Needless Sonos updates

Turn off automatic updapes on your mobile devices, turn off check for updates in the Sonos app Settings menu. Then you never have to update again.

Ok thanks. I must admit I haven't tried this. But as I recall, every time an update is released the user is given a certain window within which to install the update, and when that window expires the system forces an update. Will the solution you propose prevent a forced update ?

The window is only because you have updated one of the controllers. Turn off automatic updates in your app store, and turn off update notifications on the Sonos app, and nothing can be updated again without your explicit actions.

Note, eventually security and/or streaming service protocols will change, thus older software versions will start to lose functionality. Also, you cannot add any new devices without updating.

To address the last bit above about older versions, you will have to remind yourself to update to the latest release once in a year, on an easily remembered date. That should give you best of both worlds.

jgatie wrote:

Turn off automatic updapes on your mobile devices, turn off check for updates in the Sonos app Settings menu. Then you never have to update again.

FALSE! I have done this. Then checked it a hundred times. Yet everytime I open Sonos.... "we need to get sonos running on the latest software". I JUST WANT TO LISTEN TO MUSIC NOT MESS AROUND WITH SYSTEM ADMIN! if i hadn't spent so much money on this system it would be going into the garbage bin and buying BOSE instead.

Hey Whackster, I just edited your post to remove the profanity, please watch the language.

If you get that message every time you launch the app, odds are your system is already at mismatched versions. Once that's been corrected and everything is on the same build, you won't be prompted to update as long as everything is still on that same version. Just make sure you've turned off the automatic check for updates on your system, and have turned off auto-updates for the app within your app store on all mobile device.

We're working hard to make it even easier to play your music on Sonos. Many features are coming to help this (like Airplay2), and we're also looking into ways to improve the update process so that it doesn't get in the way of you playing your music. This is a dream of our software team, but it's definitely something they'll keep looking into to make it as seamless as possible.

Ryan S wrote:

We're working hard to make it even easier to play your music on Sonos.

Don't doubt that, but I wonder if the hatred for regular updates across many threads on the forum is just that most of the updates are for "invisible" bug fixes that the average user won't spot. Unless you see UI/UX changes, you're bound to question the update process, especially given the lack of visible release notes or fixes for the many small Sonos UI annoyances / bugs (we get it, voice control is the business priority).

I'm a big fan of regularly releasing software in very small increments, but for the user, updates should appear to be invisible or rare, unless they bring real tangible benefits. At least we can postpone / opt-out if we just want to go play something.

I’d expect that they are working towards that concept. But there is a fine line between Amazon Echo’s “we do it automatically in the background’ and Sonos’ current approach. I see Sonos as trying to be conservative, so that people who want to stay on version X can choose to do so, with the limiting factor of not getting any new features, and sometimes losing them. But as w both know, there is a price to be paid there, particularly in support. I would expect / hope that they move to a model where automatic background updates can be a choice. But I’m cognizant that their focus is to be non-polluted with option, so that they’re as easy as possible for the unwashed masses to use. It’s not a decision I would be anxious to make, if I were the Product person at Sonos, and I’ll bet Ryan S and the other support folks are also of two minds. It would potentially make life easier, and simultaneously a living hell for them.

This isn't a particularly difficult problem so I'm not sure why Sonos has sooooo much trouble with this. It's not hard to have multiple version branches of a software suite going at once, with various fixes integrated across each. And when you have hardware in the field, it's not hard to write a routine to allow hardware to NOT force update and maintain versions across compatible products.

Tonight I was really irked. I used Alexa to start up some music in my family room with my voice (love that simplicity). Later, I pulled out my phone to adjust the volume slightly. And then later, working on my laptop, I pulled up the sonos desktop controller...and bam--I hit that dreaded MUST update wall. Seriously? Ok, yes, the rest of the experience was great, but this was annoying. I paid for all the speakers and various devices for a reason--to be able to listen to music without Sonos telling me when I can't! I was faced with two choices--stop my music stream so I could updated everything in the house, or run downstairs to grab my phone so I could use my system.

The problem was that I hadn't updated my desktop software recently. My speakers and phone were on 8.4. My desktop was on 8.2 So...ok, fine. I *could* live with this forced update (I still don't like it) IF Sonos would let me update JUST my one piece that was out of sync with the rest. Just let me update my desktop software to 8.4 so it would work with the hardware. This would, at least, not interrupt the experience of listening. Yet Sonos wants to force me tp update everything to 8.5. Why? I don't want to. I don't want your latest "minor bug fixes" that don't impact me in the least. This is absurd.

I have a suggestion for Sonos. If you need to make controllers and hardware be on the same version, then update controllers to the version of the software that's installed on my hardware (the Sonos speakers). DON'T force me t update what's running on the hardware unless I explicitly tell you I want to (maybe when you nicely tell me there's an update...and nicely allow me to ignore it). DON'T force me to shut down the entire system (in effect) while you update everything just so I can use one controller that I haven't used in awhile. Let me dictate when and what version to update the hardware to. And then if you must you can force me to update the controllers as needed to THAT version that I have running on my components. But don't force me up update the components simply to update a controller. Don't make me update everything to the newest version--allow controllers to update to whatever version is on my components, even if that's not the "latest and greatest".

All that being said...this is a pretty good problem to have. I mean, I have a whole house audio system that perfectly syncs my music across rooms, allows me to play different things in different rooms, plays FLAC, let's me control it with my voice(!!), hooks into all sorts of music services, will read books to me (from Audible), and generally, in short, just works flawlessly pretty much all the time...except for these updates! So yes, I'll complain because...well...Sonos is so darned good I've got pretty high expectations! Not a bad problem to have.

Now....just make the update aspect as pleasant an experience as everything else. 🙂

I think the last update to my Sonos system took a lot less than 10 minutes, although I didn’t actually time it all. That was 12 Speakers, one Boost, three mobile App controllers, 2 x CR200 controllers and a Windows PC.

If a user happens to forget to update a mobile controller, for example, it often just updates the software on the mobile only, it doesn’t re-install the firmware for the speakers again... so that type of update is just a couple of minutes only.

I don’t think the regular Sonos updates are a huge problem at all. The fact I have 'fixed' all my Sonos device IP addresses in my routers DHCP Reservation Table, also means that rebooting all my Sonos products simultaneously, is absolutely 'no worry' at all.

I can’t recall the last time I had any Sonos update problems and the 5 or 10 minutes of updates, every now and then, (usually on a Tuesday) is no real bother in my household.

I receive far-far more Apple App updates on my iPhone and iPad each week to make the Sonos updates seem infrequent, by comparison.

I’m all for change and progress. It gets rather boring when things just standstill. I love the new Sonos App and added simple Alexa voice control of the speakers and have certainly seen those things improve (lots) since they were first launched late last year... I’m sure the voice control will get even better when Sonos release their improvements to 'ducking' and allow Alexa to group/ungroup the Sonos Rooms etc.

Then it looks like we will see other voice assistants in the future, like Google Home and Siri (perhaps) alongside AirPlay 2 and there have been suggestions there will be improvements to local music library access, including support for the newer versions of the SMB protocol.

Roll on and let’s have the next update, I say.

My glass remains 'half full' and not 'half empty', so I can’t wait to see what the continuing development brings next to my now 'smart-home' voice controlled wireless multi-room audio system that I bought some years ago.

I want to listen to my music on a stable Sonos platform without having to keep updating the software.

Have you read the thread or just the title? There are instructions above about how to turn of automatic updates .

I am sick and tired of the forced updates of the Sonos system. I have close to $5K in Sonos hardware and I am about through with using it because ONE REASON...........the $#i77Y updates! I have several desktops, tablets, and phones that are all used to access the system.

With this last update 9.2, my system has been rendered completely USELESS because the system cannot update properly. I have uninstalled the application from all mobile devices, all desktops, rebooted every single device multiple times, yet the update will never complete. I only get the infamous error messages which mean absolutely NOTHING!

Get your act together. And to the moderator who is editing peoples comments, this is in violation of FREE SPEECH here in the USA where your company is based as well as where I am based. I have a suggestion for Sonos. If you need to make controllers and hardware be on the same version, then update controllers to the version of the software that's installed on my hardware (the Sonos speakers). DON'T force me t update what's running on the hardware unless I explicitly tell you I want to (maybe when you nicely tell me there's an update...and nicely allow me to ignore it). DON'T force me to shut down the entire system (in effect) while you update everything just so I can use one controller that I haven't used in awhile. Let me dictate when and what version to update the hardware to. And then if you must you can force me to update the controllers as needed to THAT version that I have running on my components. But don't force me up update the components simply to update a controller. Don't make me update everything to the newest version--allow controllers to update to whatever version is on my components, even if that's not the "latest and greatest".

:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@

Have your raised an incident ticket? Tried calling Sonos? Asked for advice on this user forum? Or did you just want to rant childishly. The freedom of speech bit was especially amusing. This Forum is run and owned by Sonos, they can do what they want and edit whatever they want so long as it's not libelous etc. Just as they are free to block people too.

If you read this forum over a period of time you will notice a trend for posts. After an update there at posts like these. When there is a period of no updates you'll get the opposite posts with people demanding new features and other changes. As the famous quote goes "You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people ......"

I hope you get your system sorted and maybe then block further updates.

the way software production and releases work nowadays, it's just simply crazy not to be annoyed by updates and to refuse them... think again... (of course that updates ought to work and not fail and give meaningless error messages, it's a different matter... and something that should be demanded of very expensive sonos products... )