Why is Sonos discontinuing support for iOS devices?

I have read all the threads. But the fact that there are all sorts of baroque workarounds, such as uploading to the cloud my entire music collection, which consists of literally a couple of thousand CDs that I ripped to iTunes and then donated (many of which are no longer available, including my father's huge jazz collection), as well as hundreds of hours of unreleased material from my music career, or relying on streaming services that dont have most of what I own, or buying a desktop Mac and then being only able to play music from my office, or buying an Android device or a NAS device, or anything else, doesn't change the fact that I bought several sets of pricey speakers to play the music on my iPad and iPhone, and now those speakers have announced they won't do the one thing I bought them for.

If you gave away the CDs, does that leave you in breach of copyright if you are still playing the music? I’m not sure what the laws are in your country but it may be worth checking!

But, if you have music ripped onto iTunes, surely that means they are stored on a computer disc and can therefore be played - ie controlled and accessed - from the app on your iPhone.

Good grief people!!!

Housing your music collection on a PC or Mac DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN ONLY PLAY MUSIC USING THE PC OR MAC!!!!

Good grief people!!!

Housing your music collection on a PC or Mac DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN ONLY PLAY MUSIC USING THE PC OR MAC!!!!

Are you saying you can set up a “Music Library” and select music from an app on your iPhone? Wow! That would be useful! 😀

Are you saying you can set up a “Music Library” and select music from an app on your iPhone? Wow! That would be useful! 😀


Why yes. And it works so well, it's almost as if that was the original design.

Each new Sonos update strikes fear of losing support. Their products are very expensive, and when they limit or prohibit use through updates is sickening. When they work properly they are about the best on the market.
But, people should be aware that, one day, the large investment they made in Sonos products may become a total waste of money.

Each new Sonos update strikes fear of losing support. Their products are very expensive, and when they limit or prohibit use through updates is sickening. When they work properly they are about the best on the market.
But, people should be aware that, one day, the large investment they made in Sonos products may become a total waste of money.


A little bit of hyperbole there. At last count, over 93% of all Sonos usage is from internet sources. Of the ~7% of local library usage, certainly a small fraction is from the device itself, considering Sonos was originally designed for music libraries stored on a PC/Mac or NAS. So no, for the vast majority of users, elimination of this one function does not render their Sonos a "total waste of money", and for the users who do use this function, there are several options that give the same functionality with none of the hassles seen for the last year.

You could switch to Bose: Surely they wouldn’t drop a whole hardware range to introduce some new features 😜

Each new Sonos update strikes fear of losing support. Their products are very expensive, and when they limit or prohibit use through updates is sickening. When they work properly they are about the best on the market.
But, people should be aware that, one day, the large investment they made in Sonos products may become a total waste of money.
Perhaps change your community profile Avatar... I thought this perhaps might be a little more suitable for you:

Each new Sonos update strikes fear of losing support. Their products are very expensive, and when they limit or prohibit use through updates is sickening. When they work properly they are about the best on the market.
But, people should be aware that, one day, the large investment they made in Sonos products may become a total waste of money.


I think this depends on your point of view. If you're the type of person who doesn't want things to change, then Sonos might not be the best solution for you. If you want to be able to adopt and change as newer tech is available, then Sonos can be a very great option.

As @nik9669a pointed out, when new features became popular and available, competitors like Bose opted to shut down their current line of smart speakers and start a new one. That would have made people who don't want the new features happy as it would preserve there speakers longer....until Bose drops support anyway and it no longer works with the current smart phones. It made many customers upset since they now saw their current investment as outdated and useless.

On the other hand Sonos has gone from a closed system that didn't even have smart phone apps, to incorporating apps, streaming services, voice control, TV audio, etc, while dropping very little products and features from the line. While this surely has bothered those who wanted nothing to change, it's a huge blessing for those who want the more current features without having to buy everything new.

For me personally, I almost always want the new features, and am glad that i can still use the connect:amp I bought about 8 years ago along with speakers I bought last Christmas. Absolutely money well spent.