I used to love Sonos. Now I only love their hardware…
I have 5 older speakers (4xPlay:1 and 1xPlay:5) that are not compatible with the new S2 system - but I don’t care. After many, many problems caused by relentless Sonos “upgrading” - I now drive my speakers through the Home Assistant integration which is magnificent. It does everything I want, and doesn’t bug me with extras I don’t care about. Unfortunately, it still requires the Sonos app to add a speaker to the system before I can use it in Home Assistant.
We just built an extension to the house and I wanted some more speakers in new areas. My investment in Sonos infrastructure was too great to move to another ecosystem. I was incorrectly advised by an Ikea salesperson, that their Sonos based Symphonisk range were S1 compatible - so I bought 3 of them. 2 x Bookshelf and 1 x Table Lamp.
When I installed the first of the Bookshelf speakers shortly afterwards I discovered they were S2 only. I was very annoyed - but after some research shut down all my S1 gear, installed the S2 app on my iPad Pro, and configured that speaker as a solo unit on its own “network”. Home Assistant didn’t care, and all 6 of them have been working together happily for many months now.
The builders have finally finished the construction so I’ve now gone to install the last two Symphonisk units. Again shut down my entire S1 network - and fired up the S2 app on the iPad. It found the Table Lamp speaker and installed it fine (fell over at the Registration system - but registration on the Sonos website is not required for the speaker to work in Home Assistant.)
Then it discovered the other Bookshelf speaker - but will not even attempt to install it - claiming the infamous “Incompatible Software Versions” error. All three Ikea speakers were bought on the same day, are installed on the same network, with the same App on the same iPad. Two of them worked, and one is apparently “incompatible”.
I checked the S2 App for updates (we all know how much Sonos loves updates) but it tells me there is no update available. All my S1 equipment is disconnected and so not relevant to the issue. And I can’t access the new Bookshelf speaker in any way to tell what is happening with it.
What can I do?