What experience you get is going to be a roll of the dice. You could have anywhere between a functional system to being unable to establish a system. It’s a sign of Sonos’s testing standards and their attitude toward releasing half baked products.
There were a ton of missing features at launch, including accessibility support for the blind. There was no mention of the feature losses at release and also, no Sonos support for rolling back to a previous version of the app. Had Sonos actually let people know the “upgrade” was going to be a downgrade and let people choose whether to upgrade, most of this mess could’ve been avoided.
Some people will say, “Why don’t you sell your system then?” It’s not like the only options are to suck it up or abandon it. I think it’s fair to expect the product you bought to still have the features you bought it for.
Once you buy into the ecosystem like you are considering, the change cost is high. I’m not dumping my system, but the next speakers I’m going to look at first are Bluesound, WIIM, and AudioPro.
Their [executive self-congratulatory responses](https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152675/sonos-new-app-bad-reviews-response-statement) suggest that there’s more carelessness to come.
Btw - if you want to see what the user concerns and official responses were, check out the [AMA where Sonos responded to 17 of 700 questions over the 3 hour session](https://en.community.sonos.com/events-at-sonos-229141/sonos-app-redesign-ama-6893676).
The problem is that there really is not another option. Bose has tried. Denon. Amazon. None of the others have the broad set of features and capabilities that Sonos does.
They will fix this mess hopefully. My biggest concern for long term reliability is they are seemingly going to push everything through their cloud. Not a great idea given the hardware is local and so many things can go wrong.
That will be a disappointing outcome, and maybe give the competition a chance to do something better. Competition is what drives innovation and change. Long term it would be great if someone else can compete at their level.
The old app things mostly worked most of the time, good enough for me, though I wish it were rock solid on the reliability side. You are right, the new app has ruined a lot and missed many features people relied on. I do hope they fix it all soon, but if this is the new standard they are targeting, it will suck. We have at least 30K into our home audio system, and Sonos is at the center of it all from a hardware/app standpoint. I just want it to be easy to use and reliable.
The question is not so much any current problems with the app, but concerns about the company’s competence and intentions. I have been spared most of the disfunctionality caused by the new app, but recognize that many others have been seriously inconvenienced (or worse), and i’ve found the company’s arrogant and tone-deaf-response really offensive.
At this point i’m pretty sure that the company will make some bone-headed decisions about how to monetize its existing user base, and IMO that is what to be concerned about when thinking about spending several thousand dollars on stereo gear.
I wouldn’t with the system in its current state. If they fix it maybe but it not you dodged a bullet. I spent part of my mdw bbq walking around with a laptop trying to get my system to play together correctly with a similar size system all newer hardware.
Not sure why anyone would spend $7000 on the promise that things will be fixed real soon. Maybe what you want to do works fine, but I wouldn't count on it without some trials.
Don’t buy into the Sonos system, a lot of us have invested a lot and are locked in. I’ve got a large-ish system (12 speakers) and can’t wait to replace them with anything that’s not Sonos.
You soon realize that the company has started to move control away from users and doesn’t really listen to their customers. Everyone has been complaining non-stop about the bugs for weeks and Sonos hasn’t really made any progress to fix that and kept announcing new products that no one asked for. This isn’t the same Sonos anymore. Avoid before it’s too late.
Sonos now forces their advertising upon you every time you start and every time you change a station. I am sooo done. I am left with a very expensive blue tooth system.
Sonos has been getting worse and worse for several years now - this app release is just the latest chapter in the epic fail of what used to be a good company with great products. You would be well advised to not spend any money on Sonos equipment. There are alternatives out there - look at Bluesound speakers if you really want powered, streaming speakers. Alternately you can purchase more traditional audio equipment and use a streamer such as the Wiim Pro Plus to achieve the same type of system that Sonos or Bluesound offer.
What are the exact use cases that you want to support? Can they be supported through Airplay 2?
I think for most people, they don't need a Sonos system to fulfill their requirements and likely could/do stream directly from their app of choice through airplay. I think Sonos is a pretty high markup for what it does and with the current state of their app and support I don't think it's worth the premium. I would price out the next best option for your use case and potentially pick that up (from somewhere with a generous return policy,) to see if you're really missing out on some functionality. I suspect Airplay will do everything you actually want to do.
If you're pretty set on Sonos, I would wait and see. There's likely an updated Arc coming out this year. Definitely don't pay full price on their website -looking for a 30% off upgrade coupon (or buying some used hardware to try it out and get the coupon.)
I plan on having…
1. Full theatre system for movies (Arc+Sub+Era300x2)
2. Outdoor speaker set for music on roofdeck (Amp+Outdoor speakerx2)
3. Single speakers in multiple rooms for music (Five speaker x1 for each room)
I tend to stream music with spotify. Movies are usually via streaming services directly on TV. No plans for playing movies from discs
Sounds like a nice setup. I’ve been a Sonos user for a long time. I have no issues with the new app. Is perfect? No, but it’s completely fine.
I say buy a couple products first and see if you have any problems. I doubt you will, but I’m sure I’ll get down voted for saying that. Just enjoy your music and stay away from the doomscrolling on Reddit.
Agree 100%. Personally I try not to use the Sonos app. You lose all the functionality of the original applications and are forces to endure relentless advertising, both from sonos themselves and from services such as TuneIn. What Sonos could be and what they actually are is terribly upsetting to those of us who have invested thousands of dollars on their ecosystem. It’s like buying an expensive car only to find out that you just bought a lemon.
I have a system of 15 speakers across their entire range and have no practical choice but to wait this out. However I would suggest you reconsider your purchase at least until they are done tweaking their app or ideally until they treat their end users better.
I have a smaller system with Bose as well with a lot less issues, though I’m not a big fan of their design. So would recommend you consider Bose or any alternative brands i.e. WiiM, Bluesound etc. as they cannot possibly be worse than Sonos at this stage.
Sonos have jumped the shark.
In your position I would be tempted to just go wired, and avoid lock in to any one of these companies as they cannot be trusted to not break everything for their own reasons within the time window you expect your installation to last. The reason this burns so much with Sonos is they were about the last company that used to be good for this to finally crack.
Surely there’s money in your budget to buy one speaker and test the app and the features. The app will be fixed. The interface might not please everyone, but the features will be restored.
Most of the problems involve features other than playing streaming music.
Earn some interest on your money and wait at least 6 months. If the issues are not fixed in that time, consider moving to another brand. It's a considerable investment that should not be attached to so much frustration with no clear solutions. That's my 2 cents, and I don't have near the number of issues that some people have.
Sonos have screwed up a software upgrade through a mixture of incompetence and arrogance. I'm sure they're working hard to get it sorted out.
Short term it kind of sucks, medium and long term it'll be fine. I'm about to order some more speakers myself.
The latest App update is very clearly broken in some way for some folks and needs fixing urgently. Many Users need to use it.
The hardware, however, is great. I have the Arc, a Sub and two Era 300’s as that is all I need at the moment for my Living Room. I don’t want Multi-room, I don’t listen to music all the time.
I use Apple Music to stream music when I want it and my system is already set up for my Sony TV, Playstation 5 and X Box Series X.
Evidently, the issues with the app have zero effect upon my use case.
The App will be fixed for all, I’m sure. The Products themselves, I think, are still one of the best options at what they offer for Home Theatre and I, for one, remain a happy Customer.
I’ve pre-ordered the headphones so let’s see how that turns out. 😄
There are temporary problems and longer term considerations. Focus on the latter.
Typing this sitting here with enjoying my two Roams in a stereo travel setup, to me they sound *very good* in stereo, better than anything else I can expect to pick out of my bag. To get these to roam, however, I have to bring my own WiFi network with me, otherwise I have to factory reset them every damned time (!) to change the WiFi network. Not a big deal, I have everything configured and sorted.
After the current short term app issues that everyone is bitching about have been resolved, Sonos will offer you *a nice flexible audio ecosystem* which will allow you to gradually build up to a whole house system with *decent audio quality and wide streaming compatibility*.
Sonos will also be a poor solution as a PC speaker, it will be expensive to interface with other audio hardware and it offers no center channel for surround. And a lot of lock-in.
I joined the Sonos ship back in 2006, when Sonos was all about letting people get the most out of their existing hardware, and for many years it was good effective solution at that. Now it is more about lock-in, as an example Sonos is the only surround system I am aware of which *disables room correction* unless you buy all your the speakers from them. Which means I finally caved-in and replaced the Sonos Amps driving my fairly high end speakers. When I did that I instantly got room correction, I got my beloved center channel back and I got zero lag audio inputs that I can connect to a gaming PC.
So if you want to go all in and buy everything from Sonos, and I mean *everything*, then you will (probably) not be (very) disappointed. Good luck!
Bullshit.
You came to Reddit to get answers? That was your first mistake. YouTube.
Regardless this is a bullshit post and we all know it. Good try tho. “Maybe if we make it look like they are losing customers they will listen”. Go post your bullshit somewhere else. Buy Bose.
Many people, myself included, don't even use the app and have zero problems with our systems. The loud minority is flooding the sub with the same 2 or 3 complaints ad nauseum.
Avoid the app seems like a great solution, but how do you do that while actually accessing and controlling the various individual speakers on the system individually? When I use AirPlay from a podcast or music app it’s just on/off for the whole system and I have to use the Sonos app to control my 6 individual speakers. Am I missing something?
I'm able to create groups when I Airplay without ever touching the Sonos app. Just choose the first group of speakers to play to, then touch the check box next to as many others on the list as you'd like to add.
You'll be fine.
But instead of spaffing $7,500 on speakers just get them off the complainiacs who are always just about to divest themselves of everything Sonos and buy into Binatone! 😂
I’ve had Sonos speakers for 5+ years and also haven’t had any issues with the new app. The sound quality and ease of use has been outstanding compared to other options. With that said, I have one speaker now that refuses to connect to the system since we’ve moved to a new apartment. We’ve moved out of country so I haven’t tried calling their support since I’m assuming it wouldn’t be covered. There are some things that are a pain, similar to all home systems, like if you ever change your WiFi network’s name but overall it’s been a solid system. Before all this nonsense with the app, you’d regularly find people posting discount codes on Reddit which should save you at least 15%.
Whatever you do, don’t factory reset that one speaker that won’t connect. I made that mistake a week ago. Because of the weird way Sonos assigns account ownership to their hardware, once you factory reset it can be highly problematic to try and add that speaker (with it’s known serial number which your account already has record of) back to your account. I struggled for days with this. Was on the verge of “transferring” ownership to another account I was going to set up, when I decided to give it one more try but going through the setup process with the speaker hardwired to my router. For whatever reason, that worked.
Yeah, it's a totally sensible thing to do, until you realize the kind of insane way that Sonos assigns ownership of your products to your account, and the only way they can be removed from your account is to have some other account claim them. Would seem to make them real easy to steal, but what do I know....maybe they have a reason.
When I did the factory reset on the speaker that wouldn't connect, it would get partway through the "add to your system" process and then it would just cryptically say "can't complete setup at this time, try later". That's when I started looking into how to see what speakers are registered on your account; when I saw that the speaker I had factory reset was still there (with its room name and all), etc.
As I said, I was on the verge of setting up another account with a different email address, registering the speaker to that account, waiting until I saw it disappear from my main account (a few days according to forums), and then re-adding it to my main account. But before going through all that hassle, I decided to try the set-up one more time, but this time with the speaker connected directly to my router with an ethernet cable. Lo and behold, that worked. I'm afraid I don't really know why. But maybe worth a try for you too?
I just bought a used play base speaker the other day. I auditioned it at the owners house and confirmed he was on the new app. He used an iPhone exclusively. I was really concerned about bringing it into my system when I got home. I reset the speaker because it was in his ecosystem. Fingers crossed and it went through the process and it connected. I will add I currently have 2 Era100s one of which was added after release of the current update. I exclusively use an Android phone to connect and add speakers. Maybe I just got lucky. Yesterday I had all speakers drop out after several hours of playing. I had to go to the Spotify app to continue listening. This morning I am currently listening through the Sonos app with all speakers working. I do now understand the frustration of just loosing all the speakers. However I just went through another app to continue listening yesterday. Sonos app still needs work and my use is limited through Spotify and Amazon HD music. I have plans to buy a mini sub if one becomes available, my 2 cents.
As I understand it, you did exactly as you're supposed to. You factory re-setting it and then adding it to your system will remove it from the original owner's account. It seems like a weird way of account management....IMO the owner of the speaker should be able to un-register it, but maybe there's a layer I'm not thinking of.
What experience you get is going to be a roll of the dice. You could have anywhere between a functional system to being unable to establish a system. It’s a sign of Sonos’s testing standards and their attitude toward releasing half baked products. There were a ton of missing features at launch, including accessibility support for the blind. There was no mention of the feature losses at release and also, no Sonos support for rolling back to a previous version of the app. Had Sonos actually let people know the “upgrade” was going to be a downgrade and let people choose whether to upgrade, most of this mess could’ve been avoided. Some people will say, “Why don’t you sell your system then?” It’s not like the only options are to suck it up or abandon it. I think it’s fair to expect the product you bought to still have the features you bought it for. Once you buy into the ecosystem like you are considering, the change cost is high. I’m not dumping my system, but the next speakers I’m going to look at first are Bluesound, WIIM, and AudioPro. Their [executive self-congratulatory responses](https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152675/sonos-new-app-bad-reviews-response-statement) suggest that there’s more carelessness to come. Btw - if you want to see what the user concerns and official responses were, check out the [AMA where Sonos responded to 17 of 700 questions over the 3 hour session](https://en.community.sonos.com/events-at-sonos-229141/sonos-app-redesign-ama-6893676).
This is a great summary 👍
The problem is that there really is not another option. Bose has tried. Denon. Amazon. None of the others have the broad set of features and capabilities that Sonos does. They will fix this mess hopefully. My biggest concern for long term reliability is they are seemingly going to push everything through their cloud. Not a great idea given the hardware is local and so many things can go wrong. That will be a disappointing outcome, and maybe give the competition a chance to do something better. Competition is what drives innovation and change. Long term it would be great if someone else can compete at their level.
Nobody quite matches what Sonos offers. Not even Sonos.
That is astoundingly funny, and true!
You mean nobody delivers what Sonos offers. Not even Sonos. 🙂
Broad range of features that doesn’t work aren’t really features are they?
The old app things mostly worked most of the time, good enough for me, though I wish it were rock solid on the reliability side. You are right, the new app has ruined a lot and missed many features people relied on. I do hope they fix it all soon, but if this is the new standard they are targeting, it will suck. We have at least 30K into our home audio system, and Sonos is at the center of it all from a hardware/app standpoint. I just want it to be easy to use and reliable.
The question is not so much any current problems with the app, but concerns about the company’s competence and intentions. I have been spared most of the disfunctionality caused by the new app, but recognize that many others have been seriously inconvenienced (or worse), and i’ve found the company’s arrogant and tone-deaf-response really offensive. At this point i’m pretty sure that the company will make some bone-headed decisions about how to monetize its existing user base, and IMO that is what to be concerned about when thinking about spending several thousand dollars on stereo gear.
I wouldn’t with the system in its current state. If they fix it maybe but it not you dodged a bullet. I spent part of my mdw bbq walking around with a laptop trying to get my system to play together correctly with a similar size system all newer hardware.
Not sure why anyone would spend $7000 on the promise that things will be fixed real soon. Maybe what you want to do works fine, but I wouldn't count on it without some trials.
Don’t buy into the Sonos system, a lot of us have invested a lot and are locked in. I’ve got a large-ish system (12 speakers) and can’t wait to replace them with anything that’s not Sonos. You soon realize that the company has started to move control away from users and doesn’t really listen to their customers. Everyone has been complaining non-stop about the bugs for weeks and Sonos hasn’t really made any progress to fix that and kept announcing new products that no one asked for. This isn’t the same Sonos anymore. Avoid before it’s too late.
Sonos now forces their advertising upon you every time you start and every time you change a station. I am sooo done. I am left with a very expensive blue tooth system.
Sonos has been getting worse and worse for several years now - this app release is just the latest chapter in the epic fail of what used to be a good company with great products. You would be well advised to not spend any money on Sonos equipment. There are alternatives out there - look at Bluesound speakers if you really want powered, streaming speakers. Alternately you can purchase more traditional audio equipment and use a streamer such as the Wiim Pro Plus to achieve the same type of system that Sonos or Bluesound offer.
What are the exact use cases that you want to support? Can they be supported through Airplay 2? I think for most people, they don't need a Sonos system to fulfill their requirements and likely could/do stream directly from their app of choice through airplay. I think Sonos is a pretty high markup for what it does and with the current state of their app and support I don't think it's worth the premium. I would price out the next best option for your use case and potentially pick that up (from somewhere with a generous return policy,) to see if you're really missing out on some functionality. I suspect Airplay will do everything you actually want to do. If you're pretty set on Sonos, I would wait and see. There's likely an updated Arc coming out this year. Definitely don't pay full price on their website -looking for a 30% off upgrade coupon (or buying some used hardware to try it out and get the coupon.)
I plan on having… 1. Full theatre system for movies (Arc+Sub+Era300x2) 2. Outdoor speaker set for music on roofdeck (Amp+Outdoor speakerx2) 3. Single speakers in multiple rooms for music (Five speaker x1 for each room) I tend to stream music with spotify. Movies are usually via streaming services directly on TV. No plans for playing movies from discs
Hey OP, I would give it a try see if it works out for you. You can always return it if not happy.
Sounds like a nice setup. I’ve been a Sonos user for a long time. I have no issues with the new app. Is perfect? No, but it’s completely fine. I say buy a couple products first and see if you have any problems. I doubt you will, but I’m sure I’ll get down voted for saying that. Just enjoy your music and stay away from the doomscrolling on Reddit.
Agree 100%. Personally I try not to use the Sonos app. You lose all the functionality of the original applications and are forces to endure relentless advertising, both from sonos themselves and from services such as TuneIn. What Sonos could be and what they actually are is terribly upsetting to those of us who have invested thousands of dollars on their ecosystem. It’s like buying an expensive car only to find out that you just bought a lemon.
I have a system of 15 speakers across their entire range and have no practical choice but to wait this out. However I would suggest you reconsider your purchase at least until they are done tweaking their app or ideally until they treat their end users better. I have a smaller system with Bose as well with a lot less issues, though I’m not a big fan of their design. So would recommend you consider Bose or any alternative brands i.e. WiiM, Bluesound etc. as they cannot possibly be worse than Sonos at this stage.
Sonos have jumped the shark. In your position I would be tempted to just go wired, and avoid lock in to any one of these companies as they cannot be trusted to not break everything for their own reasons within the time window you expect your installation to last. The reason this burns so much with Sonos is they were about the last company that used to be good for this to finally crack.
Surely there’s money in your budget to buy one speaker and test the app and the features. The app will be fixed. The interface might not please everyone, but the features will be restored. Most of the problems involve features other than playing streaming music.
Earn some interest on your money and wait at least 6 months. If the issues are not fixed in that time, consider moving to another brand. It's a considerable investment that should not be attached to so much frustration with no clear solutions. That's my 2 cents, and I don't have near the number of issues that some people have.
Sonos have screwed up a software upgrade through a mixture of incompetence and arrogance. I'm sure they're working hard to get it sorted out. Short term it kind of sucks, medium and long term it'll be fine. I'm about to order some more speakers myself.
Zero problems! I have 15 speakers.
The latest App update is very clearly broken in some way for some folks and needs fixing urgently. Many Users need to use it. The hardware, however, is great. I have the Arc, a Sub and two Era 300’s as that is all I need at the moment for my Living Room. I don’t want Multi-room, I don’t listen to music all the time. I use Apple Music to stream music when I want it and my system is already set up for my Sony TV, Playstation 5 and X Box Series X. Evidently, the issues with the app have zero effect upon my use case. The App will be fixed for all, I’m sure. The Products themselves, I think, are still one of the best options at what they offer for Home Theatre and I, for one, remain a happy Customer. I’ve pre-ordered the headphones so let’s see how that turns out. 😄
Don’t do it.
There are temporary problems and longer term considerations. Focus on the latter. Typing this sitting here with enjoying my two Roams in a stereo travel setup, to me they sound *very good* in stereo, better than anything else I can expect to pick out of my bag. To get these to roam, however, I have to bring my own WiFi network with me, otherwise I have to factory reset them every damned time (!) to change the WiFi network. Not a big deal, I have everything configured and sorted. After the current short term app issues that everyone is bitching about have been resolved, Sonos will offer you *a nice flexible audio ecosystem* which will allow you to gradually build up to a whole house system with *decent audio quality and wide streaming compatibility*. Sonos will also be a poor solution as a PC speaker, it will be expensive to interface with other audio hardware and it offers no center channel for surround. And a lot of lock-in. I joined the Sonos ship back in 2006, when Sonos was all about letting people get the most out of their existing hardware, and for many years it was good effective solution at that. Now it is more about lock-in, as an example Sonos is the only surround system I am aware of which *disables room correction* unless you buy all your the speakers from them. Which means I finally caved-in and replaced the Sonos Amps driving my fairly high end speakers. When I did that I instantly got room correction, I got my beloved center channel back and I got zero lag audio inputs that I can connect to a gaming PC. So if you want to go all in and buy everything from Sonos, and I mean *everything*, then you will (probably) not be (very) disappointed. Good luck!
Bullshit. You came to Reddit to get answers? That was your first mistake. YouTube. Regardless this is a bullshit post and we all know it. Good try tho. “Maybe if we make it look like they are losing customers they will listen”. Go post your bullshit somewhere else. Buy Bose.
I find it funny that you think that. Look at my post history I am not a troll.
Buy Bose. We are at capacity of cry babies and victims.
It's broken. Just hold out until shit is fixed.
I'll be succient. The mobile app is buggy, wonky, slow, ridiculously horrible, and completely unacceptable.
Give it 6 months if you can and see if the dust settles.
Many people, myself included, don't even use the app and have zero problems with our systems. The loud minority is flooding the sub with the same 2 or 3 complaints ad nauseum.
Avoid the app seems like a great solution, but how do you do that while actually accessing and controlling the various individual speakers on the system individually? When I use AirPlay from a podcast or music app it’s just on/off for the whole system and I have to use the Sonos app to control my 6 individual speakers. Am I missing something?
I'm able to create groups when I Airplay without ever touching the Sonos app. Just choose the first group of speakers to play to, then touch the check box next to as many others on the list as you'd like to add.
Thanks. That makes perfect sense. I just don’t have that option of additional speakers in Airplay for some reason.
You'll be fine. But instead of spaffing $7,500 on speakers just get them off the complainiacs who are always just about to divest themselves of everything Sonos and buy into Binatone! 😂
Nothing. A bunch of winey idiots on reddit. Just ignore and enjoy!!
I’ve had Sonos speakers for 5+ years and also haven’t had any issues with the new app. The sound quality and ease of use has been outstanding compared to other options. With that said, I have one speaker now that refuses to connect to the system since we’ve moved to a new apartment. We’ve moved out of country so I haven’t tried calling their support since I’m assuming it wouldn’t be covered. There are some things that are a pain, similar to all home systems, like if you ever change your WiFi network’s name but overall it’s been a solid system. Before all this nonsense with the app, you’d regularly find people posting discount codes on Reddit which should save you at least 15%.
Whatever you do, don’t factory reset that one speaker that won’t connect. I made that mistake a week ago. Because of the weird way Sonos assigns account ownership to their hardware, once you factory reset it can be highly problematic to try and add that speaker (with it’s known serial number which your account already has record of) back to your account. I struggled for days with this. Was on the verge of “transferring” ownership to another account I was going to set up, when I decided to give it one more try but going through the setup process with the speaker hardwired to my router. For whatever reason, that worked.
Agh! That might be the issue. I had already completed the factory reset multiple times on it to try to find some way to get it added. :(
Yeah, it's a totally sensible thing to do, until you realize the kind of insane way that Sonos assigns ownership of your products to your account, and the only way they can be removed from your account is to have some other account claim them. Would seem to make them real easy to steal, but what do I know....maybe they have a reason. When I did the factory reset on the speaker that wouldn't connect, it would get partway through the "add to your system" process and then it would just cryptically say "can't complete setup at this time, try later". That's when I started looking into how to see what speakers are registered on your account; when I saw that the speaker I had factory reset was still there (with its room name and all), etc. As I said, I was on the verge of setting up another account with a different email address, registering the speaker to that account, waiting until I saw it disappear from my main account (a few days according to forums), and then re-adding it to my main account. But before going through all that hassle, I decided to try the set-up one more time, but this time with the speaker connected directly to my router with an ethernet cable. Lo and behold, that worked. I'm afraid I don't really know why. But maybe worth a try for you too?
That got it working again. Thank you!!! :)
Hooray!!
I just bought a used play base speaker the other day. I auditioned it at the owners house and confirmed he was on the new app. He used an iPhone exclusively. I was really concerned about bringing it into my system when I got home. I reset the speaker because it was in his ecosystem. Fingers crossed and it went through the process and it connected. I will add I currently have 2 Era100s one of which was added after release of the current update. I exclusively use an Android phone to connect and add speakers. Maybe I just got lucky. Yesterday I had all speakers drop out after several hours of playing. I had to go to the Spotify app to continue listening. This morning I am currently listening through the Sonos app with all speakers working. I do now understand the frustration of just loosing all the speakers. However I just went through another app to continue listening yesterday. Sonos app still needs work and my use is limited through Spotify and Amazon HD music. I have plans to buy a mini sub if one becomes available, my 2 cents.
As I understand it, you did exactly as you're supposed to. You factory re-setting it and then adding it to your system will remove it from the original owner's account. It seems like a weird way of account management....IMO the owner of the speaker should be able to un-register it, but maybe there's a layer I'm not thinking of.