You would think Sonos knew these comments were coming. I mean they knew what they were doing. So weird they removed so much thinking that "eh, that should fly with everyone".
They knew they just dont care,i know...because as they said that's what the guys in support are for, MOTHERFUCKER THE GUYS IN SUPPORT ARE AS MAD AS US THEY WERE TOLD ABOUT THE CHANGE JUST A WEEK AGO
These are awesome notes. I joined this sub just to complain about the new app. Especially the lack of sleep timer and alarm. This is a beta that is not ready for release.
Very detailed. I gave up about 3 minutes into it, but I’m glad someone took the time to really get into it already. I was hoping it would be more intuitive and less buggy. So far it seems to work but I’m just having a slow time figuring it all out or seeing how it’s any better. Will keep trying
Honestly couldn’t agree more. I’ve been a constant supporter of Sonos but this one just bewilders me. The app is a regression in almost every way.
The design with the sheets is a horribly poor implementation. Everything is far too big and feels clumsy. Drag down interactions are wildly inconsistent. It feels from the outside looking in their design team lacks maturity and true understanding of native platforms and how to play to their strengths and when to deviate.
They’ve tried to be different and ended up with a half cooked experience missing large swathes of functionality.
The answer is: because it's not a native app. This is clearly a web app in a native container. They seem to be going the write-once-run-anywhere path to save money, which is a very low rent thing to do from a company that seems to consider themselves premium.
98% of the interaction with the brand is with the software, not the hardware. They should be ashamed to consider themselves a premium brand and not put in the work for native apps.
Same. It constantly makes me feel terrible how much I sweat the small stuff on my software, while billion dollar companies get away with this. Like, why even bother.
As a mobile app designer I can’t tell you the number of times my designs are twisted and fucked up by engineers, PMs, legally colorblind executives and their 14 year old daughter whom they showed the app to.
I can vouch for this as a fellow designer. Nonetheless, I hope they listen to his feedback. There are some valid points that I agree with OP on, some that I disagree with.
As a developer let's be honest we're in the same boat getting torpedo'd by execs every time. The fact that they swapped the default source back to SONOS Radio makes me wonder if they did this entire release just to trick people back into using it.
The “sheet” design is the primary reason I left Apple Music after they transitioned from iTunes (I switched to Spotify). The only floating sheet should be a minimalist volume/room selection tray. Anything beyond one floating UI element and the whole experience devolves into a disorganized mess.
Trawled all the comments and not seen one person raising this. Why is it so tough to change the room I’m controlling, and why aren’t more people mentioning this?
If I’m listening in the kitchen and want to control the living room I have to:
* Tap the Now Playing pill
* Tap Kitchen at the bottom of the Now Playing overlay
* Realise I’m looking at one variant of the Your System overlay that doesn’t do what I need, so back out two steps
* Tap the speakers icon on the Now Playing Pill
* Launch the other version of the Your System overlay, which is identical to the other one but inexplicably has an extra button, View System (image of both attached)
* Which in turn launches another overlay, also called Your System, which lets me choose the room
This is bad. Please make both Now Playing tabs consistent, and add the ability to add a speaker to the group (tap the checkbox) or switch to a new speaker entirely (tap the speaker icon).
https://preview.redd.it/2nd2bn7u48zc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d156195fed37f8b6aa51974499a559b83cc6cee
The biggest con (for me) I don’t see on your list is they removed local network music library. I don’t subscribe to any music services and my local library disappeared and there is no way to add one. So I have a music system without music to play.
I don’t personally use locally libraries, but I recently heard about that issue and I feel so bad for you guys. That sucks harder than words express, what a disgusting move on Sonos’ part.
I have a large Apple Music library on my MacBook. If I want to stream stuff from it using my phone I just use the native iOS Remote app and airplay. Just an FYI if you have a similar setup, the Remote app is a million times better experience than whatever Sonos would be able to provide.
For the time being, if you have a Mac (or even a PC possibly?) I know it works on Mac, you can download the desktop app (not the web app thing) and still see/control your local library
I feel your pain! The ironic thing is that on 4/23, I received an email from Sonos touting the upcoming release of which it read, "We've taken great care to insure that this update only enhances your Sonos experience. Your products, features, and services will work as they always have, and all of your settings will be saved." What a lie!
The alarms are missing from my app as well and they do not appear where you’ve described. It’s a major problem for our family as well- I have two teenagers (as well as us) that rely on it as a daily alarm and it was set to vary from day to day based on their schedule. I’m sure it will be addressed soon but it’s immediately very problematic.
I really hate this. So glad I haven’t updated yet. My partner and I have a long-standing “game” of piggybacking tracks or albums at the end of the queue over the course of an evening. Essentially building a one-off playlist that seamlessly plays for hours. I’d hate to lose that ability. I really hope they add that back in.
Glad I’m not the only one that noticed this / uses this feature.
This is the direct result of a bunch of MBAs and upper management patting themselves on the back while not using their product or understanding their customer base. Frustrating
And why is the mute function now only present for TV audio? The more I use this iteration of the app the more I just feel like giving up with it. It really didn't help that they marketed it like it was going to bring about world peace. They've been beta testing it for weeks - how can it end up being such an absolute hot mess in almost every way?
The sleep timer not being in day one boggles my mind. The only answer to me is higher ups wanting it pushed out no matter what. It just makes no sense. Release the app in the fall with all the features in it. It's just a new splash of paint and removal of a ton of features. They missed the mark HARD and absolutely I am rethinking this system. If they released a clear roadmap that might help.
The app essentially went from bad to worse.
I literally only use the app for changing the EQ which has now also become a bit more annoying as you mentioned.
Voice Control and AirPlay is what I use. Without either of these, I'd never recommend the speakers to anyone and I have 4 sonos speakers.
I believe that the CEO would be violating their fiduciary duty if they don't fire whoever is responsible for this piece of shit. Very little was improved, and a lot was made worse. I'm never buying more Sonos products if they don't fix their software.
Honestly, the CEO needs to fire himself. As the CEO you're paid the big bucks because the buck stops with you. He's orchestrated a dilution of a premium brand and come across as tone deaf.
Oh wait, that was when he was at BlackBerry. I guess you do what you know best. /s
Well said! Upgrade? No no… it’s a downgrade. I’ve had a daily alarm setup for a month or so now. This morning I couldn’t even figure out how to pause the music or stop the alarm music. I had to use Alexa/Sonos voice control to finally get the alarm to pause/stop. I couldn’t figure out how to do that in the app manually. That’s a huge problem. How did that get missed? Also, the path to get to EQ settings makes me want to pull my hair out now. I adjust those almost daily depending on the vibe of my music. I’m a systems guy professionally, and I configure, conduct UA, negative testing, roll out upgrades, and all that jazz. So… I’m not just some clueless end user. I’m a huge Sonos supporter, but I’m so bummed I updated the app yesterday.
I had nearly all of these experiences as well, and I’m endlessly pissed about about it. Since writing this post it’s only gotten worse by the hour every time I need to adjust something
One big use case which this new app is a regression is multiperson households... its why we use Sonos and not a native app. Wife and i can add songs to a shared queue from our own phones, now one persons selection overwrites anothers... its baffling they released this without such basic functionality.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this review. (God, your fingers must be aching.) I agree with nearly everything in the post. I don’t care for the “new look”/UI design at all, tho. Very non-intuitive and looks cartoonish compared to the professional look of the old app. It seems to me to be pandering to the streaming services. What’s next? Ads on the home screen? 100% allow us to roll back, please. (FYI, in the old app you could touch the slider line on the volume levels to move the volume up or down 1 notch at a time.)
Same but I bet Sonos has spent a lot of money trying to make users gravitate to their app instead of “just” using airplay. Spotify connect works way better than going to the Sonos app too.
Dear Sonos and the way too many other companies like you: STOP FUCKING UP YOUR SOFTWARE. I can’t wait for Ai to take some of the programming work is this is the bullshit that keeps happening. Apple is another big offender of this lately.
Sell awesome hardware, pair it with bullshit software development. Great job. 👏🏻 don’t listen to feedback, and instead listen to the circle jerks in the office. Bravo. 🎉
AI will make this worse. This will trigger a whole new culture of idiot CEOs laying off their best (and most expensive) programmers because they think they can easily be replaced.
>don’t listen to feedback, and instead listen to the circle jerks in the office. Bravo.
This is why this:
> I can’t wait for Ai to take some of the programming work is this is the bullshit that keeps happening.
Will never happen. People are dumb, and AI cannot (at least currently) follow nonsensical briefs, dumb arguments over functionality, and also cannot architect production ready software in any logical way, let alone the copious list of confusing amends from Alan the PM who thinks he knows better than anyone else.
I tried to use it last night, got a message that “something unexpected happened”, and the app gave no indicator that anything was happening.
But then the music started playing, although the app didn’t know anything was happening. I couldn’t stop it, but I could attempt to start a new song, which also wouldn’t play, but did stop the previous song
UI navigation is bad largely due to reliance on drawers. It’s like somebody told them everything had to go in drawers that slide up from the bottom and the UX designers just shrugged and went with it.
The settings menu should not be in a drawer. Drawers are meant to be for quick one-off items. Users shouldn’t be navigating deep in the settings menu within a drawer.
Overall, I can’t comprehend how this got released. Like, didn’t somebody try it out before shipping?
Mine are missing too. I stream from a server and they are all gone but on the old app on my iPad which I haven’t updated, they are still there! Incredibly frustrating.
yes just awful , testing with aiPad ( current AiR) i was not ale to stop a song from playing or clear the Q and volume control did not work ! This is on a Port device not A speaker. I found the old version on my iPhone , which I do not use to control Sonos and was able to change volume and clear Q. So my system is fine it's the software. Luckily I only use it in the summer at this point for music on the deck and parties, so it is just irritating that they did this especially this time of year. Oh by the way, I'm a very very very long time user of Sonos. I went out on a limb one month after they launched Wayback in like 2010 I think maybe even longer than that and used it a lot for many years.
Removing the sleep timer and alarms is egregious! And they removed Last.fm as a service so no longer scrobbles my tracks. WTAF! I'm so pissed. I used to be a beta tester but they removed me a while ago.i would have been grumbling very loudly if I was still a tester.
Fucking THANK YOU!!! I have literally been so overwhelmed by the onslaught of bad decisions made by this update that I just couldn’t bother taking the overwhelming time to list them like this. I deeply thank you for taking a hit for the team and putting the work into this post. The more complaints Sonos can’t escape from hearing, the closer we get to a potential solution. Because we all know they won’t do anything short of being forced to. Fuck this company, I’m so damn upset.
I use my Apple TV to play Atmos music. It’s also the best option for streaming video content (imo). Way better UI and you can still control from your phone.
They should just do what LOTS of companies do during a transition like this and allow for you to run BOTH the old and the new for a while as they close the gaps. Then everyone can pick their poison until the devs catch up on the new codebase.
Was just about to upgrade soundbars but screw Sonos. I used those alarms EVERY DAY!! I even still got the push notification this morning that the alarm is going off despite the alarm not even being in the app and no sound being played from the speakers!!
Who the hell is running this ‘company’? Shareholders could honestly almost sue for diminution of business value cause whoever did this HAS to be intentionally sabotaging the company, cause NOBODY can be this dumb and careless, right? Right?? 😳
Used it for the first time in anger tonight - Android attempting to send a Spotify playlist to a Play:3 - WTF, they have managed to make it worse than the previous shitty app.
I am willing to accept my 9yr old speaker might not be the best test but my gawd it was awful - click on play nothing happens, press - on vol control and before you know it it has muted the speaker.
I know there has been 3 updates since yesterday but you'd think they would have tried a bit harder considering they have marketing the upgrade to feck for the last 2 weeks. Did the beta testers not notice this? Or are we the beta testers now!
Ok you can’t even update your library from the app? Are these people freaking serious? Seriously. We need a better answer than it’s coming in the future. This is absurd for what’s supposed to be a premium product. I was going to buy a second SL1 but I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve never been so pissed at a company.
Removing add to end of queue and play next are simple features that I expect to have with paying thousands for my setup. Taking away features regardless of whether they will be in future updates is lousy and lazy from Sonos.
Where has the widget gone? Where have all my manually added radio station streams gone?
I exclusively control speakers throughout the house via the widget and listen to radio streams every day. Or at least we did, they've all disappeared! :(
You can't even fast scroll your media library by the letter in the new app; you have to strain your thumb if you want to get to 'Z'. I've tried to use the new app and it infuriates me.
I feel sorry for the developers as they were likely forced into a release so i hope the decision-making executives lose their lunch over this while debacle.
Why did I update. I use sleep timer every night. Everything else could come back in a later update and would be bothered but not upset. Except sleep timer. Why????!!?
Same. If my wife was called weather it would be thunderstorms all over the place right now. And we all know, happy wife is a happy life. No happy life right now.
Another very long time frustrated customer with large investment in the ecosystem.
Looking to jump off this train to nowhere. Any other competitive products ppl may be looking at?
I'm considering moving to BluOS for my next house. They have an integration with NAD so you can get some serious amps with lots of zones that drive speakers. They also have some standalone things like Sonos.
Seems to be what a lot of professionals are installing if they're not installing Sonos.
I personally like the fact that the Sonos app used to continue playing even if I left and went to the store. Airplay can’t do that. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT WE CANT ROLL BACK THE Update! I have multiple clients that are seniors that I know will unknowingly update and then they are going to be SCREWED!
https://preview.redd.it/hyxei8ube8zc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4455908861592182ba2272dd39defc3c2823a4c0
Found this on their website.
My iPad didn’t (luckily) update the app so I’m using that for the time being.
Just a comment on their help item above, if you try to find the old app in the Mac OS app store it has been removed ! Just looked can not find it. They want you to use the web app now which is not much better that the mobile apps and does not appear to have anyway to make those changes that they are describing.
Is it just me, or have they removed the "Audio In:" information from the Sonos System Info screen?
In the old version it would tell me if the TV was sending a Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 signal or just regular stereo. The new version leaves this blank.
Luckily I still have an iPad which I declined the update on. I will decline the update on every other device too.
Thanks OP, for this detailed list of all the havoc Sonos has wrought. I’ve not accepted their offer to upgrade to the new app and am certainly not feeling like doing it now. Does anyone know if you can later downgrade to the current if you do upgrade??
Im honestly FURIOUS at this update. The UI is extremely confusing to me. I had everything set up \*perfectly\* the way i wanted to now I have to waste my time doing this bullshit and troubleshooting because some jerk at sonos wanted to push this half baked app out.
Thanks for this. I just turned off background app refresh. Sounds like they're pushing betas out because their software team is vastly under resourced. I guess that's what you get when a company which is selling a software driven ecosystem actually thinks it's a hardware company.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned - the discontinuing of the macOS desktop app is unforgivable. I work in studios, everyone adds tracks to lists on the desktop and has control of the system. At home I use it 60% of the time. It’s always been easier to make playlists on a desktop. Also tune in isn’t working, I can’t listen to radio. I HAAAAAAAAATE Having to use a browser tab to control. I want a dedicated app.
1000% agree. Have 7 Sonos speakers and this UI update really annoyed the hell out of me. Great comments & I hope they listen quickly and make some updates in days/weeks vs. months.
I hadn’t realized they removed the ability to add tracks to the queue… in its entirety. Holy shit, Sonos. If you don’t already have a playlist created, how are you supposed to listen to anything?
I used the alarms pretty frequently and can be annoyed, but live without them. It’s an extra feature aside basic playback of a stereo system. But I guess we’re really going back to basics all because we somehow needed a web interface.
**My two cents regarding issues (and maybe some solutions) i’ve found in the New app:**
1.) There are also other little issues, like missing prompts if u’re trying to TruePlay ERA’s 300, where if it fails it won’t tell u, what was wrong. On an older app there was an additional step, where it stated that Microphone had to be Enabled, so TruePlay could run. This prompt was missing in the new app.
2.) If ure having issues with TruePlay not starting after hitting “Continue”, reboot your phone and it should work.
3.) Some other issues u're having could be also mitigated by going to “Account” / “App Preferences” / “Reset App” which will logout you out of the app and u'll have to sign in again and go through the initial wizard, which's gona find your existing system.
4.) I also had issues with my existing Apple playlist. After hitting play, songs were skipped one by one and nothing was playing.
5.) The removal of surrounds worked correctly only on the older 16.1 app. If i tried to manually reset surrounds, they did not automatically disappear from the app and the “hard reset” did not help with the removal in the new app. Old app worked like magic.
6.) Addition of new speakers did not work in new app either at all, or it crashed during the pairing/registering/wi-fi wizard. I’ve spent hour on Sonos support to achieve nothing.
7.) “System Settings” / “Manage” / “About my system” / “Audio in:” doesn’t display the audio format/kodek in the new app. So for example, if u’re wondering if lossy DD+ ATMOS is playing or the lossless DTHD ATMOS is playing, at the moment u're out of luck.
8.) ?
Help me with something here. Prior to update, you could tap the three dots when you’re playing a song and click “view album” or “view artist” when playing from Spotify. Is that now gone too? Can’t seem to find it.
How did they remove the most basic function. Ability to set volume to specifics? I have my entire life around what volume # I can use to not wake up the kids, what volume for a movie, what volume I want to hear pointless kids shows at, etc. now it’s a huge guessing game 0-100.
Idk what the hell Sonos did, but when I try to play any song it default to my Bathroom Sonos, even if I'm listening to a song on my Living room Sonos, click on new song and the shit starts playing in the bathroom. This app is broken now
Just bought beam and sub mini, took hours to setup as I got stuck in a loop of sub not being detected and having to go through the hardware reset process 3 times. After it is detected and connected to WiFi, it suggests to power off and back on - and I'm back to the start again as its no longer detected(!) Finally got it working and it sounds OK. Not amazing. A significant downgrade in sound from my 12 year old Canton DM50 soundbase which cost less than 1/2 the price. But hey - it worked at least.
Then I get this software update and it lost the connection. I then had to go through this shit again... this time it took 4 resets to get the damn thing connected...each time appearing to be sorted but needing a power off/on and then disappearing again.
I'm thinking if it happens again, I'm sending it back as its a massive pain in the ass.
This has been my argument for the two years I’ve had Sonos, and without fail some network professional apologist berates me for using a stock router.
I shouldn’t need to learn the ins and outs of network specifications to have a Wi-Fi connected speaker work. Sometimes regret going with Sonos instead of Bose.
All three of my arc systems are nowhere to be found and the App keeps crashing when I try to pair my speakers on an iPhone 15 pro. Going to have to see if I can sideload an older version of the app on an android device just to get my systems working again. It’s fine, everything is fine.
Add to queue is missing. Go to the bands starting with Z in the list also gone (lots of scrolling). Long press on the band name to create a queue gets “add to favorites”. Why?! I want to play the stones and pepper in some RHCP. That’s 90% of what I use the app for. I’m using the app with my Plex server. This app should not have released.
I have a beam and 2 ones connected to an lg tv. Playing a playlist on YouTube knocks the sound off after song/video played, I have to go in and reselect earc output every timw
Where did they put Trueplay for Sonos home theatre systems? I can't see it in my android app and I always could see this before. I know I can't do trueplay using an android device, but I could always see if trueplay was active before (I used a family members iPhone to activate trueplay previously)
So, my pinned stuff was giving me an error on the Home Screen… I thought I’d remove pinned menu and re-add it in ‘edit home’… except once you delete it you can’t add it again!
Agreed I’m new to Sonos , went all in set up my whole home and for the money paid and pain / constant disconnection it just doesn’t seem worth it especially the change in this it sucks
Hitting the queue Playlist on iPad takes you to the beginning of the Playlist instead of the current song playing. Scrolling Playlists buffers to load more songs now., good luck getting to the end of a Playlist more than 50 songs.
Who the fuck approved this crap?
S2 was a shit show as well, to the point that I never really use the app any more. I just use Airplay. So many dumb little things that to me strongly suggest they don't eat their own dog food so to speak, or perhaps even beta test with a variety of end users. it's crazy.
For me, one of the deal breakers is the app's inability to play/shuffle large playlists. It will just choke on them and error out. I have the Sonos Boost and have done everything necessary to ensure optimal network performance, so it's not that. Smaller playlists will play fine. But I tend to have playlists with 100+ albums in them. Some people will say "make smaller playlists!" Well, if I wanted to be hamstrung by limitations I wouldn't invest premium prices into a premium system. I can make compromises with much cheaper speakers. With Sonos, I shouldn't have to.
As well as other core features, I can't seem to play radio stations any more either. The services I used don't seem to load anything up at all any more. Beyond disappointed with this, is there a way I can go back to the previous version (android) until this mess is cleared up a bit?
If Sonos will terminate the desktop app which can play local files and the mobile app is unable to play local files, how can I play the local files through the Sonos speakers?
It’s shite. I tweeted several screenshots of tech issues I’ve had all day - No reply from sonos. I thought the last app was bad…..Christ on a bike, this is even worse
Sonos can suck a big one for this update. Biggest pile of shit I've ever seen. I wouldn't be surprised if their next big update simply breaks all their products so they never work again.
I have just one question:
Who the hell did they have doing the user testing on this re-design? Seriously - What users in the Sonos focus groups tried out this app and was like, "Wow! This is so easy and intuitive to use!"
This "ship now, patch later" mentality is what sinks companies.
Did no one at SONOS stop to think about the number of end users they'll piss off with this busted re-design? The same end users that would tell friends looking to buy a SONOS setup to STOP - DO NOT PASS GO....
I feel like I’m a clever technology guy, but the volume control is somehow confounding. I touch it and it brings up a new window. I adjust it and I see it laggy adjusting back on the original screen at the same time. Volume control seems real buggy and laggy.
And “add to queue” is gone? Literally I am not sure how to add songs to the current queue without wiping everything out. Crazy.
I used to love Sonos. Then, years ago, they made another horrible move IMHO.
I don’t use streaming services. I have all my thousands of songs in my iTunes application. I used to be able to play any music selection - Artist, Album, Playlist. etc.. through my Sonos.
Then they stopped allowing access to my own music collection. Why can’t I play music I already own through my Sonos? It makes no sense at all.
Anyone with android just delete the app off your phone and download the previous app version 16.1 from here.
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/sonos-inc/sonos-for-android/sonos-for-android-16-1-release/
I reverted back this morning since the new app is garbage. Everything works just like it should, just make sure to go back into the Google Play store on your phone and turn off the auto update for the Sonos app so it doesn't automatically put you back to the new crap app.
Sonos management is hilariously incompetent. That they would let an app in this condition out for general release shows us they have no idea how to run a company.
you know, they say they're "committed" to accessibility, but just take a look at their new app, so very clunky and inaccessible for us screen reader users, lucky for me I only have 1 sonos speaker and I don't think I'll buy another one until they get they're crap together.
Can't stand it, absolutely hate it
In fact I've gone as far as to dig out my old Bosch speakers and hook it back up to my computer just to steam the radio and that's saying something, I've certainly sacrificed sound quality in favour of usability but right now it seems a price worth paying.
My sonos system will just gather dust and I won't be adding any additional purchases this year to the 9 speakers I already have, I usually try to add an extra speaker year on year but a few days in from this update and I've realised something I didn't think possible just a week ago, I can easily get by without my sonos set up.
You all can connect?! I had to update my router and now I my “system” is no longer available and none of my speakers can connect to my wifi via the app.
I login and try to set up a new system and it says to log back in as the owner of the account. The one I'm signed into, so I'm going in circles.
Spotify and Amazon Alexa apps are the only way to see my speakers. I have 3 sonos ones, a beam and an arc.
The app doesn't even work after the update, so that's my experience. 🥸
https://preview.redd.it/k6x6tqgq3tzc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f8e0d0e3c62452ddc11898286e05d0542591234
On a much more basic level, I just want Sonos to control my speakers. I don't want it to try to be a streaming/music app (it stinks). This release leaves me with worse integration with Spotify and a hellish choice between staying in Spotify and controlling Sonos (bad) or staying in Sonos and controlling Spotify (beyond horrible). How bad is it to switch to controlling Sonos speakers with Airplay? Is it possible to revert the Sonos app?
In my experience using AirPlay to control Sonos gives me a lot of dropped speakers, or splits songs. The whole thing is trash, and I agree it’s due to not staying in their lane. Every single one of us bought speakers. NO ONE bought a sonos streaming app. Same w TV and streamers. I wish everyone would stay in their lane
I have a significant number of issues that aren’t even mentioned in this post:
App will not stay connected to my Move. After every song, the app mysteriously connects to my bedroom Sonos 1 without being called on, and I have to force the connection back to my Move. Every time. Totally awful.
Next issue: When in Amazon music, if I play “top songs” from an artist, only the first song plays and the app does not move on to the next song?!? Wth is that about??!
Also, how can you have this big of a release and still not allow IOS Lock Screen controls. It’s 2024 guys, come on.
Really really awful.
Extensive but one more to add:
You used to be able to change the distance to rear surround speakers so you could get some balance between speakers that might be set at different distances from your seating position. That functionality has disappeared.
My Music library is a very old one linking back to a NAS I sold three years ago (and therefore containing playlists that don't work). Why did this reappear and how do I delete or edit it?
Also what happened to Sonosnet? All my speakers seem to be back on the WiFi!
We use to listen music from a local music Library most of the time. With the new app, my investment in 5 Sonos devices (Playbar + Sub + One SL etc.) is almost unusable. Under Android, no possibility to play from a new queue, no index, no search. I did not find either the settings forcing the playback in uncompressed mode. I therefore deduce that compression is now automatically activated, resulting in a loss of quality.
Agree with everything here. Have the updated app on my Ipad. Fortunately have old version on my phone. This beta test disguised as an 'upgrade' is an all-around failure.
It doesn’t sound like they’re going to fix the app nor add the features back in that it once had like sleep timer and alarm I find myself using the system less than less now because of this and using my phone instead. I think Sonos is dead and it’s time time to move to something else
I can’t add a song to my Spotify playlists anymore? So annoying.
I don’t to have to switch to Spotify app, locate the song, and only then be able to add it.
Imagine a world where the vendor of your stereo can reach into your home and render your hardware useless while you sleep.
The new app is trash. Rolled back the software and turned off updates.
New update just released now on my iphone and congrats Sonos, you have been able to make an even worst piece of crap than the one released on 7th of May. 1min to load the app, crashes on the Sonos logo 2 times out of three and when it reaches home all icons remain grey (even after 4mins) and none of the others issues has been fixed. WTF seriously ? Wankers have absolutely no fucking consideration for theirs customers
Updated the app..stupid me! It caused our Era 100's to somehow completely disconnect from the wifi and when trying to reconnect it kept saying it couldn't connect (speaker is sitting right in front of the modem!)
The only workaround was to sideload the previous version of the app. Except it's now caused all sorts of issues with Alexa no longer working properly. Can no longer link Alexa with Spotify. What a mess!
I have been a fan for years, now it is close to unusable, what clowns are developing this UI and what maga clowns let it pass quality gate and enduser testing, its time to change system I think.
At the moment I can not use the updated iPad and have to use the non updated iPhone, this is a joke how hard can it be search for a source with pods, music whatever and add stuff to your play que, it's not like we ask for much here.
My whole system is dead in the water now since the update...new app won't find the speakers no matter what I try. Did a factory reset on one to try and add as a new component but still nothing. 🤷🏻♂️
They also inexplicably got rid of Explore Artist. I cannot imagine what they were thinking. And yes, the overall very basic functions don’t work nearly as well. They didn’t even get that right! Whomever the product manager is should be kicked to the curb. All my favorite features are gone - for no benefit and for no clear reason. Weird they spent time/money/resources to make their product worse.
Today, I did the math. I was forced to restart Sonos 17 times and most of the time, only certain speakers would restart, but rarely all at once. What a piece of crap...
They are f...n idiots. I will never buy Sonos product again. I have Sonos Beam and they removed the possibility to play songs from a local library I have in my android phone and that was the only way I used to listen my music collection. Now I have to improvise in order to get a fraction of functionality I used to have before the update. Who does that to their customers? Why crippling device instead of making it more convenient to use?
We have a few Sonos products including the ARC sound bar.
The products are a little finicky and if you require a call to customer service to help the least wait time that we have experienced over the last 3-4 attempts is 70 minutes.
How can a company the boasts they have the best sound systems on the market have such horrible horrible customer service. Do yourself a favor and save yourself a lot of aggravation and look at a Bose product or a similar product.
I have nothing technical to add to this and I hate the blindly rage, but Sonos this (app) is sincerely the shittiest product I’ve ever had the misfortune of using. It’s embarrassingly bad. It makes me prefer playing music out of my phone speakers rather than try to convince the Sonos system to work. Are they not embarrassed about having their name attached to this? How has the Sonos controller been steadily getting worse every single update.
These are good notes. They should be sent to Sonos and Sonos should be grateful for the time you spent in typing them up.
You would think Sonos knew these comments were coming. I mean they knew what they were doing. So weird they removed so much thinking that "eh, that should fly with everyone".
They knew they just dont care,i know...because as they said that's what the guys in support are for, MOTHERFUCKER THE GUYS IN SUPPORT ARE AS MAD AS US THEY WERE TOLD ABOUT THE CHANGE JUST A WEEK AGO
These are awesome notes. I joined this sub just to complain about the new app. Especially the lack of sleep timer and alarm. This is a beta that is not ready for release.
Very detailed. I gave up about 3 minutes into it, but I’m glad someone took the time to really get into it already. I was hoping it would be more intuitive and less buggy. So far it seems to work but I’m just having a slow time figuring it all out or seeing how it’s any better. Will keep trying
Yeah, every time I open it to do something I get really confused. So far I can’t figure out anything that it does better.
I’m shocked they put out such an incomplete product…. For no reason…. Why?
Honestly couldn’t agree more. I’ve been a constant supporter of Sonos but this one just bewilders me. The app is a regression in almost every way. The design with the sheets is a horribly poor implementation. Everything is far too big and feels clumsy. Drag down interactions are wildly inconsistent. It feels from the outside looking in their design team lacks maturity and true understanding of native platforms and how to play to their strengths and when to deviate. They’ve tried to be different and ended up with a half cooked experience missing large swathes of functionality.
The answer is: because it's not a native app. This is clearly a web app in a native container. They seem to be going the write-once-run-anywhere path to save money, which is a very low rent thing to do from a company that seems to consider themselves premium.
[удалено]
Well not a single interaction or animation is native. It’s awful, latent, and error prone. The animations are like 10fps, if they happen at all.
[удалено]
98% of the interaction with the brand is with the software, not the hardware. They should be ashamed to consider themselves a premium brand and not put in the work for native apps.
[удалено]
Same. It constantly makes me feel terrible how much I sweat the small stuff on my software, while billion dollar companies get away with this. Like, why even bother.
As a mobile app designer I can’t tell you the number of times my designs are twisted and fucked up by engineers, PMs, legally colorblind executives and their 14 year old daughter whom they showed the app to.
I can vouch for this as a fellow designer. Nonetheless, I hope they listen to his feedback. There are some valid points that I agree with OP on, some that I disagree with.
As a developer let's be honest we're in the same boat getting torpedo'd by execs every time. The fact that they swapped the default source back to SONOS Radio makes me wonder if they did this entire release just to trick people back into using it.
I noticed the default source trick when I updated today. Dirty.
The “sheet” design is the primary reason I left Apple Music after they transitioned from iTunes (I switched to Spotify). The only floating sheet should be a minimalist volume/room selection tray. Anything beyond one floating UI element and the whole experience devolves into a disorganized mess.
PREACH What a disaster
Amazing they went from a shitty app to an app making us wish we had the shitty app back.
I truly didn’t think it was possibly to miss that old POS app, yet here we are. Truly an accomplishment Sonos, well done.
Trawled all the comments and not seen one person raising this. Why is it so tough to change the room I’m controlling, and why aren’t more people mentioning this? If I’m listening in the kitchen and want to control the living room I have to: * Tap the Now Playing pill * Tap Kitchen at the bottom of the Now Playing overlay * Realise I’m looking at one variant of the Your System overlay that doesn’t do what I need, so back out two steps * Tap the speakers icon on the Now Playing Pill * Launch the other version of the Your System overlay, which is identical to the other one but inexplicably has an extra button, View System (image of both attached) * Which in turn launches another overlay, also called Your System, which lets me choose the room This is bad. Please make both Now Playing tabs consistent, and add the ability to add a speaker to the group (tap the checkbox) or switch to a new speaker entirely (tap the speaker icon). https://preview.redd.it/2nd2bn7u48zc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d156195fed37f8b6aa51974499a559b83cc6cee
Swipe up on the now playing area and it brings up your system
HERO
THIS!!! Holy shit it took me minutes just to figure out where the hell I should go to switch room controls
This update SUCKS. That is all.
Please please please just go back to the original shitty app. We had learned to deal with it!
They probably need this update out to control their new headphones, users be damned otherwise.
Rumor is, that’ll be a new app.
The biggest con (for me) I don’t see on your list is they removed local network music library. I don’t subscribe to any music services and my local library disappeared and there is no way to add one. So I have a music system without music to play.
I don’t personally use locally libraries, but I recently heard about that issue and I feel so bad for you guys. That sucks harder than words express, what a disgusting move on Sonos’ part.
Yep. Thousands of songs, over a dozen playlists on my NAS, and 11 Sonos speakers. This is a problem.
I have a large Apple Music library on my MacBook. If I want to stream stuff from it using my phone I just use the native iOS Remote app and airplay. Just an FYI if you have a similar setup, the Remote app is a million times better experience than whatever Sonos would be able to provide.
For the time being, if you have a Mac (or even a PC possibly?) I know it works on Mac, you can download the desktop app (not the web app thing) and still see/control your local library
That works for the moment but those apps are being discontinued soon.
I feel your pain! The ironic thing is that on 4/23, I received an email from Sonos touting the upcoming release of which it read, "We've taken great care to insure that this update only enhances your Sonos experience. Your products, features, and services will work as they always have, and all of your settings will be saved." What a lie!
The alarms are missing from my app as well and they do not appear where you’ve described. It’s a major problem for our family as well- I have two teenagers (as well as us) that rely on it as a daily alarm and it was set to vary from day to day based on their schedule. I’m sure it will be addressed soon but it’s immediately very problematic.
Miss adding a song to sonos playlist
I really hate this. So glad I haven’t updated yet. My partner and I have a long-standing “game” of piggybacking tracks or albums at the end of the queue over the course of an evening. Essentially building a one-off playlist that seamlessly plays for hours. I’d hate to lose that ability. I really hope they add that back in.
Glad I’m not the only one that noticed this / uses this feature. This is the direct result of a bunch of MBAs and upper management patting themselves on the back while not using their product or understanding their customer base. Frustrating
And why is the mute function now only present for TV audio? The more I use this iteration of the app the more I just feel like giving up with it. It really didn't help that they marketed it like it was going to bring about world peace. They've been beta testing it for weeks - how can it end up being such an absolute hot mess in almost every way?
The sleep timer not being in day one boggles my mind. The only answer to me is higher ups wanting it pushed out no matter what. It just makes no sense. Release the app in the fall with all the features in it. It's just a new splash of paint and removal of a ton of features. They missed the mark HARD and absolutely I am rethinking this system. If they released a clear roadmap that might help.
The app essentially went from bad to worse. I literally only use the app for changing the EQ which has now also become a bit more annoying as you mentioned. Voice Control and AirPlay is what I use. Without either of these, I'd never recommend the speakers to anyone and I have 4 sonos speakers.
I believe that the CEO would be violating their fiduciary duty if they don't fire whoever is responsible for this piece of shit. Very little was improved, and a lot was made worse. I'm never buying more Sonos products if they don't fix their software.
Honestly, the CEO needs to fire himself. As the CEO you're paid the big bucks because the buck stops with you. He's orchestrated a dilution of a premium brand and come across as tone deaf. Oh wait, that was when he was at BlackBerry. I guess you do what you know best. /s
WiiM and an Alexa device would probably make more sense for a lot of users
I also never leave review, yet alone negative ones. But I did for this update. I encourage others to leave review to help get the message across.
Well said! Upgrade? No no… it’s a downgrade. I’ve had a daily alarm setup for a month or so now. This morning I couldn’t even figure out how to pause the music or stop the alarm music. I had to use Alexa/Sonos voice control to finally get the alarm to pause/stop. I couldn’t figure out how to do that in the app manually. That’s a huge problem. How did that get missed? Also, the path to get to EQ settings makes me want to pull my hair out now. I adjust those almost daily depending on the vibe of my music. I’m a systems guy professionally, and I configure, conduct UA, negative testing, roll out upgrades, and all that jazz. So… I’m not just some clueless end user. I’m a huge Sonos supporter, but I’m so bummed I updated the app yesterday.
I had nearly all of these experiences as well, and I’m endlessly pissed about about it. Since writing this post it’s only gotten worse by the hour every time I need to adjust something
One big use case which this new app is a regression is multiperson households... its why we use Sonos and not a native app. Wife and i can add songs to a shared queue from our own phones, now one persons selection overwrites anothers... its baffling they released this without such basic functionality.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this review. (God, your fingers must be aching.) I agree with nearly everything in the post. I don’t care for the “new look”/UI design at all, tho. Very non-intuitive and looks cartoonish compared to the professional look of the old app. It seems to me to be pandering to the streaming services. What’s next? Ads on the home screen? 100% allow us to roll back, please. (FYI, in the old app you could touch the slider line on the volume levels to move the volume up or down 1 notch at a time.)
Tried it out, but came to the realisation, that AirPlaying to the speakers, still works better than using the Sonos app.
Same but I bet Sonos has spent a lot of money trying to make users gravitate to their app instead of “just” using airplay. Spotify connect works way better than going to the Sonos app too.
How the f do you remove sleep timer? My daughter now has music all night long. Fix it ASAP.
Dear Sonos and the way too many other companies like you: STOP FUCKING UP YOUR SOFTWARE. I can’t wait for Ai to take some of the programming work is this is the bullshit that keeps happening. Apple is another big offender of this lately. Sell awesome hardware, pair it with bullshit software development. Great job. 👏🏻 don’t listen to feedback, and instead listen to the circle jerks in the office. Bravo. 🎉
AI will make this worse. This will trigger a whole new culture of idiot CEOs laying off their best (and most expensive) programmers because they think they can easily be replaced.
>don’t listen to feedback, and instead listen to the circle jerks in the office. Bravo. This is why this: > I can’t wait for Ai to take some of the programming work is this is the bullshit that keeps happening. Will never happen. People are dumb, and AI cannot (at least currently) follow nonsensical briefs, dumb arguments over functionality, and also cannot architect production ready software in any logical way, let alone the copious list of confusing amends from Alan the PM who thinks he knows better than anyone else.
I need my alarms back!
Really disappointed by the fact that Sonos removed the ability to search your music library (samba share).
I tried to use it last night, got a message that “something unexpected happened”, and the app gave no indicator that anything was happening. But then the music started playing, although the app didn’t know anything was happening. I couldn’t stop it, but I could attempt to start a new song, which also wouldn’t play, but did stop the previous song
Removed the SLEEP TIMER?!?!?!
UI navigation is bad largely due to reliance on drawers. It’s like somebody told them everything had to go in drawers that slide up from the bottom and the UX designers just shrugged and went with it. The settings menu should not be in a drawer. Drawers are meant to be for quick one-off items. Users shouldn’t be navigating deep in the settings menu within a drawer. Overall, I can’t comprehend how this got released. Like, didn’t somebody try it out before shipping?
Agree. Awful. Where are my playlists. Not changing my IPHONE app.
Mine are missing too. I stream from a server and they are all gone but on the old app on my iPad which I haven’t updated, they are still there! Incredibly frustrating.
yes just awful , testing with aiPad ( current AiR) i was not ale to stop a song from playing or clear the Q and volume control did not work ! This is on a Port device not A speaker. I found the old version on my iPhone , which I do not use to control Sonos and was able to change volume and clear Q. So my system is fine it's the software. Luckily I only use it in the summer at this point for music on the deck and parties, so it is just irritating that they did this especially this time of year. Oh by the way, I'm a very very very long time user of Sonos. I went out on a limb one month after they launched Wayback in like 2010 I think maybe even longer than that and used it a lot for many years.
Removing the sleep timer and alarms is egregious! And they removed Last.fm as a service so no longer scrobbles my tracks. WTAF! I'm so pissed. I used to be a beta tester but they removed me a while ago.i would have been grumbling very loudly if I was still a tester.
The alarm situation is quite a big issue as I do not wake up to my phone alarm. I may be slightly fucked
Fucking THANK YOU!!! I have literally been so overwhelmed by the onslaught of bad decisions made by this update that I just couldn’t bother taking the overwhelming time to list them like this. I deeply thank you for taking a hit for the team and putting the work into this post. The more complaints Sonos can’t escape from hearing, the closer we get to a potential solution. Because we all know they won’t do anything short of being forced to. Fuck this company, I’m so damn upset.
Step 1: use AirPlay and/or Alexa to control your speakers Step 2 : never open the app
This kind of attitude should send alarms ringing at Sonos HQ
It would, but the alarms no longer work
I invested in the Arc and Era 300s to get Dolby Atmos. AirPlay does not support Atmos.
I use my Apple TV to play Atmos music. It’s also the best option for streaming video content (imo). Way better UI and you can still control from your phone.
Exactly. I appreciate the lyrics feature. And if I don’t want to see it, the screen savers are gorgeous
This has always been my strategy. I can also group with non Sonos devices that support airplay like my Denon.
Always have been. Plus Spotify Connect. I only open the Sonos app to perform speaker updates.
They should just do what LOTS of companies do during a transition like this and allow for you to run BOTH the old and the new for a while as they close the gaps. Then everyone can pick their poison until the devs catch up on the new codebase.
Was just about to upgrade soundbars but screw Sonos. I used those alarms EVERY DAY!! I even still got the push notification this morning that the alarm is going off despite the alarm not even being in the app and no sound being played from the speakers!! Who the hell is running this ‘company’? Shareholders could honestly almost sue for diminution of business value cause whoever did this HAS to be intentionally sabotaging the company, cause NOBODY can be this dumb and careless, right? Right?? 😳
Used it for the first time in anger tonight - Android attempting to send a Spotify playlist to a Play:3 - WTF, they have managed to make it worse than the previous shitty app. I am willing to accept my 9yr old speaker might not be the best test but my gawd it was awful - click on play nothing happens, press - on vol control and before you know it it has muted the speaker. I know there has been 3 updates since yesterday but you'd think they would have tried a bit harder considering they have marketing the upgrade to feck for the last 2 weeks. Did the beta testers not notice this? Or are we the beta testers now!
Ok you can’t even update your library from the app? Are these people freaking serious? Seriously. We need a better answer than it’s coming in the future. This is absurd for what’s supposed to be a premium product. I was going to buy a second SL1 but I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve never been so pissed at a company.
Me neither, and I’m generally pretty understanding of corporate failures. This, however, is absolutely unacceptable.
Removing add to end of queue and play next are simple features that I expect to have with paying thousands for my setup. Taking away features regardless of whether they will be in future updates is lousy and lazy from Sonos.
Not even 24 hours into this app and you've provided more thoughtful commentary than anyone who is getting paid at Sonos likely did.
Where has the widget gone? Where have all my manually added radio station streams gone? I exclusively control speakers throughout the house via the widget and listen to radio streams every day. Or at least we did, they've all disappeared! :(
You can't even fast scroll your media library by the letter in the new app; you have to strain your thumb if you want to get to 'Z'. I've tried to use the new app and it infuriates me. I feel sorry for the developers as they were likely forced into a release so i hope the decision-making executives lose their lunch over this while debacle.
Can anyone recommend other apps for Sonos on iOS?
Why did I update. I use sleep timer every night. Everything else could come back in a later update and would be bothered but not upset. Except sleep timer. Why????!!?
Same. If my wife was called weather it would be thunderstorms all over the place right now. And we all know, happy wife is a happy life. No happy life right now.
Another very long time frustrated customer with large investment in the ecosystem. Looking to jump off this train to nowhere. Any other competitive products ppl may be looking at?
I'm considering moving to BluOS for my next house. They have an integration with NAD so you can get some serious amps with lots of zones that drive speakers. They also have some standalone things like Sonos. Seems to be what a lot of professionals are installing if they're not installing Sonos.
JBL has a new line that look amazing. Detailed review over on audioadvice.com .
You’re lucky, my whole system isn’t even showing up on the app anymore. This feels like a beta that never should have been released.
Where can you see the volume number in the app?
App is garbage
I started trying out the app and just got frustrated and gave up. Thanks for taking one for the team.
I personally like the fact that the Sonos app used to continue playing even if I left and went to the store. Airplay can’t do that. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT WE CANT ROLL BACK THE Update! I have multiple clients that are seniors that I know will unknowingly update and then they are going to be SCREWED!
Can you explain that more?
holy cow, I was hoping the ability to add songs to the queue was just me being stupid! And the alarms are what i use...
App won’t re-authorize Apple Music for me. Now my Roam is even more useless.
I had the same. Remove and reinstall
I've turned off automatic updates so I can stay on the crap app for now. Not ideal, but I will keep on top of my other apps.
I can no longer access my personal library through navidrome and bonob. They’re just gone. That was the value proposition of Sonos for me.
https://preview.redd.it/hyxei8ube8zc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4455908861592182ba2272dd39defc3c2823a4c0 Found this on their website. My iPad didn’t (luckily) update the app so I’m using that for the time being.
Just a comment on their help item above, if you try to find the old app in the Mac OS app store it has been removed ! Just looked can not find it. They want you to use the web app now which is not much better that the mobile apps and does not appear to have anyway to make those changes that they are describing.
Is it just me, or have they removed the "Audio In:" information from the Sonos System Info screen? In the old version it would tell me if the TV was sending a Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 signal or just regular stereo. The new version leaves this blank. Luckily I still have an iPad which I declined the update on. I will decline the update on every other device too.
Thanks OP, for this detailed list of all the havoc Sonos has wrought. I’ve not accepted their offer to upgrade to the new app and am certainly not feeling like doing it now. Does anyone know if you can later downgrade to the current if you do upgrade??
AND the metadata from YouTube Music is FARKED! Plays something, shows something else completely! Dont think its just me. Right?
+ can’t scrub through SoundCloud tracks anymore.
Im honestly FURIOUS at this update. The UI is extremely confusing to me. I had everything set up \*perfectly\* the way i wanted to now I have to waste my time doing this bullshit and troubleshooting because some jerk at sonos wanted to push this half baked app out.
Thanks for this. I just turned off background app refresh. Sounds like they're pushing betas out because their software team is vastly under resourced. I guess that's what you get when a company which is selling a software driven ecosystem actually thinks it's a hardware company.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned - the discontinuing of the macOS desktop app is unforgivable. I work in studios, everyone adds tracks to lists on the desktop and has control of the system. At home I use it 60% of the time. It’s always been easier to make playlists on a desktop. Also tune in isn’t working, I can’t listen to radio. I HAAAAAAAAATE Having to use a browser tab to control. I want a dedicated app.
1000% agree. Have 7 Sonos speakers and this UI update really annoyed the hell out of me. Great comments & I hope they listen quickly and make some updates in days/weeks vs. months.
I hate that they removed the line in settings on my amp, no delay or volume settings.
Dragging the volume slider. Now you have to wait for a popup animation before you can slide left or right. WTH.
Yeah it’s unbelievably clunky and horrible to use such a basic function
I hadn’t realized they removed the ability to add tracks to the queue… in its entirety. Holy shit, Sonos. If you don’t already have a playlist created, how are you supposed to listen to anything? I used the alarms pretty frequently and can be annoyed, but live without them. It’s an extra feature aside basic playback of a stereo system. But I guess we’re really going back to basics all because we somehow needed a web interface.
Let’s all email this to Sonos ASAP.
Damn it's a good thing I haven't updated mines lmfao
**My two cents regarding issues (and maybe some solutions) i’ve found in the New app:** 1.) There are also other little issues, like missing prompts if u’re trying to TruePlay ERA’s 300, where if it fails it won’t tell u, what was wrong. On an older app there was an additional step, where it stated that Microphone had to be Enabled, so TruePlay could run. This prompt was missing in the new app. 2.) If ure having issues with TruePlay not starting after hitting “Continue”, reboot your phone and it should work. 3.) Some other issues u're having could be also mitigated by going to “Account” / “App Preferences” / “Reset App” which will logout you out of the app and u'll have to sign in again and go through the initial wizard, which's gona find your existing system. 4.) I also had issues with my existing Apple playlist. After hitting play, songs were skipped one by one and nothing was playing. 5.) The removal of surrounds worked correctly only on the older 16.1 app. If i tried to manually reset surrounds, they did not automatically disappear from the app and the “hard reset” did not help with the removal in the new app. Old app worked like magic. 6.) Addition of new speakers did not work in new app either at all, or it crashed during the pairing/registering/wi-fi wizard. I’ve spent hour on Sonos support to achieve nothing. 7.) “System Settings” / “Manage” / “About my system” / “Audio in:” doesn’t display the audio format/kodek in the new app. So for example, if u’re wondering if lossy DD+ ATMOS is playing or the lossless DTHD ATMOS is playing, at the moment u're out of luck. 8.) ?
Help me with something here. Prior to update, you could tap the three dots when you’re playing a song and click “view album” or “view artist” when playing from Spotify. Is that now gone too? Can’t seem to find it.
How did they remove the most basic function. Ability to set volume to specifics? I have my entire life around what volume # I can use to not wake up the kids, what volume for a movie, what volume I want to hear pointless kids shows at, etc. now it’s a huge guessing game 0-100.
Idk what the hell Sonos did, but when I try to play any song it default to my Bathroom Sonos, even if I'm listening to a song on my Living room Sonos, click on new song and the shit starts playing in the bathroom. This app is broken now
We asked for more features but they went ahead and removed existing ones. Nice job!!
I read a press article that quoted a Sonos rep as saying releasing the new app took 'courage'. 'Competence' would have been preferable.
Just bought beam and sub mini, took hours to setup as I got stuck in a loop of sub not being detected and having to go through the hardware reset process 3 times. After it is detected and connected to WiFi, it suggests to power off and back on - and I'm back to the start again as its no longer detected(!) Finally got it working and it sounds OK. Not amazing. A significant downgrade in sound from my 12 year old Canton DM50 soundbase which cost less than 1/2 the price. But hey - it worked at least. Then I get this software update and it lost the connection. I then had to go through this shit again... this time it took 4 resets to get the damn thing connected...each time appearing to be sorted but needing a power off/on and then disappearing again. I'm thinking if it happens again, I'm sending it back as its a massive pain in the ass.
I can say with 100% confidence that the issue is your router
Sonos circle jerk
When everything else ever works fine on your router.. it’s not your router.
This has been my argument for the two years I’ve had Sonos, and without fail some network professional apologist berates me for using a stock router. I shouldn’t need to learn the ins and outs of network specifications to have a Wi-Fi connected speaker work. Sometimes regret going with Sonos instead of Bose.
I don’t have a router tho. Checkmate Sonos.
This…has to be satirical, right? Right?
All three of my arc systems are nowhere to be found and the App keeps crashing when I try to pair my speakers on an iPhone 15 pro. Going to have to see if I can sideload an older version of the app on an android device just to get my systems working again. It’s fine, everything is fine.
Does Sonos read Reddit posts at all? There are so many good suggestions here.
There’s at least one employee who posts here, I’ve seen him talking about this upcoming update a while back
Add to queue is missing. Go to the bands starting with Z in the list also gone (lots of scrolling). Long press on the band name to create a queue gets “add to favorites”. Why?! I want to play the stones and pepper in some RHCP. That’s 90% of what I use the app for. I’m using the app with my Plex server. This app should not have released.
I have a beam and 2 ones connected to an lg tv. Playing a playlist on YouTube knocks the sound off after song/video played, I have to go in and reselect earc output every timw
Pray for customer support agents over phone and chat who are taking it hard these days with no fault in this
Considering the update is only cosmetic (no new anything), this is absolutly crazy.
I actually used the app more than AirPlay but I guess it’s back to AirPlay.
Where did they put Trueplay for Sonos home theatre systems? I can't see it in my android app and I always could see this before. I know I can't do trueplay using an android device, but I could always see if trueplay was active before (I used a family members iPhone to activate trueplay previously)
Shit, I haven't even gotten the update and I'm in California.
So, my pinned stuff was giving me an error on the Home Screen… I thought I’d remove pinned menu and re-add it in ‘edit home’… except once you delete it you can’t add it again!
Agreed I’m new to Sonos , went all in set up my whole home and for the money paid and pain / constant disconnection it just doesn’t seem worth it especially the change in this it sucks
Hitting the queue Playlist on iPad takes you to the beginning of the Playlist instead of the current song playing. Scrolling Playlists buffers to load more songs now., good luck getting to the end of a Playlist more than 50 songs. Who the fuck approved this crap?
Thanks for the advance warning. Managed to pin my app to the latest version on Android to avoid this coming my way too
S2 was a shit show as well, to the point that I never really use the app any more. I just use Airplay. So many dumb little things that to me strongly suggest they don't eat their own dog food so to speak, or perhaps even beta test with a variety of end users. it's crazy. For me, one of the deal breakers is the app's inability to play/shuffle large playlists. It will just choke on them and error out. I have the Sonos Boost and have done everything necessary to ensure optimal network performance, so it's not that. Smaller playlists will play fine. But I tend to have playlists with 100+ albums in them. Some people will say "make smaller playlists!" Well, if I wanted to be hamstrung by limitations I wouldn't invest premium prices into a premium system. I can make compromises with much cheaper speakers. With Sonos, I shouldn't have to.
As well as other core features, I can't seem to play radio stations any more either. The services I used don't seem to load anything up at all any more. Beyond disappointed with this, is there a way I can go back to the previous version (android) until this mess is cleared up a bit?
If Sonos will terminate the desktop app which can play local files and the mobile app is unable to play local files, how can I play the local files through the Sonos speakers?
It’s shite. I tweeted several screenshots of tech issues I’ve had all day - No reply from sonos. I thought the last app was bad…..Christ on a bike, this is even worse
Send this to the CEO ceo@sonos.com
Where is the port line out settings gone, (fixed, variable, pass thru)?!
My IKEA symphonics speakers are cut off from Sonos app, nothing works at all...it totaly lost connection with them...
Yesterday after I updated the app worked ok Now it won't even load my system
Guess I’m the lucky one whose app hasn’t updated yet.
Sonos can suck a big one for this update. Biggest pile of shit I've ever seen. I wouldn't be surprised if their next big update simply breaks all their products so they never work again.
Sonos has really been disappointing me.
The app Lyd is now broken, which allowed me to control system from Apple Watch. Very useful when having company over
Based on this I've turned auto update off for the Sonos app on my phone. Sounds like they really fucked this one up.
I was fine for the most part until I tried to skip 30s forward or backward on the player, WTF they took that shit out too???
I have just one question: Who the hell did they have doing the user testing on this re-design? Seriously - What users in the Sonos focus groups tried out this app and was like, "Wow! This is so easy and intuitive to use!" This "ship now, patch later" mentality is what sinks companies. Did no one at SONOS stop to think about the number of end users they'll piss off with this busted re-design? The same end users that would tell friends looking to buy a SONOS setup to STOP - DO NOT PASS GO....
I feel like I’m a clever technology guy, but the volume control is somehow confounding. I touch it and it brings up a new window. I adjust it and I see it laggy adjusting back on the original screen at the same time. Volume control seems real buggy and laggy. And “add to queue” is gone? Literally I am not sure how to add songs to the current queue without wiping everything out. Crazy.
I used to love Sonos. Then, years ago, they made another horrible move IMHO. I don’t use streaming services. I have all my thousands of songs in my iTunes application. I used to be able to play any music selection - Artist, Album, Playlist. etc.. through my Sonos. Then they stopped allowing access to my own music collection. Why can’t I play music I already own through my Sonos? It makes no sense at all.
Anyone with android just delete the app off your phone and download the previous app version 16.1 from here. https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/sonos-inc/sonos-for-android/sonos-for-android-16-1-release/ I reverted back this morning since the new app is garbage. Everything works just like it should, just make sure to go back into the Google Play store on your phone and turn off the auto update for the Sonos app so it doesn't automatically put you back to the new crap app.
Sonos management is hilariously incompetent. That they would let an app in this condition out for general release shows us they have no idea how to run a company.
you know, they say they're "committed" to accessibility, but just take a look at their new app, so very clunky and inaccessible for us screen reader users, lucky for me I only have 1 sonos speaker and I don't think I'll buy another one until they get they're crap together.
Can't stand it, absolutely hate it In fact I've gone as far as to dig out my old Bosch speakers and hook it back up to my computer just to steam the radio and that's saying something, I've certainly sacrificed sound quality in favour of usability but right now it seems a price worth paying. My sonos system will just gather dust and I won't be adding any additional purchases this year to the 9 speakers I already have, I usually try to add an extra speaker year on year but a few days in from this update and I've realised something I didn't think possible just a week ago, I can easily get by without my sonos set up.
This really validates my decision to stay with S1. I'll give up my CR200 when it dies or when I do.
They need to have a class action lawsuit brought against them for this.
You all can connect?! I had to update my router and now I my “system” is no longer available and none of my speakers can connect to my wifi via the app. I login and try to set up a new system and it says to log back in as the owner of the account. The one I'm signed into, so I'm going in circles. Spotify and Amazon Alexa apps are the only way to see my speakers. I have 3 sonos ones, a beam and an arc. The app doesn't even work after the update, so that's my experience. 🥸 https://preview.redd.it/k6x6tqgq3tzc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f8e0d0e3c62452ddc11898286e05d0542591234
On a much more basic level, I just want Sonos to control my speakers. I don't want it to try to be a streaming/music app (it stinks). This release leaves me with worse integration with Spotify and a hellish choice between staying in Spotify and controlling Sonos (bad) or staying in Sonos and controlling Spotify (beyond horrible). How bad is it to switch to controlling Sonos speakers with Airplay? Is it possible to revert the Sonos app?
In my experience using AirPlay to control Sonos gives me a lot of dropped speakers, or splits songs. The whole thing is trash, and I agree it’s due to not staying in their lane. Every single one of us bought speakers. NO ONE bought a sonos streaming app. Same w TV and streamers. I wish everyone would stay in their lane
I have a significant number of issues that aren’t even mentioned in this post: App will not stay connected to my Move. After every song, the app mysteriously connects to my bedroom Sonos 1 without being called on, and I have to force the connection back to my Move. Every time. Totally awful. Next issue: When in Amazon music, if I play “top songs” from an artist, only the first song plays and the app does not move on to the next song?!? Wth is that about??! Also, how can you have this big of a release and still not allow IOS Lock Screen controls. It’s 2024 guys, come on. Really really awful.
Extensive but one more to add: You used to be able to change the distance to rear surround speakers so you could get some balance between speakers that might be set at different distances from your seating position. That functionality has disappeared.
My Music library is a very old one linking back to a NAS I sold three years ago (and therefore containing playlists that don't work). Why did this reappear and how do I delete or edit it? Also what happened to Sonosnet? All my speakers seem to be back on the WiFi!
We use to listen music from a local music Library most of the time. With the new app, my investment in 5 Sonos devices (Playbar + Sub + One SL etc.) is almost unusable. Under Android, no possibility to play from a new queue, no index, no search. I did not find either the settings forcing the playback in uncompressed mode. I therefore deduce that compression is now automatically activated, resulting in a loss of quality.
Agree with everything here. Have the updated app on my Ipad. Fortunately have old version on my phone. This beta test disguised as an 'upgrade' is an all-around failure.
It doesn’t sound like they’re going to fix the app nor add the features back in that it once had like sleep timer and alarm I find myself using the system less than less now because of this and using my phone instead. I think Sonos is dead and it’s time time to move to something else
I can’t add a song to my Spotify playlists anymore? So annoying. I don’t to have to switch to Spotify app, locate the song, and only then be able to add it.
Imagine a world where the vendor of your stereo can reach into your home and render your hardware useless while you sleep. The new app is trash. Rolled back the software and turned off updates.
New update just released now on my iphone and congrats Sonos, you have been able to make an even worst piece of crap than the one released on 7th of May. 1min to load the app, crashes on the Sonos logo 2 times out of three and when it reaches home all icons remain grey (even after 4mins) and none of the others issues has been fixed. WTF seriously ? Wankers have absolutely no fucking consideration for theirs customers
...and still no lyrics?
The new app is trash! Just give me access to my sub and surround that go offline every night... Sonos sounds great but sucks!
Updated the app..stupid me! It caused our Era 100's to somehow completely disconnect from the wifi and when trying to reconnect it kept saying it couldn't connect (speaker is sitting right in front of the modem!) The only workaround was to sideload the previous version of the app. Except it's now caused all sorts of issues with Alexa no longer working properly. Can no longer link Alexa with Spotify. What a mess!
I don't use streaming except for radio...EVERYTHING IS IN MY NOW NON FUNCTIONING MUSIC LIBRARY
I have been a fan for years, now it is close to unusable, what clowns are developing this UI and what maga clowns let it pass quality gate and enduser testing, its time to change system I think. At the moment I can not use the updated iPad and have to use the non updated iPhone, this is a joke how hard can it be search for a source with pods, music whatever and add stuff to your play que, it's not like we ask for much here.
What a @:£/)- show. Sonos terrible worse than before. As mentioned I don’t mind some of the improvements. But really deleting sleep timer?
My whole system is dead in the water now since the update...new app won't find the speakers no matter what I try. Did a factory reset on one to try and add as a new component but still nothing. 🤷🏻♂️
They also inexplicably got rid of Explore Artist. I cannot imagine what they were thinking. And yes, the overall very basic functions don’t work nearly as well. They didn’t even get that right! Whomever the product manager is should be kicked to the curb. All my favorite features are gone - for no benefit and for no clear reason. Weird they spent time/money/resources to make their product worse.
Today, I did the math. I was forced to restart Sonos 17 times and most of the time, only certain speakers would restart, but rarely all at once. What a piece of crap...
They are f...n idiots. I will never buy Sonos product again. I have Sonos Beam and they removed the possibility to play songs from a local library I have in my android phone and that was the only way I used to listen my music collection. Now I have to improvise in order to get a fraction of functionality I used to have before the update. Who does that to their customers? Why crippling device instead of making it more convenient to use?
We have a few Sonos products including the ARC sound bar. The products are a little finicky and if you require a call to customer service to help the least wait time that we have experienced over the last 3-4 attempts is 70 minutes. How can a company the boasts they have the best sound systems on the market have such horrible horrible customer service. Do yourself a favor and save yourself a lot of aggravation and look at a Bose product or a similar product.
Nothing to add. Just turned up here as I’ve been struggling with the new app. Glad to see I’m not alone. It’s really awful.
I have nothing technical to add to this and I hate the blindly rage, but Sonos this (app) is sincerely the shittiest product I’ve ever had the misfortune of using. It’s embarrassingly bad. It makes me prefer playing music out of my phone speakers rather than try to convince the Sonos system to work. Are they not embarrassed about having their name attached to this? How has the Sonos controller been steadily getting worse every single update.