Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Updates for Legacy Products

Related content:Software

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Please note that we’ve created a new thread with some clarifications to questions that have come up several times in this thread. Please see here to continue the discussion if you still have any questions. The information contained in this thread is outdated and may no longer be accurate.

We have some important news regarding our oldest Sonos devices shared on the Sonos Blog today. The text of that blog post is being included here for your convenience:

Starting in May 2020, some of our oldest products will no longer receive software updates or new features. We want to explain why and your options.

When we first set out almost 20 years ago to invent the technology to easily listen to any song in any room, most of the ways we listen to music today did not exist. In fact, the first Sonos products were introduced before the first iPhone was announced and when Myspace still ruled social media.

In order to invent multi-room music and smart speakers, we combined the worlds of high-fidelity audio and computing. Every Sonos product has a microprocessor, flash memory, and other hardware components typically found in computers and smartphones.

Since launching our first products, technology has advanced at an exponential rate; from streaming services and voice assistants to wireless networking and Bluetooth capabilities. Through all of this transformation, we have continued delivering new features via software updates. We’re extremely proud of the fact that we build products that last a long time, and that listeners continue to enjoy them. In fact, 92% of the products we’ve ever shipped are still in use today. That is unheard of in the world of consumer electronics. However, we’ve now come to a point where some of the oldest products have been stretched to their technical limits in terms of memory and processing power.

This coming May, these legacy products—our original Zone Players, Connect, and Connect:Amp (launched in 2006; includes versions sold until 2015), first-generation Play:5 (launched 2009), CR200 (launched 2009), and Bridge (launched 2007)—will no longer receive software updates or new features.

Today the Sonos experience relies on an interconnected ecosystem, giving you access to more than 100 streaming services, voice assistants, and control options like Apple AirPlay 2. Without new software updates, access to services and overall functionality of your sound system will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their technology.

To help you through this transition, we’re providing two options:

Option 1: Continue using these legacy products, recognizing that your system will no longer receive software updates and new features.

Option 2: Trade up to a new Sonos product with a 30% credit for each legacy product you replace.

If you’re not sure if your products are affected, you can check in the System tab in your sonos.com-account

If you choose to participate in the trade up program, your legacy products will be put in Recycle Mode, a state that deletes personally identifiable information and prepares these products for e-recycling. Recycle Mode also protects unsuspecting people from buying legacy products that are approaching the end of their useful life and won’t provide the Sonos experience customers expect today. Recycle Mode will only apply to the legacy products listed above.

We ask that you take your legacy products to a nearby certified e-recycling facility. This is the most environmentally friendly way to recycle. That said, if there isn’t a facility in your area, we are happy to pay for you to ship your products back to Sonos for responsible recycling.

Ideally all our products would last forever, but for now we’re limited by the existing technology. Our responsibility here is threefold: build products that last a long time; continually look for ways to make our products more environmentally friendly through materials, packaging, and our supply chain and take responsibility for helping you through the transition once products near the end of their useful life.

We’ve always believed in freedom of choice, whether that means choosing a certain streaming service or way to control your listening experience. We hope the choices provided here—continuing to use these products without new software updates or trading up to our modern products—enable you to make the choice that’s right for you.

We are honored to have a place in your home and want to make sure that we help continue to bring the best experience we can, even when products reach the end of their useful life.

More information.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

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A

Allan Serious

Trending Lyricist I

I have two play5 gen1 speakers they get light use both in my dining room and second living room.

I don’t want voice control on them or any additional functionality. I just want to play my music when I want to. It cost me £700 to have those speakers as part of my system.

I am in the unfortunate position where one speaker has now died, no light no power on it and it won’t connect to my Wi-fi. I guess I need to raise a ticket and get a repair done. The other is showing as that it won’t be supported from May 2020. I want stronger assurance that it will continue to function as is.

Even were I interested in the trade up (30% off) scheme, that can only be applied to the device on the network.

Kind of feels like I’m being held to ransom, get rid of those £700 speakers and buy these new shiny ones, which will really not do that much different to the ones you currently have.

nothing has lifetime support but I think perhaps the message is too strong.

P

Pesky

Lyricist I

A ransom requesting I spend another £900? I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my sonos system go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

C

Cladman

Trending Lyricist I

Yep in the same boat. Home theatre room with play bar, sub, 2 x play 1’s that survive, and a play 3 which I find weird as pretty sure I got it before the 2 x play 5’s that are screwed. Also a old bridge still using.

S

shef2000

Lyricist III

I, along with the masses, are incredibly peeved and disappointed by the news from Sonos. I took a phased approach to purchasing my Gen 1 Play:5 and Connect:Amp / Connect hardware, and thankfully am not in the same situation as some who have invested $1000’s more. Sonos was supposed to be different… planned obsolence like this is greedy and wasteful, not to mention terrible for the environment. All my speaks work perfectly well.

I highly recommend you rethink this strategy, and have the option to allow legacy hardware on your stack just be a speaker, participate in the mesh network, but only when grouped with a newer Sonos. At least this way you could allow software upgrades to continue for the app and overall system, services would continue to work, and people would have the option to still use their old hardware.

Why would anyone purchase Sonos now after this approach? This will end your reign. I now have to go and explain to all friends and family who followed my lead why they too are screwed by your tact.

Enthusiast I

Lyricist I

I've been an evangelist of Sonos for almost 10 years now but I feel nothing but guilt about my friends who I have recommended their products to. Considering most of your customers are by definition tech savvy, you insult us by pretending you can't maintain a 'legacy' interface to only receive audio streamed from the newer devices. There's no increase in audio quality that requires more bandwidth or anything legitimate like that, you're taking us for suckers.

You've just killed your business with this announcement unless you fire that new CEO of yours and probably the entire board for approving this and start publicly back pedalling as fast as possible. Tick, tick, tick...

R

rAndison

Enthusiast I

Their customers on other hand can go and whistle, they’re just the muppets providing the funding… “For Their Shareholders”

I bet the shareholders will be super happy when the share price takes a dive.

I just can’t imagine this could possibly sell more units, I’m certainly not buying more now and every friend I’ve spoken to that was considering it now won’t touch them with a 50ft pole.

Speakers aren’t mobile phones, nobody wants to buy them on a subscription for thousands of dollars.

Even if I was to discount the financial impact, why oh why are we chucking away hardware that works perfectly given the impact it will have on the environment for disposing of it and mining for new materials for the new electronics etc… compete insanity.

They should be developing their software so it can see older hardware and provide the reduced feature set to them. That doesn’t include taking away a feature it already has and managed perfectly well…. streaming a music service provider. That requires ZERO extra cpu/memory power.

N

nicholasmball

Lyricist I

You money grabbing corrupt sons of bitches. I will be selling all my Sonos gear and looking for an alternative product. Fuck you

J

jcp3570

Avid Contributor I

I understand that the presence of legacy components in my system will block software updates to more recently added units but what will happen to updates on my Android controller? Will I need to manually bock these, will they be blocked automatically or will they proceed and hence possibly trash my system as it will be attempting to run different versions of the software?

chickentender

Yes, to all of the above

There are no reseller channels today from which anyone can purchase a new Windows 98-based computer system, and oddly, even if you could it would still be entirely network-friendly with other machines of varying OS flavors and eras without having to downgrade all to the lowest common denominator.

Conversely, no one can currently purchase or even find the last stand-alone version of Adobe Creative Suite anywhere, thought readily available just a year ago, now that the platform has moved entirely to a subscription cloud model.

Sonos is indeed hi-fi equipment, was marketed and sold as such, and it all exists together in an ecosystem that works as a reliant whole. Many analogies being tossed about (software, mobile devices, etc.) are just not workable here.

One scenario I do find similar is when the local cable company deprecates a known-good and working modem model that I own outright as a result of their pushing updated leased models to the bulk of their customers. Nothing I can do, because it’s their network and they can approve or disapprove the equipment they’ll provision and support that connects to it. I’ve been burned by this three times historically. The situation with Sonos here and now is in many ways the same.

I often giggle about class-action talk surrounding this sort of product hullabaloo, for whatever the product may be, because it’s normally pipedreams and naivety. I am not giggling today. It’s a possibility.

But more than anything I’m just disappointed and a little sad. I really liked and believed in Sonos for quite a few years now, and I’m one of the many who’ve also talked less technically affluent family and friends into investing in the ecosystem. Bit of an embarrassment to be honest. I hope some course-correction comes, if even a bit, in the next few coming days or weeks.

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