The Community Corner

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

Using new version of app. After logging in to system, when I try to add a device, I get an error asking me to log off then back in again. When I log in again, same thing happens. When I go to my account it indicates I’m logged in. I can’t make any system adds. I only have 5 devices related on the network. What’s the deal?

 Today I installed my Move, Playbar, Sub and 2x One 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 

I've been a proud loyal Sonos user and promoter for nearly 10 years. Sonos 2024 New App is a complete failure !!! Return the previous Sonos S2 Controller App ! Fire who ever is responsible for releasing the new app before it is ready!I had planned to significantly expand my Sonos system this year, that plan is canceled, and I will be replacing my Sonos system with a system from a responsible organization. 

Will they ever come back to their old software version?This is their worst version, just can’t stand it.

My entire Sonos system is useless. I have had Sonos since 2007 and absolutely nothing works anymore since new app...and there are no music playlists. I need to log in every few hours and the entire system is non responsive most of the time….absolute rubbish….$10,000 of speakers etc heading for the tip.

So looks like bad things are happening at Sonos with its wonderful new app.. 

Agreed! Look it up and read it. 

Sonos is great hardware crappy software.  Pretty obvious with the latest app fiasco.  If they want to move into the “fee for service” world, license their technology to others.  This opens up the word of interoperability and provide a solid revenue stream outside of the hardware through licensing fees.  AKA. Do what google did with android.   Continue to implement great hardware solutions, let the best out there develope the apps etc to operate that hardware.   

How much has the roll out of this terrible app cost sonos? Let’s put some real numbers to it!Here’s what I’m forgoing as a loyal customer that’s already purchased 14 units.I’ve not purchased the immediate things:$10 /month // Canceled my Sonos Radio account (which I really liked!) $450 // 1 pair sonos ace (I would’ve been a day 1 purchaser despite the middling reviews $189 // Roams 2 as a house warming gift for a colleagueI’ve stopped considering the following purchases in the mid-term:$500 // 2 Eras as back channels $450 // 1 pair sonos ace for wifeAlso, generally:$?? // Stopped recommending sonos to any person that comments on my systemWhat money have you not sent to sonos?Minimally, immediately bring back S2 and continue the beta test of this new app (as S3 or some other branding). Until then, sonos gets no more of my money.

How can anyone at Sonos think this an improvement over the last one?  I am a daily user multiple times per day and this is not intuitive at all.