What syncs
- Sound presets. Every slot in every room, with everything each preset captured.
- Home names. The names you gave your Sonos® systems in the menu.
- Room order, and with it the four rooms on the bottom bar.
- Saved groups.
- Favorites and playlists. Everything you hearted on the music page, and your Somos playlists.
- App switches. Haptics, Appearance, Pinch for volume, Swipe art to change songs, Room wheel, the identify tone, and the front-speaker warning’s don’t show again.
What doesn’t sync, and why
- Room names. They live on your speakers, so a rename already shows everywhere, in Somos and in the Sonos® app. Syncing them could undo a rename made in the Sonos® app.
- What the speaker itself holds. The room’s current EQ, crossover, status light and mute are read from the speaker, not from iCloud.
- The Live Activity switch. Turn it on for each iPhone where you want the Lock Screen card.
- The widget. Each device builds its widgets from the app.
- The intro video. A reinstall plays it once more.
- Music-service sign-ins. They stay on the device where you signed in. Sign in again on a new device.
- Your Whole Home purchase. The App Store keeps that, not the settings sync. See Whole Home.
How it behaves
- Newest edit wins. If you change the same setting on two devices, the later change is the one that stays everywhere.
- The first sync picks one device. When two devices that each have their own settings meet for the first time, one device’s settings win for each item. That’s expected.
- Open screens update live. A room page picks up that room’s presets as they arrive, the menu repaints the room order, and the music page takes new favorites and playlists.
- Signed out of iCloud, nothing changes. Settings stay on the device, as they always have.
Check that it’s working
Open the menu and look at the bottom, under About. The iCloud line says:- iCloud: synced 2 min ago (or just now, hours or days ago) — when your settings last went through iCloud.
- iCloud: on — signed in, waiting for the first sync.
- iCloud: off — this device isn’t signed in to iCloud, so settings stay on it.
After a reinstall or on a new device
1
Sign in to iCloud
Use the same Apple ID as before, on the new device or the one you reinstalled on.
2
Install and open Somos
Go through setup and tap Find My Speakers as usual. See First Launch.
3
Wait a minute
iCloud sends your settings down in the background. Presets, room order, saved groups and favorites fill in on their own. Open screens update as they arrive.
The copy in iCloud is Apple’s storage, tied to your Apple ID. Nothing goes to us. See Data & Network.