Sonos controller problem on iOS 9.3.5

The one answer I can give you to one of your questions is that the third party dude doesn't have a legal department (and investors/stockholders) giving them specific legal requirements.

The one answer I can give you to one of your questions is that the third party dude doesn't have a legal department (and investors/stockholders) giving them specific legal requirements.
Are you suggesting that Sonos is at risk of legal liability for producing a legacy application or 3rd party dude for that matter? That's a bit of a "stretch". Kudos for creative reasoning. 😃

There are no legal issues here, just engineering tradeoffs. As SonoPad shows, one can publish apps to the Store that work on old iOS versions. I don't know what hoops have to be gone through to do this mind you: I am a n00b iOS developer myself.

As a general rule, 3rd party apps like SonoPad and my own don't care which Sonos system software you are running: they continue to work on new ones, and we try to keep them working against old systems (even though it is expensive to test this, as we need to keep N systems un-upgraded to do so).

The official Sonos controllers do not have this philosophy: they require players to be running firmware versions that match the controllers. While this makes sense for options such as Setup and Upgrades, for regular playback there is no technical reason for this (see: 3rd party apps). This is their decision, with unfortunate side effects when the decide to stop running on older platforms. They could make the old apps go into "safe mode" if they become too old for the player firmware and become playback-only (like the PC/Mac apps have permanently become), but they chose not to: instead the apps refuse to run.

As a general rule, 3rd party apps like SonoPad and my own don't care which Sonos system software you are running: they continue to work on new ones, and we try to keep them working against old systems (even though it is expensive to test this, as we need to keep N systems un-upgraded to do so)

What is your app?

Sounds like you work for Sonos to me, I think given the price of Sonos equipment, they might offer a little more support.

I wish.
I just have a basic understanding of how electronics.... and (more specifically) how Apple works.

Like everyone else, I wished that Sonos had not dropped iOS 9.3.5 on my iPad Mini. Once I got over it, I purchased the Sonopad app and found that it is so much better than the Sonos native app. It instantly connected to my Sonos Connect systems, music library and music services and is very nice to use and intuitive (unlike Sonos app). My recommendation - stop getting frustrated with Sonos and Apple as you won't change anything. Just buy the app and carry on using your old iPAD which is easily capable of running this modern app. It costs less than a cheap album download.

What is your app?

I get into trouble naming it too often in the forum, so I'll just suggest your check my profile.

Download SonoPhone from the App Store to control Sonos with devices with OS 9.3.5. Quite shocking when my older iPhones and iPads wouldn't work with my extensive and expensive Sonos system. I Really needed a head's up for this type of change. Take Care with your customers! Disappointing to work from another platform.

I totally agree. I downloaded Sonopad for £3.99 which works well, so I'm still using my older iPad. I think a head's up from Sonos would have demonstrated more 'Customer Care' whatever their reasons for discontinuing support for IOS 9.3.5.

It is a bit weird. Sonos did give decent notice for the death of the CR100 (although some still missed the memo), but for the gutting of the Desktop apps and the dropping of iOS 9 there was zero notice. Not even in the update message itself.