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After the catastrophically crap update they rolled out a year or so ago all my sonos speakers pretty much stopped working.
Have they rolled out any useful updates or fixes yet?
All works now. Even the really old connect box is working fine.
Well when I say working fine, the connect is fine as long as you don't touch any of the buttons on it. Control it from a phone/ spotify and it's good. I have stuck a post-it with 'no' over the buttons.
I find playing through the App very poor so just use Spotify and connect on Bluetooth
Awful. Laggy, pretty non-intuitive... Also connect direct through Spotify and control it there.
Not noticed any issues for a long time with my system, it’s predominantly used as a surround system though and when playing music we use the inbuilt Alexa.
I use the S1 app because I have an old piece of hardware, and it works fine. Is this update to the S2 app?
Also connect direct through Spotify and control it there
Better still, don't even bother opening any app, just talk to the Sonos and tell it what to play!
I'm not sure if only s2, my stuff is s2 I'm pretty sure.
I stream to my sonos speakers normally via mixcloud or BBC sounds app, which still normally works fine.
But the update killed Alexa, she wouldn't listen to "play radio station" at all and over tone both speakers would fall out of stereo sink with each other and now one won't work at all no matter how many times I reset or sign out and in to the system.
It all worked gloriously perfect before they messed around with it and now it's just pony
Interesting reading this. The big gamble is that if you upgrade from S2 (the gold-coloured app) to the new Sonos app, you can't roll back to S2.
I'm still using S2 for my system (Play:1s, Play:3s, Beam) and it's kinda OK. A bit laggy with things like volume control, but no worse than it ever was, and eventually always works.
The new app was an absolute binfire, and apparently was using huge amounts of internet bandwidth (every request, even to change volume, was being sent to the internet and then the instruction being sent back to the speakers from there). Has that improved?
Its usable.
The overall UX design is poor - i struggle to remember how to group devices and switch between services and they've still got a lot of work to do to get back to feature parity, but the performance is much improved.
https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/the-new-sonos-app-and-future-feature-updates
Mine is still very laggy through the app, takes an ages to change volume or pause/stop anything. You end up pressing the bottoms a few times, it then cancels the action you tried to enact etc. it's much better than it was a few months ago but nowhere near functioning how it used to. They keep sending me emails trying to get me to buy more stuff, there is no way they are getting any more of my money anytime soon as I still find it a frustrating piece of kit to use.
I'll have to get mine back out to have a look at.
How do you cast / stream from the BBC sounds app.
I find the sounds app within Sonos to be crap. I can never seem to find out which podcast in the series I'm listening to
The lag is still terrible and frequently even just changing volume fails to work until it gruel catches up with itself. They’re gradually improving it but I think they should make the old S2 available for now.
Why was it so bad? I know nothing about electronics/SW, was there a firmware update or something built in?
It's sems monumentally bad for just a normal update? Like I'd done it, then released without any testing whatsoever
Mine still feels a bit buggy, I mostly listen to radio through Tunein, the best bit was where it'd never change station, seems better now but nowhere near where I'd hoped it'd be after a major update
Playing local files from my android phone via the app seems to be impossible now :-/
Am I missing something ?
How do you cast / stream from the BBC sounds app.
Alexa?
Are they trying to fold the company? I had a Sonos and it was terrible, I had to go through lengthy reconnection process every time I wanted to use it. I assumed this was me being thick but it sounds like things have got even worse
Sonos has always been an excellent system, and the sound quality especially if you use the separate amps is excellent. Mostly it has always worked (for me at least) really well as long as internet is working. It’s only the latest update where they have monumentally screwed up, and even now after a few fixes the new app appears to just take up too much processing power and bandwidth, and as a result is laggy and slow.
Sonos seem reluctant to admit it is rubbish and instead are gradually trying to improve it rather than just admitting defeat and going back to the old one. Even now several months down the line you still can’t create or edit Playlists, which is infuriating.
How do you cast / stream from the BBC sounds app
I
Bottom right corner in the app when something is playing is the airplay/stream button
Got it throughout the house. Works fine.
Mine has been fixed by getting one of their network box things. Was only about £30 and now it is bullet proof. Before then I was about to throw it out the window.
If my wife plays music on the beam through the Sonos app, Alexa decides she won't play anything from Amazon music.she says she will, but just silence. I have to force close the sonos app and it's good again.
No dramas with tv etc
Still not loving it. Cocks up the playing order of episodes on sounds random stopping of audio. All hardwired
Our Sonos speaker lives in the hall cupboard. It’s been replaced by a small Google speaker. I have ordered a new bigger Google speaker. While looking for a replacement I noticed John Lewis were still selling Sonos speakers. Can’t believe anyone would buy one nowadays. Shame because they are good speakers just a crap system.
S2 app is better than it was. Generally problem free. Sometimes I get devices not appearing on the app. Apart from that buch better experience. They really could have sorted that as part of a beta program.
The usability of the app is still not great, especially podcasts. As above it can be easier to use Spotify and tell it to tell Sonos to play the thing you want.
I don't want a voice interface.
I had to delete the app and reinstall, the windows controller still did everything.
I never use the Sonos app beyond initial setup, and just AirPlay everything. All works for me.
Yep v laggy and hard ot navigate on the latest app. Almost as if there's a wifi chanel conflict.
I do drive music from Spotify half the time but that's missing easy linking to multiple rooms etc and the Sonos app SHOULD work - their kit wasn't cheap! I can't use airplay/bluetooth as a couple of my Sonos 1's just predate bluetooth visibility.
Why was it so bad? I know nothing about electronics/SW, was there a firmware update or something built in?
It’s sems monumentally bad for just a normal update? Like I’d done it, then released without any testing whatsoever
Mine still feels a bit buggy, I mostly listen to radio through Tunein, the best bit was where it’d never change station, seems better now but nowhere near where I’d hoped it’d be after a major update
The old S2 app was based loosely on the original software foundations from back in the day. It's never worked too well with mesh wifi systems, and apparently other aspects are becoming outdated. Sonos's answer to "this isn't working on my pretty average network" was always "oh, it's your network, nothing wrong with our app", btw.
This year, under pressure to show revenue growth, Sonos's big launch was the headphones, in May/ June. They don't work with the old S2 app, and the app had to be rebuilt from the ground up - ripping up all the old basic stuff and starting from scratch with a cloud-first app. To hit the hardware launch date they rushed the app rollout, didn't test it properly, didn't fix the bugs, and it was an absolute car crash - it lacked basic functionality like being able to play your own library, Spotify integration, volume control that worked, being able to recognise your speakers etc. To compound the issue, a few weeks after the new app was rolled out, it automatically updated the firmware on your Sonos speakers, so that they would no longer work (at all) with the old S2 app, so everyone was stuck with this hellhole of a new app.
Since then they've been desperately trying to bring its performance back to the (still imperfect) performance of the old S2 app. The r/sonos subreddit tells the story in full!
Apparently even aside from the software, the headphones are also buggy, but hey ho. And Sonos I think expects to lose $20m this year (and lost significant market value) due to this complete cluster
The underlying issue is that Sonos makes money from selling expensive (and very good) speakers; but they rely utterly on the (free) app. The CEO is an absolute clown and clearly forgot the second part of that equation
is there a simple way to get Airplay to recognise the speakers relatively quickly to play via Spotify App ? I have a Sonos 1 and a 5 and it can take 45 seconds plus for the Sonos speakers to show up, and sometimes they don't at all. I never use the Sonos app to play music
Thanks Nicko that’s a very lucid explanation. I feel lucky to have such old Sonos speakers that I have to use the S1 app.
As a matter of interest, does anyone have any experience of good alternatives to Sonos, if I’m thinking of upgrading in the future?
It's improved but still feels like an age from app opening to actually being able to control a speaker. I mostly Airplay to them now or just ask Alexa to play a radio station.
Been playing with Homepods and proper Alexa speakers, I just need to work out how to let a kids profile use Plex, where all our audiobooks and music are stored.
As a matter of interest, does anyone have any experience of good alternatives to Sonos, if I’m thinking of upgrading in the future
I threw my sonos speakers out, I actually left them on the front garden wall for any passer-by to take (I do feel a tad sorry to have dumped such shite on anyone else) and bought edifier speakers. They work first time, every time and I have yet to be enraged by them. Sound good too.
Odd to hear such ardent handwringing.
The app is not great a bit laggy at times, and I wish apps like audible and bbc sounds connected directly rather than having to do it through the app. But I've never (touch wood) experienced the outages or network issues other have.
Quite an old system now - a Play 1 in three rooms and an original soundbar, sub and couple of play 1s in the main living space.
does anyone have any experience of good alternatives to Sonos, if I’m thinking of upgrading in the future?
+1
Odd to hear such ardent handwringing
You obviously didn’t read the Trustpilot review linked to then, 86% giving it one star out of over five thousand review.
You obviously didn’t read the Trustpilot review linked to then, 86% giving it one star out of over five thousand review.
That's exactly what I was referring to.
Obviously aware that people tend to be a lot more vocal when they have a problem....but it really isn't my experience.
I do hope they survive as a company...which sounds like a lot of reputational damage needs addressing.....from the purely selfish perspective that I don't want what is working just fine for me (or a good 8/10 kind of fine) bricked.
I'm this:
I never use the Sonos app beyond initial setup, and just AirPlay everything. All works for me.
and Alexa for Radio Stations or sometimes Apple Music if I can remember how to correctly ask Alexa to play stuff...
I read about people having lots of issues on the FB group, but its tough to tell if its user, hardware or software...
I do find the app and Sonos voice control to be shite...
I’ve been cursing the Sonos app since it was updated a while ago (12 months?). It was only just usable. Horribly slow.
Prompted by this thread I decided to look into it. It seems that IP address conflicts are common and a way to fix this is to power off all Sonos devices, reboot router and then turn on all Sonos devices.
It did the trick for me. The Sonos app is now far more responsive. Much much better. I still don’t find it intuitive, but at least it’s now usable.
I've found it is at least usable by assigning static IP addresses to each Sonos unit. Prior to that the Android connection was very variable and iPhone unusable. It is now reasonably quick to connect and operate radio functions via the App though Spotify is still significantly better connected directly rather than through Sonos.
Thinking back the best my various iterations of Sonos systems ever worked was through the CR100 controller. Over the years we have had many of the connectivity issues which are widely reported.
If I was starting again I wouldn't buy Sonos.
I never use the Sonos app beyond initial setup, and just AirPlay everything. All works for me.
Yep, me too. I go into the app now and then to turn on/off Night Mode depending if I think the film I'm watching is going to be waking up the neighbours.
is there a simple way to get Airplay to recognise the speakers relatively quickly to play via Spotify App ? I have a Sonos 1 and a 5 and it can take 45 seconds plus for the Sonos speakers to show up, and sometimes they don’t at all. I never use the Sonos app to play music
My Sonos speakers show up quicker than my Apple Homepod speakers do, though both are not far off instant.
My Sonos speakers show up quicker than my Apple Homepod speakers
Any opinion which is better: for app and for sound quality?