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Figures. After 20 years of positive recommendations from friends and family, and years of hemming and hawing, I finally bit the bullet and decked out my home wi

Figures. After 20 years of positive recommendations from friends and family, and years of hemming and hawing, I finally bit the bullet and decked out my home with Sonos. Six months later they redesign the app and hugely cripple the experience. And now they're going to sell my data. What is our recourse? These are expensive pieces of equipment installed everywhere in our home, and some of them have microphones. This can't be legal, can it? Can we form a class action? Because they never would have gotten a dime from me if I considered it possible that they would be able to start selling my data (some of these things have microphones in them, ffs) 20 years of good will undone.

Neywiny 2y ago
Can you backdate the app? I've taken to even turning off auto updates from Google Play (would be nice to leave some on for anything I care about security but whatever). No more random "yeah we redesigned everything and now it sucks" surprises. But, some apps phone home and require updates.
- solardev 2y ago
  Maybe there's some way to do it manually, but not an official way that I know of. I tried to contact the company many times to do just that and all were ignored. FYI, a very similar thing happened less than a decade ago, when they moved from software version "S1" to "S2" and stopped providing support (which is pretty much bricking, because they're all app-based) to their older devices. They eventually relented and changed course after a huge uproar from their earliest customers. This time around, they did the same thing but without the major version rebrand. It's not an "S3", just a stealth forced update. I really hope someone hacks in third-party firmware for these things. The hardware is fine, but their software and support are just atrocious.
  - Neywiny 2y ago
    If you're on Android, it's quite simple really. You have to uninstall the app completely from the phone (any other accounts or work profiles or anything will interfere) or use an app cloner that can change the metadata. Anyway, you get the apk from the Internet and hope it's trustworthy then install and disable updates in the play store. I've done this countless times. Only downside is losing any data not able to be exported/imported/clouded. For iPhone, idk
    - solardev 2y ago
      Well, the app is also tied to specific firmware versions, and both communicate to the Sonos cloud. It's not clear to me whether downgrading the app will make it lose connection with the speakers (which itself is quite a hassle to re-setup), and whether the two combined would be able to talk to the cloud for very long after that.
      - Neywiny 2y ago
        Very valid concerns. Sounds like they've done effort to make it risky to be out of date. I'm sorry to hear it

Neywiny 2y ago

Can you backdate the app? I've taken to even turning off auto updates from Google Play (would be nice to leave some on for anything I care about security but whatever). No more random "yeah we redesigned everything and now it sucks" surprises. But, some apps phone home and require updates.

solardev 2y ago
Maybe there's some way to do it manually, but not an official way that I know of. I tried to contact the company many times to do just that and all were ignored. FYI, a very similar thing happened less than a decade ago, when they moved from software version "S1" to "S2" and stopped providing support (which is pretty much bricking, because they're all app-based) to their older devices. They eventually relented and changed course after a huge uproar from their earliest customers. This time around, they did the same thing but without the major version rebrand. It's not an "S3", just a stealth forced update. I really hope someone hacks in third-party firmware for these things. The hardware is fine, but their software and support are just atrocious.
- Neywiny 2y ago
  If you're on Android, it's quite simple really. You have to uninstall the app completely from the phone (any other accounts or work profiles or anything will interfere) or use an app cloner that can change the metadata. Anyway, you get the apk from the Internet and hope it's trustworthy then install and disable updates in the play store. I've done this countless times. Only downside is losing any data not able to be exported/imported/clouded. For iPhone, idk
  - solardev 2y ago
    Well, the app is also tied to specific firmware versions, and both communicate to the Sonos cloud. It's not clear to me whether downgrading the app will make it lose connection with the speakers (which itself is quite a hassle to re-setup), and whether the two combined would be able to talk to the cloud for very long after that.
    - Neywiny 2y ago
      Very valid concerns. Sounds like they've done effort to make it risky to be out of date. I'm sorry to hear it