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 The information contained in this thread is outdated and may no longer be accurate.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.

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rAndison

Enthusiast I

It would appear. That the real danger is that Sonos may not survive this! What happens if the company goes under?

Exactly.

I need to upgrade my ageing Home Theatre system soon… sub keeps failing and overall, speakers and not great. I was going to replace my connect in the living room with a Beam, Sub and surrounds but I’ll not be doing this because…

I don’t want to feel like I’m waiting for the “Legacy Bomb” to hit.
The company goes under due to the way they’ve handled this. Sonos equivalent of a Nokia or Ratner event.

They have now created that element of doubt about their products, service that leaves you looking elsewhere first. They will be a provider of last resort from now on. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives these days compared to when I first bought into their system around 2007.

B

Biscuit_42

Lyricist II

Like a number of your customers I am hugely disappointed by this announcement. I have built up my system over a number of year, naively believing that Sonos would continue to support their expensive products. I have made a significant investment (£2000+) only to find that the bulk of it will become obsolete in May. Sonos, this is a shabby way to treat your loyal customers and I, for one will be selling the ‘current’ products that I own ASAP and moving to another provider. I am certainly not going to reinvest only to find that support will be discontinued in a few years time. I’m sure that many others will feel the same.

R

rAndison

Enthusiast I

After receiving this email I am currently checking out Bluesound and am seriously impressed.

This is the thing, I have Sonos in all rooms other than my office where I have a Node 2 attached to a Naim DAC and Supernait 2. The Node 2 has been perfect so far. I could just extend that player throughout the house… they’ll have Airplay 2 on them as well so I’m not dependent on the Bluesound app. I could just use Deezer app and connect direct.

S

Steve87

Lyricist I

A few months ago, Sonos unweighted it’s CRM.

Boring, blanket emails with offer after offer. I felt these were damaging a brand that I previously respected.

Then...yesterday’s news.

A blanket email that casually announced that half of my system will be obsolete in May and that I would have to cough up around £2k to replace those products.

There’s bad news. Then there’s the announcement of bad news.

Sonos...if you recently changed your marketing and PR team, then it’;s time to do so again.

They have damaged your brand. And it’s irreparable damage.

I’ve a feeling that you may be experiencing your own obsolescence in the not-too-distant future unless you take some rapid action.

D

dutyfree

Lyricist III

Why would anyone touch a Sonos product again? What a disaster. I doubt they will survive.

J

John McCabe

Lyricist III

This notification is the last straw for me; I have no intention of splashing out nearly £300, taking account the 30% trade-in) on a Port to replace my Connect, a device I rarely use, so I will be looking at cheaper alternatives.

In the meantime though, as that will take some time, I want to know about the Bridge. I’ve been bombarded (slight exaggeration) with emails trying to encourage me to ditch my Bridge and get a Boost as the Bridge is apparently not capable of working effectively any more. I’ve resisted that, since it seems fine to me, but does this announcement mean it would be pointless getting a Boost anyway? As I have no intention of replacing my Connect with another Sonos device, I’ll be in that “no system updates at all” limbo. Why would I bother getting a Boost then?

Also, is the controller app for Android going to remain compatible with these zombie systems?

A

Adeeda

Contributor I

Exactly… ‘that element of doubt about their products, service that leaves you looking elsewhere first’

N

Niaccurshi

Lyricist III

The ridiculous thing about all of this is that we don’t need the legacy speakers to “sustain future innovation”, we just need them to be speakers. Is the processing power and memory for playing sound suddenly increasing exponentially? I’d love to understand more but to me it is the responsibility of Sonos to develop the means for its legacy speakers to remain on the network as satellite devices that will still play the output that is linked to them. Even if this means essentially running the processing for a number of satellite speakers off of another modern speaker, surely there must be some way that the engineering team can find a way to let speakers just be linked speakers?

I echo other sentiments. The 30% discount is an insult to those that bought these devices only a few years ago, and I am disappointed enough in not only the lack of future-proofing of what we can boil down to being, at its basic form, a speaker but the clandestine way this plan was rolled out and how people were informed, that it’s put me from someone that was recommending Sonos to someone that is now going to have to tell family and friends to be wary of them.

P

Pippi

Contributor I

I have 2 x Play 5 gen 1 and 1 x Play 5 gen 2 (the gen 2 was a replacement for a gen 1 that failed after a few years and I was offered a 30% discount on a gen 2). I was about to add one or two Sonos 1, but not going to now. The first Play 5 was purchased in 2013, and subsequently 2015 - I don’t feel that I have anything like my money’s worth out of them.

I was having a discussion about Sonos longevity with a colleague not long ago and we decided they were worth the premium price for the quality and longevity. We also discussed the B&W zeppelin - a thing of beauty that I used to use until Apple changed the connector on iPod / iPhone and suddenly it was a lot less attractive (although, crucially would still function with a line-in). We decided that there wouldn’t be the same problem with Sonos, because, you know, they could always UPDATE THE SOFTWARE!! Even Apple seem to manage to be backwards compatible for more than 5 years.

I just don’t see that Sonos has any appeal any more - I’m out, and I can’t see there will be a market for the higher end gear any more - too risky an investment. They’ll need to target high volume of the cheaper components, but there are a lot of competitors in that market.

RIP Sonos

A

attacama40

Headliner I

After receiving this email I am currently checking out Bluesound and am seriously impressed.

Have to confess me too … someone pasted a gif or jpeg many pages back. Had never heard of it. But now I do ….. and I got approx £3000 worth of Sonos to replace then why not?

I’m not sure why you think Bluesound (or any other ‘closed’ vendor) is not likely to play the same trick as Sonos in the future.

I’m strongly opposed to the details of this Sonos action, but I don’t think jumping to another closed vendor (especially one with a much shorter history and smaller installed base) is likely to help in the medium term.

When you got bit you consider another dog … fleas or not.

Like I wrote earlier, I love my Sonos system but when when you got bit to the tune of a £3000 replacement hit, then I’m looking at the dog pound and see what other mut’s might be available.

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