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 The information contained in this thread is outdated and may no longer be accurate.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

amun

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.

Absolutely…. In anticipation of this type of action, I have been experimenting with Chromecast Audio and built in Chromecast with Play 5 Gen 1, ZP90 and my new AV receiver - and it can work very well. Not sure about playing in sync etc, as I don’t use this facility, but for my basic streaming from my NAS it works well. The only way of future proofing is to disconnect the software side (increasingly cheap) from the quality hardware (which will last for decades).

Much, much better for the environment, too...

SteveC2017

Contributor I

Oh deary me.

Moved into my house in 2015 and was impressed by the Sonos System. Bought a Play 5, then a Play 3, then a Connect, then a Play 1. Was just about to look into a Playbar and and possible Amp for TV.

Received the email. My Play 5 is no longer being supported from May? Run with it and the rest of my devices are no longer updated or a pathetic 30% discount on new kit?

Look Sonos, my speaker system plays music and in 10 years time i want it to just play music. I’m not interested in voice control and other features other than playing music.

I get that you want to provide bells and whistle and new features - which is great, but why can’t you do that on new devices which people can purchase if they wish. To turn off support for products which do a pefrecty good job just because the latest featureset cannot be applied is appalling.

If i wanted new features, then i may purchase new hardware if they were of interest - but currently i don’t and i won’t. My current products work fine as they are, and do the job i paid for them.

Please please consider keeping these systems operational alongside other “modern” sonos devices just for playing music and nothing else.

After the 65,000 limit was encountered - i had to setup a Plex server in the house to stream my music from. That’s all i want to do with my Sonos speakers. I don’t even host or catalogue my music on the Sonos anymore due to the limit.

Once the Play 5 is unsupported, i’m guessing the rest of my kit will quickly follow behind - seeing it was all purchased around the same time.

So, on the basis that you have the ability to just switch off updates to your (expensive) hardware and the unknown of whether they will still be able to stream music next year - I cannot and will not invest any more money into my Sonos infrastructure until this is clarified.

This a bad bad move for Sonos. Please reconsider - as i will now be looking at other possibilities for multi-room music if i have to start again replacing “legacy” hardware not even 5 years old in my house yet.

One last thing. You boast about your fantastic substainabilty:
https://blog.sonos.com/en-gb/sonos-sustainability/

Yet if i “tradeup”, your brick my device into nothing more than an expensive doorstop that we have to dispose of. That’s nice.

So Sonos. Please please think carefully about your strategy moving forward - before you anger everyone.

Otherwise i like any will just spend my trade up money elsewhere. I’m not buying into time limited hardware - where the manufacturer decides how long of a life time i get out the product i pay for.

Could not agree more with this post

SJC

T

themetman

Contributor I

@MrSwadge thanks for the link to @John McCabe link to http://strobe.audio being an opensource geek using Linux for my PC and Laptop, and LineageOs on my phone and tablet with lots of Raspberry Pis I am going to have a serious look at strobe.audio and consider flogging the Sonos stuff.

N

Niaccurshi

Lyricist III

You position yourself, promote yourself, pride yourself as audio hardware specialists. Not computer builders. You’re playing in the sound enthusiasts garden, where hardware simply does not get their cords cut. It endures for decades with good treatment

This is the most important thing. I didn’t buy in to Sonos initially because I was looking for an all bells and whistles smart system, I was looking for a wifi connected set of speakers that provided great quality sound. This announcement asks everyone now to make a choice of whether they want to just have that sound system, or future updates, because no-one is going to be able to have both without setting aside regular amounts of money over the years.

I have Sonos play:1s which no doubt will also become obsolete in the next few years, as well as my play:3s. Not many years after that my Playbar will become “legacy”.

This is a timebomb problem for Sonos users and a wakeup call. I think all of us now need to recognise that unless we’re willing to fund a quite unsustainable method of re-buying newer models of Sonos’ products, that there will be a point where either we have to accept that all our system can do is play music that somehow finds its way there (assuming that connected apps don’t simply stop working as they themselves update their APIs and services), either because Sonos doesn't have a sustainable business model outside of making existing customers rebuy its hardware, or because we won’t give in to that practice.

S

Simon F

Trending Lyricist I

….and what about Play 3’s and original Play 1’s? When will these become obsolete? They are older than 2015 which seems to be the cut-off for this announcement (Play 1: 2013, Play 3: 2011).

You really need to be much clearer about this……

…...I’m not buying anything from Sonos until you are clear.

Gazer

Enthusiast I

Well it looks like it’s all been said already on here…..I think your shares on the market will soon start to take a nosedive after this little upset with all your customers you used to have at the beginning of this year.

And i’m one of them that went out and added to my already very expensive collection of sonos equipment over Christmas as a treat to myself, which may as well be returned on there 30 day returns policy with not being able to update them after May 2020 if i want to keep my (so called) now out of date equipment working.

Silly Silly Sonos ….could your day get any better.

S

Simon F

Trending Lyricist I

Share Price down 6% since Jan 3rd and after yesterday’s announcement. Not only screwing Customers, but investors too.

A

attacama40

Headliner I

Share Price down 6% since Jan 3rd and after yesterday’s announcement. Not only screwing Customers, but investors too.

This is were the rot starts … we are all personally hacked off but now the brand and company and the shareholders and the market start to get tarnished.

I

ian987

Lyricist II

From Sonos website under the ‘Reasons to invest’ section:

Home sound system expansion drives sustainable financial model

Repeat purchases support the sustainability of our financial model. Existing households represented 38% of new product registrations in fiscal 2017. These customers are not replacing products. They are adding to their Sonos systems.

Think they might need to change that!!

M

Mikeiow

Lyricist III

If Sonos were serious about keeping customers who invested a lot of money in their kit happy…..they would find a way to not make obsolete kit that might only be 5 years old.

I would suggest they provide a way before May to enable customers with such kit to ensure they never fall foul of an accidental upgrade - remove any reminders to me and let the kit continue for as long as those streaming services work.

Have to say the wording of this letter and the paltry trade-in would only serve to make me shop elsewhere in the future.

Sonos: over to you: respond well to the outrage you must sense amongst customers to regain trust and affection, or chose to die as a business.

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Home sound system expansion drives sustainable financial model

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