Support for the CR-100 has been removed from the system to make room for other more important things for a long time so the only folks still able to use them have been blocking Sonos updates since the EOL announcement and rebate program. I doubt many folks have any CR-100 still available.

The CR100 used such an old version of embedded-flash that it is unable to communicate with most of today’s https servers, ruling out most music services. It has other problems too, but this is the biggest by far. Also: it was a truly ugly codebase. I miss the hardware though.

Despite the old version of the software (V 7.3 in my case), my 2 CR100s continue to work fine with Qobuz and Amazon (Prime) Music.  And the controllers remain my first choice to play TuneIn content.  It would be good if the possible branch in the software in May (something we were told all those years ago could never happen) could restore the CR100 to normal use  - but I presume that could never happen...  Too much water under the bridge development-wise.

How good would it look, however, if proper legacy support was introduced so saving not only CR100s but older but extremely useful tablets an PCs / laptops.

Which ones. We still have 3 in daily use for TuneIn and amazon Prime Music. Operate with no issues. 
if you add up the stuff added since their withdrawal it adds up to very little. I suspect it could be won’t be added to the legacy version due to loss of face. But refusing to do a legacy version, then doing one, already makes the decision process look a mess. 
 

Dave

I can’t remember, its been a long time. Certainly not TuneIn as it is the simplest service there is as there is no authentication. I would guess Google is broken as they always use the latest TLS version (likely the CR100 can’t do that) and certificate pinning. The SMAPI docs warn that older versions of TLS may not be supported in the future, and when they throw that switch then the CR100 would be even less useful.

My CR100 still works fine to access Spotify with system software 8.4.  The CR100 itself is on software version: 4.3.2.  Fancy that,. a system that functions with hardware on different firmware versions.

Too bad they didn’t fork the 8.4 software as S1, people could have moved forward for a while longer with pretty much all there Legacy Equipment.

I agree that would have been the better option. 
 

but if you block Sonos.com and all it’s subdomains to help keep your system at FW8.4 keep in mind that one subdomain has to remain unblocked or your radio will fail at some point: 

sslvalidator.sonos.com

if that’s blocked, your Tunein radio will lock up And stop playing at some point.  Took mine almost 2 years but here we are. Everything else @ sonos can be blocked, per my experience.   

 to make room for other more important things

More important to whom?  My CR100 is important to me, and I bet anyone who has one (and most of those who had one) would say it’s important to them.  Why is your important primary to my important???  This is plain ridiculous, I can’t believe this was selected as a “solution” to the “problem.”  

I doubt many folks have any CR-100 still available.

This “doubt” is because you don’t have one.  Not because of anything like truth.  I have one and it is important to me.  Your “doubt” is not a reason that my hardware should be disabled remotely, without permission, never to function again.

 ruling out most music services

I bought my system so it could play my files.  I’m not interested in paying for services, and that is not what the system was intended for.  Just because they changed their minds is not a good reason that I should lose my working system.

It has other problems too

I’m waiting to know what these other problems are.  If they are being hidden from me, then that is yet another reason I am done with Sonos.

If Sonos were to add my CR100 back into my system, I would reconsider my position, but until then not only will I never buy another piece of Sonos, but anyone that sees & hears mine gets an “Eh, it’s an expensive piece of crap controlled by overlords who remotely destroy hardware without permission, you can do better with X setup.”  And they’ll tell two friends, and so on and so on.

FWIW, I still have multiple CR100 as well, fully functional.  My system is frozen at FW8.4 and everything I need just works.  I use pi-holes and  my gateway to keep the Sonos components here from contacting anything at Sonos.com other than sslvalidator.sonos.com.  Belts and suspenders.  
 

Because the metrics subdomain at Sonos.com cannot be contacted by my components, Sonos likely thinks my components have gone the way of the dodo. Likely anyone who uses pi-holes or who also wants to keep their Sonos systems at 8.4 or less will have similar safeguards leading to an undercount.

My radio services still work fine.  The local radio stations always worked and once I re-enabled sslvalidator.sonos.com, so did the tunein stations and podcasts.  Last.fm also likely falls into that category.  
 

As for day to day, the CR100 works great for playlists, radio shows and so on. On my iPhone, SonoPhone does a great job, esp. if I have to search for something. Unlike the official Sonos iOS app, SonoPhone and SonoPad allows the control of systems even older than FW6.4. So it can be done, it’s just that Sonos doesn’t want to do it.  

I’m still using three CR100s on my system, which is locked down on OS 8.4. The controllers work and look great and I’ll never get rid of them.

But I want to be absolutely clear about this: Is OS 8.4 the absolute latest I can run? In other words, if I upgrade to S1, it will brick my CR100s?

I don’t know what the absolute latest OS version for CR100 is, but the current S1 version OS most certainly does not support CR100s.

That’s what I thought. Thanks for the quick reply, I will stick with 8.4.

Yes 8.4 definitely the latest that supports CR100.

Given all things that couldn’t happen:

• impossible to have two versions of apps
• impossible to support legacy versions of code
• impossible to have different code bases on different devices

then it is highly likely that S1 could support CR100, despite protestations to the contrary. It’s not like s1 supports SMB or other major change. In fact other than Google voice I struggle to see what has been added since 8.4.

But it won’t happen. So we are stuck with 8.4 until such time as it is unworkable and then we will have to upgrade. Maybe by that time there will be a decent app or desktop version that can be used.

To be honest not having constant updates is a relief!

Dave

Quick question. Is anyone on 8.4 still able to cast from Spotify App direct to Sonos device, Mine stopped working a while back. I can cast from Spotify App to other things like Sky boxes. They do appear in list and attempt to send but then fail.

Can still use CR100 to locate tracks and play on Spotify. It is just the casting to devices that fails. Alexa has the same issue with casting. Not sure if it is a network issue or a functionality change in Spotify. Cheers

Dave

Is there any way to upgrade a ZP100 from software version 5.1 to version 8.4? The ZP100 is recognized by the PC controller, and I can add the ZP100 to my Sonos system that has six other players running 8.4. But the older ZP100 isn’t functional to play music and sync with the other players unless I run a software upgrade, which of course will be S1. But I don’t want that, I only want to upgrade to 8.4.

Is there any way to accomplish this? Perhaps make the older ZP100 get its update from the other players on my system running 8.4, and not upgrade via the internet?

I have a feeling there isn’t any way to do this, but just thought I would ask. Thanks for any thoughts and possible solutions.

No, not without an extraordinary amount of work, including the acquisition of an 8.4 image for the CR100 (the time to capture was, what, four years ago) and the creation of a fake Sonos update endpoint.

Thanks for the response. I was thinking of some type of fake endpoint as you suggest to trick the ZP100 into updating itself from a local network address that I control, and which has the 8.4 update software stored in it. 
 

Since Sonos and the preservation of my four CR100s are essentially a pet project for me at this point, I am not adverse to an extraordinary amount of work, as you put it. Would it be possible to create an image of the 8.4 update software, using one of my existing 8.4 hardware devices? The genie is in the bottle of those hardware devices, it seems to me. If I could get the necessary image, it would be a major step toward setting up the unique update system that you mention.

No. The time to capture the 8.4 image is when the device upgraded to it, ie years ago. Its a signed download, so you can’t re-create it from an existing device. It is remotely possible it is still sitting on a Sonos CDN somewhere, but I have no idea how to find something like that.

Thanks for your insight, much appreciated. If by some miracle I ever come up with a makeshift solution to the problem, I’ll post it here.

I’m also using 8.4 as I have two CR100’s as well. If anyone could come up with a way of installing 8.4 firmware on secondhand Sonos