heartbroken to see ZERO on my account. Customer Service isn’t helpful.Specially with respect to the new debacle of an app. Please help!

Congratulations! You’ve finished the job. You have converted the 4 Sonos speakers that I derived so much satisfaction from into useless chunks of plastic.Amazing how you accomplished this despite having such an incompetent technical group. Or perhaps the marketers deserve the credits for taking down what was such a fine brand. Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll all be able to find jobs at Boeing.Where you like me to return the junk. Its just taking up space at my home.

Well argued but measured article on the new app and Sonos leadership failure.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2024/08/24/the-sound-of-failure-at-sonos/

When using the app on either android or IOS, I am unable to adjust volume consistently,if it’s lowered, the system puts it back to original setting. Or it will drop a sonos speaker once it was originally connected. Why is this happening?  I am very disappointed with the new app. The basic functionality is not consistent. 

The Sonos App is currently a disgrace, its frustrating to use and its response is virtually non existent. I have no idea what you did but you’ve made the Apps functionality impotent. I will not be purchasing another Sonos product until such time that this is address. Very poor considering the price of your products. 

I just read that Sonos will not re-issue the old app (S2) because this would make thinks worse.That is a terrible lie.A few days after the may 7 disaster, I found on a forum that some people solved their problem by reinstalling the old app from a alternative app store. And that worked fine for me for two months until beginning of august when I was forced to upgrade the app (the old app refused to launch and said I had to upgrade).But I have another old device that can not receive updates and that on is perfectly working with the old S2 app.My question are : why, after all this, Sonos is lying ?Why do they hate their customers at this level ?How do they want their customers to trust them is they don’t trust their customers ?Why don’t they let us choose if the old S2 is worse or not ?Why are the people accountable for this disaster still in charge ?Is there anyone sensible in this company or are they just trying to shut it down ?All they’re doing is incomprehensible

Isnt it time the CEO stepped down? 

My system has become essentially useless.  Over the past 6 months or so I get nothing but errors on most of what I try.  My surround is no longer working, I can't stream Apple music anymore and Trueplay errors out.  I know the CEO sent a note apologizing for their app.  Is anything going to change, new app version that works?  At this point I am too frustrated to keep fighting with it.  Nothing but non descript errors.  I have thousands invested in Sonos equipment and was once a strong advocate.  Now I am thinking about replacing it all.  

After years of enjoying the Sonos system, I've decided to say it farewell. With the new app, the system has truly become worthless. Goodbye, Sonos.

Sonos App: The "Surprise Me" Feature. Every time you open the app, you gamble whether your music will play, your speakers will connect, or it will crash and leave you staring at a blank screen. The "Ghost Speaker" Phenomenon. Sometimes, a speaker decides to go AWOL. You'll swear it's there, but it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack; only the haystack is your living room. The "Volume Roulette." You'll set the volume to a perfect level, only to have it randomly jump up or down, making your ears bleed, or your neighbors complain. The "Group" Feature (That’s Not A Feature). You try to group your speakers together for a party, but it's more like herding cats. Some speakers refuse to join, others go rogue, and the whole thing ends in chaos. Contacting "Sonos Support.” It's like trying to find Bigfoot: elusive, mythical, and often rumored to exist but rarely seen. You'll hear stories about people who've managed to contact them, but for most of us, it's just a legend.

I purchased a Sonos Sonance outdoor speaker in April 2024.  The speaker was installed in June 2024, shortly thereafter the sound became distorted.  Wires were check and it showed it was a defective speaker. I contacted tech support, and they verified the speaker was defective, and I would need to return the speaker.  I called support again, to confirm it was both speakers I would be returning.  I was informed yes, as they are sold as a pair, and therefore I would receive a new pair. Weeks later, I receive only one refurbished.  I contacted support, who is telling me they cannot contact the department who sent the speaker and will have to try and reach out to them to see why they only sent one speaker.  Who cares why one speaker was sent.  I would like a set of speakers.  You take a brand-new speaker, to send me a refurbished speaker which already had problems.  I am disgusted with SONOS and will think twice before spending my money to purchase their products.

First of all, if there’s so much hate, bugs and whatever on the new app, why no rollback - can someone tell me why my multi thousand dollar fully integrated home sound system gets to be a brick all of a sudden? My wifi is exceptional, but not for Sonos anymore - songs take ages to play, pause and skip and every room has its own delay.I have two issues I wonder if other people encounter as well: Any other users have problems with deezer playlists as well? Yesterday I added a lot new songs to my favorites, but Sonos simply can’t see them and when I click one it will just start playing the song that was in that position the last week. If you get what I’m saying? Then - I use Sonos at work as well, it used to connect automatically, not anymore, everytime I need to reconnect if I was at home and go to work or vice versa. Is it a known issue a device can only be connected to one ecosystem?Weirdly enough, my playlists work fine at work...   

As a follow up to the Patrick Spence q+a on Reddit, Sonos posted a Google Form that you can use to submit an issue you are having with your system. Sonos will allegedly follow up with you.Here’s your chance to avoid the dreaded support wait time and possibly get your issue looked at. Form will expire in approx 19 hours. Go go go. link to the Reddit post with more info here Moderator edit: restored to what was hopefully the original post 

After reading Spence’s comments on reddit (why isn’t he on here?) I have to say I no longer understand what Sonos sees as its core audience or function. I get that local libraries are a bit passé for many on here, but are also strongly loved by those still using them, but, even if you get your music from Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz etc. surely a key part of that experience is the ability to queue music and edit that queue? The whole ability to queue up music at a party with friends by passing round the iPad for example was alway a big part of any music service, and I’m sure still is, along with the ability to save said queue into a playlist. Sonos clearly don’t have the queue thing in the front of their mind anymore and seem to think people want to be able to control Sonos outside the home, but I can’t hear my speakers outside the home? The key thing with speakers that you can’t easily change is that you generally need to be within earshot of the damn things for them to be of any use… So doe

I have just successfully downgraded the last of 4 homes from S2 back to S1, for anybody interested here is what you need to do:You need an iOS device that can run iOS 15 / iPadOS 15 as the final version (iPhone 6s or 6s plus, iPhone 7 or 7 plus, iPhone SE (1st gen), iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 4. Make sure it is updated to the latest version (iOS 15.8.2) Remove the Sonos App if installed. Download it again, on a device in the list above it will only download the old gold 16.1 version since they do not support any newer versions. Factory reset your S1 compatible player / component (for a full compatibility list see Sonos support document). Use the S2 16.1 App to initiate the downgrade process (see Sonos support document for instructions) On your regular controller install the Sonos S1 Controller App. I recommend creating a new Sonos account to keep the two systems separate during the process. Create a new system starting with the first factory reset player using the S1 App with the new Sono

Earlier this year, I was looking at options to replace our older Sonos Connect and ZP120 units to bring my system into S2 compliance; 3 amps, 2 ports and an orphan Play 5 - not a trivial investment. There was no particular S2 function / capability I required at that time.We play mostly music from our NAS and some internet radio. For some context, we’re in upstate NY where power outages are quite common and as our internet provider uses the same delivery infra as the electric utility - that is, poles - a power outage frequently takes out internet as well.To my question: going forward, do we know if S2 will require internet access just to function? In our situation, that would be playing music from a NAS, controlling volume, grouping speakers, etc. Thanks for reading.

Hello Sonos. I was thinking today about how you could have made the experience with your app even more frustrating and disappointing. You could make it so it doesn't see any devices until I've opened and closed the app at least four times, even when standing 5 feet from a modem and a sonos product. You could make it so it moves the volume to zero on a device and won't let you increase the volume to hearing range. You could make it so music selected is playing and a volume is showing, but no sound is coming out of a speaker. You could make it so "something went wrong" with a radio station on a streaming service over and over. Oh wait, all of these things which NEVER happened before the update now happen regularly, as in multiple times per day. Maybe you could have made it so my phone gave me a mild electric shock every time I open the app.So deeply disappointed. 

Sonos used to have AMAZING customer service but it has gotten incredibly terrible.  Why did this change and will there be any efforts made to make it better?  I would like to purchase more products but I don’t feel confident in growing my Sonos system at this time. 

Got a new Beam Gen 2. Followed directions to set up. Didn’t work.Went to troubleshooting on the app. Two hours. Didn’t work.Contacted chat tech support. Talked with Savannah F. 1.5 hours. Didn’t work. But got a case number.Called and talked with tech support. Brian G. 1.5 hours. No progress. He says I need to put the router into “Bridge Mode,” and says that’s all he can do. I put it into Bridge Mode. The entire system crashes. No internet. Thanks, Brian.Contacted support at NetGear. 1.5 hours later, got internet. Now to reconnect all the wireless devices: phones, computers, printer, Alexa, TV, extender, Smart Life controller, alarm system. Hours later, finally fixed. I returned the Beam for a refund. Thanks, Sonos

FYI PSA SONOS.com return policy has changed to 30 days. It is  No longer 100 days. There’s something symbolic about changing it before the release of a new product 🤔 Costco is still 90 days 🙂 ht u/theKRLN on Reddit for pointing this out. 

Today I installed (my Move, Playbar, Sub and 2x One) from S2 back to S1 and removed the new app from Sonos.After months of all kinds of problems with the new app, the sound and playing and not playing, the system is completely great again.no more problems and everything is usable again. even the sound is better

When trying to downgrade my Amp to S1 I get stuck at the point where it says to push the Infinity button while the green light is flashing. Tried many times but always stops at this point. Amy ideas? 

Installed without issue on all speakers July 30th. Did not affect any settings as far as I can tell. Nothing for the Ace. Anyone note any visible changes?

We spent thousands of dollars on our Sonos equipment and it is unable to be used because of a poor released terms of agreement with Sonos saying they are working on it with no time estimated of a fix?Poor support for this product plus no compensation from them for us not being able to use our system?I think I will trash Sonos and go to Bose