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Sound presets let you lock in exactly how a room should sound for a given situation — movie night, background music, late-night listening — and bring it all back instantly with a single tap. Every room has three music presets on its music page; a soundbar room has three TV presets on its room page as well.

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Where the presets live

  • Room page (soundbar rooms) — three compact TV preset pills sit between volume and the sound card. These three slots are the room’s TV presets. On a soundbar, while Music is lit, the room page keeps only its header and volume — the presets you see then are the music ones, on the music page. Tap TV and the TV presets are back. A room without a soundbar — a single speaker, a stereo pair, an Amp — has no TV presets; its presets are on the music page.
  • Music page: tap Go to Music on a soundbar, or Music on another room. Three compact music preset pills sit above the sound card, with Speakers in this room below it, without a Sound Presets heading. They can also capture Music Level and Ambient/Full. Long names scroll within their pills.
  • Lock Screen — a TV room’s three presets are also chips on the Live Activity card, by name, with the loaded one lit. Tap one there and the room page follows.
  • Apple Watch — the Watch app shows the room’s three presets under its volume: the TV presets while the room is on its TV input, the music presets otherwise. Tap one on the wrist and it lights on the phone and the Lock Screen too.
All six start out named Preset 1, Preset 2 and Preset 3. A preset is stored per room — saving “Movies” in the Living Room does not change the Bedroom’s presets. Signed in to iCloud, every preset follows your Apple ID to your other devices and comes back after a reinstall. See iCloud Sync. TV and Music both use compact pills. Every pill has a blue hand symbol below its name, including saved presets. It reminds you to hold the pill to save or rename it. Long names scroll within the pill and stay visible between repeats.

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What a preset captures

The sound itself is always captured — you cannot leave these out:
  • Bass and Treble
  • Surround level (rooms with surrounds)
  • Height level (height-capable soundbars and Era 300 satellites)
  • Subwoofer level (rooms with a Sub)
  • Crossover (rooms with a Sub whose speaker reports one)
  • The Sub switch and the Surrounds switch (rooms that have them), and Trueplay when the room is tuned (the note on the Save Preset sheet says so)
  • On the Music sheet only: Music Level and Ambient / Full playback mode

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Saving, loading, and renaming presets

1

Dial in your sound

Adjust the sound sliders and toggles until the room sounds exactly the way you want. If you want the preset to set the volume too, set that as well.
2

Hold a preset to save

Press and hold any preset button for about half a second. The Save Preset page opens with the name field (up to 14 characters) and the Also save tick list. Tick what you want the preset to carry, then tap Save. The button highlights as the active preset and a message confirms “name saved”. On a slot that has never been saved, typing a name and tapping the button is always a full save — the sound you dialled in is captured along with the name, first time.
3

Tap a preset to load it

Tap any card to apply its saved settings. The sliders follow the values the speaker confirms. If you tap presets or switches quickly, your latest choice takes priority over an older reply. If the preset captured a volume, the room’s volume changes too — so keep that in mind before ticking Volume on a preset you use late at night.
4

Rename without re-saving

Hold the button again on a preset you have already saved, change only the name and leave the ticks alone — the button reads Rename instead of Save, and every stored value is kept exactly as it was. Change any tick and it becomes a full Save again, re-capturing the room’s current settings.
The note under the tick list says what is always saved: Bass, treble and the levels are always saved, or Bass, treble, height and the levels on a room with height.
The Save Preset sheet on iPhone for Movie Night: Also save with Volume, Night Sound, Speech Boost, Loudness and All, a note on what is always saved, and a red Delete preset button.

Hold a preset (or tap Save under it) to open Save Preset. Name it and tick the extras it should carry: Volume, Night Sound, Speech Boost and Loudness, or All. Leave Volume unticked to keep the room's current volume when you load it. The note under the list says what is always saved.

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Deleting a preset

Hold a saved preset to open Save Preset, then tap Delete preset at the bottom. The slot is cleared and gets its first name back (Preset 1, Preset 2 or Preset 3). Your speaker’s sound doesn’t change. Delete preset only shows on a preset that has been saved or named.
The tick list opens pre-filled with what the preset already holds, so a rename never silently drops Volume, Night Sound, Speech Boost or Loudness. Unticking something is a deliberate choice and clears it on Save.
If a preset says “loaded, but crossover didn’t take”. Some speakers report a crossover but refuse to change it — an Arc with a Sub is the usual case. The first time a preset’s crossover is refused, you see that message once; after that, presets in that room stop sending the crossover and load quietly. The crossover slider on the room page is not affected: move it yourself and, if the speaker accepts it, presets send the crossover again.

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The highlight stays until you change the sound

The preset you loaded stays highlighted when you leave the room and come back, switch rooms, or close and reopen the app — the room remembers which one it is on, whether you loaded it on the page, from the widget, from the Lock Screen or from the Apple Watch. It clears in three cases:
  • you move a slider the preset captured, or flip Night Sound, Speech Boost or Loudness on a preset that captured them — a toast says “name preset was disabled”, and your change stays in effect;
  • a fresh read from the speaker no longer matches the preset’s sound values — for example after a change in the official Sonos® app;
  • you load another preset, which takes the highlight with it.
To bring a preset back, tap it again.

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Presets in a group

While rooms are grouped, they all use the presets of the room that leads the group. The room page shows the leader’s presets under a heading such as Office presets. On Music, the leader’s presets are the three pills above the sound card, without a heading. Loading or saving one acts on the leader. The Group Rooms sheet says so under the leader’s name: Presets come from Office. When the rooms ungroup, each one has its own presets again, exactly as they were. See Grouping Rooms.

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Presets in music-only rooms

Presets work in every room, not just soundbar rooms. A room without a soundbar — a single speaker, a stereo pair, an Amp, with or without a Sub — has its three presets on the music page, next to the sound they capture; there are no TV presets on its room page. Night Sound and Speech Boost are never offered there, so the presets capture the sound levels plus, optionally, Volume and Loudness.

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Presets from Siri and the widget

Once you name a preset, Siri knows it by that name — say “Apply Movies in Somos InControl” and it loads without any Shortcut setup. The Home Screen widget can also apply presets with one tap. See Widget & Siri.
A good starting set for a soundbar room: Movies (Speech Boost on, a little extra bass), Late Night (Night Sound on, Volume ticked at a low level), and Music saved from the music page with Loudness on. Name them — the names are what you see on the Lock Screen card.