Why does Sonos make it so difficult to report bugs? It is extremely convoluted involving Chatbots and Phonecalls which always want to ask the most ridiculous questions when all you want to do is alert Sonos of an issue. Surely they can set up a simple bug reporting service similar to Google or Apple?
Answered
Reporting Bugs
Best answer by Corry P
Hi
Welcome to the Sonos Community! And, apologies for the delay.
Sonos systems work in a vast array of different environments - people use different speaker combinations with different routers, switches, Access Points, ISPs, connection methods, interference levels, operating systems, phones, tablets and computers.
When an issue is reported, an agent can search documentation (or just be familiar with an issue), gather diagnostics from your system, and details about your system and environment. Pulling this info together, they can try to address the issue that you are reporting. Due to the simple fact that most issues are not in fact bugs and can be addressed by making changes in some fashion, this is where we naturally start - with most reports. Some reports (like the dot being missing on a volume slider) are very obviously a software issue and can be reported as such easily. Others, not so much. But, once we exhaust other possibilities, any unresolved issue can be reported as a software bug, but only once we prove and document as much - imagine the cost (and time wasted) if every issue was handed over to a top engineer or software developer to be fixed, when the actual cause was that a cheap router with poor software just needed a reboot? No actual software issues would ever get addressed in a timely manner!
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of speaking to a bot, a phone call would be where to start. If you don’t want to go through any troubleshooting at all, then reporting an issue here on the community to see if anyone else says “me too” would be the next best thing, and quicker. If I see something here that strikes me as odd (and we read it all), I will see if I (or someone else) can replicate the issue - if we are not already aware, and it is replicable, then I will ask someone to create a ticket for the now confirmed issue.
I hope this helps.
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+18Hi
Welcome to the Sonos Community! And, apologies for the delay.
Sonos systems work in a vast array of different environments - people use different speaker combinations with different routers, switches, Access Points, ISPs, connection methods, interference levels, operating systems, phones, tablets and computers.
When an issue is reported, an agent can search documentation (or just be familiar with an issue), gather diagnostics from your system, and details about your system and environment. Pulling this info together, they can try to address the issue that you are reporting. Due to the simple fact that most issues are not in fact bugs and can be addressed by making changes in some fashion, this is where we naturally start - with most reports. Some reports (like the dot being missing on a volume slider) are very obviously a software issue and can be reported as such easily. Others, not so much. But, once we exhaust other possibilities, any unresolved issue can be reported as a software bug, but only once we prove and document as much - imagine the cost (and time wasted) if every issue was handed over to a top engineer or software developer to be fixed, when the actual cause was that a cheap router with poor software just needed a reboot? No actual software issues would ever get addressed in a timely manner!
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of speaking to a bot, a phone call would be where to start. If you don’t want to go through any troubleshooting at all, then reporting an issue here on the community to see if anyone else says “me too” would be the next best thing, and quicker. If I see something here that strikes me as odd (and we read it all), I will see if I (or someone else) can replicate the issue - if we are not already aware, and it is replicable, then I will ask someone to create a ticket for the now confirmed issue.
I hope this helps.
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Being an engineer myself, I can appreciate it’s inefficient to have engineering or product managers working issues that may have a work around or are simply user errors. But Sonos has slipped on their interoperability in their designs IMHO.
The fact that S1 gen systems can’t at least be visible to the S2 gen mobile app as a 2nd system is ridiculous.
There is also a huge issue bug(s) with their S2 gen and mesh networks. The S2 app can’t see a system that was working for months. Spent 2+ hrs submitting various diagnostic logs, answering endless CS support questions to help them understand my system all trying to work around what is clearly a design error or bug.
I hav readily spent $20,000 on Sonos gear and it’s disappointing - when they pretty much invented this zoning and ease of system connectivity. Come on VP of Eng, at least did this big for us all!!
Reporting two probably bugs, since I’ve found it very hard to get through sonos tech support in a timely manner:
- The integration of Idageo will now only allow one to play one song at a time, instead of selecting play and playing an entire album. I do not recall this being an issue before the new app was released.
- A few times a month, when I ask sonos to play a radio station, it tells me that i have to reauthorize the sonos account. This also is new behavior, although it may related to Sonos steering some Internet radio requests through Sonos Radio, rather than tunein or iHeart radio as it has in the past. Regardless of cause though, it is annoying.
+18Hi
Thanks for your post!
- We are aware of this issue - I assume it is for Idagio to resolve, but I cannot confirm. It may help if paying customers report it directly to them.
- This should happen from time to time, but not regularly. There are other reports of this somewhere - I shall see if I can collate them and report it. If you see this again, please submit a support diagnostic before reauthorizing and let me know here that you have done so, but without sharing the given number. Thanks. Sonos Voice Control does not support iHeart or TuneIn, and never has - note, however, that you can mark a station from another source as a favourite, and at most 24 hours later, SVC should recognise it.
I hope this helps.
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Thanks. I have submitted the diagnostic. I will also report the issue to Idageo, although it first became evident with the “new” app from Sonos.
My experience with voice control for radio stations is I’ll say something like “play WGBH” and sonos sorts out where it will ask from and does it. Sometimes it’s tunein. Sometimes it’s iHeart radio. Sometimes it’s through sonos. This has always worked for me.
The most recent glitch for playing a radio station was when my morning alarm came up, which was set to play WBUR., Instead of playing the station, it played an alarm tone. When I asked it to play wbur, it told me to reauthorize sonos radio. After that, saying play WBUR (or maybe WGBH,I don’t recall) worked again.
+18Hi
bradbort wrote:
Thanks. I have submitted the diagnostic. I will also report the issue to Idageo, although it first became evident with the “new” app from Sonos.
Thanks!
Yes, our music partners were informed of the changes to our API and what they would need to do to get things working with our new app. Not all of the services have the resources to address these changes, and some simply have some mistakes in their current implementations.
bradbort wrote:
My experience with voice control for radio stations is I’ll say something like “play WGBH” and sonos sorts out where it will ask from and does it. Sometimes it’s tunein. Sometimes it’s iHeart radio. Sometimes it’s through sonos. This has always worked for me.
Sorry - are you using Sonos Voice Control, or maybe Alexa or Google Assistant? As far as I am aware SVC will only ever play Sonos Radio - when it comes to radio, that is. Spotify, Apple Music and others will work too.
bradbort wrote:
The most recent glitch for playing a radio station was when my morning alarm came up, which was set to play WBUR., Instead of playing the station, it played an alarm tone. When I asked it to play wbur, it told me to reauthorize sonos radio. After that, saying play WBUR (or maybe WGBH,I don’t recall) worked again.
If the service needed reauthorisation, this would be expected behaviour. I do understand that Sonos Radio needs reauthorisation more often than it should, for some users, and will see what I can do to have this investigated.
I hope this helps..
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
1 person likes this
+18Hi
Just to confirm, you submitted that diagnostic while the app was asking you to reauthorize Sonos Radio, yes?
good question on the using alexa vs sonos. For some of those cases it was probably alexa.
I’ve emailed Idageo and will await their response.
Yes on having to reauthorize being too frequent. I don’t recall ever having to do that prior to the new app. I don’t see why it should ever be a thing once it’s authorized. I hope that can be fixed.
Brad
+18Hi
bradbort wrote:
No. I resubmitted it when you asked me to. The reauthorization happened around 630am EST.
Corry P wrote:
If you see this again, please submit a support diagnostic before reauthorizing and let me know here that you have done so
Thanks for the time stamp, but I think we may need to see a diagnostic taken while the service is unauthorised. Please let me know if you are able to capture this. Thanks.
+18 Hi
bradbort wrote:
good question on the using alexa vs sonos. For some of those cases it was probably alexa.
Argh - why I did not respond to this in my above post, do not know!
If using Alexa to request a radio station, Alexa is responsible for deciding how it is found and should be played. Sometimes, this will be through TuneIn, sometimes it will be through an Alexa skill, independent of any services. Alexa cannot use Sonos Radio - it does not have access.
I hope this helps.
Response from idageo
Hello Brad,
Thank you for your message and for being part of IDAGIO.
We are sorry about the state of IDAGIO as a result from the latest Sonos update. We are trying to find a solution.
Could you also let Sonos know about this issue? We hope this would lead to more cooperation. Thank you for your help!
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+18Hi
Thanks for relaying that reply.
I can only say that we have an open ticket regarding this, and it has been that way for a while.
I shall see if I can get a ball rolling again.
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
1 person likes this
I got a response from someone in corporate, who seemed to be a bit junior. Over the course of several days, he first insisted it could be a network interference issue. He initially seemed unaware of the issue.
After days of back and fourth, I got him to test and realize that it was an issue that only occurred on iPhones and IPads (PCs and android are fine), and it seems to be a queuing issue, where Idageo only adds one song for these devices. He then said it was a known issue, and they are working on it.
My concern is that if it is a known issue, but he was unable to find it initially, that there seems to be a problem with you (hopefully) centralized database that tracks known issues.
At any rate, I’ll continue to use the Idageo connect functionality. My intention was to report this bug to sonos so they could work on it. I hope that is actually happening.
Brad
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