B&O App version 5.90

[Stephen]

I have a Halo. It’s pretty but, in my view, pretty useless too. I’d be interested to learn how you intend to replace the app with a Halo. As far as I can tell, it’s just an expensive volume control. Waste of money.

[Beofile7]

The Halo will control my Core and BL50 but not on the same page! So control is not a “one touch” it is a case of alternating back and forth between the two. That is how the app used to be until it was sorted? The Halo not yet sorted? I am hoping that in time the Halo will be able to control a lot more “older products?” The fact that it can control the 9000c shows that it can be done?

[Stephen]

Sure but the Halo can’t be used to select music you want to listen to. You need the app for that. Or am I missing something?

[Beofile7]

It can if the app is open. I have only had it a few days so am still playing with it when I have time but I was able to play my apple music and control the tracks. Then my Ipad went to sleep! So it needs further experimentation?

[Stephen]

The Halo can pause and play music that’s already playing as well as skip to the next or previous track. But it can’t be used to select a given album or song to play. The app is needed for that. Right?

[Millemissen]

Since I am using an external app (Spotify Premium/Connect) for music, I am used to not rely on the app.
(I do use Apple Music, too – however, that is mostly for Atmos versions on the ATV/BST).

The BeoRemote One can do the basic commands (for play, pause etc).
I can choose the radio station I want from the remote.
I can change Listening Positions (and Sound Modes for the BST), and it has the 4 MyButtons.

The app (on a dedicated spare iPad) has become a display for what is currently playing……..and occasionally for settings.

I rarely ‘Expand’ from within the app – I ‘Join in’ on the other device/s, if I need to listen to the same in more rooms.

So no big deal – I was just wondering, what has changed, when they release Beta versions that often.
For my use case I see nothing, that may have changed……nothing that I can test 🤔

MM

[Stephen]

That’s interesting. Thanks for the explanation. I’ve come to appreciate that my B&O system is relatively simple. I haven’t owned a TV for more than 20 years but I listen to music, via my Core and the B&O App, just about every day, all day. I also play CDs on my 24 year old 9000. They do sound better.

I install every beta version of the app quickly and, of late, when it’s clear they haven’t fix the problems I have reported, I reinstall to the last beta version available that I know works. It must be terrible for those of you who have B&O TVs, multi-room speakers, etc.

Increasingly however, I hate the app. Deezer and Apple play queues work just fine so how come B&O have screwed it up – on their own app – completely? The B&O app evolved from something that was pretty good to an inconsistent piece of shit, and I have seen no evidence that they know how to fix it properly for all customers.

So, more and more, the hub of my system is the Core simply because that’s what my Beolab1 speakers are connected to, but I listen to music on Deezer or Apple Music that is dropped from those apps directly to the Core. I just bypass the app. I’m not even sure why I haven’t deleted it yet. Maybe I’m fantasising on a hope that B&O will eventually fix it. As I mentioned, I find the Halo to be pretty pointless; I can do everything it can with my iPhone or Mac.

Stephen

[Millemissen]

@Stephen

For what you do in your setup, you clearly do not need the Bang & Olufsen app (apart from maybe changing settings).

However, the B&O app is supposed to secure a smooth Beolink experience for those of us, who have a bigger network link based setup.
For that we need a wellworking app…..which we obviously do not have at the moment.

MM

[Beofile7]

Stephen.

I purchased the Halo purely because I was so fed up with struggling with the app with anything I wanted to do. Even controlling the BL50 it was always hit or miss! Always hanging. Not to mention having to unlock your iphone, select the B&O app, wait…and wait… and wait… select the core, select BL50!

This is NOT the B&O experience? This is junk!

“One touch operation” is what I always had and what B&O control is all about?

The Halo goes some of the way there albeit extremely limited in it’s abilities but there is always hope for improvements? Strangely it controls my BV11 but only when it has been switched on. It can do everything and control the DVD and Apple TV including switching off but not on???? Weird?

[Stephen]

Thanks both, for the explanations. My ‘simple’ B&O system consists of a 24 year old Beosound 9000 CD player, 20 year old Beolab 1 loud speakers, a Halo, a Core and the app. The only ones that have never let me down are those that are two decades old. OK, I had to replace the CD motor in the 9000 a couple of times but, given how heavily it gets used, that’s acceptable; moving parts wear and tear.

The sad, disabled, pathetic thing that the app has become has been discussed amply here and elsewhere. In the few months I have owned it, the Halo has frozen a couple of times, for no apparent reason, and the Core just stops working every couple of weeks. Conks out suddenly and completely and has to be rebooted.

[Beofile7]

Oh yes, how much do I relate to that statement?

My 30 year old 7000 system is still going strong with only very minor attention over the years. My Beolab Pentas also. Many TV’s too, completely faultless.

But now?….. Beolab 50 always playing up, never have behaved correctly, ongoing case, mega money being spent. I cannot recommend them!

BV11 freezing picture intermittantly and then shutting down. Core is working OK, but occasionally needs a reboot, Halo, so far… behaving itself (it doesn’t have to do much?)

B&O app…… has been a total abortion to me! I loath it! But here is the irony…. with the latest update (contary to others opinions)  it is actually working acceptably! Go figure?

But by far the biggest frustration is the utterly shocking underwhelming support from B&O? There simply is NO support at all! Just words.

 

[altist]

Sadly I have to agree with the majority of people’s gripes with B&O and their mismanagement of their app.I went to use it on my phone to change the speaker group on my Beovision 11, only to find that there is no facility to do so anymore -if there is it’s too well hidden,which means resorting to my trusty Beo4 and going through the menu, which is a somewhat longwinded route. Why do they continue to supposedly improve things and not check that all the previous options are still working? It really does seem that B&O can’t effectively deal with the wireless and software/app side of things. A great pity.If anyone could tell me how to roll back my app version to an earlier one that does work I would most grateful!

[Stephen]

On altist said

…If anyone could tell me how to roll back my app version to an earlier one that does work I would most grateful!

If you’re a beta tester, it is always possible to reinstall previous builds of the app that are available in Test Flight. However, all new builds expire after 90 days and the only option then remaining is to reinstall whatever the most recent versions are that haven’t expired yet. The current beta version is 5.9.0. For me, v5.8.1 is less crap than v5.9.0, so I reinstalled 5.8.1 on my iPhone. It will expire 28 days from today, after which the most recent beta will automatically be installed. We all keep hoping that the next version will be great – like it last was in v5.3 (which I still run on my MacBook).

If you are not a beta tester, I believe that you are stuck with the current ‘live’ version available in the Apple App store. I don’t believe that it is otherwise possible to ‘roll back … to an earlier version’.

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[altist]

Thank you for your reply..i’m not a beta tester and so, as I feared,I’m lumbered with another of B&O’s less than exemplary app updates that loses good features from the past in the pursuit of newer features they deem desirable. I’ve written to Customer Care but I don’t know how much success that will elicit given their past history in such matters, as frequently commented upon here and elsewhere. Fingers crossed!

[Stephen]

On altist said

… I’ve written to Customer Care but I don’t know how much success that will elicit given their past history in such matters, as frequently commented upon here and elsewhere. Fingers crossed!

I wish you luck with that. Customer Care (which itself is a misnomer) is basically a messaging service. In my experience, if they even respond, it is usually with predictable and fairly useless platitudes like ‘we will forward your issue to our Development Team’, after which, it often disappears into the ether. I even learned (from Customer Care) that the developers don’t normally even communicate back to the Customer Care. Sometimes, however, the developers do actually get back to you directly but, again in my experience, they aren’t particularly helpful.

B&O has to know by now what a pathetic thing the app has evolved to over the last year or two. As mentioned several times here, they release new versions of the app seemingly without testing whether the problems with previous versions have been fixed. Their strategy, if there even is one, with this app is invisible to testers and customers.

My workaround was to purchase a B&O Core. With that, I can play Deezer and my DLNA Apple Music library on my Mac directly. I don’t need the app for anything except, perhaps, changing settings which I don’t often do. For those people who have a more complex B&O system than me though, it doesn‘t seem to be so straightforward. These guys are more dependent on the app to control their TVs, multiple speaker systems, etc.

[Yendys]

I have a couple of bugs since this version installed

The sound mode keeps changing to ‘none’ whenever i go into a my Stage.  I change it to say Music go back to the Stage playing and it drops back to ‘None’ again, which is rather annoying.

The Optimal sound has disappeared from the H9i and not there to add from the list

I’m reporting to support in the hopes for a fix

[NQVHNWI]

I have stated here and elsewhere that the B&O app does not know what it is?

Is it a setup app (seems like it to me) with a crappy player as an add-on afterthought or…

Is it a poor experience player with poor control/search and integration of media sources and relatively poor multiroom control over that playback experience which focuses on first-time setup?

 

And there’s more……

I’ve almost completed the renovation of my new home. The wiring was crappy, mixed sources to some circuits (2 breakers!! for an energy source) and some lighting where you had to go the end of the 3-storey staircase to turn the staircase light on (no duplexing). I added Moes (Moeshouse) Tuya/Zigbee lights/bulbs throughout plus a few of control panels shown below.

The photograph below shows a Moes 5in Tuya control hub. This thing picks up an correlates/coordinates everything on my Zigbee network (it can also do Matter as well). It is rock-solid, built like a tank and either powered from a 220V L/N power outlet or can be POE.

Just how difficult would it be for B&O to adopt something like this for personal control of our B&O devices. Multiroom – select what and what. Sound Modes/Beosonic etc….. dead easy and real convenient.

As always, B&O seem to be developing custom software down a dead-end (Remember how the Mozart platform was going to have Matter – nada?) rather than looking at what the industry is doing.

 

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[altist]

An update to my initial post-I have had responses from Uk care and also someone in Denmark..it is said to be being forwarded to technical…Whether that prompts any action only time will tell, unfortunately.

[Sandyb]

@ 10PerCent – concur with your initial point, its a Settings focussed app with poor experience selection (music browsing / interface is v limited, even the in app TV remote has gone).

Like yourself I reflected these sentiments many years ago, but recorded myself that nothing would change really – and moved to Roon for my music. They’re never going to build a broader (than Deezer) music browsing / control app, and woudltn have much confidence in them being able to do so.

Using Roon and not involving B&O control / app for any of my music does mean some of the apps quirks dont affect me.

Nevertheless, progress does seem a bit glacial. Even when it comes to the app and the Theatre, for a device where users may be frequently cycling through Atmos to PCM 2.0 to DD 5.1, users are likely to often want to see Signal Info, and change to the correct Listening Position, yet this remains buried in Settings. Plenty have asked for this to be made more prominent – a specific cxample  I know, but one where I expect no progress, and illustrative of an app experience not aligned with product usage.

 

[altist]

 

Thank you for your valuable time and patience.

We have received information from our internal technical support department, and we would like to share these details with you.

Kindly please note that the issue has been reported to our development team, and they are working to provide a solution in this matter.

As soon as we get any update, we will inform you accordingly.

latest response from Denmark.

[Author]

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