Products · Product
Sonos
Raised as a usability problem by 94 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2014–2026), in 50 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Speakers randomly drop out, needing 61 troubleshooting steps each timeUnreviewed
20142026- Speaker is unusable until user logs in and grants precise location access2025-01-14
- Speakers silently drop wifi and create unpredictable private networks without any notice or visibility in the app2024-08-21
- Speakers randomly drop out, needing 61 steps of troubleshooting each time2024-08-21
Loading and buffering delay before audio starts playingUnreviewed
20142026- Loading the app takes too many seconds before playback can start2025-01-13
- Takes nearly two minutes to update before a playlist can be selected2025-01-13
- Playing a song on Spotify takes three tries and about 25 seconds every time2024-08-24
Volume control is laggy and sometimes doesn't workUnreviewed
20142026- Volume changes lag so much it gets too loud before you notice2025-01-14
- Volume controls become unresponsive because the app now depends on the cloud2025-01-13
- Songs play far louder than others, and max volume setting doesn't prevent it2024-09-27
Older phones can't install the app; subwoofer setup needs speaker updateUnreviewed
20142026- Old speaker needs a different controller app to set up after software update2025-09-27
- Speakers can't be set up or named without the phone app2025-01-13
- Older phone can't install app; subwoofer setup impossible on Windows app and requires speaker update2020-01-18
Toggles revert or do nothing silently, and speakers vanishUnreviewed
20142026- Must open the app twice before the UI loads current streams on speakers2025-01-14
- Toggles revert or do nothing silently, and speakers vanish from the app2024-08-22
- App is horrendous and uses dark patterns, making speakers effectively unusable2024-08-11
App blocks music playback until a software update is installedUnreviewed
20142026- Old app showed wrong playback state and ignored skip and pause commands2025-01-14
- Old Android phone is blocked from the latest app, forcing a device upgrade to play music2020-01-18
- App blocks playing music until a software update is installed2019-10-02
Spotify integration fails until logging out and back inUnreviewed
20142026- Sonos app is bad and Alexa won't play Spotify despite setup attempts2024-11-28
- The Sonos app is terrible, and Spotify integration sometimes fails until you log out and back in2022-01-07
- Spotify was only usable through Sonos's awful reimplemented interface2020-01-19
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Soundbar goes to sleep after a few minutes of TV inactivity, after an update2026-09-23
- Basic functions like choosing speaker and content no longer work properly2026-05-13
- Bad software update degraded the experience for most users and made the system flakier2025-12-26
- Newsletter modal and cookie warning block each other, frustrating visitors2025-12-16
- Old speaker needs a different controller app to set up after software update2025-09-27
- Sonos soundbar required a poorly designed app the commenter found very bad2025-03-14
- Delete account button does not actually delete the account2025-01-16
- App is unreliable, so playing music from it is hit or miss2025-01-15
- Volume and skip commands lag, fail silently, or fire late after repeated presses2025-01-15
- Volume changes lag so much it gets too loud before you notice2025-01-14
- Old app showed wrong playback state and ignored skip and pause commands2025-01-14
- Must open the app twice before the UI loads current streams on speakers2025-01-14
- Interface is slow and hangs, and gets slower after each update2025-01-14
- Speaker is unusable until user logs in and grants precise location access2025-01-14
- App becomes erratic and unusable when home internet connection is unstable2025-01-14
- New cloud-routed architecture adds latency and slows the app, especially on older speakers2025-01-13
- Search and playback are so broken it often doesn't do what the user wants2025-01-13
- Playback stops on brief internet hiccups and must be manually restarted2025-01-13
- Speakers can't be set up or named without the phone app2025-01-13
- Occasional issues with the new app design, though not impacting daily use much2025-01-13
- New app is sluggish and slow to respond to interactions2025-01-13
- Loading the app takes too many seconds before playback can start2025-01-13
- Recent app update broke things, leaving users burned, though most issues now fixed2025-01-13
- The app is confusing and hard to use, described as absolutely trash2025-01-13
- The software is so bad that users have no better alternative2025-01-13
- V2 lacks power-user features the v1 app had, such as debugging received audio format2025-01-13
- Must scroll through many singles and EPs to find full albums2025-01-13
- Volume controls become unresponsive because the app now depends on the cloud2025-01-13
- Casting from YouTube Music requires connecting accounts and waiting for a separate app2025-01-13
- New app is unusable, forcing the buyer to return the soundbar2025-01-13
- New app feels less intuitive and slower to use2025-01-13
- App freezes, has connection problems, and is hard to use2025-01-13
- Takes nearly two minutes to update before a playlist can be selected2025-01-13
- Sonos app became basically unusable, and Google Cast casting grew unreliable then vanished2025-01-13
- Latest app is less intuitive and reliable, and the network connection fails for months2024-12-03
- Sonos app's UI is so bad the commenter must use another app2024-11-29
- Sonos app is bad and Alexa won't play Spotify despite setup attempts2024-11-28
- Error screens need repeating 4-5 times before allowing alternative workarounds; app unstable2024-11-25
- New app is so buggy and missing features that the owner barely uses the system2024-11-25
- The redesigned app is buggy and hard to use, with no easy way to get help2024-11-25
- Songs play far louder than others, and max volume setting doesn't prevent it2024-09-27
- Hard to set up with many devices; audio syncs poorly with lag and glitches2024-09-27
- Certain app actions have added 500ms to 2 seconds of lag2024-09-03
- Music won't stop playing from the app, so the user must unplug the speaker2024-09-03
- App is very slow when connecting, tapping, selecting, and updating2024-08-30
- Playing a song on Spotify takes three tries and about 25 seconds every time2024-08-24
- Buttons and toggles fail silently, leaving users unsure whether anything happened2024-08-24
- Toggles revert or do nothing silently, and speakers vanish from the app2024-08-22
- Wasted a lot of time trying to get the app working2024-08-21
- Speakers randomly drop out, needing 61 steps of troubleshooting each time2024-08-21