Unless you were sold very old stock, a Connect from 2 years ago is not legacy and will not be affected.  

The audio hardware in my speakers is not outdated, only the “computer” in the products. 

You should design the products to allow the computer circuit board to be replaced when needed. I would be willing to pay for that. 

I am not going to replace my legacy products with new Sonos products, that will be outdated in some 5ish years. 

I just received notice that my Sonos system will soon no longer receive software updates. This is highly disappointing given the investment in 2 Sonos Connects, 1 bridge, 2 Sonos 5s and 1 sub-woofer. 

I don’t think a 30% discount on replacements is sufficient to retain me as a customer.  I’ve been happy with it to date and the idea of rebuying the entire system to satisfy an unsustainable business model is troubling. The alternative of turning this gear into a network of door stops even though it currently works perfectly isn’t sitting well with me either. 

You’ve gone from hero to zero in my books. Good job.

Signed, 

Formerly satisfied customer

Dear SONOS. You have two ways to solve this proper way or you will eventually go bankrupt.

One way to solve this is to come up with a solution in your operating system that makes legacy speakers work WITH the newer ones in an integrated mode where only newer devices can utilize the new functionality.

Second would be to provide an update hardware kit for older items  (at a fair/low cost) just replacing the microprocessor or whatever is needed  

I have 10 pcs of Your hardware and 5 are now classified as Legacy. The cost for upgrade is ridiculously high while not giving me any new functionality I need.  Like many others I don’t care about future add-on functionality/ voice interaction and so forth.  Just let the basic stuff keep on going such as integrations to streaming services. I will never spend any more money nor recommend Your products to anyone if you don’t handle this differently than you are currently proposing.  I am really regretting investing in a brand new Beam just before Christmas.  
 

I have four units in my house I have just been told that two are no longer supported with software updates why should I continue to support Sonos as if I upgrade the two old units in four or five years time I could  find myself in the same situation as I am now with two units not being supported and I will end up in this situation every time they decide to withdraw support to units

I am so disappointed with the situation If I am going to spend a shed loads of money on a new system then maybe I should look at other make and models in the market place

I think that most of us who have supported SONOS for many years are annoyed by this news (the ‘we’ll have more news in May’ comment beggars belief!).

For a few years now SONOS has been dying...just look at all of the unhappy customers on Google Play who, like me, are forever having problems with the crappy app, way before today’s announcement - This never used to happen, SONOS used to be a top class product.

Companies like what SONOS has become deserve to die...it will be good riddance. Any company so blind and stupid that puts sales way above reliability and loyal customers (especially when they’re not the size of Sony, Apple, Panasonic, etc) doesn’t last long - Pebble smartwatch, anyone?!

SONOS needs to remember that the cash-rich fashion types have little in the way of loyalty and will move on from SONOS...the loyal HiFi/music enthusiasts were customers for life (in many cases).

Greed is a terrible thing. Perhaps SONOS are building up ready to be bought out by Apple. Who cares, I will be telling everyone how SONOS treats its most loyal customers with contempt.

Right...off to look at SONOS alternatives. Bye-bye! 

Anybody any idea how long the trade up offer is going to last?

This is unbelievable news.

As per so many other people, I’ve been a massive supporter for many years ….. and raved to so many people about how fantastic Sonos is, and they went on to buy.

I’m now 15 units around the house, and all but two will be phased out in 4 months time.
OK, they’ll still work, but none (including the two I’ve bought this year) will receive ANY future updates.

So, unless I replace 13 units, that’s it, the system will gradually break down.

There is not a chance that I’d buy any more Sonos to replace them, because they’ll probably be phased out in a much smaller timeline. This is a scary thought too ….. if this is the way that technology companies are planning to evolve. Little help for the planet going on here!

Surely Sonos will need to reverse this decision, as they’ll see hugely dwindling sales as a result of this, and all the bad press they’ll be getting. We won’t all be excitedly off to the shops to upgrade, to have just the same functionality that we had previously, at a huge cost.

Such a stupidly thought out plan, which wasn’t mentioned in any way, when we all bought our systems.

There was no ‘this product expires in 2020’ label on them!

Angry.

 

Updated components in more recently manufactured Connects and Connect:Amps are able to support new features and services in the future.

I’m still processing the notion that  basically my entire 7 zone system is obsolete.

I’ve had SONOS since it was born, I’ve been a promoter of it to anyone who would listen… but I’m actively reconsidering that position/outlook.

My questions:

1. The way the announcement was worded, I’m expecting that at some point in time my system loses CURRENT working functionality - which means it’s useless to me. Is that true?
2. I’m fine just freezing my system at whatever SW version will continue to work on my hardware. How do I do that right now?  I can do without whatever SONOS is developing going forward.

If I’m going to start losing functionality across my whole system, and my option is to replace everything, I’d very actively consider dumping Sonos entirely and using another smart speaker system - if only because Sonos has chosen a path of forced obsolescence.

Dennis

I’ve been on this forum on and off for years, have often played devil’s advocate, and normally I’ve found myself siding with Sonos in many cases;  but in the past two years that position has softened, and today (upon receipt of this same email notification) finally crumbled. 
In the case of the :Connect (my :Bridge notwithstanding), were the Sonos Port replacement model an actual upgrade in terms of hardware (beyond an improved DAC which should be expected in a refresh no matter what), offering additional connection options and more versatility (something I’ve hoped for and looked toward for several years) it would be one thing. But in fact it instead offers very little if any hardware improvement beyond size and color, and removes physical connectivity options, namely the optical port. It is black. It is smaller and rack-mountable. It has 12v triggering. In short it is a different product specifically useful to installers, and adds software connectivity additional that I do not require or have use for.
For my part, since the replacement offers me literally nothing in added value, but only adds additional cost for identical functionality I already have, I will (like others in this thread), for the very first time in roughly 7 years, be exploring other alternatives to replace Sonos. My system will remain as it is. There is no viable reason for me as a consumer to invest more into the Sonos ecosystem if that ecosystem is turning out to be (for most intents and purposes) just another subscription-based model, and a very costly one at that.
My system works and I’ll leave it as such - I do wish the more current offerings had more to offer me, but my life will not end and my music will not stop. I am not “enraged” as some seem to be, but I am quite disappointed and very frankly, cannot be the Sonos advocate I once was.

Ryan’s reply seems disingenuous.  The announcement said that after May your system won’t get ANY updates.  Don’t blame that on Apple or Spotify.  Even if they don’t change anything, SONOS will apparently not update your system.  No bug fixes, no changes needed for new SONOS products, etc.  My system logs way more updates than the few that reflect service changes. 

Eventually, a music service may make changes that are incomaptible with old software.  Thus, functionality will gradually decrease in regards to streaming services.  Local library streaming will be fine.

I’m sure Sonos will have instructions/procedures for locking out updates before the big day comes.  

This is totally unacceptable.  I purchased a Play 5 in the summer of 2015.  I added a connect in the fall of 2017.   I added a Play 1 last winter.  None are even 5 years old yet and now you are telling me that Sonos is abandoning  my products!  WTF!  If these were $49 bluetooth speakers it might be ok, but this is not ok.

I see my original reply was deleted maybe the language Used was a touch strong, never will Sonos see another penny from me after this debacle.

to give a comparison to another company, I had an original B&W zeppelin with the old dock connector once i realised we no longer had a device that would work on it I emailed to ask if they sold a converter or if I could pay to have a new lightening connector fitted. I received a lovely email back offering me the latest version at a whopping 75% discount and I could keep the original and use it with aux in.

Patrick Spence, who took over as Sonos CEO three years ago, has made it a mission to hasten the company’s product release cycle. And as the cycle has become slightly compressed, Sonos has also partnered with other technology companies (like Amazon and Google) who work within their own faster release cycles, and have the ability to dictate when or how certain software features work, or potentially, stop working. 

Written by  Lauren Goode  who is a senior writer at WIRED she covers products, apps, services, and consumer tech issues and trends. 

I read that if you have legacy products connected you will not be able to update your system until you disconnect them.  Once disconnected they will no longer work.

We need to Ban together as consumers and make a report to the

Consumer Protection Agency.

That's nice, thanks sonos. You just ***** over your most loyal customers in a market where Sonos is no longer the obvious choice. I will never buy another sonos product again. RIP Sonos..

One important aspect of Sonos speakers is they do not work without a controller with an internet connection. So when the controller stops working, which it inevitably will without regular software updates, your expensive Sonos speakers will become useless bricks.

If you happen to have a line-in, you may be able to continue using them like it’s 1999. But many Sonos speakers do not have a line in: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1080?language=en_US

What that means is when (not if) Sonos stops updating your Play:1, Play:3 and gen 3 Play:5 speakers, they will simply stop working soon thereafter and you will have to throw them away.

This is like when the swedish football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic raised a statue of himself in his childhood neighborhood in Malmö, right outside the arena of Malmös football club. A half year later, he bought a huge part in a rival football club in Stockholm. Now, the statue has been vandalized, removed and Zlatan went from a Malmö-ambassador to a traitor whom isn´t welcome back anytime soon.

I thought it was a schoolbook example in how you become impopular, seems like Sonos has taken over the first place now...

You read wrong.  The only way a Sonos device is bricked is if you physically choose to recycle the item via the Sonos Trade Up program.  You are correct that updates will stop. 

Sonos - this is an appalling decision.

Rather than trying to force users to discard perfectly functional equipment with the resulting e-waste and unnecessary resource usage that this entails, the ethical and responsible thing for Sonos to do is to offer to upgrade the equipment - even if it means replacing the mainboard, then speakers, casing, power supplies could be left in place.   In this day and age, companies need to show leadership and greater environmental responsibility.   Right now, as my current system functions just fine I don’t really care about software updates - frankly the fewer the better - it’s a music system after all.  However if the current capability starts to degrade and becomes unreliable then I will not be spending more money with Sonos unless they start to show greater responsibility for their actions.

My system stream music just fine right now. If SONOS updates my system and that feature is removed, I would join thousands of owners in suing SONOS to force them to buy back every piece of their equipment that they have turned onto boat anchors.

The product isn’t expiring, software support has been dropped.  All software companies drop support of a product eventually, and I’ve never heard of company announcing when support will drop before a product is sold.    This is a significantly different situation though since Sonos devices are highly dependent on each other within a system because of their functions.  I’m not aware of a similar situation.

Well, yes I am.  Bose dropped an entire smart speaker product line a while back.  You could use any of it with their new product line.  I can’t imagine any of us would like that plan better.  Other smart speaker systems are no longer operating at all, or are too new to reach the point where Sonos is at right now (I’m thinking of Amazon and Google specifically)

Absolutely Shocking announcement!.

Surely "Legacy" devices could be made to run limited but current firmware.

I have over £2000 invested which is small fry to some on here, yet I already see the writing on the wall for my Playbar 5.1 setup and Play:3 and Play:1s

I genuinely feel sorry for all the early adopters that have been abandoned by Sonos.

Not everyone wants or needs voice control, you've alienated a massive part of your user base.

The tone and anger in this thread, plus the sheer number of replies must tell Sonos what a genuinely bad idea it is to discontinue 1000's of units.

Looks like commercial suicide to me.

Who in their right minds would "invest" in more Sonos kit now?.